Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

I’m trying to take advantage of having a lot of free time on vacation this week and the use of my parents’ perfect naturally lit kitchen to bake and document a few recipes so that I have some on hand to blog about when I go back to work next week. Though I am finding plenty of other things to fill my days with in the sunshine so I haven’t gotten quite as much baking done as I was hoping. But I finally hunkered down, bought a jumbo-size muffin tin and baked up two batches of muffins.

The thing about the jumbo sized muffin tin is that this is the actual size muffin you find when you go to most bakeries or restaurants. Each muffin is basically the equivalent of two regular sized muffins, but now you can just say “oh, well I just had ONE muffin.” Amiright??

So for my first muffin of the week, I wanted to try a new take on the lemon poppyseed muffin, which is one of my favorite muffins. I made regular Lemon Poppyseed Muffins last summer, right around this time actually. I saw on Pinterest an easy variation of these muffins from Sally’s Baking Addiction where she included orange zest and orange juice in her lemon poppyseed muffin, which sounded like a great fruity combo to me so I decided to give it a try. Plus her base muffin is a bit different than mine so I wanted to see which base I liked better.

Yield: 6 Jumbo Muffins or 12 Regular-Sized Muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 cup salted butter, melted

  • Juice and zest of 2 medium lemons
  • Juice and zest of 1 orange
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup non-fat or low-fat Greek or regular yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 3 Tablespoons poppy seeds
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the muffin tins with paper liners and spray with nonstick spray.

Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well mixed and set aside.

Step 3: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, orange juice and orange zest together until combined. Whisk in the eggs and beat until incorporated. Whisk in the yogurt and vanilla. Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffins - A zesty twist on a classic citrusy breakfast treat!

Step 4: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients slowly and gently mix together until the flour is all mixed in, being careful not to overmix. The batter is very thick.

Step 5: Spoon the batter into the muffin tins. For the jumbo tins, this makes 6, and for regular muffins it should make 12. Bake for 5 minutes at 425 degrees, then reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and continue to bake for about 12-16 minutes until the tops are lightly golden. The initial higher temp will help to create that great crunch on top of the muffin.Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffins - A zesty twist on a classic citrusy breakfast treat!

Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffins - A zesty twist on a classic citrusy breakfast treat!

Allow the muffins to cool for about 10 minutes before digging in. You can also keep these in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffins - A zesty twist on a classic citrusy breakfast treat!

Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffins - A zesty twist on a classic citrusy breakfast treat!I like mine toasted with some butter melted on top. Along with a hot cup of coffee and view of the lake. Heaven, I’m in heaven. Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffins - A zesty twist on a classic citrusy breakfast treat!

Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffins - A zesty twist on a classic citrusy breakfast treat!My next door neighbor down the Cape has her kids and grandkids visiting this weekend, so I brought these muffins over to her tonight along with the other batch I baked this afternoon so that they have some good breakfast treats to look forward to. I should probably get a few other recipes in while I have a good group of taste testers next door! Also when I was uploading my photos today, I found out that my camera was hijacked by these fluffy guys this morning. They look so innocent here, but they are t-r-o-u-b-l-e! Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffin-4

Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffin-5

Happy Friday.