“Ooh Mama!”

Is what I said to my Mummy when she rang to ask how my muffins had turned out. And its true, they really are that good!

The plan to make these muffins came from two main factors:

1) an abundance of lemons.
2) a craving for icing!

Oooh icing cravings. Bad things to suffer from as icing always has to follow shortly! But what better way for it to come then drizzled lovingly on top of a fluffy lemon+poppyseed muffin, the icing itself also tangy and lemony. It makes me hungry writing about it too-many days later!

The recipe for the muffins came from the fabulous Baking: From My Home To Yours, by the equally fabulous Dorie Greenspan. The book is so popular with many bloggers the weekly Tuesdays With Dorie (TWD) event was set up to celebrate the book by baking a recipe from it every week until everything is baked! Interestingly, these lemon muffins haven’t been chosen yet –travesty! I love reading the posts by all the TWD-ers, but haven’t joined myself for fear of not being able to bake the recipe every single week! To see all the great work done by TWD-ers, head here. And if you haven’t yet got the book itself – I urge you to. Even if, as an British person, it means getting your head round American cups and sticks – still get it! The book is choc-a-block full of great recipes and stunning photos. And American measures aren’t thaat confusing, especially with a pretty cup measuring set like mine (although I do still have to convert “sticks” of butter to ounces). And it is all the more worth it, if it gives you the chance to make these muffins!

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

[Quick Note: In the book, Dorie says the muffins are best on the day they are made. Sometimes you can stretch these bakes out for a few days or keep safe in a tin and they taste just as great 3 days later. With these though, it really is first day best day. The next day they become heavier and stodgier – so try hard to eat all 12 first day! Trust me, it won’t be hard ;) ]

For the muffins:

· 2/3 cup sugar

· zest and juice of 2 small lemons

· 2 cups all purpose flour

· 2 teaspoons baking powder

· 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

· 1/4 teaspoon salt

· 3/4 cup non sour cream

· 2 large eggs

· 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

· 1/2 cup canola oil (optional, I didn’t use)

· 2 tablespoons poppyseeds

For the glaze:

· 1 cup icing sugar, sifted

· 2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 400F. Prepare your muffin pan or whatever muffin cooking apparatus you will be using, and place on a baking sheet.

2. In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest until the sugar is moist and you can smell the lemon.

3. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

4. In another bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and canola oil until well blended.

5. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and with a rubber spatula gently and quickly stir to blend. Do not over-mix. Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly in 12 muffin cups.

6. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool for about 5 minutes, and then remove them from the tin and let cool to room temperature.

7. To make the glaze, whisk together the icing sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Add more lemon juice as needed to get it to the consistency so you can drizzle the glaze over the muffins (I recommend putting a big sheet of cling-film under the muffins at this point to catch all the soft icing drips :D).

December 18th – Parmesan Sables

Ten Days it has been! Oooh dear :( But I have been ill with a feverr for a majority of that time and since my appetite has been tiny – which is very worrying for me! Hehe Oh well back to baking todayy.

These are some goood biscuits. They are from this months Waitrose Magazine which is one of the many food magazines I always like – it has a nice mix of good recipes and lovely articles..it is very English if that makes a lot of sense!

These biscuits are simple to make because you can just whizz them all up in the Magimix, roll, wet, coat and bake! You can make them just as bake and freeze cookies and then coat them in the edging when you need to, or not even edge them at all if you don’t want to. I like the edging though, it adds a delicious crunchy edge. I love poppy seeds – see last post! – but this was my first time eating the black onion seeds which the batch above are coated with and i thought they worked well too.

Above is the poppy seed version, which were my favourite but we served them to my Mum’s friends at her Christmas party and they liked both! You could coat them with different things too – the recipe suggests sesame seeds.You can find the recipe here. I had no problems with this recipe at all..although I am not sure if it makes quite as many as it says.

That’s all for now, although I would like to say I wont be able to post for a few days as I am very busy! However, i was absolutely thrilled to receive a charming award from Marie a few days ago. I will definitely try to pass this on , by doing the post from my Dads blackberry! x

December 8th – Lemon, Poppyseed and Yoghurt Cake!

Mmmmm! = one word to describe this cake! Others would be light and fresh and well quite summery really, although we are in deepest darkest winter here. It was a is quite a dense cake – one of those ones which is mainly a cake but oh so nearly a tea bread too! Like, in the picture in the book (it is a Tamsin Day-Lewis recipe) it shows a slice spread with Greek yoghurt!

I made just one change to this recipe – instead of using two lemons, I used one and one lime, to give it an extra tang. I also had no problems with this cake! I just had too wait a while half way through making it as I couldn’t open the poppy seeds, but as soon as my sister came home they were opened and we were off again. When I took it out the oven it had a few cracks on top, but when I came back half an hour later (after letting it cool) these cracks had all closed up! It stll wasn’t quite as flat and perfect as the book – my Daddy and I call it “rustic” :) But, all in all it is a welcomed tea cake which is perking up our table through all the bad weather at the moment.

Short and sweet post I’m afraid :D xx