Fabulous Lemon Muffins with Lemon Syrup

Photo Courtesy: Dr. Debarshi Chatterji

A few weeks ago, Debarshi and I went to the historic downtown of Liberty, Missouri. After strolling around for a while, we came across a local café – Hammerhand Coffee. We got ourselves Iced Coffee and I just started looking in their display case trying to find something for my sweet tooth.  I spotted a muffin along with the beautiful scones and croissants but it didn’t look like a berry or fruit muffin. Curious, I asked about it and came to know it was a Lemon muffin. 

Photo taken at: Hammerhand coffee, Liberty, Missouri. 

Features: Iced Coffee and Lemon Muffins

Now I love lemon but I have never had a Lemon muffin before and that muffin may have looked plain but it was packed with flavors. It was sweet but just enough to cut the tart flavor of the Lemons and its lemony aroma was just refreshing. After coming back home, I started looking for its recipe and finally found one which I liked. Foodies I present to you -  Fabulous Lemon Muffins with Lemon Syrup recipe.

Now whenever you try a new flavor, feedback is important, so I prepared a batch of muffins and sent them to Debarshi’s office. I was a bit anxious because I had never baked with Lemon flavor before. Thankfully, everyone liked it and I got great reviews!!

Lemon is one of my favorite fruits. It has a fresh citrusy flavor and as soon as you start grating or juicing it, the whole house fills with this beautiful fragrance. Papa (my maternal grandfather) had a big garden in his house and along with other trees and plants, he also had a Lemon tree. I used to love walking in that garden and smell the different flowers and fruits. I think Lemon has a very different almost a playful aroma which always lifts my spirit and makes me smile.

Lemon has several health benefits, it is especially good for the liver, it strengthens the immune system and clears dandruff and rashes. Lemon is also one of the easiest options to detoxify your body. I have a routine of drinking lemon juice and honey in some lukewarm water first thing in the morning. This low calorie drink gives me a boast of energy all through the day while aiding my digestion. In fact, I also read that drinking lemon water can also cure the cold and flu. Lemon also restores the body’s pH level which means you will have a younger skin, increased metal alertness and restful sleep.

Now whenever you are trying this recipe, I would recommend to use fresh lemon juice and zest. Believe me, you will enjoy that fresh citrusy aroma while you are baking with it. Wear a glove because all that citric acid may make your fingers itchy while you are juicing the Lemon. These yummy delicious muffins only take 20 minutes to get ready and can be enjoyed any time of the day, so don’t wait, bake a batch today!

Ingredients:

For the muffin - 

• All-Purpose Flour - 2 cups 
• White Sugar – ½ cup 
• Baking Powder - 3 teaspoons 
• Salt – ½ teaspoon 
• Lemon Zest - 1 tablespoon grated (approximately 1 big lemon)
• Milk – ¾ cup 
• Vegetable Oil – 1/3 cup 
• Egg - 1 (at room temperature)
• Vanilla Extract - ½ teaspoon 

For the lemon syrup -

• Lemon Juice - ¼ cup (approximately 1 big lemon)
• Sugar - ¼ cup 
• Lemon Zest - to garnish (approximately 1 big lemon)

Extras:

• Muffin Tray
• Muffin Cups - 12
• Spray Oil or a brush with ½ cup vegetable oil – for greasing the cups

Directions:

• Prepare the muffin baking tray - arrange the muffin cups on them and grease them with Oil.
• Sift all the dry ingredients (All Purpose Flour, White Sugar, Baking Powder and Salt), Whisk them together and mix the Lemon Zest.  Smell it, its fruity citrusy fragrance is refreshing.
• In a separate bowl, beat the Milk, Oil, Egg and Vanilla.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat with a spoon just until smooth.
• Fill the muffin batter into the cups using a spoon or scoop. Fill them full but do not overfill them. Do not press the batter.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick (insert in the center of the muffin to check if its baked through) comes out clean.
• While the muffins are in the oven, let’s prepare the Lemon syrup. Whisk the lemon juice, zest and sugar together in a small saucepan and boil for about five minutes or until slightly reduced and shiny. Remove from the heat.
• Remove the muffins from the oven and let them sit inside the pan for 5 minutes.
• Arrange cooling racks on the kitchen counter and carefully remove the Muffins from the tray and transfer them on the cooling rack. Do not turn the tray upside down as the Muffins will be soft and may break. Do not skip this step as it will make the bottoms soggy.
• Poke a couple toothpick holes in each muffin (I poked 4 in each) and carefully drizzle about 1 teaspoon of hot syrup over each of them. Decorate with the zests.
• Let the muffins cool for at least 10 minutes so that they can absorb the syrup, then serve.

Tip:

• Do not pour a lot of syrup over the muffins otherwise it will get too tangy and sweet. Just one teaspoon for each muffin is perfect. Add some lemon zest over each of them to complete the decoration.

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