Savour and Devour: Crunchy Lemon & Poppyseed Muffins

I find you can't go past good ol' Alison Holst for a completely delicious, and reliable, muffin recipe. I like a bit of Kiwi representation too, and I read her autobiography with great interest and a lot of salivation. You can't get much more nostalgic than Alison's Lemon muffins - I dig the 90's vibe and memories of coming home after school to Mum's baking.

Mum has always made Alison's Crunchy Lemon Muffins, which are very good in themselves, but I can't go past the extra crunch of the poppyseed version. Fresh, light, zingy, crunchy, sweet - perfect afternoon tea.

These were made for some of the local Waipa Networks linesmen - they kindly lent us an electrical reel which is masquerading as a Christmas tree table in the Pharmacy right now. I did a rather large amount of baking for them, so hopefully they will remember that when I call in the next favour :)

Crunchy Lemon & Poppyseed Muffins

Adapted from Alison Holst's 100 Favourite Muffins & Slices

2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup sugar (normal, non-caster is fine here as you are not creaming with butter)
1/2 cup poppyseeds (Fruit monster has a great range of nuts, seeds and spices - way cheaper than buying heaps of the little boxes)
finely grated rind of 2 lemons (Have you brought a microplane yet?)

100g butter
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup yoghurt (another Vicki Waterhouse trick - yoghurt in anything makes it so much more tender)

Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar

Heat oven to 190 degrees fanbake (or 200 normal).

Sift flour into a large bowl, add poppyseeds and sugar, and whisk to combine. Add grated lemon rind.

Microwave butter until just melted, add the eggs, milk and yoghurt and beat with a fork until well mixed.

Pour the liquids into the dry flour mix, and fold together with a fork until the flour is dampened - small bits of flour is ok, you do not want to beat until smooth or over-mix muffin batter.

Spoon mixture into 12 regular muffin pans which have been lightly sprayed with oil.

Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown, smelling delicious and the centres spring back when pressed.

While they cook, mix together the lemon juice and half cup of sugar - don't dissolve though, as you want the crunchy sugar crystals to remain.

Cool the muffins in the pan for 3-4 minutes, then removed and brush entire surfaces with the lemon sugar glaze.

These are nice and quick to make, so I can whip these up before work pretty easily. They tend to make husbands quite happy too :)