I’ve been experimenting lately with lemon ginger muffins, looking for just the right recipe.
Unfortunately, with all the heat we’ve been having around here lately, my experiments took a hiatus for a couple of weeks. Who wants to turn on the oven when the AC is struggling to keep the house below 80°F?
In California we’ve finally had a break in the hot weather (my apologies to those of you on the East Coast who are getting it now) and I got up early this morning to bake these muffins.
So good! The yogurt in the batter helps create an especially light and fluffy muffin.
Lemon Ginger Muffins Recipe
- Yield: Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
- 3 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup 1/2-inch cubes of peeled, fresh ginger
- 1 large lemon
- 1 cup sugar -divided into 1/4 cup and 3/4 cup
- 10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
Glaze
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
Method
1 Preheat oven: Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
3 Make paste with lemon zest, ginger, sugar: Using a vegetable peeler, peel off the lemon zest from one large lemon (avoid the white pith). Coarsely chop the zest. You should have approximately 1/4 cup of chopped lemon zest.
Add this zest, the cubed fresh ginger, and 1/4 cup of sugar to a food processor. Pulse until a paste forms.
4 Beat butter with sugar, add eggs, then zest ginger paste: In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and remaining 3/4 cup of sugar together, beating until fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one.
Beat in the lemon zest and ginger paste.
5 Alternate adding dry ingredients with yogurt: Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt.
Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat.
6 Fill muffin tin with dough: Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil or a little melted butter using a pastry brush. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups.
7 Bake: Bake at 375°F until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool.
8 Make glaze: While the muffins are cooling, in a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze. Add more lemon juice if necessary.
9 Brush muffins with glaze: While the muffins are still a bit warm, use a pastry brush to brush the glaze over each muffin. The muffins will absorb some of the glaze, so you add more glaze to each muffin if you like.
