3tablespoonlemon juice (juice of one large lemon) (14.4 grams) room temperature
1 teaspoonzest of lemon (2 grams) see notes
1cupplain yogurt or sour cream (245 grams) strained
2 ½ cupall-purpose flour (300 grams)
2eggs (large) room temperature
2 ½ teaspoonbaking powder (12 grams)
½ teaspoonbaking soda (2.4 grams)
¼ teaspoonsalt (1.5 grams)
2 - 3 tablespoon poppy seeds (30 grams)
Lemon Syrup:
¾ cupwater (180 ml)
¼ cuplemon juice (58 ml)
1cup sugar (220 grams)
Instructions
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a large 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth and creamy. Then add sugar and mix again until it is creamy. Add eggs, one by one, beating after each addition. Add lemon zest, lemon juice and yogurt and give it a mix until incorporated well.
In another bowl, combine all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and poppy seeds. Whisk together.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just until combined. Do not over mix or the muffins will be tough in texture.
Using a big ice-cream scoop, scoop out a generous amount of batter and pour into the muffin liners. This will make 12-14muffins.
Bake in the middle rack for 14 – 17 minutes until the muffins are golden brown on the edges and an inserted tooth-pick or wooden skewer comes out cleaner.
Lemon Syrup
Take a heavy sauce pan and simmer water. Add sugar and lemon juice and keep stirring for 5-6 minutes. Cool it well before using.
Brush the baked warm muffins with 2-3 times with the syrup to infuse the lemon syrup into the muffins. Let it cool for about 5 –10 minutes.
Notes
Fresh Lemon Juice: I prefer fresh lemon juice for these muffins. Peel out the zest of the lemons before squeezing out the juice. You may use the bottled lemon juice, but you will not get the same taste. Lemon Zest: For the lemon zest, just make sure to have the yellow zest and avoid the white layer beneath the zest. The white layer is bitter, and you want to avoid the bitter taste in the muffins. Thick Batter: The batter for these muffins is very thick which will help with domed and puffy muffins. The batter will make moist and fluffy muffins.Do not overmix: Do not overmix the batter. Over-mixing will activate the gluten in the batter resulting in tough muffins.