Zesty Lemon Poppyseed Muffins with Glaze

Zesty Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Glaze

Muffins are perfect for lazy bakers.

You know how it goes- you have a hankering to bake something… and you have a lemon in the fridge calling out to be zested, and yet you don’t want to go to the trouble of beating anything together. And you don’t want to go to the trouble of bringing a stick of butter to that perfect room temperature either (please tell me you’ve accidentally melted many a stick in the microwave in an impatient quest to soften butter, too).
So what’s a baker to do? Bake a batch of muffins. Even better- bake a beautifully easy batch of muffins that are zingy with lemon, moist with sour cream, peppered with poppy seeds, and smothered (or delicately drizzled, whichever) with a bright lemon glaze.

Gluttony and sloth- the perfect combination.

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s version…

MUFFINS:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest (from approx. 2 lemons)

2 lightly beaten eggs

3/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick, or 8 tablespoons), melted and cooled

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from approx. 1 1/2 lemons)

2 teaspoons vanilla

GLAZE:

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1. Preheat oven to 400° and grease either 2 mini muffin pans or one regular muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk all dry ingredients (including lemon zest) and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk wet ingredients together and then pour into dry mixture. Stir until just combined, being careful not to over mix.
3. Bake mini muffins for 10 minutes, and regular muffins for 18 – 20 minutes (until a cake tester pulls out with very small crumbs).
4. Cool pans on a wire rack, and make glaze by combining sugar and lemon juice until you reach the consistency of honey. Drizzle over mostly-cooled muffins, and sprinkle lemon-flavored sugar over tops if you happen to have on hand, or sugar-in-the-raw.
Tips:
- Lemon thoughts: scrub the lemons quite well before zesting (hopefully using a microplane, which will change your zesting experience as a baker for the rest of your life- for the better). Roll the lemons before juicing, so you get more juice out when you squeeze it. (Room temperature lemons seem to yield more juice, too.)
- For easy and clean scooping, use this kind of scoop to plop the batter into the muffin cups. (They sell multiple sizes, so get one for cookies and mini-muffins, and a big one for the monster muffins you know you like to make.)
- Using lemon sugar on tops of muffins? (Or any sanding sugar, for that matter?) Make sure to sprinkle overtop the glaze while it’s still wet, or else you’ll end up with sugar that rolls off the muffin tops onto your counter. And not on the muffins.
- Want less sugar? Skip the glaze (shock! horror!).
- Yes, these freeze well! Pop ’em in a Ziploc bag and bring to room temperature before serving. (Thought– crumble a few thawed-and-still-warm mini-muffins and serve with vanilla ice cream.)
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March 4th, 2012 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: Breads & Muffins, Icing, Lemon