Showing posts with label Muffins & Scones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Muffins & Scones. Show all posts
Lemon Poppyseed Bakery Style Muffins. I am always up for trying out a new muffin recipe. I adore muffins and who doesn't?
Not quite a cake, they are delicious hand-sized treats that are delicious served with hot cups of tea, no matter the season! What's not to love!
I baked a small batch of lemon & poppyseed muffins on here earlier this year. You can find that recipe here. Its very good. I like to try new things however and when I saw this Lemon Poppyseed Muffin recipe on a blog called Butternut Bakery, I was all in! I had to try it.
I also have my oldest daughter staying with me at the moment while her husband is away visiting family with his mother. I wanted to make her something special for her breakfast. She loves muffins and so there was no better time to try this recipe out than right now!
I did take some liberties in adapting the recipe. First of all I cut it in half. Neither one of us needed more than six muffins in the kitchen tempting us. Secondly her recipe was a bit faffy with having to leave the batter sitting for an hour prior to baking, etc.
I don't do faff these days. I am far too impatient in my old age, and so I didn't leave the batter to rest for an hour at all. I have to say it did not make a difference. My muffins still rose nice and tall and had a beautiful flavor.
I also chose to rub the lemon zest for the muffin batter into my sugar a la Dorie Greenspan style. It really helps to enhance the lemon flavor. This is something I learned from her and I have been doing it ever since.
I also chose to finely zest the lemon for the syrup you brush on the baked muffins, adding it in right from the start pretty much. This really add another lovely hit of lemon flavor! Can you ever really have too much of that? I think not!!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE LEMON POPPYSEED BAKERY STYLE MUFFINS
Simple baking ingredients. Make sure everything is room temperature before you start.
- 1 1/4 cups (160g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 TBS poppy seeds
- 1/4 cup (55g) butter, melted
- 1 TBS vegetable oil
- 1 large free range egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 1/2 TBS (32g) sour cream, room temperature
- 1/8 tsp almond extract
- 1 TBS freshly grated lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
- 1/2 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk, room temperature
For the lemon syrup glaze:
- 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- the grated zest of 1/2 lemon
I just used regular granulated sugar for these, and ordinary lemons. I have never seen unwaxed lemons here in my local area. Just wash the lemons really well before zesting and dry. That way you will get rid of any insect dirt or debris.
This is the type of lemon juicer that I use. It is enamel, rather than metal and doesn't impart any metallic taste to the juice.
This is the type of citrus zester that I use. It does a super job of zesting the skin and keeping it contained, ready to dump into the bowl.
I highly recommend both and gain nothing from sharing them with you. I simply like to share what works well with my readers.
Many of you often ask about my ceramic muffin tray. It is one I bought from The Bay not too long after I moved back to Canada. I really love it. Its attractive and the perfect size for me. They no longer carry it.
The tea cup and plate was one that I bought in the UK at a Charity Shop. It is very old, but I love it. I love these tea cup and plate sets. I am trying to collect some and now have three different ones.
HOW TO MAKE LEMON POPPYSEED BAKERY STYLE MUFFINS (SMALL BATCH)
I adapted the original instructions to my usual method of making and baking muffins with excellent results!!
Preheat the oven to 425*F/220*C/ gas mark 7. Butter a six cup medium muffin tin really well, or line with paper liners.
Rub the sugar and lemon zest for the muffins together in a bowl. Whisk in the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds, combining everything together well.
Whisk the egg, sour cream, both extracts, lemon juice, and milk together in another bowl.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet. Mix together just to combine. The batter will be a bit lumpy. That is as it should be.
Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups, filling them almost to the top.
Bake in the preheated oven for 8 minutes, then REDUCE the oven temperature to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes longer until well risen and golden brown. They should spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
Brush with the lemon syrup as soon as you remove them from the oven. (I did this several times to use up all the syrup.)
To make the lemon syrup put the lemon juice and sugar into a small saucepan. Bring to the boil. Add the lemon zest and then simmer on low for about 10 minutes. (Do this while the muffins are baking.)
Leave the muffins in the pan to cool for about 5 minutes before lifting them out to a wire rack to cool to warm. Delicious served warm with copious cups of hot tea!
These are lovely muffins with a beautiful texture and loads of lovely lemon flavor, not to mention a light crunch from the poppyseeds. As you can see from the inside, they have the perfect muffin texture.
You can skip the glaze if you wish, but I highly recommend that you don't! This lemon glaze really sets these muffins apart and adds to their deliciousness!
Thoroughly enjoyed by us both.
