Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I bought Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours with the intention of joining the "Tuesday with Dorie" group but their once a week baking schedule intimidated me. I'm a lax, lazy, allergic to schedules kinda person; so instead I went through the book and bookmarked all the recipes that looked enticing (there were a lot).

The first bookmark was on page 10, Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. Hummm. I'm not a big lemon fan, but the photo of Dorie's muffins looked so good I decide to give them a try.

And you know what?

They were good, really, really good. Excellent in fact. Way to go, Dorie.


Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Glaze
adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Makes 12 Muffins

For the Muffins:
3/4 cup sugar
Grated zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds

For the Icing:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray the cups of a regular size muffin pan.

- Place the the sugar and lemon zest in a bowl and using your fingertips rub the sugar and zest together until the sugar is moist and the scent of lemon fills the air.


- Whisk the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, and then add the sugar/zest mixture.

- In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter.

- Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry and with a rubber spatula blend just until the flour is moistened. Lumps are okay. Don't over mix or the muffins will be tough.

- Divide the batter equally between the 12 muffin cups. I used a large ice cream scoop and the batter divided almost perfectly.


- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Allow the muffins to cool for five minutes before removing from the pan. Cool the muffins completely before icing them.

(Note: I kinda over baked my muffins. My chihuahua, Peanut, came in from outside covered in heaven-knows-what and I had to give her a quick bath. The scrubbing took longer than normal, (she was soooo disgusting) and the muffins spent 21+ minutes in the oven. Ooops. They were still good, but the edges were a little tougher than I like.)


To make the icing, mix the confectioners' sugar with about 1-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice. Add more lemon juice until a drizzle consistency is achieved. Drizzle or spread the icing over the muffins. Enjoy.