Lemon-Poppy Seed Birthday Muffins

Arthur has a new favorite muffin. When asked what snack he wanted to bring into school to share with his class for his birthday, he shouted, “lemon poppy seed muffins!!!” Ok, then. So we made our new lemon-poppy seed muffins for him to share. I got the idea for the recipe from Williams-Sanoma’s Muffins cookbook, however, I converted it to be gluten-free so that I could enjoy the muffins too. In that process, I have also started experimenting with pysllium husk as a binder. So far, I like it.  To find out more about this wonder, check out the Gluten-Free Girl, Shauna Ahern’s, short video here. Also, since I wanted these muffins to have more of a “white flour” taste, I refered back to one Shauna’s newer posts on creating a gluten-free all-purpose flour: which you can find here.

These were a lot of fun for Arthur to make. At 4 years old, he has gotten very good a helping in the kitchen. Baking has also become a good place to bring in numbers, fractions, and practicing listening to directions. I also found, it ended up being a good place to improvise and problem solve! So, he was good at measuring…

As you see, I had Arthur measure the poppy seeds over a cup to catch the extra…however, after the required measured amount was placed in the mixing bowl, Arthur thought the mix needed more poppy seeds, so he dumped in the extras from the mixing cup!

When it came time to zest the lemons, Arthur was very eager to help.

However, he soon got lemon juice in his eye from the zester. When I mentioned that maybe I should do that part then, he replied, “Wait, I have an idea!!!” and ran into the living room. When he came back, he was ready to work.

Right on Arthur.

So, here is the recipe!

Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins

• 220 grams All-purpose gluten free mix

I used: 44 g Sorghum flour

44 g millet flour

66  g tapioca starch/ flour

66 g sweet rice flour

• 1 tsp. psyllium husk
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
• 2/3 cup sugar (I use sugar in the raw)
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbs poppy seeds (we used a bit more!)
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup rice milk
• 2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Sugar in the Raw for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven 350 F. Line a 12 muffin pan. In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at  a time and blend after each. In separate bowl, mix together the flours, psyllium husk, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, lemon zest, and salt. Then, on low speed, mix dry mixture into the butter sugar creamed mixture in 2 increments. Alternate with the rice milk, lemon juice and vanilla. So, half of the flour, mix. Add half the rice milk and say lemon juice, then rest of the flour, then rest of rice milk and vanilla. Blend until smooth. Then in another clean bowl, whip the egg whites just until soft peaks form. Then fold them gently into the batter with a rubber spatula until just blended. Spoon the batter into each muffin cup- about 3/4 full. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with some sugar in the raw- or coarse raw sugar. Bake until golden and when a tooth pick comes out clean. About 20-25 minutes. Place the muffin pan on a wire rack and let cool for about 5 minutes, then remove the muffins and let cool completely.

Enjoy!!!

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