Lemon Ricotta Muffins

Put leftover part-skim ricotta cheese to good use in these lightly sweetened, super moist, lemony muffins. Wonderful for breakfast, as a snack, or really any time of day.

Sep 20, 2022

I love putting leftover ingredients to good use. So today I wanted to share one way to use extra ricotta cheese that might be hiding out in your refrigerator.

Ricotta cheese is a fresh, soft, moist cheese with a mild, milky flavor. Typically made from cow’s milk, ricotta has a creamy yet slightly grainy texture. It’s often the cheese of choice in dishes like lasagna, manicotti, and ravioli and can be used in desserts such as cheesecake and cannoli.

When it comes to selecting ricotta cheese at the grocery store, you may notice a few options – whole milk, part-skim (reduced-fat), low-fat (light), and fat-free. While whole-milk ricotta is the creamiest, it contains the most calories and saturated fat. Low-fat and fat-free versions have little or no saturated fat, but lack flavor and have a crumbly, almost gritty texture. I like to use part-skim ricotta. It has a nice, creamy texture, with a reasonable calorie and saturated fat content.

In today’s muffin recipe, ricotta cheese is actually functioning as a fat replacer. It’s just like using Greek yogurt or pureed fruit such as applesauce to replace some or all of the butter or oil used in baked goods like cakes, quick breads, and muffins.

I ran a quick analysis to see what would happen if I used 1 cup of oil instead of 3/4 cup part-skim ricotta along with a 1/4 cup oil as I did in this recipe. Aside from adding a couple of grams of protein and a little extra calcium to these muffins, the big benefit to using the part-skim ricotta and oil combination was a dramatic reduction in total fat which led to a reduction in calories. If made with 1 cup oil, each muffin would contain 19 grams of total fat and 321 calories. One of my lemon ricotta muffins has 7 grams of total fat and 218 calories – amazing savings for a delicious muffin.

To your health,

Darlene

LEMON RICOTTA MUFFINS

Yield: 12 servings

Serving Size: 1 muffin

Prep: 15 minutes

Ready: 40 minutes

INGREDIENTS

12 baking cup liners or vegetable oil cooking spray
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup 1% milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Glaze

1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin baking pan with baking cups or coat with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix together granulated sugar, ricotta cheese, milk, oil, egg, lemon zest, and vanilla extract until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and stir until just combined (overmixing the batter will result in tough muffins).
Evenly divide the batter to yield 12 muffins. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool on a wire rack.
To prepare glaze topping, in a small bowl combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest until smooth. Drizzle over cooled muffins.

Nutrition Information per Serving

218 Calories, 7 g Total fat, 1 g Saturated fat, 0 g Trans fat, 20 mg Cholesterol, 163 mg Sodium, 36 g Total carbohydrate, 1 g Dietary fiber, 20 g Total sugars, 19 g Added sugars, 5 g Protein, 0 mcg (0%) Vitamin D, 65 mg (6%) Calcium, 1 mg (6%) Iron, 37 mg (0%) Potassium