Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I had a lemon that's been sitting in my fridge for a long time.  I finally decided to make lemon poppy seed muffins with it this past weekend.  Blogger, Elise, from Simply Recipes based her recipe from Cook's Illustrated.  The muffins turned out very light and fluffy.  I followed the recipe to the T except I was a little short on yogurt and I added a teaspoon of almond extract.  I love the smell of almond flavor.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder (no more than 6 months old)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 T poppy seeds
10 T unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 T lemon zest

Glaze
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Directions:
1.  Adjust oven rack to the middle of the oven.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt and set aside.
3.  In a large mixing bowl, cream softened 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 lemon zest.
4.  Beat in one third of the dry ingredients until just incorporated.  Beat in one third of the yogurt.  Keep beating in the remaining dry ingredients and yogurt, alternating between each until just incorporated.  Do not over beat.
5.  Use a standard 12 muffin pan.  Coat each muffin cup with oil or butter with a pastry brush or line the cups with muffin cups like I did.  Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups.  Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25-30 minutes.  Test with a toothpick to make sure they 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 pasty brush to brush the glaze over each muffin.  I just drizzled the glaze over the muffins with a spoon.  


Makes 12 muffins.  Best eaten fresh and warm!