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This will add to my growing collection of posts extolling the virtues of and declaring my love for the humble lemon.
My daughter loves all things lemon but she was highly suspicious of the speckled effect poppy seeds give. She is always suspicious that I am trying to sneak something gruesome into her food (translate her “gruesome” as my “nutritious”). I guess she is right! Poppy seeds are a good source of fibre and contain anti-oxidants, vitamin B, iron, copper, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc and magnesium……… All luvvly jubbly and all that but if the truth be known, I love them because their nutty flavour compliments the lemon so well and they look gorgeous.
These are “proper muffins” (as opposed to “pseudo muffins”- see Emergency Chocolate Muffins) where the dry and wet ingredients are prepared separately, then briefly mixed to a lumpy, only- just- combined mixture. The texture is therefore wonderful. Too much lemon juice and the acidity effects the raising agents and the texture is destroyed (don’t be tempted to tamper with the quantities- I fiddled and failed so just don’t bother). This recipe is adapted from one found in “The Muffin Lady” by Linda Fisher although I have altered some proportions and the method somewhat, having made them for a good while.
These muffins are super for breakfast. The night before- prepare the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients minus the eggs and milk in another. Have the butter weighed out and ready in a small saucepan. Muffin cases snuggled in the tray. Wake in the morning (translate- get woken by dog), switch oven on, let dog out, melt butter, add milk and eggs to the wet ingredients bowl, feed dog, combine wet and dry mixtures, fill cases, shove in oven (muffins), shower and dress, take muffins out, wake/ gather children- breakfast is served and you are ready for the day- VOILA! Um……..if only things always worked so smoothly. But just occasionally, on these lovely sun- kissed summer holibob days, they do.
For breakfast you may prefer to omit the icing. For a mid morning/ walking snack with good coffee or a pot of tea, the icing is lemony, sharp, tongue tingling perfection.
We ate these muffins on a woodland dog walk with my wonderful friend Coral and her two Scrummy children. We had lots of fun finding beetles, chasing butterflies and collecting moss to “waterproof” the den (?!). Poor Mango had to be on a lead whilst we ate them as (foodie family- foodie dog) she needs to learn better manners around human food. As you can see from the photos she still got lots of fuss and a big cuddle from the first to finish. The muffins got a big thumbs up so here you are!
Ingredients
280 g plain flour
200 g golden caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
60 mls sunflower oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp lemon essence
2 large eggs
45 g unsalted butter
190 mls milk
1.5 tbsp poppy seeds
For the icing:
3 heaped tbsp icing sugar
2-3 tsp lemon juice
A little grated lemon zest to decorate
Tin
A 12 hole muffin tin/ stoneware lined with muffin cases
Oven
Preheat the oven to 175C (160C Fan)/ Gas Mark 4
Method
1. Melt the butter and leave to cool slightly.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in one bowl. Stir in the poppy seeds.
3. In a second bowl or jug, combine the oil, butter, milk, lemon juice, golden syrup, vanilla extract and lemon essence. Beat the eggs into this mixture, followed by the slightly cooled butter.
4. Pour the wet ingredients onto the dry and lightly mix until “just combined”. Do not over stir. The mixture should be lumpy and the flour “only just” incorporated.
5. Spoon into the muffin cases.
6. Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes until they are well risen, light golden in colour and springy to touch.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely if you are going to ice them.
8. Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice until you have a smooth icing that is thick-ish but will just about allow you to drizzle over the cakes.
9. Finish each muffin with a tiny bit of lemon zest to decorate.
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