I am a huge fan of a good muffin and this is a great muffin to have in your recipe box. My son isn’t fond of muffins with ‘stuff’ in them for example Blueberry muffins. He likes the simpler versions, just fluffy cake base and a drizzle of flavour.
On Friday mornings as a treat we head to the train station before school. We order a mummy sized coffee and a mini me sized babycino and watch the trains coming and going. We have been doing this every single Friday since he was 2 years old. Now that he is getting older, and because the manager knows us so well, Alex gets a little stash of mini marshmallows on the side of his babycino. And since the pandemic hit in 2020, when the coffee shop re-opened, as a special bonus we might also from time to time get ourselves a muffin too. It makes my kid so happy. And yes, I allow sugar before school on Fridays!
After our first Friday muffin treat a couple of months ago, Alex requested we make our own. So we did. I love that he wants to bake and share in kitchen joys with me. These lemon muffins have fast become his favourite. When we bake together on a Saturday, Alex is in charge, he won’t let me do anything apart from tell him the measurments. Baking with kids is the best and we do this every weekend.
This recipe makes around 7 or 8 muffins, depending on how generous you are when filling the cases and how big your cases are. I used cafe style cases which are a little larger. Once cooked and cooled, they can be wrapped in cling film and popped into the freezer to be pulled out one by one in the coming weeks. Just simply let thaw slowly at room temperature.
LEMON DRIZZLE MUFFINS
For the muffins
- 300 g plain flour
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 120 g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1.5 tsp grated zest of lemon
- 1/2 tsp lemon essence
- 60 ml milk
- 110 g unsalted butter, melted
For the crumb
- 50 g plain flour
- 10 g caster sugar
- 30 g butter
For the drizzle
- 40 g caster sugar
- juice of 2 lemons, around 70 ml
- 80 ml water
THE HOW
Heat the oven to 200°C (fan oven).
Sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda and salt together in a bowl.
In a stand mixer or using large bowl and electric whisk, whisk together the sugar, eggs, lemon zest and lemon essence until light and bubbly.
Add in the milk and continue to whisk.
Add in the melted butter and whisk.
Next on the lowest speed setting or by gently hand mixing, add in a cup of the flour mix at a time. Just as the mixture comes together, add in the next cup of flour until all the flour is used and the mixture has just come together and the batter is full of nice little air pockets.
I do recommend using a stand mixer for this as it makes the most incredibly light batter.
Spoon into the muffin cases.
Next make the crumb. Add all crumb ingredients to a blender and whizz up until you have a fine crumb. Sprinkle over the top of the muffins and pop into the oven. Set the timer for 5 minutes. When 5 minutes is up, lower the temperature down to 180°C. The high temp of 200 helps give an initial boost to the muffin rising and then turning the heat down ensures they cook all the way through without burning.
Cook for a further 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
When the muffins are in the oven, prepare your drizzle. In a small saucepan, heat the water, lemon juice and sugar together until fully melted and combined. It doesn’t need to reach boiling, just be warmed enough to melt the sugar.
When the muffins come out of the oven, prick them with a fork or skewer all over and drizzle the lemon drizzle over the tops of the muffins very slowly so they absorb the liquid. Pricking the muffins helps the drizzle be absorbed at the centre of the cake and not just the top.
Leave to cool fully.
When they are totally cooled down, you can add some glaze if you fancy by mixing just a bit of icing sugar and a few drops of water. But this isn’t necessary as the lemon drizzle already makes them moist and glisten. But if you are like us, small children rule the roost and glaze must be added. According to my 5 year old, a muffin isn’t a muffin without icing!
View the below slideshow for step by step images. I have also added how to make these to my Instagram highlights https://www.instagram.com/kitchenfeasts/
Kitchen Feasts 