Lemon-Ginger Muffins

I've been meaning to try out Dorie Greenspan's lemon yogurt cake for a while now, and eventually I realized that unless I turned it into muffins it just wouldn't get made. The reasoning behind this is that muffins can be sort of construed as health food that I will eat while (or after) training, but cake disappears a little more slowly and with a lot more guilt. Not having an office to bring baked goods in to is going to really limit my dessert-baking. Anyway, I love the combination of lemon and ginger, and I happened to have some crystallized ginger just waiting to get used up. I also happened to have a zip lock bag with 3/4C of sugar and 1/4 tsp of salt, that I was going to use to make a quart of koolaid to drink while riding, but then I realized that that is way too much salt, and the koolaid would taste disgusting. Sort of a tangent, but I didn't want to just throw out that much sugar, so I figured I'd make a recipe for lemon ginger muffins that used 1/4 tsp of salt and 3/4C of sugar. Dorie's recipe calls for a full cup of sugar, but I figured that if I was turning the cake into muffins, I would want them to be a little less sweet and a little less rich than a cake. So, 3/4C of sugar would be perfect. I also reduced the oil, to no discernably bad effect.



Lemon Ginger Muffins
Makes 12 muffins. Inspired by Dorie Greenspan's Lemon Yogurt Cake

1C white flour
1/2C white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4C sugar
3 eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp lemon extract
Zest from one lemon (or more, if you like lemony things)
3/4C yogurt (I used 1%)
2 tbs oil
1" cube of fresh ginger, minced (optional)
1/2C crystalized ginger, diced

Preheat the oven to 400F. Grease a muffin tin. In a large bowl, combine the sugar and lemon zest and rub it around with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and smells deliciously lemony. I could have gone for the zest from 2-3 lemons, honestly, but it was lemony enough with just one lemon. Add the eggs, yogurt, vanilla, fresh ginger, lemon extract, and oil to the sugar, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Dump the flours, baking powder, and salt in a big pile on top of the wet stuff - gently stir together the dry stuff on top of the wet, without letting it get too wet. This is my method of not getting another bowl dirty, I do it frequently with cookie dough. If you have a dishwasher, or enjoy doing dishes, go ahead and combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Fold the dry into the wet, only folding enough to barely moisten things.

Fold the crystalized ginger into the batter, divide it into muffin tins (I filled mine completely to the top, and it all worked out), and pop that sucker into the oven. Once the muffins are in the oven, turn the heat down to 350. The idea behind putting them into a hot oven is that they'll rise higher. Bake for 30 minutes, then check for doneness with a toothpick. Keep baking if they're not done.

Oh, I also sprinkled my muffins with coarse sugar, which gave the tops a nice crunch. I recommend that step.

The muffins stayed moist and delicious for four days, although they're definitely best right out of the oven. The ginger flavor was more pronounced the longer they sat out.



This recipe is a definite keeper. And a do-over-and-over-er.