Crunchy on top, tender and light in the center, and singing with lemon flavor, this recipe is a treat. I usually have all the ingredients on hand so it's going into the permanent rotation of breakfast bakes. Please use plain yogurt - not vanilla or any other flavor which has a lot of sugar added. The original recipe calls for ricotta cheese, so you could use that instead. You'll need to plan on using two lemons for the zest and juice. If you do not have a microplane zester, you can use the fine grate side of a box grater. The yellow rind or zest is where the lemon oil and flavor is, so do not skip this step. The turbinado sugar on top adds a nice sparkly, crunchy top. This can be found in the baking aisle with the other sugars.
Tuscan Lemon Muffins
recipe slightly varied from Cooking Light 2011 Best Baking Recipes
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspooon baking soda
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon grated (organic) lemon rind
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 egg
2 Tablespoons turbinado sugar for topping
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prepare muffin cups.
Measure the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl and stir with a fork or whisk.
Combine the yogurt, water, olive oil, lemon rind and juice and egg in a separate container. Mix these well with a fork or whisk.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold it all together with a spatula. The batter will be light a a little fluffy. Spoon the batter into muffin cups and sprinkle each with turbinado sugar.
Bake for about 16 minutes or until lighlty browned on top. Cool in pans for 5 minutes before turning out and serving.
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