Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

This recipe originated as a recipe from Dorie Greenspan's brilliant Baking: From My Home To Yours, then morphed a bit because a) I'd run out of enough of the necessary butter, and b) I never have sour cream kicking around. They are still memorable enough that I make them all the time, although I have trouble remembering to rub the lemon zest into the sugar.

1 c sugar
grated zest of 3 lemons (add the juice of 2 of the lemons to the yogurt)
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch baking soda
3/4 c yogurt
2 eggs
1/2 c butter (I've done this with half oil half butter and it works fine, they are only slightly less cakey)
4 T poppy seeds

Dorie recommends that you rub the zest into the sugar at the very start of this venture, but she also recommends using only one lemon and 2 T of poppy seeds, so I leave you to make your own decisions on this, because I've obviously strayed heavily from The Path.

Whisk the dry ingredients together. Then cream the butter and the sugar, add the eggs, then the yogurt, then the dry ingredients. If you've never made quick breads before, give this mixing a light hand. I use my Kitchen Aid and let it go round just a few times. If you overmix they won't rise well AND they'll be like bricks.

This is the point at which I line the muffin tins with paper muffin liners and plop the batter into the liners. Then I pop them in a 375ºF oven for about 16 minutes. Well, I say 16 minutes but really, all I do is set the timer for 12 minutes, then check, then add a few minutes to that. By the time I've finished messing around with my neurotic timer habits it's usually been 16 minutes.

Important: I am an Underbaker. I mean that with the utmost seriousness. I hate dry baked goods. And I am renowned for my baking (nothing like a modest blogger, is there), so again, I'll leave you to follow your own instincts. But please, don't overbake these babies.

Dorie mixes 1 c. icing sugar with a teenie bit of fresh lemon juice and drizzles them over her muffins. I've never done this but they look enchanting in her cookbook.