Breakfast muffins with lots of juicy blueberries, aromatic zest, ricotta cheese and flaxseed meal will make you look forward to your morning a bit more!
The summer has officially arrived! We just returned from our week-long visit to San Diego. For the first time we used Airbnb to find a place and it worked out really well. We stayed in El Cajon, which is located about 20 minutes away from the San Diego Zoo. During our stay we visited the usual: Legoland, Zoo and several museums in Balboa Park. The kids loved it as always!
We had some delicious fish tacos and ceviche at the highly rated Oscar’s Mexican Seafood place in San Diego for dinner few times as well as ice cream and frozen yogurt from Fiji Yogurt. 
Shortly before we left I started a new job at a non-profit organization called The Grateful Garment Project. Its main goal is to provide clothing to the victims of sexual assault when they are leaving the hospital and their own clothing was submitted as an evidence. Monetary donations are always welcome if you are interested in supporting this wonderful cause. I will try my best to keep up my blog since I really enjoy it.
Since I love muffins I’m always looking for new recipes to try. The Lemon Ricotta cookies I made a while ago were so delightfully soft and moist that I was curious if the muffins would be as good. They were, for sure! Moist, full of blueberries, a hint of lemon in the muffin batter and the crunchy topping.
Start by preparing the citrus sugar. For the topping I used turbinado sugar to add some more crunch. Zest a lemon and orange and, using your fingers, mix it with the sugar. Repeat it with the granulated sugar that will be used in the batter. It is perfectly fine to use the zest from either lemon or orange only. Set aside.
In a medium bowl whisk ricotta cheese, eggs, vanilla extract and coconut oil. In a large bowl mix together flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then add the flavored sugar. Stir well.
Combine ricotta cheese mixture with the flour mixture and stir well but gently. It will be thick. Add blueberries and incorporate them into the mixture.
Insert 12 baking paper liners into the muffin pan. Use an ice-cream scoop to divide the batter evenly, then generously sprinkle the flavored turbinado sugar on top.
Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top and inserted toothpick comes out dry.
Makes: 12 muffins Prep time: 15 minutes Ready in: 1hr
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest, divided in half
- 1 teaspoon orange zest, divided in half
- 1/3 cup turbinado sugar (for topping) mixed with half of both zests
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar (for the batter) mixed with the other half of both zests
- 3/4 cup whole milk ricotta cheese, room temperature
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup flaxseed meal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1½ cups fresh blueberries
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare the muffin pan.
- In a small bowl combine turbinado sugar and about 1/2 teaspoon each of lemon and orange zest. Using your fingers mix them in. Set aside. In another small bowl combine granulated sugar with the remaining zests and set aside as well.
- In a medium bowl mix together ricotta cheese, eggs, vanilla extract and coconut oil. Using a large bowl, combine flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the granulated sugar/zests mixture. Stir well.
- Gently fold in the blueberries. Evenly divide the batter. Sprinkle the turbinado sugar mixture on top.
- Bake 25-30 minutes, until the toothpick comes out dry. Cool down.
Enjoy!
It's Cooking with Magda 
Mornings would definitely be a lot sweeter with these muffins to wake up to!! They look sooo good 🙂
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Thank you Marisa:)
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YUM!! What a beautiful recipe! Lovely photos too!
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Thanks 🙂
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Fantastic looking muffins. I have lots of blueberries in my kitchen and I do believe this is what I will make. Best to you and big thanks.
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Thank a lot Teresa!
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