A knitting friend of mine gave me this recipe a few months ago, saying, "These are the Best Muffins in the Universe. I can make them on three hours of sleep and hung over!" I have to agree. The technique is simple. The night before, put 1 cup of sugar, the peel of 3 limes (or 1 large orange, or 2 lemons!-take the peel off with a vegetable peeler)and about 2 inches of peeled, fresh ginger, cut into hunks in a bowl on the counter. Smoosh the peel and ginger into the sugar. Place a stick of butter on the counter next to the bowl and go to bed!
In the morning, go straight to the kitchen and turn on the oven to 350-375 degrees. Make coffee. Drink coffee while setting out silicone muffin cups (this makes about a dozen - if you use a muffin tin, grease the cups well!)
Now, buzz the sugar, peel, and ginger in the food processor until the peel is just little flecks and the sugar is fragrant with citrus! Add the butter. Buzz some more, then add 2 eggs, one at a time while continuing to buzz. Drink more coffee!
Add 1 cup plain yogurt and 1 tsp. baking soda - Buzz. Whee!! Fun!Then add 2 cups unbleached or whole wheat flour and buzz very briefly until just incorporated.
Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full and place in the oven for about 20 minutes.
While they are baking, squeeze the juice from your balded citrus (here, we have 3 bald limes) and put the juice, along with about 2 Tbs. sugar in a small flat bowl. When the muffins come out of the oven, and they are still rather warmish, dip their little heads and twirl in the the juicy-sugar mixture!
Now, sit down with a muffin and the newspaper (or your laptop and FaceBook!) and have a little taste of heaven :-)
Comments