I couldn’t resist buying some Meyer lemons the other day when I was at our newly-opened Fresh Market (in the suburbs, of course). I was going to make a syrup cake, but then I found a recipe for orange poppy seed muffins and decided to remake it, Meyer lemon style. Meyer lemons, in case you haven’t had them, are sweeter than an ordinary lemon, almost like a mix between an orange and a lemon. They are very juicy and fragrant. YUM!
This recipe is loosely adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking cookbook.
3 TBSP poppy seeds
½ cup whole milk
1 3/4 cup AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
grated zest from 2 Meyer lemons
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
6 ounces butter, melted
Juice from 3 Meyer lemons
½ cup superfine (castor) sugar
Place the poppy seeds in the milk and allow to sit for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line 12 muffin cups or 24 mini-muffin cups with paper liners. I did some in paper and some in vegelene-sprayed cups and I could not get the spray muffins out in tact, even from a nonstick muffing tin.
Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest and set aside; make sure the zest doesn’t clump together.
Place the eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on low speed until for a few seconds, and then add the sugar, melted butter, ½ cup of the Meyer lemon juice, and the milk and poppy seeds. Mix until just blended, and the add the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed until just together - overmixing is the death of quickbreads!
Fill each cup about 3/4 full and bake until a the top edges are slightly browned, and a cake tester comes out clean; about 12 minutes for minis and about 15 minutes for standard-sized.
Mix together your castor sugar with the rest of the lemon juice. If you wish, you may place over low heat to get the granules to melt, but it isn’t necessary. Cut a cross in the top of each muffin and spoon a little syrup over. When the muffins have absorbed the syrup, pour a little more over; you can do 2 or 3 syrup additions, depending on how sweet you want your muffin. These are absolutely delicious hot from the oven, and even good the next morning, left out at room temperature.
A note about sugar: The recipe called for confectioner’s sugar, to make the topping more like an icing. I don’t care for confectioner’s sugar, and so opted to make a syrup that the muffins could absorb, that would re-crystalize nicely as they cooled. You can substitute confectioner’s sugar, if you wish, and omit cutting a cross in the muffins, and just ice the tops if you like.
A note about butter, and about mistakes: After making and devouring these muffins, I realized the recipe had called for 6 tbsp of butter, and I had added 6 ounces. They were so good that I don’t know how they would have fared with the smaller amount of butter, so I have reprinted this recipe with my mistake. You can choose to do them however you wish.
