SRC: Almond Poppyseed Muffins

Sweet and tender muffins… these glazed almond poppyseed muffins are a great addition to your muffin repertoire!

Welcome to my first Secret Recipe Club post for 2016! Woohoo! I can’t believe that this November will be the FIFTH anniversary of when I joined the club. It’s crazy. I had no idea it had been this long until I was notified that I was featured on the SRC blog as a Gold Member. Crazy! And fun. 🙂 So it’s fitting that my SRC assignment this month is also a blogger who has been a member since 2011. That’s right, this month I was assigned to Sara’s blog, Cooking with Sara. With a name like Sara(h), you know she has to have lots of great recipes [even though I think she spells her name wrong. Hahaha!]. She’s a midwestern girl who’s passionate about sharing family friendly recipes–in both taste and time. My kind of recipes! When perusing Sara’s blog, I wanted to make pretty much every other recipe–if not more! Sara and I must have pretty similar tastes. 🙂 So I made up a short list and as usual, asked for Ben’s advice. So if you don’t like this recipe, you can blame him. Hehehe! The choices I gave him included: Spiced Pear Muffins, Creamy Orzo and Chicken, Frosty Coffee Pie, Shrimp Pad Thai, Custardy Baked Orzo with Bacon and Spinach, and the winner… Almond Poppyseed Muffins. Well, her original recipe was for bread, but I prefer muffins so we went with that. 🙂

After taking one bite of these sweet little treats, Ben exclaimed, “I sure made a great choice!” And he did. These muffins are incredible! I’m not gonna lie–these muffins are more on the cupcake side of the muffin spectrum, not healthy in the least… but they are tasty so we’ll let it slide! 🙂 The texture of these muffins is perfectly cakey and soft, very similar to my trusty Grandma’s Blueberry Muffins… even though this recipe uses oil instead of butter. Crazy! If you have an almond lover in your life, I think this base recipe–sans the poppyseeds–would be wonderful with some buttercream frosting! As it was, the poppyseeds gave these muffins a decidedly nutty taste with a wee bit of crunch… and that crunch was intensified with the orange juice-almond glaze that I brushed on top as the muffins were cooling. Oh man! Don’t skip that part–it’s pretty much the best.

Interestingly enough, this glaze is made with granulated sugar, orange juice, and almond extract. I’ve made many glazes in my baking life, but never with granulated sugar. The result [that you can’t see in these photos] is a sparkly glaze with more than your average amount of glaze-y crunch. I was skeptical that a glaze made with granulated and not powdered sugar would actually work, but this recipe proved me wrong. Woohoo! New baking trick! 🙂 The orange juice in the glaze gave these muffins the hint of citrus they were begging for, without being overpowering. I think next time I make these muffins, I might stir some orange zest into the glaze and sprinkle some almond slivers on top! And yes, there definitely will be a next time! Enjoy–and be sure to thank Sara as I am doing for this wonderful recipe!

one year ago: Skinny Lasagna
two years ago: Broccoli Stuffed Loaded Potato Skins with Avocado Cream
three years ago: {Healthy} Mexican Hot Chocolate Breakfast Bars
four years ago: Perfect Black Beans
five years ago: Triple Chocolate Oat Cookies

Be sure to check out all the other delicious recipes featured this week from Secret Recipe Club bloggers in group C at the link below!