Some other muffin recipes from the English Kitchen that you might enjoy are:
SPECIAL K BREAKFAST MUFFINS - These make the perfect breakfast muffin. Simple and filled with fiber. You can use ordinary Special K cereal, or you can be a bit more extravagant and use one of the varieties which contain fruit. This recipe makes half a dozen fabulous muffins.
SIX WEEK REFRIGERATOR BRAN MUFFINS - These are the muffins that I used to make for my boss when I worked at the Manor. They are an excellent muffin. Mix together, store in the refrigerator, scoop and bake. They could not be easier or more delicious! The batter keeps for up to six week, but they are so tasty I doubt you will have it around that long!
Yield: 6 medium muffins
Lemon Poppyseed Bakery Style Muffins (small batch)
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 18 MinTotal time: 28 Min
These bakery style muffins are fabulously tasty! They have a beautifully moist texture and plenty of lemon flavor. A lush lemon syrup is brushed on top immediately after you take them out of the oven for even more lemon flavour!
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups (160g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 TBS poppy seeds
- 1/4 cup (55g) butter, melted
- 1 TBS vegetable oil
- 1 large free range egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 1/2 TBS (32g) sour cream, room temperature
- 1/8 tsp almond extract
- 1 TBS freshly grated lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
- 1/2 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk, room temperature
For the lemon syrup glaze:
- 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- the grated zest of 1/2 lemon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425*F/220*C/ gas mark 7. Butter a six cup medium muffin tin really well, or line with paper liners.
- Rub the sugar and lemon zest for the muffins together in a bowl. Whisk in the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds, combining everything together well.
- Whisk the egg, sour cream, both extracts, lemon juice, and milk together in another bowl.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet. Mix together just to combine. The batter will be a bit lumpy. That is as it should be.
- Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups, filling them almost to the top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 8 minutes, then REDUCE the oven temperature to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes longer until well risen and golden brown. They should spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
- Brush with the lemon syrup as soon as you remove them from the oven. (I did this several times to use up all the syrup.)
- To make the lemon syrup put the lemon juice and sugar into a small saucepan. Bring to the boil. Add the lemon zest and then simmer on low for about 10 minutes. (Do this while the muffins are baking.)
- Leave the muffins in the pan to cool for about 5 minutes before lifting them out to a wire rack to cool to warm. Delicious served warm with copious cups of hot tea!
That is one very happy girl! It has been so much fun having her around! She goes home tomorrow. I will miss her! So will the cats!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting! Do come again!
I am a huge fan of cornbread of any kind! There is something just very moreish to me about the slight crunch that cornmeal adds to any kind of bread you add it to. It doesn't matter to me if it is in a muffin, pancake, a loaf, or as a cake.
I love it all.
Honey is something that also goes very well with cornbread. That's why when I saw this recipe for Honey Cornbread Muffins on Bountiful Kitchen, I knew it was something I wanted to try. It sounded a brilliant combination!
My mother never made cornbread for us when we were growing up and I don't know why. Its such a simple and delicious bread to serve along side of soups, stews or salads. It also goes phenomenally with baked beans and we sure ate enough of those!
The first time I ever had it was when I was visiting my in-laws on Prince Edward Island for the first time. My then husband and I had been married for a couple of years by then, and we had even dated as teenagers, but I had never met his parents.
I was so nervous meeting them, and spending time with them. We had two children by then and my ex sister in law decided to visit them at the same time as us with her two kids. I wasn't overly fond of that idea if I can remember correctly. She was a "take charge" kind of person and I just felt I would be more comfortable meeting them on my own.
Anyways, she came too.
My mother in law was still working outside the home at that point and she was going to work this one day and she wanted to have baked beans and corncake for supper. She asked my sister in law to mix up the corncake and pop it into the oven just in time for supper when she got home from work.
My sister in law then decided to go out visiting relatives with my ex husband and told me to do the corncake. I thought this was kind of "rich" of her, considering I had never had cornbread of any sort up to that point.
She insisted that I mix it up and bake it right then, as soon as they left. I thought it was a bit too early, personally, but who was I to say. I thought she knew better.
Oh well. Not a good start to my relationship with the in-laws to say the least! I was forever known as the girl who ruined the corncake.
I think corn muffins are a bit more forgiving than my mother in law's corncake was. She had me bake it in gem pans so they were even drier. Not my greatest success.
These lovely muffins are anything but dry, I can promise you! They are light and delicious with a beautiful crumb. Buttery and lightly sweetened with a bit of sugar and some honey, and just a nice amount of crunch from the cornmeal.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE HONEY CORNBREAD MUFFINS (small batch)
Simple every day baking cupboard ingredients.
