Raspberry Peek-A-Boos

I had some raspberries that needed using up this morning, so I decided to bake us some Raspberry Peek-A-Boo muffins. This is a classic recipe, hailing from a Biscuick Cookbook published in the 1960's.
These easy and delicious frosted muffins absolutely overflow with juicy fresh raspberries! I love them!
Raspberry Peek-A-Boos

Its a fairly simple recipe which goes together very quickly. They are as quick to make as stirring a few bits together. The batter is simply bisquick, sugar, butter and milk.
The filling is just fresh berries, lemon juice some sugar as well as a small amount of nutmeg and cinnamon.

There is also a simple icing sugar glaze which gets spooned over top of the finished muffins. This is the photograph from the book I got the recipe from.

I am still struggling to find good light for my food photography. In the UK I had a specific place that worked very well for this purpose. Here its a lot more difficult as the windows are not really facing in the right direction.

I adapted the recipe from this cookbook. It was published in 2017 and is a compilation of much beloved recipes from yester-year updated to today's ingredients and tastes.
It is filled with a plethora of tastiness from the Betty Crocker kitchens, and may even invoke some cherished childhood memories, depending on your age!

Bisquick was not something I could find all the time when I was living in the UK. I could sometimes get it from an American Grocery supply company at a premium price.
I learned to make my own. Its not hard to do and works exactly the same as a purchased baking mix.

*Homemade Baking Mix*
Makes 24 servingsPrintable Recipe
This is mix which comes in really handy to have in the cupboard, ready to use for making muffins, pancakes and all sorts.
1260g of plain flour (9 cups)
245g milk powder (1 cup)
5 TBS baking powder
50g white sugar (1/4 cup)
1 TBS salt
220g white vegetable shortening (1 cup)
Whisk flour, dry milk powder, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Cut shortening into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter, about 1/2 cup at a time, until mixture resembles cornmeal. Store in an air-tight container for up to 3 months.

To make biscuits/scones: Measure 260g (2 cups) of the mix into a bowl. Stir in 180ml buttermilk (3/4 cup) with a fork, Pat out, cut into circles and bake in a 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7 oven for about 10 minutes. Makes six large biscuits (scones).
To make Pancakes: Measure 260g (2 cups) of the mix into a bowl. Whisk in 3 TBS sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 TBS vegetable oil and 2 eggs. Whisk together until smooth. Cook as per regular pancakes on a greased griddle. Drop 1/4 cupful at a time onto hot greased griddle. Cook until the edges are dry, flip and cook until golden. Makes about 14.
To make Waffles: Measure 260g (2 cups) of the mix into a bowl. Beat together with 310ml milk (1 1/3 cups), 2 TBS vegetable oil and 1 egg. Pour into center of hot greased waffle maker. Close lid. Bake abour 5 minutes or until steaming stops. Remove with a fork and keep warm. Makes about 12.

I always kept a container of it in my freezer. As it was an ingredient I did not use overly often, it only made sense to keep it frozen so that the fat in it did not go rancid.
Its a really handy ingredient to have on hand. What I liked most about it was that it had no preservatives and it didn't contain anything I could not pronounce!

They refer to these in the cookbook as being muffins. I really think they are more like a cross between a muffin and a biscuit/scone type of pastry.

I would thin they are more like the biscuit than the muffin, but you can make your own mind up.

I love recipes with a history and containing a bit of nostalgia. In modern times we have a tendancy to look past these types of things and judge them as being archaic and old fashioned.

Young people today are keen to embrace the new, and I don't blame them. New is good. But I think old is often better. (That is my age speaking I guess!)

When we choose to overlook these little gems from the past, I think we are losing out on something really special. Of course not all historic recipes are great!
I have seen some pretty horrific photos of really strange, and obnoxious sounding recipes. Especially from the 50's and 60's. Positivey "Barftastic" looking. But here is also plenty of good when you weed your way through them.

This is one of the better ones. I was really pleased with how they turned out. They were light and quite tender.
They are not overly sweet either. The fruit filling is a wonderful combination of sweet and tangy. I loved it. But then I adore raspberries.

It was not always so. I remember gorging myself on some from a neighbours raspberry canes when I was 10 years old. (Very naughty on my part.)

I got a tummy bug combined with being motion sick not too long after the binge. My father was hoovering the seeds from out the carpeting in the car for years afterwards and it was a very long time before I could face a raspberry again.

Thank goodness it passed and I can now enjoy them again. The seeds can be a bit bothersome a times, especially if you have diverticulitis like I have.
But I can tolerate them in small amounts. Raspberries are low in calories but high in fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. They may protect against diabetes, cancer, obesity, arthritis and other conditions and may even provide anti-aging effects. They are not considered to be a super-food for no reason!

In any case I hope that you will be inspired to want to bake these lush muffins/pastries for your family. I think they are something which everyone will enjoy.

If you are not fond of raspberries I am thinking you could use blackberries or even blueberries! I think toasted flaked almonds would also be very nice baked on top! And if you used almond flavouring in the batter, they would be almost like a Bakewell type of bake! Yum!!