Most Delicious Muffins

I haven’t made a muffin recipe in a while, but I thought they would be the perfect thing to bring to Tall Guy’s mom when I saw her last weekend. I was planning on making lemon poppy seed muffins, but I completely forgot to get lemons when I went grocery shopping. And good thing I did, because orange poppy seed muffin recipes exist and oh my God are they amazing! (Luckily I did have some oranges lying around!)

Orange Poppy Seed Muffins (recipe originally from Back to the Cutting Board)

3 c flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp poppy seeds
10 tbsp butter, room temp
1 3/4 c, plus 3 tbsp sugar
zest and juice of 1 medium orange
2 eggs
1 1/2 c plain low fat yogurt *I used low fat vanilla because it’s what I had on hand

Optional: Orange Syrup
1/4 c fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 c sugar

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and preheat oven to 350°. Put liners in muffin tin (or spray with nonstick spray).
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and poppy seeds. Set aside.
3. Cream butter, sugar and orange zest until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Add orange juice and mix well. I used a hand mixer for this and the next step.
4. Mix in 1/2 c yogurt. Then mix in half of the flour mixture. Repeat until all ingredients are added. Batter will be thick.
5. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Mine took about 25-30, times will vary depending on your oven. 6. Muffins are done when they are golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Immediately remove muffins from tin and let them cool slightly. Invert them onto a wire rack and then turn then right side up to avoid burning your fingers!

Optional: While muffins are baking, make orange syrup. Add orange juice and sugar to a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and the mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Use a pastry brush to coat the tops of warm muffins with syrup. I skipped the syrup because I ran out of sugar!

This makes a lot of batter. I put one batch of muffins in the oven and realized I had too much batter left over and too little time, so instead of making a couple more batches of muffins, I threw all of the remaining batter into a bread pan (pre-sprayed with PAM for baking) and made a loaf of orange poppy seed muffin bread, which was also delicious! The bread took about 40 minutes. Be careful not to under cook- a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean and the top of the break will be very golden brown. Test a few places in the center to make double sure, since the middle cooks last.

Don’t miss out on lemon poppy seed’s younger, hipper, more delicious cousin!