The Shooting Academy and Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Hello!  I am convinced that thin crust pizza is of the devil...it's so good and it just disappears whenever I'm around it!  Oh well, another food addiction to overcome.  :) 

So I haven't talked a whole lot about my sweet Hunk.  Consider this the beginning!  My sweetie is a tall redheaded thing with blueberry eyes.  He was in the US Marine Corps for four years and served in Iraq for seven months in Public Affairs.  He's an awesome guy and I'm so blessed to spend eternity with him (starting in November!).  The other day, we were riding around running errands and such.  He put his hand on my leg and very seriously said, "Thank you for doing this with me."

"Doing what?" I cluelessly asked.

"Life," he responded with a smile.

Isn't he the best????  I can't wait to see little tiny versions of him running around!

Anyway, Hunk's father teaches South Carolina CWP (Concealed Weapons Permit) and Utah CFP (Concealed Firearms Permit) classes.  Yep.  This lady can handle some heat.  His classes are held on Saturday morning and I have the distinct privilege of making and serving breakfast for those classes.

I've been doing this for about two months now and have had interesting success.  For the first few weeks, I made homemade, completely from scratch blueberry muffins.  They are insanely good.  Like, totally.  Only thing is...they come out green.  I think it's the blue of the berry with the yellow of the egg yolks...Greenberry Muffins.

Because of the natural person's aversion to green baked goods, I decided to try my hand at from scratch lemon poppyseed muffins.  I had always enjoyed the stuff that comes out of the boxes and packets, but I wanted to be authentic and make it all from scratch. 

Do you want the receipe?  Well, too bad!  You're getting it anyway!

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/3 cup lemon juice (I used bottled)
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup poppyseeds
1 tsp lemon zest

This recipe yields anywhere from 24 to 30 muffins, depending on how big ya make 'em.

Sift your dry ingredients and set them aside. 

In a large bowl (I used a wannabe KitchenAid Stand Mixer), cream together the softened butter and sugar.

 

 

Add the eggs one at at time and beat well after each addition.  I sound like a serious recipe writer, don't I??  :)  Add the dry mixture and the sour cream alternately. 

 

 

 

 

Add in the lemon juice and vanilla and beat at a low speed until blended.  Fold in the poppy seeds and lemon zest.

 

 

 

Scrumptious, no?

 

 

Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full and bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes.  My oven cooked them perfectly at about 15 minutes, so adjust for your own oven.

 

 

They should come out looking like this:

 

 

Up close and personal muffins!!!

 

 

I use foil muffin cups because they are so easy to peel.  No paper mess is left clinging to the muffins.

 







So overall, this recipe was the bee's knees.  The only glitch is that they were not NEARLY as lemony as I remember the ones from my childhood.  I used more lemon zest and lemon juice than were actually called for, but the increase of lemonness was not significant.  :(  Maybe lemon extract, next time?  What are your thoughts on the situation?