Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup sugar
• grated zest of one lemon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• juice of one lemon
• 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (sour cream will work here)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 tbsp. poppy seeds

Directions

1. 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray muffin tin with oil or place paper muffin cups in molds.
2. 2. In a large bowl, rub sugar and lemon zest together with fingertips until fragrant and sugar is moist. Whisk in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another large bowl, whisk together lemon juice, Greek yogurt, eggs, vanilla and butter until well blended.
3. 3. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and gently stir to blend, careful not to over-mix. Fold in poppy seeds. Divide batter evenly into muffin tins (or you can make smaller muffins, not in a mini muffin tin, so they were more reasonably portioned, so it ended up making 18 medium muffins instead of 12 large). *If you like them just a bit sweeter, sprinkle some coarse sugar over the top of the divided batter.
4. 4. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack before removing from pan.