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I’ve been experimenting lately with lemon ginger muffins, looking for just the right recipe.
Unfortunately, with all the heat we’ve been having around here lately, my experiments took a hiatus for a couple of weeks. Who wants to turn on the oven when the AC is struggling to keep the house below 80°F?
In California we’ve finally had a break in the hot weather (my apologies to those of you on the East Coast who are getting it now) and I got up early this morning to bake these muffins.
So good! The yogurt in the batter helps create an especially light and fluffy muffin.
Lemon Ginger Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup 1/2-inch cubes of peeled, fresh ginger
- 1 large lemon
- 1 cup sugar -divided into 1/4 cup and 3/4 cup
- 10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
Glaze
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)
Method
1 Preheat oven: Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
3 Make paste with lemon zest, ginger, sugar: Using a vegetable peeler, peel off the lemon zest from one large lemon (avoid the white pith). Coarsely chop the zest. You should have approximately 1/4 cup of chopped lemon zest.
Add this zest, the cubed fresh ginger, and 1/4 cup of sugar to a food processor. Pulse until a paste forms.
4 Beat butter with sugar, add eggs, then zest ginger paste: In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and remaining 3/4 cup of sugar together, beating until fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one.
Beat in the lemon zest and ginger paste.
5 Alternate adding dry ingredients with yogurt: Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt.
Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat.
6 Fill muffin tin with dough: Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil or a little melted butter using a pastry brush. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups.
7 Bake: Bake at 375°F until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool.
8 Make glaze: While the muffins are cooling, in a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze. Add more lemon juice if necessary.
9 Brush muffins with glaze: While the muffins are still a bit warm, use a pastry brush to brush the glaze over each muffin. The muffins will absorb some of the glaze, so you add more glaze to each muffin if you like.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Lemon Ginger Muffins
I made these for a brunch dessert and they were perfect. Not too sweet and more suitable than a cake, although they have a slightly cakey texture. I usually bake regular-sized muffins for 18-20 minutes and these were done at 18 and looked just like the picture; they would have been burnt at 25-30 minutes. I used Greek yogurt and they were a tiny bit dry so next time will use a regular (runnier) yogurt. I will definitely make these again.
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I didn’t have enough plain flour so half the recipe and it came out just perfect. Made exactly 6 muffins.
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I made these on Sunday and LOVED them. They are not overly sweet and the texture is perfect. I want to play with the recipes to try other flavours without losing the texture. I hope these freeze well because the recipe made 22 muffins which is more than I can eat in a week so I froze 10 for a couple weeks or so from now.
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We made them gluten free substituting flour with Pamela’s Baking Mix. Also used 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of honey instead of white sugar. Put the lemon glaze on the side for those in our group who sweeten their food differently. Tasted great even baking with a wood burning stove! Everyone loved the flavors of ginger and lemon. Ginger did not overpower it at all. Yogurt kept the muffins moist! I will make again for sure!
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I quite like your recipe as written. Just now in the pre-assembly stage. Since I’m gluten intolerant I’m wondering about flour substitutions. Can I substitute Tapioca flour for the All Purpose & Whole Wheat?
Hi, Jason! We haven’t tested this recipe with gluten-free flour, so I can’t say for sure. If you want to experiment, I’d suggest substituting the flours with a gluten-free all-purpose flour mix, like, Bob’s 1-to-1 Gluten Free Flour. I don’t think tapioca flour alone will do the trick. Good luck and let us know how it works out!