Lemon Poppyseed Muffin Madness

J must have walked into the kitchen a million times on Saturday when I was making the lemon curd asking me how it was going, commenting that it smelled great etc etc.  He knew it wasn't for him and he has this annoying way of making me feel guilty for baking non-friendly items.  Luckily, when all was said and done, I had 2 zested lemons left over and 1 left ready to be zested.  I knew I wanted to make Lemon Poppyseed muffins, I've been drooling over pictures on foodgawker for weeks now.

Before Saturday I'd never taken the time to look at any lemon poppyseed muffin recipes.  Every recipe I found had some combination of eggs/sour cream/buttermilk.  All of which J can't have.  Substitutions are hard, and I'm still figuring out what I can and can't do and still have the food turn out well.  My usual strategy involves subbing applesauce for the eggs.  I have no plan for sour cream/buttermilk and most of the recipes called for 2-3 eggs.  Thats a lot to sub in.  J loves cranberry orange muffins, and they're pretty easy to sub, I just add more OJ instead of milk but I wasn't sure I could do the same here and for that matter I was out of OJ.  I was almost in a panic when I remembered that I had recently picked up some ground flax seed from Whole Foods.  I'd been browsing in the Gluten-free aisle back when we thought J might be allergic to gluten and one of the bread mixes called for ground flax seed.  My solution was right there on the bag.   1 tablespoon flax seed mixed with 3 tablespoons water makes a great egg substitute! 

I admit it looks gross.  But it works!   I eventually settled on recipe that called for 2 eggs and only 3/4 cup of buttermilk, figuring that would be the easiest to sub in.  Here is what I did:

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

adapted from Playing House blog

Ingredients: 

2/3 cup granulated sugar
zest of 1 lemon

juice of 2 lemons
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup water
2 ground flaxseed egg equivalents (2 tbsp flaxseed mixed with 6 tbsp water, let sit for 5 minutes)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick (8 Tablespoons) butter, melted until browned and cooled
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
1 Tablespoon powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

 Combine the granulated sugar and lemon zest. 

Mix until the zest is incorporated into the sugar, it should smell great and get slightly sticky. 

Add the flour, baking soda and powder and salt to the sugar. 

In another bowl melt your butter. 

Add the vanilla, egg or flaxseed, water and lemon juice. Don't forget to juice your lemons in a separate bowl so you can strain out the seeds!

Add the wet to the dry and mix. 

When its almost completely mixed together, add the poppyseeds and fold into the batter. 

You may have to add more water to get the right consistancy depending on how juicy your lemons are.  My batter came out just right, which I thought was pretty amazing.

Fill your muffin tins, I never remember to buy the paper liners, I just spray in a little Pam. 

Add a sprinkle of powdered sugar to the tops.  I added too much and some of it wasn't absorbed.  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden.

 The original recipe called for a frosting or glaze as the finishing touch but J isn't a fan so I left them as is.  See how my powdered sugar stayed put?  J complained. I loved it.