Raspberry and Cottage Cheese Muffins

I must admit, I have not been the best representative of a member of Weightwatchers recently. And it is beginning to show. So I decided I would have to be more responsible and get myself back on track.  But I do like to bake so much.......

Coincidentally, I bought a new page a day calendar with Cupcakes as its subject matter. And one of those recipes sounded rather healthy so I decided to give it a try!

I can't say for certain, but in my reckoning each cupcake is 5pp and they were really easy to make.   I even made a terrible mistake because I was focused on doing this with a WW angle.  My WW scale is fun to use and has almost magic functions with figuring out what individual foods are worth in pro-points  But I had never tried using the recipe function and adding foods to get a total.

The accepted way to mix muffins, and I have known this since high school home ec class, is to put the dry ingredients in a bowl, mix the wet ingredients, then make a hole in the centre of the dry ingredients and very gently mix the two together.  The less you mix, in theory anyway, the more your muffins will rise.  I have done this for a long time.  But in using my scale in the recipe mode for the first time, I just dumped everything into the bowl on the scale.  After the eggs, I realised what I was doing was a huge mistake!  Too late to retrieve the eggs, but the milk, oil and cottage cheese got mixed up the way they were supposed to.

Not sure how this was going to work, I just had to mix it all together, put the muffins in the oven and hope for the best.   And they worked out alright.  Moral of this story - read the recipe first and don't do anything on automatic pilot no matter how many times you have baked muffins!  (or anything!)

Two things I would change - mixing the eggs the correct way, with all the other liquids, and using less raspberries.  The 2 cups it calls for is just too many. The muffins were squidgy, not a good word when describing muffins. They were delicious, but they could have been better.

So here is the recipe!  And there will be a copy without pictures if you scroll down further!

Raspberry and Cottage Cheese Muffins  
(the recipe says it makes 1 dozen but I got 15, probably because there were just too many raspberries)

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour   (plain flour in the UK)
3/4 cup superfine sugar (possibly caster sugar in the UK)
1 Tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 lightly beaten eggs
4 Tbsp sunflower oil
1 1/4 cups low-fat milk
1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
2 cups fresh raspberries  ( I am going to try only 1 1/2 cups next time)





Preheat oven to 350F (175C).  Grease a 12 cup muffin pan, or use cupcake papers.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt with a spoon.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, oil, milk, and cottage cheese with an electric mixer until smooth.  (in my haste and confusion over doing the first part wrong,  I did not mix the liquids until very smooth.  Another thing to change the next time I do this recipe.)

Add the flour mixture and stir until nearly combined.  Fold in the raspberries, but do not over mix.   Spoon the mixture into prepared pan.  Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.  Then remove the muffins and cool on a rack.  Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes 1 dozen  (15 for me this time around)  If I had ended up with only 12 muffins, I figure they would have been 6pp each.

"Don't count your Muffins untill they're baked."  

Taken from the Muppetcentral.com website.

Raspberry and Cottage Cheese Muffins  
(the recipe says it makes 1 dozen but I got 15, probably because there were just too many raspberries)

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour   (plain flour in the UK)
3/4 cup superfine sugar (possibly caster sugar in the UK)
1 Tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 lightly beaten eggs
4 Tbsp sunflower oil
1 1/4 cups low-fat milk
1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
2 cups fresh raspberries  ( I am going to try only 1 1/2 cups next time)

Preheat oven to 350F (175C).  Grease a 12 cup muffin pan, or use cupcake papers.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt with a spoon.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, oil, milk, and cottage cheese with an electric mixer until smooth.  Add the flour mixture and stir until nearly combined.  Fold in the raspberries, but do not over mix.   Spoon the mixture into prepared pan.  Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove pan from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.  Then remove the muffins and cool on a rack.  Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes 1 dozen  (15 for me this time around)