Lemon-Poppyseed Muffins

I gotta say...I'm not really a huge muffin fan. But, people really enjoy when you bring a batch of fresh muffins to work. So, sometimes I make muffins. I'm not anti-muffin or anything.

For some reason I've always been drawn to lemon-poppyseed muffins. Something about citrus just does it for me. These muffins don't have a lot of lemony tang in the muffin bit, but have a lovely lemony glaze that really just makes the flavor pop. There are a lot of variations on this basic muffin recipe - today I'll just do the lemon-poppyseed but as I work my way through making the other muffins I will be sure to post.

Lemon-Poppyseed Muffins
courtesy of the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Yields: 12 large muffins, or about 22 medium muffins
Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 + 1/4 cups sugar (divided)
  
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 TBS poppyseeds
• 1 TBS grated lemon zest
  
• 1 1/2 cups lowfat plain yogurt
• 2 large eggs
• 8 TBS (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Generously coat muffin tin(s) with vegetable oil spray, or line with baking cups.
2. Mix the flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and poppyseeds together in a large bowl. Whisk the yogurt, eggs and lemon zest together in a medium bowl. Gently fold the yogurt-egg mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula unil just combined. Fold in the melted butter.
3. Use a large ice-cream scoop or measuring cup to divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes.
4. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before serving
   
5. While baking - heat 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture forms a light syrup, 3 to 4 minutes. Brush the warm syrup over the warm baked muffins and serve.

Enjoy with a nice cup of coffee or afternoon tea!