Have you ever had one of those mornings?

One where everything seems to be going wrong, the house is crazy, and you have absolutely no control over it?

I made these muffins during one of those type of mornings.  And I’m glad I did.

Let’s just say that the day started super early, after someone figured out how to climb out of the tall part of their crib, someone else threw out their back and was up in bed with happy pills, and the third was just especially needy (I’ll let you try to decide who was who – or whom).  I was just trying to contain the chaos while taking care of each’s individual needs.

I decided through all of this, that we all needed a little pick-me-up.  And this recipe (one of my New Year’s Resolution recipes) was exactly what we needed.

The Recipe:

Lemon Basil Muffins, adapted from Bakeaholic Mama

2/3 c granulated sugar

zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 c all-purpose flour

2 t baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

3/4 c plain non-fat yogurt

2 large eggs

1 t vanilla extract

1 stick butter, softened

2 T fresh basil leaves, diced

1 T sugar to sprinkle on the top before baking

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tin with cups.

In a large bowl, whisk the  sugar with the lemon zest until the sugar is lightly colored.  Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, yogurt, vanilla, butter and lemon juice.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together.  When it is almost mixed, add the basil.

Divide batter between muffin cups.  Sprinkle each with the extra T of sugar.  Bake for 15 to 22 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.  Let them cool completely before glazing.

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Lemon Yogurt Glaze

4 T plain yogurt

zest of 1 lemon

2-3 T of powdered sugar

Whisk yogurt, sugar and zest together.  Drizzle over muffins right before serving.

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{Printable Recipe}

The Results:

I’ve been really excited to make this recipe – ever since I saw it on Carrie’s website. I loved the idea of the lemon/basil combination and just knew it would be refreshing.  I just figured I’d get to make it in a slightly calmer environment.

Well, as I alluded to before, things were a bit hectic around here.  I think that will account for the few, um, minor mistakes I made while making these (and the fact that I have no photos of the process and just one of the finished product).

I started out mixing my dry ingredients and then moving on the wet ones.  This is when I realized that I had completely forgot to make the brown butter.  Now, I’d been really excited to try this as I’ve seen brown butter all over the place lately, but had never made it before.  Unfortunately, with the craziness, I just ended up substituting regular softened butter.  I gave in, I know – but I will brown the butter next time; because, yes, I will be making these again.

Everything else went smoothly – until the very end.  I made a blunder that I knew better than to do.  Instead of removing the muffins from the tin to cool off on a rack, I got distracted, and left them in it.

(If you haven’t done this before, you may be surprised to know that the bottoms of the muffins continued to cook – and to firmly attach themselves to the paper liners.  Fabulous.)

Once they were completely cooled and glazed, I removed the liners – and a portion of the bottom of the muffin – to find a spectacularly delicious treat. The texture was surprisingly light and very, very flavorful.  The bright lemon flavor was exactly the morning boost I needed.  And combined with the basil and soft yogurt undertones, I was in muffin heaven.

And the whole family agreed completely.  (Not an easy feat in our house.)

I’m very excited to try these again.

Who wouldn’t be?

Tagged: breakfast, dessert, fruit, muffin, recipe