- 1/2 cup (85g) yellow cornmeal (coarse polenta in the UK)
- 1/2 cup (70g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup (50) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whole full fat milk
- 1 large free range egg
- 1/8 cup (30ml) melted butter
- 1/8 cup (30ml) liquid honey
You can buy cornmeal in the UK on Amazon. However when I lived there I either bought it as Skyco (an American goods supplier) or I just used coarse polenta, which worked fine.
Do use full fat milk for a nice rich flavor and result, and yes, do use butter. There is no substitution for real butter.
By liquid honey I mean liquid honey, runny honey. Not creamed or solid honey.
I use organic granulated sugar that I buy at a Costco supply store. Its a bit cream colored and not bleached white. But you can use any kind of granulated sugar you wish. In the UK I would use natural caster sugar.
HOW TO MAKE HONEY CORNBREAD MUFFINS (small batch)
Muffins are really a simple make. Its basically just mixing dry and wet ingredients together.
Preheat your oven to 400*F/200*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a nonstick medium muffin tin really well. Set aside.
Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl.
Whisk the milk, egg, melted butter and liquid honey together in a beaker. Mix well to amalgamate.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients. Mix together just to combine. Divide the batter equally between the muffin cups.
Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes until well risen, golden brown at the edges and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before tipping out. Serve warm.
HINTS AND TIPS FOR THE BEST MUFFINS
Here are my hints and tips for making sure that your muffins turn out beautifully every time:
1. Mix wet and dry ingredients separately. To prevent the mix from being overworked, first mix the wet ingredients together in one bowl and mix the dry ingredients in another. Make a well in the dry ingredients, carefully pour in the wet ingredients, then stir the mix a couple of times to roughly combine.
2. Don't over mix your muffins. The most important rule of muffin making is to not over stir the mix. What you really want is to just moisten the ingredients. Do not stir or beat the batter until it is smooth and lump free. You want the final mix to be lumpy, and thick with a few floury streaks.
3. Add your flavors last. While spices should be added with all the other dry ingredients, additions like fruit and nuts should be added last. Give the batter one more light-handed stir once you've added them in just to combine.
4. Line the pans. You can choose to either grease the muffin tin or line it with paper liners. If you choose to forgo the liners, make sure you grease the base and sides of the cups with oil spray or a little melted butter. If you're not going to eat the muffins for a while, do use paper liners as these will keep the muffins fresher for longer.
5. Don't overfill your pans. Aim to fill the cups ¾ full to get muffins with nice round tops and to prevent them from spilling out over the top of the cups. Often if your tins are over filled the muffins will rise to the top and then collapse on themselves.
6. For extra interest, add a flavorful sprinkle on top. Once the muffin cups are all filled, you can choose to sprinkle the tops with more fruit, nuts or a crumble topping, even sanding sugar or cinnamon sugar, for even more taste and or crunch. As the muffins rise these toppings will cook into the tops of the muffin.
7. Protect your baking pan. If there isn't enough batter to fill all the cups, half fill the empty ones with water. This will help the muffins bake evenly and will help to protect your pan from buckling.
8. Cooling them down. Once you remove the muffins from the oven, let them sit in their pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack. This is especially important for muffins that aren't in a paper liner, as it will help them from falling apart. However, remove them after five minutes otherwise you risk them going soggy as they cool in the pan.
9. Freeze extras for later. Muffins freeze beautifully, so if you can't enjoy them all on the day they're baked, wrap them in plastic wrap tightly, and put them in the freezer for later. They will keep for about 3 months and reheat wonderfully in the microwave for about 30 seconds on high from frozen.
I was awfully tempted to make honey butter to go with these muffins, but I just served them warm with butter and more honey. Delicious to say the least!
They would also be good with butter and jam or marmalade. For breakfast. With a hot cup of tea. But they also would go really well with a bowl of Corn Chowder or Beef Chili.
These were excellent cornbread muffins! I highly recommend!
If you are a fan of the muffin, you might also enjoy the following:
OAT, APPLE AND SUNFLOWER SEED MUFFINS - Somewhat healthy, aside from the sugar and golden syrup . . . with plenty of oats, sunflower seeds and chopped apple. If you don't have light muscovado sugar, you can use soft light brown sugar, and in the place of golden syrup you can use light corn syrup, or even honey would work well. In one word, moreish.
ORANGE MUFFINS - Buttery, moist and stuffed with beautiful orange flavor from the outside in. These are winners all round! I chose to stud mine with dried currants, but you may like raisins, or nuts, or blueberries, etc. You may even prefer the to be plain. One thing is for sure, you will enjoy these moist and delicious muffins.
