Lavender Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

As you will learn if you follow my blog, I am absolutely in love with Lavender. The color, the scent, the look and yes, even the taste. When lavender is used right, it can add a beautiful floral flavor to many things. Like these Muffins, which started with me wanting a good Poppy Seed muffin, but like most of my recipes, ended with me changing it up to fit my tastes. Here's how it happened.

I used three complimentary things to flavor these light and moist muffins.

This is a super thick and slightly sticky batter. 

Fresh out of the oven, golden brown and studded with pretty poppy seeds.

 Beautiful, glossy and lemony glaze with bright purple lavender buds.

A perfect Easter brunch muffin, bursting with bright springtime flavors. 

Lavender Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Adapted from Simply Recipes

3 Cups all purpose flour

1 T baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 1/2 T poppy seeds

10 T butter, softened

1 C white sugar

2 eggs

1 C plain greek yogurt (I used non fat Fage)

1/2 C buttermilk (regular milk would be just fine too)

1 tsp. lavender extract, which you can find at specialty food stores like Sur La Table

1 1/2 T lemon zest

1 T lemon juice

Glaze

1 tsp. dried lavender buds

2 T lemon juice

1 C powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a muffin pan or line with muffin papers.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and soda, salt and poppy seeds. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix well. Add the lavender extract, zest and 1 T lemon juice. In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt and buttermilk. Alternate adding the yogurt/milk and the dry ingredients to the creamed butter/sugar mixture. Start with 1/3 of the yogurt, then 1/3 of the dry ingredients and so on until everything is incorporated. Fill the muffin pan, I like to use an ice cream scoop to ensure same sized muffins.

Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Meanwhile, soak the lavender buds in the 2 T lemon juice for the glaze. Soaking the buds brings out a gorgeous bright purple hue, you can leave them in for about 10 minutes or so. Then, whisk in the powdered sugar. If your mixture is too thick, add a few more drops of lemon juice until it reaches your desired consistency. 

Once the muffins have completely cooled, drizzle with the glaze and then top with a few lavender buds if you'd like.

Enjoy!