I Broke The Lemon Tree

I was at my sister's house last week and my brother in law asked if I wanted to take some lemons from their tree in the back yard. I said, sure! So, I got a bag and started picking some lemons and all of the sudden an entire branch falls off with about 8 lemons attatched to it. I was cracking up, trying to hurry and pull all of the lemons off before they saw what I did to their tree. It was too late, Aaron saw it and made some cracks at me. Luckily they were cool about it! Thanks Kim and Aaron for the huge bag of lemons!

Since I have so many lemons, I decided to make some Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins this morning. This recipe was adapted from a website called Simply Recipes. They adapted it from Cooks Illustrated's Blueberry Muffin master recipe. This is a great one!

I'm a bit obsessive about only using my giant Texas Size Muffin Tin Pan, this recipe made 6 enormous muffins. To make 12 use a regular muffin pan. The icing drizzle is so good, sweet and lemony.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins With A Sweet Lemon Drizzle

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder (make sure your baking powder is no older than 6 months)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tbsp poppy seeds

10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 Tbsp lemon zest

Glaze
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)

1 Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt and set aside.

3 In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy (about 2 minutes with an electric mixer). Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the lemon zest.

4 Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat.

5 Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan, or Texas size muffin tin. Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil, grapeseed oil, or a little melted butter using a pastry brush. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set muffin pan on wire rack to cool. After 5 minutes, remove muffins from pan.

6 While the muffins are cooling, in a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze. Add more lemon juice if necessary. While the muffins are still a bit warm, use a pastry brush to brush the glaze over each muffin. The muffins will absorb some of the glaze, so you add more glaze to each muffin if you like.

Makes 12 muffins. Best eaten fresh and warm.

Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins With Sweet Berry Drizzle

My husband brought home these giant blackberries from Trader Joes, and I've been trying to decide what I wanted to do with them for the last few days. I finally decided on these monster size blackberry cream cheese muffins that are incredible. I was licking the batter from the spoon like my 2 year old! They are just sweet enough that they taste like a little cake.

I used my "Texas Muffin Tin" that holds 6 massive muffins, and each feed about 4. You can also use 24 standard size muffin cups for a smaller more practical muffin, just bake them for about 5 minutes less than my recipe.

If you are ever in need of bringing muffins somewhere, or just feel like making muffins, this is a great recipe and easy too. Any berry would be great in these. Enjoy!

Blackberry Cream Cheese Muffins With Sweet Berry Drizzle (adapted from Better Homes and Garden Nov. 1997)

10 oz fresh blackberries
2 Tablespoons sugar

1 stick softened butter
8 oz softened cream cheese
1 Cup sugar
1 Tablespoon orange zest
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Cup all purpose flour
¾ Cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 Cup heavy cream

Heaping ¼ Cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place blackberries and sugar in a large bowl. Stir to combine so that berries are coated in sugar. Set aside.
2. In a stand or electric mixer cream the butter, cream cheese, sugar and orange zest until well combined. Slowly beat in the eggs and vanilla until combined.
3. Place the flour, wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. With mixer on low, add half the flour, then half cream, then remaining flour, then remaining cream until just combined.
4. Fill 6 extra large muffins tins or 24 regular size tins with muffin batter, about ¾ full, that has been greased or sprayed with cooking spray. Press 3-4 berries into tops of each unbaked muffin, Reserve any berry juice in bowl for drizzle. Bake for 23-28 minutes or until golden brown on top and cooked through. Remove and let cool.
5. In the same bowl as berries were in, place powdered sugar and milk. Whisk until smooth and drizzling consistency; should be a light pink color from the berry juice. Drizzle over top muffins and enjoy!