I’ve been loving lemons lately (and apparently alliteration also!). I’ve been fully stocked on lemonade for the past month and I keep finding myself ordering treats with lemon zest. I’ve never been the biggest lemon baked good fan, so this has left me baffled. People go bananas over things like lemon squares or lemon meringue pie and, while I really, really want to love them, I usually take a bite and immediately make one or more of these faces.
Before this lemon longing (:wink:) fades, I needed to put a lemon recipe in the books. Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins seemed practical to enjoy on an early Saturday morning.
There are two awesome parts of making these. Or, two things I get excited about that will just make you think I’m a nerd.
- The first is rubbing the sugar and lemon zest together in step two to release the lemon essence that comes from the peel. The sugary citrus scent is like refreshing aromatherapy.
- The second is when you add the poppy seeds to the batter. You pour in just two tablespoons, which may not seem like much. After one swoop with the spatula, thousands of tiny seeds infiltrate the batter ready to add little pops to the final product.
If you really like lemon, you can add the lemon icing. I also think they are just as nice without. These are best when eaten the day of baking, if possible.
mix the lemon zest and sugar together with your fingers. The sweet citrus scent will instantly make you feel refreshed.
Prepare the dry and wet ingredients and mix the wet with the dry.
My favorite part. Stir in the poppy seeds!
Poppy seed speckled batter ready for the pan.
Pop them in the oven for 18-20 minutes.
drizzle cooled muffins with lemon icing (optional)
Enjoy!
- 2/3 cup sugar
- Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted in a bowl and cooled
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 cup confectioners sugar (for icing)
- 2–3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (for icing)
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a standard 12 hole muffin pan with paper cups or, alternatively, butter/grease a muffin pan.
- In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon is strong.
- Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking sugar, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended.
- Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with a rubber spatula, gently, but quickly, stir to blend. Be careful not to over-mix. It is ok if the batter is a little lumpy.
- Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
- Bake for 18–20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool the muffins completely before icing.
- To make the icing, put the confectioners sugar in a small bowl and add the lemon juice slowly until it forms an icing thin enough to drizzle from the tip of a spoon or fork. Drizzle over the tops of the muffins.