Ian said he had some limoncello going spare at home and, as a recent convert to baking, he was looking for a recipe to use it up.
I have tried a lemon and poppy seed muffin recipe in the past but it wasn't the greatest, so I experimented.
I think this recipe should do the trick. And if you don't have limoncello, then just use lemon juice from a bottle to make up the difference.
You will need a 12 hole muffin tin and 12 muffin cases.
Ingredients
- 230g plain flour
- 125g caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp bicarb of soda
- 4 tbsp poppy seed (optional)
- 1 egg
- 250g yoghurt or buttermilk (if you have neither of these, make buttermilk by adding a tsp of lemon juice to milk)
- 85ml corn oil
- Zest of one lemon
For the drizzle, which is a crunchy drizzle:
- Juice from one lemon
- 40ml limoncello (or lemon juice from a bottle)
- 175g ish granulated sugar
Method
- Put muffin cases in the muffin tin
- Turn oven on to 160 degrees C fan oven
- Zest the lemon and set to one side
- Stir flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarb together with poppy seed if using
- In a separate bowl mix (barely more than a stir) the egg, yoghurt or buttermilk, corn oil and lemon zest
- Combine the dry and wet ingredients by stirring - not mixing, not beating, not whisking, but stirring. Stir until no dry flour visible (scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spoon)
- Pop into muffin cases and pop into the oven for 20-24 mins until they are nicely browned on top.
- Feel free to use the skewer test to see if they are done (inserted skewer should emerge mixture free)
- Whilst muffins are in the oven, juice the lemon, add the limoncello or lemon juice and granulated sugar and stir
- Do the washing up and have a cup of tea, or slug from the limoncello bottle
- When the muffins come out of the oven, give them a few minutes before skewering the tops about six times per muffin
- Then you need to spoon on the drizzle mixture. This is best done with a teaspoon and you need to mix as you spoon the drizzle mixture so that you have a decent amount of sugar mixed in. The drizzle shouldn't be too runny so you may need to adjust the sugar content until it's appropriately spoonable for you
- You could dust with poppy seeds but they'll just go everywhere
- Leave to cool
- Eat, with tea, coffee or bubbly
- These are freezable. When defrosting give them an hour or so, or a quick 30 second blast in the microwave. I prefer defrosting these naturally as I like these muffins cool rather than oven warm
