Fresh Lemons — Recipe!

We got a fresh lemon in our farm delivery last week, so I decided to make Lemon-Poppy Seed muffins. I know it’s Lent, but technically, I don’t think muffins count as sweets because they’re eaten for breakfast and not dessert. Now if you’re making chocolate-chip-snickers bar muffins, that might be a different story. Lemon-poppy seed is safe. 🙂

After struggling to find a good bread recipe for a while now, it’s nice to turn my attention to a baking project that’s likely to net a positive result on the first try.

So here is the recipe (with my changes) for lemon-poppy seed muffins:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour (1 c. whole wheat, 1 c. white)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1 egg

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar (1/4 c. Splenda)

2 tablespoons lemon zest (the zest from ~two large lemons) (plus 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice — for extra lemony zing!)

1/4 cup melted butter

1 1/4 cups kefir (or buttermilk)

Instructions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

2. In a smaller bowl, combine egg, sugar, and lemon zest, stirring well. Add butter and kefir (or buttermilk) and stir.

3. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients, and stir just until moistened. Do not over mix. The batter will be fairly thick.

4. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Divide batter evenly into 12 paper-lined or greased muffin cups. Bake muffins on rack in the middle of the oven for 17-19 minutes, until muffins test done.

5. Allow muffins to cool in pan for about 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Let me know if you try them and what you think!

Lemon poppy seed muffins