I thought rather then end my day of baking in a down cycle, I’d take one more crack at a recipe. This one worked! I thought it up when I was taking a long, much needed walk. This recipe evolved from the King Arthur recipe. Instead of cocoa, I used a pack of lemon instant pudding. It was a longshot, but I didn’t have much to lose. In place of vinegar, I used lemon juice. For more lemon flavor, I added a tablespoon of lemon zest, which wasn’t quite lemony enough for me in the end, which is why I recommend using 1-2 tablespoons of zest. These have a light texture and rise very high. My only small complaint is they could be lemonier, but that seems like an easy fix. You may want to try this recipe with lemon yogurt if you have some around. Milk worked fine, but again, anything to up the lemon flavor would be good. If you use lemon yogurt, let me know!
Lemon Muffins
1 (4 serving size) package instant lemon pudding mix (Jell-O Brand)
1 3/4 cup cake flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons poppy seeds (more if desired)
2 eggs
1 cup milk or test with lemon yogurt (I used milk)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1-2 tablespoon grated lemon zest (my friend taste tested and thought 1 was fine)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray 10 muffin cups with flour-added spray (you will have two empty indentations in a 12 cup muffin pan. Fill the two remaining empty tins halfway with water. This helps the muffins bake more evenly.
In a large bowl, whisk together pudding mix, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in poppy seeds.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and lemon juice. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and then pour in the melted butter. Using a wooden spoon, stir batter just until combined.
Evenly divide batter between 10 muffin cups lightly coated with flour-added cooking spray.
Bake for 17 minutes or until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs attached. Remove and place pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool.
Makes 10
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I am eager to try this recipe and I have always been a big fan of flavored pudding mixes as an addition to baked goods. I think they make for a flavoful, moist product without a lot of fuss. I wanted to offer one great tip I discovered while reading Dorie Greenspan’s new baking book–regarding the use of citrus zest. She urges the home baker to go one step further and after zesting the fruit, to incorporate it with (clean) fingers into the sugar. She claims that if you “rub” the zest into the sugar, it will impart more flavor. I have done this several times for various recipes that included zest. I would have to agree with her that the citrus flavor is really more pronounced. Perhaps, in addition to adding more zest, this additional step would make the muffins more “lemony” as you suggested. I am also a big fan of lemon oil (food grade–used VERY sparingly). I should also mention that I did not get the same results with Dorie’s application to vanilla bean/seeds. I did incorporate the seeds directly from the VB into the sugar and used my fingers to incorporate it. However, in the recipes for which I wanted a strong vanilla flavor, I did not notice a pronounced difference.
Can’t wait to make the muffins! What a great time of year for all things lemon!
MISHQUILT
Hi Mishquilt,
Thanks for your comment. I am interested in hearing what you think of the muffins. My girlfriend liked them and so did her 5 year old son. They are definitely lighter and more cupcake-like than other muffins. This could be a positive or a negative to some.
Thanks so much for the Dorie Greenspan tip. I am definitely going to try rubbing the zest with the sugar.
Hi Anna,
Do you have any lemon muffin recipes that
do not use cake mix? I can’t get it here in
Ireland and have been trying to find a lemon
muffin recipe.
Hi Alison,
This recipe uses cake flour, which is different than cake mix. Are you referring to the lemon pudding mix?
At any rate, I will look through my files and see if I can find a good lemon muffin recipe. I don’t think I have one I especially love, but I’ll look.
Alison,, a substitute for cake flour,,, 3/4 C of all purpose flour plus 2 T cornstarch