In the autumn the raspberry harvest is in full swing. Oh, what to do with all those delicious raspberries? After nibbling on the harvested berries, there are a lot of berry pieces left over. The raspberry pieces, the less than perfect berries, are just perfect of this recipe. Let them almost freeze before folding into your batter.

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup broken wild Alaska raspberries

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Sift all dry muffin ingredients together, set aside.
2. Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla, mix well.
3. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix just until all ingredients are moist. Do not overmix. Gently fold in berries; be careful not to crush kernals.
4. Prepare muffin tin - either line with paper muffin cups or grease muffin tin with shortening.
5. Spoon equal amounts of batter into the muffin cups (not over half full). Sprinkle the top each with 1/4 teaspoon of the topping mix.
6. Bake in a preheated 375°F. oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Makes 2 dozen muffins

The raspberries can be replaced with a wide variety of fruit such as blueberries, currants or diced strawberries. Freezing the berries before adding to the batter will reduce the bleeding of the fruit color into the batter.