Honey Lemon Fig Muffins #MuffinMonday

Fresh ripe figs make a lovely muffin, with no added sugar and only honey to add extra sweetness and a little lemon juice to bump up the batter flavor. Top with slices of fresh fig and a drizzle of honey before baking. 

Well, hallelujah! Let all God’s fig lovers give praise. I finally found some ripe figs I could afford in what had been an otherwise disappointingly practically figless summer! First I made preserves, which turned out more like jam as the large figs fell apart, but a few of the smaller ones were reserved for muffins. These muffins here. Oh, and I may well have eaten quite a few just as is. Aren’t ripe figs the best? I can close my eyes and I am 10 years old again, up high in the branches of my grandparents’ fig trees, enjoying the breeze and eating my fill. Sweet!

Ingredients
6-7 fresh sweet ripe, but firm, figs (about 320g)
1 lemon, for zest and juice
1/3 cup or 80ml honey, plus more for drizzling before baking, if desired
1/4 cup or 60ml lemon juice
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1 egg
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light vegetable oil
2 cups or 250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by spraying it with non-stick spray or lining it with muffin papers.

Slice the ends off of your figs and discard. Now slice 12 nice circles from the middle of the figs and set aside. Chop the rest of the figs up roughly.

Combine your flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Zest your lemon into the bowl and stir well.

Juice the lemon and measure out 1/4 cup or 60ml.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together your egg, honey, milk, lemon juice and oil.

That's the last of my dark Ugandan honey. Time to go back!

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until just mixed. There should be some flour showing. Fold in the chopped figs.

Divide your batter between the 12 muffin cups. Top each with a fig slice and push it in slightly. Drizzle on a little extra honey, if desired.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a few minutes in the pans and then remove to continue cooling on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Have you found sweet figs at an affordable price this summer? Or perhaps you are blessed with a fig-bearing tree. I’m rather fond of dried figs as well. Here are a few more recipes that might interest you.


Gram’s Fig Preserves – Just like my grandmother used to make them

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Gram’s Fig Spice Cake – My grandmother’s special recipe, with buttermilk glaze

Figgy Jam Muffins – for when you can’t find fresh but really need to bake with figs - this was me earlier this summer! 

Lemon Ricotta Muffins for #MuffinMonday

When you mix baking soda with lemon juice in a batter, the result is a light and fluffy muffin. Add in butter and ricotta cheese for richness and these are easily some of best muffins you’ll ever eat. 

Last year I posted a couple of lists I called Blog Love Fest 2013 and Blog Love Fest, Part 2 to introduce you to some of my favorite bloggers. It just hasn’t happened yet but I have every intention of writing more Blog Love posts because, frankly, my list of bloggers I love just keeps growing. I can hardly keep up and I feel terrible when I am behind on my reading because I just know I’m missing something wonderful.

Which brings me to a great new Facebook group that I was invited to join. It’s called Fearless Friends Sharing Recipes and it was started by one of my favorite people, the fabulous Jenni Field from Pastry Chef Online. The best part is that it has 11 of my favorite bloggers (plus yours truly) sharing recipes in one convenient place, so I don’t have to worry about whether Facebook is going to choose to show me their posts - or not. I just scroll down the group wall and drool. :) Click on the link here and ask to join the community so you can drool with me. B.Y.O.N. (N is for napkins, you’ll need them.)

Anyhoo, a couple of weeks back, Fearless Friend Cheryl from Pook’s Pantry posted a photo of scrumptious lemon ricotta cookies and I was inspired to muffinize them. And don’t bother telling me that muffinize is not a word. I’ve just added it to my spellcheck dictionary and you would be wise to do the same. I have a feeling it's going to keep happening.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Zest of 1 large lemon
2 eggs
1 cup or 250g ricotta cheese
1/3 cup or 80ml lemon juice
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Butter your muffin pan or line it with paper liners. The batter turns out really fluffy so I got 15 muffins out of it, instead of the usual 12.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs, ricotta, lemon juice and melted butter.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until just mixed through.

Divide the mixture between the muffin cups.

Look how fluffy!

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins #MuffinMonday

Meyer lemons and lemon yogurt make a beautiful rich batter for these Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. Delicious sunshine in a muffin cup!

Who can resist the sweet and sour combination of lemon and mandarin orange that created the hybrid Meyer lemon? 

Last year when I was here in Providence visiting my daughters for spring break, I baked a beautiful (if I do say so myself – but you can go and judge for yourself) sweet bread loaf with lemons and poppy seeds. The weather was warmer at this time a year ago but the fresh, bright flavor of lemons is always cheerful and warming. Especially Meyer lemons. 

Weather reports are promising a chance of snow for the next two days– that’s right, snow again at the end of March, after the supposed start of spring! – so I baked muffins with the same flavors as last year’s bread. And added a lemony glaze, which makes them extra cheerful. If we can’t be warm and sunshiny outside, at least we can be inside. Snow, pfft. I laugh in your face.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
2/3 cup or 130g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons poppy seeds (plus a couple of pinches more for decorating if desired)
Grated zest and juice of 1 Meyer lemon (Mine were small so one yielded only 1 1/2 tablespoons juice.)
3/4 cup or 185g lemon yogurt
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
2 large eggs
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Optional glaze – juice of one small Meyer lemon
About 4-5 heaping tablespoons powdered sugar

To decorate, if desired:
The glaze
Extra poppy seeds
Zest of one Meyer Lemon

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Butter your muffin tin or line it with paper liners.

Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds and salt to a large mixing bowl.

Grate in the Meyer lemon zest and mix. Juice your lemon.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, yogurt, juice and melted butter.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until just mixed through.

Divide the mixture between the muffin cups in the pan.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.  I don’t have a wire rack in the house where I’m staying so I just used the top of the gas range. Worked perfectly.

If you want to add glaze, zest your second Meyer lemon and squeeze out the juice.  Add powdered sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time and stir well, until the glaze is a good drizzling consistency.

When your muffins are cool, drizzle on the glaze and sprinkle the muffins with a little lemon zest and a few poppy seeds each.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Lemon Bundt with Strawberry Jam Glaze for #BundtaMonth

Adding lemon juice to butter cake brightens whatever other flavor you’ve chosen and cuts through the richness, while increasing the rise as the juice interacts with the baking soda, creating a lighter crumb.  Whatever fruit or jam you decide to use, always add a bit of fresh lemon. 

This month’s BundtaMonth theme is a favorite of mine because it’s jam, something I always have in the cupboard or refrigerator.  Sometimes homemade, sometimes store bought but always at the ready to add variety and flavor to any baked good.  I started out with a simple pound cake recipe, switching milk and lemon juice for buttermilk and adding a filling of strawberries and jam.  The bottom of the Bundt didn’t brown very much in the oven I’m using, so I ended up leaving it right, as it baked in the pan, so you’ll notice a nice layer of filling at the bottom.  As it turned out, that balanced nicely with the jam on top so you had strawberries coming and going.  We took the cake out to play Pokeno a couple of nights ago, so the extra strawberries I meant to decorate it with didn’t happen.  I forgot them at home.  But, as my friend Gillian does say, “Small matter.”  The cake was just fine without them.

Ingredients
For the cake:
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup or 225g sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup or 80ml milk
1/8 cup or 30ml fresh lemon juice
Zest 1 medium lemon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the filling:
3/4 cup or 125g chopped strawberries
4 tablespoons good strawberry jam

For the glaze: 3-4 tablespoons good strawberry jam
Optional:  Extra sliced strawberries to decorate the top

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Grease and flour your Bundt pan.

Zest your lemon and then juice it.  Add the lemon juice and vanilla to the milk and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream and butter until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well in between.

It might look like it’s curdling a little bit but don’t that alarm you.  That look will go away when you start adding the flour mixture.

Add the flour and milk mixtures alternately to the batter, in two lots, mixing in between.

In a small bowl, mix your chopped strawberries with the jam for the filling.

Put half of the batter in the bottom of the prepared pan and spread it around.

Spoon in the strawberry filling.

Spoon the balance of the batter on top of the filling and spread it out to cover the filling.

Bake for about 40-45 or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool on a rack then turn out.

While it is still just a little warm, spoon the extra jam for glaze on the top of the cake (or on the bottom in the case of mine that didn’t brown) and spread it around with the spoon.

Enjoy!

For all fans of jammy cakes, we have a great round up of Bundts for you this month!

                                                       

Aloha Cake by Veronica at My Catholic Kitchen

Blueberry and Lemon Bundt by Holly at a A Baker’s House

Butter and Jam Bundt by Anne at From My Sweet Heart

Cranberry Pear Pumpkin Cake by Kate at Food Babbles

Crabapple Yogurt Bundt Cake by Alice at Hip Foodie Mom

Cream Cheese Black Cherry Bundt Cake by Anuradha at Baker Street

Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Blueberry Jam by Sandra at The Sweet Sensations

Guava Cream Cheese Bundt Cakeby Kathya at Basic N Delicious

Peachy Keen Spice Cake by Kim at Ninja Baking

Raspberry Jam Bundt with Peanut Butter Glaze by Lora at Cake Duchess

Spiced Bundt Cake with Berry Jam & Cream Cheese Swirl by Heather at Hezzi D’s Books and Cooks

Sticky Toffee Bundt Cake with Cranberry Jelly Glaze by Felice at All That’s Left are the Crumbs

Sticky Fig Bundt by Anita at Hungry Couple NYC

Strawberry Jam Glazed Spiced Pound Cake with Buttermilk and Orange by Laura atThe Spiced Life

Strawberry Lemon Bundt with Strawberry Jam Glaze by Stacy at Food Lust People Love

Triple Blackberry Bundt by Tara at Noshing with the Nolands

Here's how you can be a part of #BundtaMonth:

Simple rule: Bake us a bundt using your favorite jam.
Post it before November 30, 2013.
Use the #BundtaMonth hashtag in your title. (For ex: title could read – #BundtaMonth: Raspberry Jam Bundt with Peanut Butter Glaze
Add your entry to the Linky tool below.
Link back to our announcement posts.