Muffin Monday: Lemon Poppy Seed

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins from SimplyRecipes.com

My family is not in the habit of making lemon poppy seed bread, but every time I think of it I remember a trip I took down to Louisiana with my Uncle, Aunt, and cousin. We went to the town of Lake Providence and stopped by the Ole Dutch Bakery, a local landmark. Since my family had lived in Lake Providence years ago, they were thrilled to revisit the place, and my cousin told me about her fabulous memories of their lemon poppy seed bread.She enjoyed it so much, and I loved the childhood memories, even if they were vicarious.

So here is a recipe for some awesome looking muffins, posted by Elise on Simply Recipes:

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder (make sure your baking powder is no older than 6 months)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tbsp poppy seeds

• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest

Glaze

• 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)

METHOD

1 Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt and set aside.

3 In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy (about 2 minutes with an electric mixer). Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the lemon zest.

4 Beat in one third of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in a third more of the dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat.

5 Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil, grapeseed oil, or a little melted butter using a pastry brush. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set muffin pan on wire rack to cool. After 5 minutes, remove muffins from pan.

6 While the muffins are cooling, in a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze. Add more lemon juice if necessary. While the muffins are still a bit warm, use a pastry brush to brush the glaze over each muffin. The muffins will absorb some of the glaze, so you add more glaze to each muffin if you like.

Makes 12 muffins. Best eaten fresh and warm.