Dorie Greenspan's Lemon Poppy Muffins

Talk about starting your day off right...these muffins are like a little burst of sunshine.  I'm a huge fan of Dorie Greenspan (in general) and these muffins (in particular). Their taste is somewhere between lemon cake and sour cream cake, but with poppy seeds (which I love, love, love).   

This is the first recipe I've made from Baking: From My House to Yours (A James Beard Winner). It's lighter than most of the muffin/cupcakes I bake, which tend to have lots of chocolate and butter cream frosting on top, so it's nice to have a lighter, lemony bite for a change.  

The batter yields 12 muffins and trust me, they will go fast.  Was it Pringles who coined the slogan, "once you pop, you just can't stop?" Well this is like that, only with muffins. I almost ate the whole batch while watching Arrested Development...a fantastically funny show that I just started streaming on Netflix.I know, I'm a little bit behind the curve on that one. 

Anyway, while these are best eaten day-of, they can be stored in an air tight container at room temperature for an additional day. But I can promise you, they won't last that long... 

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

(Courtesy of Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home to Yours)

Yields 12 muffins

For the Muffins:

2/3 cup sugar

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

For the Icing: 

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

To Make the Muffins:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and the lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and hte fragrance of the lemon strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whish the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough-a few lumps are better than over-mixing the batter. Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold. Cool the muffins completely on the rack before icing them.

To Make the Icing:

Put the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl and add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the lemon juice. Stir with a spoon to moisten the sugar, then add enough additional lemon juice, a dribble at a time, to get an icing that is thin enough to drizzle from the tip of the spoon. You can then drizzle lines of icing over the tops of the muffins or coat the tops entirely, the better to get an extra zap of lemon.