I came up with the idea of these after eating lemon muffins from a well known supermarket. Those muffins had large pieces of sugar on the top which gave it a lovely sugary crunch.
As I didn’t have any sugar cubes to crumble over the top I improvised by making a syrup using granulated sugar and lemon juice. When the sugar syrup hardened it provided a wonderful sticky lemony texture.
The muffins are best eaten within two days as the sugar top goes a little soft.
Sticky lemon muffins
Ingredients:
- 5oz/125g caster sugar
- 9oz/250g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3oz/75g butter or margarine
- 2 large eggs
- 7fl oz/200ml milk
- Grated zest of one lemon
Topping:
- 2oz/50g granulated sugar
- Juice of one lemon
Method:
- Preheat oven 200ºc/Gas Mk 6. Fan oven 180ºc.
- Using a muffin tin line 10 (or 12 if you want to make them smaller) holes with paper cases.
- Melt the butter/margarine in a pan or the microwave then leave to cool.
- In a bowl add all the dry ingredients and give them a quick stir.
- Add the eggs to the milk, beat together, and then add to the melted butter/margarine.
- Pour the liquid to the dry ingredients then gently mix until just combined. Don’t be tempted to give it one more stir as over mixing will make the muffins tough.
- Divide the batter into the paper cases. You can use a spoon, or better still, an ice-cream scoop.
- Bake for 15 – 18 minutes until they are golden brown.
- Shortly before the muffins are due to come out of the oven put the granulated sugar and lemon juice into a tea cup and stir. Heat in the microwave for approx 10 seconds until all the sugar has dissolved. You can do this in a small pan over a medium heat if you prefer – I just use the microwave as it saves dirtying a pan....
- Once the muffins are cooked, using a large pastry brush, brush the tops of the muffins with the sugar syrup.
- Leave to cool completely so the tops can get lovely and crunchy.
Gertie xx
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