Lemon Poppyseed Turmeric Muffins (Needs A Catchy Name Muffins)

A friend called these “the most elevated lemon-poppyseed muffins I’ve eaten,” an anonymous housemate said that they “tasted delicious.” They are, true to me-baking form, almost completely improvised in terms of flavors. Believe it or not, the recipe I referenced was for blueberry muffins.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 10 tablespoons butter or 6oz butter
• 2 eggs
• 3-4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3-fingered pinch of salt
• 1 lemon
• Poppyseeds
• Turmeric, fresh or in powder form. You’ll use about a teaspoon, but you should adjust the amount to be what you think tastes best.
• Ginger, fresh. You can use the Trader Joe’s stuff from a tube, if you want. You’ll use about a teaspoon total, but you can adjust how much you want to add.
• Flake salt, for topping
• Some kind of fat to line the pan (nonstick spray, oil, butter, etc)

Equipment:

• Muffin tin or another appropriate baking solution (oven-safe mugs, brownie ban, etc)
• Stand mixer or strength to cream butter and sugar by hand
• Microplane or a fine cheese grater
• 1 cup measure
• 1 teaspoon measure
• Bowl for mixing (if not using a stand mixer)
• Whisk or fork for mixing (if not using a stand mixer)
• Microwave (optional)

Preparation:

Read over the entire recipe. Gather the tools and ingredients you’ll need. You don’t want to have to wash a random kitchen implement halfway through. It’s not fun.

Preheat the oven to 350^o F. If your oven is wonky, like mine, and it’s hard to tell how hot it is, don’t worry. These aren’t the kind of baked good where a few degrees (or even 25) is going to mess anything up. Worst case scenario? You bake them for a few minutes extra.

Zest the lemon.

Use either the microplane or fine cheese grater to grate the ginger and turmeric (if you’re using fresh turmeric) to a paste. If your butter is at room temperature, do not microwave it. If it is not at room temperature, microwave it for just long enough to get to room temperature. This is about 20 seconds in my microwave. You do not want to melt the butter.

Procedure:

1. Cream together the butter, kosher salt, and sugar until the mixture becomes a single, fluffy mass. If you’re in doubt, mix it more.
2. Add about a teaspoon lemon juice. You want to add enough for the flavor to come through, but not enough to compromise the structure of your flour/sugar mixture. Eyeball it!
3. Add the eggs, one at a time. Mix ‘til everything is combined.
4. Add 1/3 cup milk. Mix.
5. Add 1 cup flour. Mix.
6. Add 1/3 cup milk. Mix.
7. Add 1 cup flour. Mix.
8. Add 1/3 cup milk. Mix.
9. Add 1 cup flour. Mix.
10. Assess your dough’s texture.
    • You want the dough to be runny but not thin. It should drip off your spoon, but slowly. If you have ever made brownies, it should be about the texture of a brownie batter. If you haven’t made brownies, that’s okay. You’ll have the chance. If it’s too thin, add more flour. If it’s to thick, add more milk. If it’s about right, leave it.
11. Add grated ginger, turmeric, and poppyseeds to taste.
    • To do this, taste the batter, and add more ginger and/or turmeric as you see fit. I am pretty comfortable trying small amounts of dough that contain raw egg, but you might not be! If you’re not, you can go by smell, instead. It’s less exact, but should still work fine.
    • As for poppyseeds—think of the best lemon poppyseed muffin you’ve eaten, and add enough poppyseeds to make the batter look like that muffin. The more you add, the more you’ll be able to taste them.
12. Grease your muffin tin.
13. Scoop the batter into each cup. You want the cups to be about two-thirds of the way full, but it’s okay to overfill them a little—just understand that it means your muffins might overflow while they’re baking.
14. Sprinkle some sugar onto the top of each puddle of muffin batter.
15. Sprinkle some poppyseeds onto the top of each puddle of muffin batter.
16. Sprinkle some flake salt onto the top of each puddle of muffin batter. Skip this step if you don’t have flake salt—kosher salt doesn’t have the right texture, unfortunately.
17. Bake your muffins until a knife or skewer stuck into the middle of one comes out clean. I like to check after ten minutes, and then every 5 or so minutes after that. The closer they are to being done, the more often you should check.
18. Enjoy! I like to eat these fresh from the oven, with a little butter and honey.

I can - and will - delete any comment at any time for any reason I want. Write comments that won't make me want to delete them.

Also, refer to people with initials or with their github username. I'd like to maintain the thin veneer of possible anonymity this site currently has.