Living in New England, summer time is always about fresh berries. They’re featured in every grocery store, roadside stand, Farmer’s Market and most U-Pick farms. Whenever I spot a deal, I make a point to stock up. Imagine my delight when I found pints of raspberries for only $0.89 each at a local produce store yesterday. I froze 10 pints and used the remainder for these delicious muffins.

To make Raspberry Streusel Muffins, you will need:

2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups flour  (Any will do, but white makes them more cake-like)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 cup raspberries

Plus, these for the streusel topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup flour
2 tbs butter, melted

Streusel Topping: Combine brown sugar, flour and butter with a fork until crumbly; set aside.

Muffins: Beat eggs in large bowl with electric mixer; gradually add sugar. With mixer running pour in vegetable oil and almond extract, blending until smooth. In separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, alternating with the sour cream; blend until smooth. Set aside.

Spoon one generous tablespoon batter into bottom of muffin tins. Divide half of raspberries equally among muffin cups. Divide remaining batter among muffin cups. Top with remaining equally-divided raspberries. Sprinkle each muffin with streusel topping.

Bake at 375 for 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes in tins on cooling rack. Remove from tins to rack to cool completely.

These are wonderful for breakfast, snacks, or as a lunch box surprise. Extras freeze beautifully, but we never seem to have any leftovers here when sweets are involved!