These caraway seed muffins are something special - a fairly traditional cake base is made exciting with anise-like caraway seeds and zesty lemon.
The pale golden tops are so pretty and the flavour is delightful.
As regular readers will know, I love nothing more than working my way through my huge piles of scrawled notes, photographs of meals and menus snapped on travel adventures, and post-it notes spread liberally through recipe books.
Spending hours trying out new ideas and rarely used ingredients is an absolute joy. It's always loads of fun and a real education.
One book I've particularly enjoyed experimenting with is The Spice & Herb Bible (3rd edition) by Ian Hemphill.
The Spice & Herb Bible is part spice encyclopaedia, part cookery tome and part spice trade memoir. It's an impressively thick tome, packed with information that seeks to demystify the art of combining herbs and spices.
The book also includes a generous series of recipes by Kate Hemphill, with delights including Kuwaiti Fish Stew with Black Lime, Lavender and Lemon Olive Oil Cakes, Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic and Moroccan Chicken Bastilla with Rose.
Flicking through the pages, organised by spice/herb, the only challenge is deciding what to cook first. The caraway seed loaf caught my eye immediately but as my loaf tin was in use, I adapted the recipe to make muffin instead.
The results are absolutely delightful - a light sponge lifted with aromatic wafts of caraway and lemon. They're irresistible.
If you'd like to make 12 of these caraway seed muffins for yourself, here's what to do.
Ingredients
- 170 g (6 oz) salted butter softened
- 150 g (5.3 oz) white caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 3 medium free range eggs lightly beaten
- 250 g (8.8 oz) self-raising white flour (self rising flour)
- 1½ tbsp (1 1/2 tbsp) caraway seeds
- 1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 2 tbsp granulated white sugar for the topping
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan, 350F).
Put the butter and sugar in a bowl. Starting at low speed, whisk the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Add the eggs one at a time.
Beat between each egg until all the eggs have been whisked into the mixture.
Add flour, caraway seeds, lemon zest and milk.
Mix until smooth.
Spoon the batter evenly into a 12 hole muffin tray lined with paper cases and level off.
Sprinkle the tops evenly with the 2 tbsp of sugar.
Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes until golden.
Let the muffins cool in the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Have you tried caraway seeds before?
Print these caraway seed muffins
Here's the recipe for these caraway seed muffins again in a printable format.
Caraway Seed Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 170 g (6 oz) salted butter softened
- 150 g (5.3 oz) white caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 3 medium free range eggs lightly beaten
- 250 g (8.8 oz) self-raising white flour (self rising flour)
- 1½ tbsp (1 1/2 tbsp) caraway seeds
- 1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 2 tbsp granulated white sugar for the topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan, 350F).
- Put the butter and sugar in a bowl. Starting at low speed, whisk the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
- Add the eggs one at a time. Beat between each egg until all the eggs have been whisked into the mixture.
- Add flour, caraway seeds, lemon zest and milk. Mix until smooth.
- Spoon the batter evenly into a 12 hole muffin tray lined with paper cases and level off.
- Sprinkle the tops evenly with the 2 tbsp of sugar.
- Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes until golden.
- Let the muffins cool in the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Nutrition
Robert Rose Inc provided the books for review and giveaway. The recipe is reproduced with permission.
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Jen says
I'm not sure I've ever tried caraway seeds, not sure if I'd like it if it's aniseedy, the muffins do look beautiful though so I might be brave and try it.
susan obrien says
This is such a good recipe :)
Jeanne Horak-Druiff says
Oh I am a sucker for a savoury muffin, and these sound perfectly heavenly! You've also reminded me that it's been WAY too long since I last baked muffins!
ros bonner says
Super ideas unusual combinations in the recipes
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
Oooh pretty. I always forget to use caraway seeds but I like their smell.
Sarah Fawcett says
These luck scrummy and I actually like the idea of muffins better than a loaf :)
Alifemoment says
Really nice muffin recipe,
I love the photo idea to have one muffin opened to show the internal consistency,
your photos are so clean and really beautiful, well done :)
Elizabeth says
Oh these do look rather scrummy! I think they would be nicer as muffin than a loaf too - will have to try it out!
Jan Bennett says
I bet these are delicious! I love the addition of lemon.
Jo @ Jo's Kitchen says
These look gorgeous