Lemon, lime and poppy seed muffins

Oh dear. I had planned to make a few little changes to the recipe I found for lemon poppy seed muffins but not quite this extreme. The beauty about getting a recipe from one of the well established blogs is that people will often have written comments after trying the recipe, about what worked and what didn’t. So I planned to make a few little changes to the original recipe, based on the feedback Joy the Baker had received.

The first change I made was to use a lemon and a lime, because a few people had said the mixture was a little dry with just the lemon.
Next, because I try not to use paper cases, I decided instead to grease the muffin tin with butter then used a pastry brush to dust lemon zest around the tin. So far, so good. The next alteration involved mixing a little vinegar into milk and letting it sit for a few minutes to create buttermilk. I forget to use leftover buttermilk until it’s truly sour, so I think this way is a little less wasteful for me.
From there, I followed directions. Melt the butter to brown and allow to cool. OK, I can do that. Then, mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another, and gently fold together. Done, and done. Into the oven, oddly only filling ten muffin holes rather than twelve. Bake for fifteen minutes. Not quite brown, so I decide to leave them in, just a little longer…..Uh Oh. That’s when I notice the saucepan full of carefully cooled brown butter.
It’s too late to mix it in now. So after pulling them out of the oven, I twist one out of the tin. They come out easily so at least one modification has come out alright. I toss it from one hand to the other waiting for it to cool down enough to eat. Nope, too impatient. I tear the muffin open, releasing a vanilla and lime scented steam. It’s cooked through, the crumb looks great and it tastes, lemon-y, light and fluffy. So while I wouldn’t recommend leaving out a major ingredient, don’t feel like the recipe is ruined if you do!

Have you ever left a major ingredient out of a recipe? What happened?

Lemon, Lime and Poppy seed muffins
Makes 10-12 regular sized muffins

One lemon, zested and juiced
One lime, zested and juiced
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups plain flour
2 teasp baking powder
1/4 teasp baking soda
1/4 teasp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk ( Or mix 2 teasp white vinegar into 3/4 cup milk and allow to sit for 5 minutes)
2 large free range or organic eggs
1 teasp vanilla extract
115 g ( one stick) butter, melted until brown then cooled (optional as it turns out )
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

To glaze
1/cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)
1 -2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice

1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F).
2. Melt the butter to brown and allow to cool. Put it somewhere obvious so you won’t forget it later!
3. Grease a muffin tin, then using a pastry brush, paint the holes with the grated lemon and lime zest. Shake off any excess zest into the bowl with the sugar, and mix together. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to this bowl.
4. Whisk eggs together in another bowl. Add the butter, buttermilk, lemon juice and vanilla to the eggs and whisk to combine.
5. Fold wet ingredients gently into dry ingredients. When almost completely combined, add the poppy seeds.
6. Pour mixture into muffin tins until 3/4 full, then place in the oven at 200C (400F) for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the muffin comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool for five minutes in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack.
8. Combine icing sugar and a little lemon juice to make a thin mixture and glaze the cooled muffins with this.

How is this recipe planet friendly?

• Lemons and limes are in season
• I’ve chosen organic eggs to cook with
• I’ve reduced packaging by buttering the muffin tins instead of using non-recyclable paper liners