Honey and Poppy Seed Muffins

  
This deliciously moist honey and poppy seed muffin recipe will make 12 large sized muffins. Muffins are easier to make than you might think and this recipe will give you all the taste and texture of luxury cafe-style muffins at home.

For these honey & poppy seed muffins, you will need:

For the Muffin Batter

Dry Ingredients

• 375g of Plain White Flour
• 220g of White Caster Sugar
• 3 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Bicarbonate Soda
• ¼ Teaspoon of Salt
• 2 Teaspoons of Poppy Seeds

Wet Ingredients

• 250ml of Buttermilk
• 50g of Unsalted butter
• 65ml of Vegetable Oil
• 2 Large Eggs
• 2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract
• 2 Tablespoons of Just Bee Original Raw Honey

• A 12 Hole Muffin Tray
• A Medium Sized Saucepan
• A Large Sized Mixing Bowl
• 12 Paper Muffin Cases
• A 500ml or litre jug

Time to make and bake is around 40 minutes.

1: Get the oven nice and hot!

Preheat your oven to Gas Mark 6 or 200c (180c for a fan assisted oven). We'll be baking on the middle shelf, the muffins will rise quite a lot so make sure the shelf above isn't too close.

2: Prepare the muffin tray.

Put the 12 muffin cases in the tray. I use a traditional metal one but you can use one of the newer silicon types if that's what you have. The overall cooking time may need to be adjusted slightly with a silicon tray though as they don't hold the heat in quite the same way as a metal one.

3: Mix the dry ingredients. 

In the large bowl add all the dry ingredients together and give them a good mix around. It's important to get the dry ingredients blended well at this stage, so use a whisk, fork or spoon and really give it a good stir.

4: Prepare the wet ingredients

Put the buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract into a jug and give that a good mixing. If your honey is runny then you can add that too.

Add the butter into a saucepan and heat it very gently over a low heat, if your honey has become hard and crystallised then you can add that too. Just remember to only warm it gently just enough for the butter and honey to melt, then remove it from the heat and let it cool for a while so it's only a little over room temperature.

Then you can add the butter and honey to the jug as well and give it all a good mix up again. Don't worry if it doesn't appear to mix together properly, the oil really won't mix with the buttermilk fully but it doesn't matter.

4: Let's make some muffin batter!

At this stage you should have all the dry ingredients mixed in a bowl and all the wet ingredients in a jug. Make a large well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it.

Now here's the important bit, do not beat this into a nice smooth batter! For the best muffins the least you do here the better the muffins will turn out! We need to do as little as possible but still get the ingredients combined enough.

I would recommend 6-10 mixing actions at the most, or a few seconds of quick mixing. Don't worry about lumps or small areas that don't look properly mixed, it won't matter and will actually give the muffins a much nicer texture. If it looks lumpy and that something disastrous has happened, then that's exactly how it should be and how we want it!

6: Transfer to the muffin tin.

I find the best method here is to use a spoon and a clean, damp finger. Spoon out a dollop of the batter and push into the muffin case with a damp finger. It really is the quickest and easiest way, so as long as you don't object to a messy finger I would highly recommend it. Just keep going until all the muffin batter is distributed evenly between the 12 cases.

Top Tip: If you have an empty Just Bee honey pot, fill it with a little warm water and use that to keep your finger damp and clean while you fill the cases!

7: Time to pop them the oven!

Place the muffin tray on the middle shelf and bake for 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to gas mark 5 or 190c and cook for a further 15 minutes. If you are using a fan assisted oven then just leave it set at 180c for the full 20 minutes. 

Check the muffins are fully cooked by inserting a skewer or chop stick into the centre of the muffin and make sure it comes out clean. If there is any batter visible then return to the oven for another 5 minutes or until it does look clean when you pull it out.

The top of your muffins should be starting to brown and will have a nice crunchy texture when cooled which makes a delightful contrast to the soft moist muffin underneath.

8: Remove and cool.

When the muffins are done, remove from the tin as soon as it's cool enough to do so, then let the muffins cool fully on a wire rack.

Unlike most cakes I actually prefer these muffins the next day. After they have cooled I put them in an airtight container over night- for some reason I think they improve slightly in texture and come out of the paper cases much cleaner than when warm. Because they are so moist there's no danger of them going dry even after keeping them for a few days.
 

Notes and alternatives.

As always for the best results we recommend our Original Honey for this recipe but alternatively you can use whatever honey you have in the cupboard. If you have our Honey with Lemon and Ginger you can use that too and this will give these muffins a nice hint of lemon and ginger that you could always accentuate with a little grated lemon zest and crystallised ginger sprinkled on top of the muffins before putting them in the oven.

Buttermilk is one of the key ingredients for the flavour and texture of the muffins. It's available in most supermarket fridges in 500ml pots and will usually have a best before date of around a week. So make sure you use the remaining 250ml to make another batch of tasty muffins before it goes bad!

Let us know how your muffins turned out and if you'll be making them again in the comments section below! And don't forget to check back for the next honey recipe which will be a delicious, crumbly, melt in the mouth Honey Shortbread!