Recipe for Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins
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This week’s guest blog is a recipe for some delicious lemon and poppy seed muffins from Pixie Hall Cakes…
As the weather warms up and the days get longer, I’ve had lemons on my mind. There’s something very appealing about tart, juicy lemons and warm sunny days. I go through phases of craving to bake with certain things with the progression of the seasons. It seems that Spring is the season of lemons for me!
So having settled on the flavour, I needed to choose what to make with them. While April’s Easter cake wasn’t difficult, there were quite a few steps involved in the recipe and a fair amount of hands on time. I thought it was only fair to pick something quicker and simpler this time, something with minimal time and minimal washing up so that there’s more time to sit in the garden.
I chose lemon and poppy seed muffins and they are great! Poppy seeds are a classic addition to lemon cakes and create a lovely crunchy texture in any baked goods. I added yogurt to these muffins to keep them moist and help maintain a good crumb. I also sprinkled Demerara sugar on top of the unbaked muffins to create a nice crunchy topping. You could easily add a handful of fresh blueberries to the mix or even make a lemon syrup with lemon juice and sugar and turn these into lemon drizzle muffins (yum!). Whatever you choose to do with these little beauties, they are guaranteed to be delicious!
Ingredients:
280g plain flour
1tbsp poppy seeds
1tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
200g sugar
110ml oil
3 eggs
150g plain yogurt
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2tbsp demerara sugar
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper cases.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder and salt.
In a large jug, whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs, lemon juice and zest.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix gently until just combined. Don’t overmix as it can make muffins tough. A few lumps of flour is fine.
Divide the mixture evenly between the cases, sprinkle the top of each muffin with a little demerara sugar and bake for around 15-20 minutes. They’re done when they spring back gently when pressed or when a skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.
Linds runs Pixie Hall Cakes in Fakenham and can be found selling her delicious baking at Fakenham Farmers’ Market on the 4th Saturday of each month.
Twitter: @PixieHallCakes
Photographs by Keith Osborn Photography
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1st January 1970