My husband is especially fond of muffins. He loves them for breakfast, for a snack, or particularly, to munch on during long car trips. This recipe is an unusually moist muffin with a strong lemon flavor and a slight crunch from the poppyseeds.
Oven Temp: 375° bake in lower middle of oven, 25-30 minutes Yield: 12 large muffins,
Use a very sharp carrot peeler to remove only the yellow portion of the lemon peel. Put the lemon peel and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process until the sugar is lemon-colored and there are no more large pieces of peel. Add the butter and process for 45 seconds.
Add eggs, one at a time, processing just a few seconds to incorporate them after each addition.
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppyseeds. Add the yogurt into the butter/sugar/egg mixture. Process for 30 seconds. Add the dry ingredients, and pulse on and off until the flour is completely incorporated.
Divide the batter equally into 12 vegetable-cooking-sprayed muffin cups. Don't use paper muffin liners. Bake until muffins are golden, brush with syrup (see below), and cool on rack.
Syrup: While muffins are baking, heat the extra 1/3 cup sugar with the lemon juice until the sugar dissolves and the mixture forms a light syrup (about 3 minutes). This is easily done in the microwave, but watch carefully to avoid boiling over.
Variation: Instead of adding poppyseeds to dry ingredients, add 1 1/2 cups blueberries to the second half of the dry ingredients, and fold them in instead of beating them.