Whole Lemon Muffins
These muffins are gorgeously delish. You use a whole lemon, ground up (peel and all) to make them, which gives them a fabulous lemon flavour!
There are also chopped walnuts in them, for an added dimension of flavour. I do so love toasted walnuts and lemon . . . together they are just wonderful!
Add to that a gorgeous lemon drizzle icing and you have one very spectacular muffin indeed! The only down side being (and that all depends on how you look at it) is that the recipe makes rather a lot.
Twelve rather large Texas Sized Muffins if you are so inclined, or twenty four regular sized ones, which is a lot of muffins! Mind you . . . I did cut the recipe in half (it is possible) and got 9 medium large ones. I had never cut the recipe in half before, so it was nice to know that I could do so without any problems. Of course they do freeze well also. Just freeze them before glazing and then glaze them when you are ready to thaw and eat them!!
Makes 12 very large muffins
These muffins are fantastic. An entire ground lemon goes into the mix, giving these the ultimate in lemon flavour. The addition of a healthy dose of Greek Yogurt ensures that they are moist. These have to be my absolute favourite all time muffins. They are meant to be baked in Texas Size muffin tins, but you can bake them in normal muffin tins, giving you roughly twice the number of muffins. Decrease the baking time by about 5 or 6 minutes in that case.
1 medium unwaxed lemon
1 cup toasted walnuts
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large free range eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 2/3 cups whole fat Greek Yoghurt
For the drizzle glaze:
1 cup icing sugar
lemon juice to give you a thick drizzle icing
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 5. Butter a 12 cup texas size muffin tin very well, or spray with nonstick cooking spray, or line with paper liners.
Wash the lemon well. Cut into quarters. Remove any pips and discard. Put all of the lemon into the food processor and blitz until the lemon is completely ground up. Scrape out into a bowl. (You can add some of the sugar to make this a bit easier if you wish.) Scrape the lemon out into a bowl. Tip in the toasted walnuts and blitz them until they are coarsely ground. Set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Add them a third at a time, alternating with the yoghurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in the lemon and nuts. Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, dividing it equally amongst the cups. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin for ten minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Whisk together the ingredients for the drizzle until thick and smooth. Drizzle over the cooled muffins. Allow to set before serving. Save in an airtight container.