Yield: 6 delicious muffins
Honey Cornbread Muffins
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 25 Min
These tender muffins are delicious and light. Perfect served with butter and honey for breakfast or as a side to your favorite soup, chili, or even a salad!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (85g) yellow cornmeal (coarse polenta in the UK)
- 1/2 cup (70g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup (50) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whole full fat milk
- 1 large free range egg
- 1/8 cup (30ml) melted butter
- 1/8 cup (30ml) liquid honey
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400*F/200*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a nonstick medium muffin tin really well. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl.
- Whisk the milk, egg, melted butter and liquid honey together in a beaker. Mix well to amalgamate.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients. Mix together just to combine. Divide the batter equally between the muffin cups.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes until well risen, golden brown at the edges and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before tipping out. Serve warm.
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Thanks so much for visiting! Do come again!
Occasionally I like to bake myself some muffins to enjoy in the mornings or with a hot cup of herbal tea mid-morning or afternoon. I have my favorites but I found myself with some applesauce that needed using up today and so decided to look for an applesauce muffin recipe to try.
I discovered one on a blog called Beat Bake Eat. They looked fairly simple and I had everything I needed in the house to make them. As you know I am not one for complicated things.
They looked really delicious as well. I didn't need 12 muffins however, so I cut the recipe in half to make only six large, or 8 medium muffins. (Disclosure, I made 8 medium muffins.)
I added some cloves to the spice mixture as cloves go so well with the flavor of apples, and I also added a hefty handful of dried currants as I have a huge bag of them to use. You could also use raisins, or even toasted walnuts!
And, of course, you can leave them just plain!
They came out lovely and moist and filled with delicious flavor. I gave some to my sister for them to enjoy and saved the rest for myself to use over the next couple of days.
Of course I couldn't resist eating one right away. Oh boy, it was some good! Tasty tasty!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE SOUR CREAM APPLESAUCE MUFFINS
Simple every day ingredients. I had those little individual serving sized cups of unsweetened applesauce and that is what I used. It took one and then most of another.
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed soft light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 cup (30g) full fat sour cream
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (180g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup (60ml) canola oil
- 1 cup (140g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (45g) dried currants or raisins (optional)
Those individual cups of unsweetened plain applesauce are ideal for recipes such as this one. I like to snack on them, but they also are just the right size to pop open for a recipe like this without having to open a huge jar and then have it go to waste.
If you don't have any sour cream but you do have full fat plain yogurt you can use that in its place. You can leave out the currants, but I love currants and raisins in my buns so I added them.
HOW TO MAKE SOUR CREAM APPLESAUCE MUFFINS
These muffins go together a bit differently than the usual muffin, but if you remember to mix the flour in at the end, just until combined, there is no reason you cannot have success!
Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter six large muffin cups and line with paper.
Whisk together both sugars, the soda, baking powder, salt and the spices.
Stir in the sour cream, egg and vanilla, mixing everything together well. Whisk in the applesauce and the oil.
Stir in the flour and the currants/raisins just to combine.
Divide the batter between the muffin cups filling them 3/4 full.
Bake for 25 minutes until well risen and the tops spring back when lightly touched. A toothpick inserted in the center should also come out clean.
Cool in pan for five minutes, then carefully tip out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
These muffins were really nice as is. I really enjoyed them. Delicious warm and even cold several hours later on!
Baking them in a medium muffin tin made them just the right size for me. You can do as you wish however, if you like larger muffins, do use a larger tin!
ORANGE, DATE AND OAT MUFFINS - Moist and delicious with lovely bits of a real chopped orange, and chopped dates. Wholesome and nutty from the use of old fashioned large flake oats. Scrumptious!
CRANBERRY, ORANGE AND PISTACHIO MUFFINS - Moist and flavor filled muffins with just the right balance of tang and sweetness. The cranberry and pistachio topping is really pretty and adds loads of interest.
CINNAMON ROLL MUFFINS - If you are a fan of cinnamon rolls, you will fall in love with these delicious muffins. Riddled with plenty of cinnamon sugar ripples and sweetly glazed, these tasty muffins always go down a real treat!
Yield: 6
Sour Cream Applesauce Muffins
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 25 MinInactive time: 5 MinTotal time: 35 Min
Soft, moist and beautifully spiced. A lovely mid morning or portable snack.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed soft light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 cup (30g) full fat sour cream
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (180g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup (60ml) canola oil
- 1 cup (140g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (45g) dried currants or raisins (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter six large muffin cups and line with paper.
- Whisk together both sugars, the soda, baking powder, salt and the spices.
- Stir in the sour cream, egg and vanilla, mixing everything together well. Whisk in the applesauce and the oil.
- Stir in the flour and the currants/raisins just to combine.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cups filling them 3/4 full.
- Bake for 25 minutes until well risen and the tops spring back when lightly touched. A toothpick inserted in the center should also come out clean.
- Cool in pan for five minutes, then carefully tip out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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