Sweet and Sour

As I mentioned before, I’m making an effort to be nicer to my husband.  To relive the early days of romance when, if he asked for a bowl of rice pudding, for example, I would immediately leap into action and return with 16 bowls of rice pudding balanced atop my head.  Instead of plopping a bag of rice down in front of him. 

(Why is new love so unreasonable?)

Last week, I made Dorie Greenspan’s lemon poppy seed muffins with dabs of jam inside.  Husband loved them despite the fact that he usually doesn’t like lemon- flavored things, which I had forgotten when I decided to make them (Strike 2).  Anyway, he liked them so much that he commanded me to make them again.  His exact words were: “I command you to make these again.”  It’s sort of a joke between us because he knows how well I respond to commands.  How the mere implication touches off an internal struggle in my brain between wanting to do the nice thing, and wanting to DENY anyone anything that is commanded of me.  (I’m the kind of woman that religious extremists dream of oppressing.  Except that nobody can oppress me better than me, so the joke’s on them!)

But, I still haven’t made the muffins, again.  Geez, Tammy, can’t you take a joke? 

Maybe not.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I broke my local rule so I could sneak some of my favorite jam into these muffins.  It’s Bonnie’s Black and Blue.  Blackberry and blueberry jam.  Together.  In one jar.  And it even has the local berry farmer’s name on the label: Pio Angelini.  How sweet!

2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter, melted cooled
2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
¼ cup blackberry jam

Preheat oven to 400°F and center rack in oven.  Butter a regular-sized muffin pan and set on cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and strongly scented of lemon.  Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a medium bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and melted butter together until well blended.  Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend.  Stir in the poppy seeds.  Do not overmix.

Fill muffin cups with batter to the halfway mark.  With the back of a spoon, push a depression into the batter for a teaspoonful of jam.  Divide remaining batter between the cups and, using a clean spoon, push down the batter around the edges to seal in the jam.  Bake about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden.  Let cool in pan at least 5 minutes before removing them.

Source: Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.  And by the way, I’ve just joined the Tuesdays with Dorie baking club, so you’ll be seeing a lot more from her starting next week.  And maybe then my dad will stop complaining that we never have anything good in the house.

Comments

[Adele]

I'm not usually a muffin person, but I love jam-filled things, and these look dead tasty, so... where would I acquire some of this black-and-blue jam of which you speak?

[Barry Foy]

Tammy, please pass this message on to your husband, and DON'T read it first:

Hey, man, I dare you to command her to make lemon poppyseed muffins with RICE PUDDING in the middle. Go ahead, I dare you.

[April in CT]

Oh my goodness... those look DE-vine. YUM!! Is it wrong to lick my screen? I'm just cleaning it....really..

[Em]

How much sour cream does the recipe call for? As written it just says "3/4"... but 3/4what? 3/4c I assume? Can you let us know? ppppplease? Thanks :)

[melissa]

"(I’m the kind of woman that religious extremists dream of oppressing. Except that nobody can oppress me better than me, so the joke’s on them!)"

Nice. ;)

These do look beautiful. :)

[Marianne]

Ha ha, lesson number 1: Don't tell Husband what's inside the food. My Husband hates Thai Fish sauce and anything that has been touched by it. He loves the food I serve simply because he doesn't know there is Fish sauce in it. ; D

[gillie]

I am loving your blog, particularly the rice pudding bit, I so know that feeling (it goes along with "why are you taking up so much of the sofa, in fact why are you on the sofa and not washing up with me?").

I'm baking a whole lot more at the moment - wierd because I'm trying to lose weight (some odd reverse psychology thing going on there) and those muffins look just the thing for Thursday afternoon :)

[Alecto]

Yes, licking the screen is bad, I'm telling you this right now from experience because people will CATCH you doing it and when you try to explain that it's really just about this jam filled muffins you will be in even more trouble... my screen definitely needs a good cleaning though...

[sunny12]

you are going to have to get rid of that reason to not read you blog that your photos suck, because they are becoming really unsucky (and rather delicious).

[Trev]

mmm, now I know exactly what to do with that blackberry jam I made last year.

[ctipper]

Please have Husband contact me concerning the spell he cast upon you. Black magic, voodoo? Also, (since the "ask the pseudo chef" column is gone) is there such a thing as "expensive" spaghetti? If there is, why is it too expensive to cook for myself?

[Tammy]

ctipper: Do you mean the kind of spell where you have good intentions, but only really get halfway there? That one? I don’t know, it’s a mystery. As for the spaghetti, there's good spaghetti (De Cecco, Del Verde), which is more expensive than crappy spaghetti, yet worth every penny. But I'm not sure about why it would be too expensive to cook yourself. Have you considered prostitution to bulk up your spaghetti funds? I hear they make a mean puttanesca.

Trev: Even better!

Sunny12: Thanks for noticing the slight improvement. Here's my confession, though. I didn't like the way the inside of the muffin looked, so I hollowed out more space and stuck more jam in there. Don't tell anyone.

Alecto: I thought licking your computer screen was okay, but I've been out of the workforce for a while.

Gillie: That's a nice blog you have, yourself. Welcome.

Marianne: Honesty isn't always the best policy! Wow, a Swede in Egypt. I'm going to have to get your blog posts translated. Fun.

Melissa: Husband reissued his command, today. He will never learn.

Em: My bad. 3/4 cup is right. I shouldn't type up recipes while trying to solve arguments between the boys.

April in CT: Thank Dorie. I'm just spreading the word.

Barry Foy: Make it lemon poppyseed muffins with halvah in the middle, and you'll really see my wrath.

Adele: Russo's has it, as well as Formaggio Kitchen and South End Formaggio. Here are some other places, too: http://www.bonniesjams.com/buy.htm

[aforkfulofspaghetti]

They look terrific. Really, er, jammy and lovely and oh my god I want one.

[Bonnie]

So great that you like my jam - I don't use any pectin or other fillers - that's why the jam is so intense - I cook the fruit until the extra liquid is gone and the intense flavor of the fruit remains. Just love making jam. Hoping you enjoy using it in or on or with whatever food you like to use. Most of it works well with cheese BTW.