Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Apologies for the lack of updates lately - the Quark team has been feeling a bit under the weather, from writer to co-cook to computer. Not quite in a curl up and die way, more on the lines of putter around listlessly, emptying freezer of various casseroles instead of cooking; discover a wonderful new brand of caramel-flavored mints and rave about it for days. (Or, in the case of the computer, take fifty-three seconds to switch between one window and the next; develop love affair with hourglass cursor; make crunchy noises at random intervals.)


I do have a salad from last week to post about later if the pictures turned out even halfway decent, but meanwhile, here are some lemon poppyseed muffins I made last night. They're based on Elise's recipe, but since I only had super-thick Turkish yogurt I added some lemon juice to thin it out as well as decreasing the sugar and using partly white poppy seeds (for the prosaic reason that I ran out of regular ones). They were fabulous fifteen minutes after coming out of the oven, and pretty damn good for breakfast today.


This type of muffin is another one of my late-teen US discoveries. I remember the best ones being somehow crunchier than this; next time I think I'll add some rolled oats or something to change the texture a bit. And I could do with even less sugar for a breakfast treat - morning is the only time of day when I don't have a sweet tooth.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
makes 12 largish muffins or about 15 regular ones

700 ml (3 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
3 tbsp poppy seeds (I used about half black, half white)
zest of one lemon

130 g (about 4½ oz) lightly salted butter, softened
200 ml (scant 7 fl oz) sugar
2 eggs
300 ml (10 fl oz) thick yogurt (or a bit more regular yogurt, drained)
50 ml (about 3 tbsp) lemon juice

200 ml (scant 7 fl oz) icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

Mix together flour, baking powder, soda and poppy seeds in a large bowl.

In another bowl, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well incorporated. Blend in the lemon zest.

In a third bowl (sorry! use a measuring cup or something), mix together lemon juice and yogurt.

Add the dry ingredients and yogurt to the egg-butter fluff in alternating batches, stirring until just barely dissolved. Spoon into a muffin tin and bake at 200°C (390°F) for 20-25 minutes.

Stir together icing sugar and lemon and brush over the still-warm muffins. Eat warm.