Lemon Poppy Seed muffins with Crumb Topping

I love to bake, especially in the spring. Lately I haven't been able to with a little one. So when Brooklyn sleeps Mommy bakes. The other day I confessed to my sister Alicia that I have a Lemon and Poppy seed obsession. Hey, it's spring, and nothing says spring better than lemon and poppy seed!!! My other sister, Sharlotte, has a lemon tree and I can't wait to get some from her sometime to make this again!

I found this recipe online and decided to add some of a twist to the original. Every time I got to the bakery I used to work, I have to will myself not to buy the crumb muffins because I believe that they are slightly overpriced and I can't eat an entire 12 pack myself either. It's either 12 for $8.99 which isn't bad or one for $1.29 which can be. I gave in last week and got a lemon poppy seed one with the crumb topping. I have never made them, but I decided to try it out.

For the Muffin Batter
2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream 
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

For the Crumb topping:
1/4 Flour
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 Tbs softened butter.


First you mix the sugar with the zest of Lemon until it has flavor. It will look like this:

Then mix in all the dry ingredients next: Flour, Baking powder, Baking soda and salt. Then in another bowl melt butter and add Sour cream, eggs, vanilla and juice of lemon. Mix liquid into your dry ingredients, stir until combined and do not over stir. Add Poppy Seeds last.

For the crumb topping, Mix everything in a bowl with electric mixer until it resembles fine sand.

Top muffins with crumb topping:

Yum!! Enjoy!!!

4 Month Stats.

Took Brooklyn to the doc today and found out all of her growing stats! I was soo excited to see how much she grew!

Weight: 13 lbs 13 oz (41.5%)
Height: 25.5 inches (87.5%)
Head circumference 15.75 inches (30.5%)

She is a little small in everything but her height! She is almost always over 80% in that. It does help having a great grandpa over 6 feet tall!!

She can roll from front to back, just started rolling back to front the other day, reaching for toys, laughing (even though she doesn't share that too often), and she's starting to put her legs under her during tummy time!!! Wahoo!

Goals for this month: We are going to try to introduce rice cereal! Doctor said that we can introduce that around 4-6 months and she seems to get extremely hungry at night and it seems like she is never truly satisfied so we are going to try it!

Conference weekend with Sweet Cornbread

This weekend was a little dreary so what better than to have a chili and Cornbread meal!! I thought it was the best idea ever!!!

I love LDS conference for several reasons. My favorite is the talks about faith. I love hearing about ways to strengthen my faith in our church and in the lord and so that someday it will become a strong conviction. I was impressed by the comment about a happy child is one who sings throughout the day. I love my children. They are such a joy in my life.

My other joy is baking. I am not very good at anything else, but I know that I can bake excellent desserts and other items to satisfy my enormous sweet tooth. I have always loved sweet cornbread and my favorite is the one I get at my local grocery store that they make from scratch  I discovered this one about a month ago and wrote it down after I tried and promptly forgot where I got it from, but it is sooo good!

It is sweet with a cake-like texture! Enjoy!

• 4 eggs, whites and yolks seperated
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2 cups flour
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine egg yolks, milk, vanilla, and cooled melted butter and stir.
3. Mix in cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, stirring to incorporate - but do not over mix.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold them into the batter.
5. Pour into a greased 8x8 pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Check with a toothpick to make sure it is cooked through.