How To Make Lemon Muffins
With all the fuss about blueberry muffins, it is amazing that other muffins can rise above the super food blueberry muffin noise, but a good lemon muffin should not be ignored. If done correctly, they can have a nice zingy lemoniness to them. If done poorly, well they taste like lemon furniture polish. Not really. When it is a lemon blueberry muffin, I kind of feel like it is just a lemon muffin trying to ride the coat tails of another more popular muffin. Sad. That could be bad muffinism, some muffin on muffin violence, some muffiny creeping incrementalism (if you are a marketer, you what that means) but we accept greater treachery in our lives – carrot cake with too many nuts, rosemary anything, chocolate banana muffins (ug!). So here we go with a how to make lemon muffins post. Sure, add blueberries if you want.
How To Make Lemon Muffins – What Can One Say?
What can one say about how to make lemon muffins? Or muffins in general? I will pretend you heard it here first – muffins are a quick bread. Boom! Wow! I know right – big stuff! Quick bread? You know! Just stir a bunch of dry ingredients with a bunch of wet ingredients and, in the case of muffins, fill a muffin tin or a cupcake pan with the batter. The leavening is usually baking powder. In the case of lemon muffin though, baking soda can also be added as the acid from the lemon juice will interact with it creating gas – yeah! Boom! Wow! I know right – big stuff! Heard it here first…?
How To Make Lemon Muffins – Muffin Marketing?
We called it a cupcake pan when I was a kid because muffins were not invented until 1986. Then they had to be re-invented in 1989 because everyone thought they were a healthy alternative to cupcakes. It turned out that they really had more fat in them than a prized hog. We even re-named the cupcake pan to muffin tin, too. Good marketing! We should have called them the frostingless cupcakes. Like calling a kiwi fruit gooseberry. Oops. That went over like the chocolate banana muffin – can you say lead balloon! Certainly felt that way in my stomach.
How To Make Lemon Muffins – I now digress
I digress because there is one important thing about lemon muffins and that is maximizing the flavor. Yes, lemon juice, but there is only so much you can get into a recipe. Lemon zest is a needed addition. In the case of lemon muffins, I come from the “glaze” class of thinkers. A good glaze, or drizzle as I like to call it for marketing purposes, really carries the flavor. Fresh lemon juice + powdered sugar + vanilla makes a great drizzle. And as you see above – you can make unusual pictures of the drizzle. Boom. You can also increase the lemon flavor by filling the muffin with lemon curd! Boom! Wow! Big stuff, right! Heard it here first!
Fear not though, more information about how to make lemon muffins is in the ‘How to Make Lemon Muffins’ video below and the full recipe follows.
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 heaping tbsp finely grated lemon zest
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla
- 1 stick of melted butter
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a large bowl, using a fork or whisk, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar and zest.
- In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, juice, and vanilla.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Pour in the melted butter and stir with a fork until just combined.
- Line a muffin tin with paper cups. Fill the cups with batter using an ice cream scoop.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cool 5 minutes in the pan. Remove the muffins to a cooling rack and cool completely.
I hope you enjoy!
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Do you know how to make lemon muffins? Do you think we should call muffins frostingless cupcakes? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook.
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