The first in my series of lemon related posts is for these Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins.
I have been on a bit of a muffin kick lately. I posted a few weeks ago about these low fat chocolate muffins/cupcakes that I make and then freeze to eat as a quick grab and go breakfast. Ever since then I have been in the muffin making mood, trying to come up with other tasty yet low fat combination that we can eat for breakfast without feeling bad about it.
I ended up making these lemon poppy seed muffins which I had been eying for weeks, but avoided them due to the stick of butter and sour cream in the ingredient list. I finally decided that I would make them, but try to lighten them up a bit. To do this, I substituted an equal amount of canola oil for the melted butter and used non fat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.
I was worried that these might be a total fail, which I have been far from immune to when trying to alter a recipe for health benefits. Lo, they came out wonderfully flavorful and moist, with a great crumbly muffin texture.
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
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 fat Greek yogurt
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons poppyseeds
For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
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.
In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and lemon zest until the sugar is moist and you can smell the lemon.
Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and canola oil until well blended.
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, I like to use an ice cream scoop to measure this out.
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 molds and let cool to room temperature.
To make the glaze, whisk together the confectioners’ 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 did some very rough nutritional information calculating, and I estimate that there is about 200-250 calories in each muffins, 10 g total fat with 1.5 being saturated fat. I know that popping one of these for breakfast is ten times better for you than picking up the average muffin or pastry at the coffee shop or bakery. Though, I am sure you health nuts out there would scoff at this as a breakfast, since it lacks any significant nutritional value. Oh well.
Ready for the oven:
Getting a bath of lemony glaze:
Sometimes it really is this simple…