Tea Muffins – Poppy Seed And Lemon

Want something to sweet to go with your tea? These poppy seed and lemon muffins, with a tea as an ingredient, could go great with that cup of tea.

To make this you will need:

2 tbsps poppy seeds
Zest of 1 lemon, plus a squeeze of lemon juice
1 tsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g (7oz) caster sugar
280g (10oz) plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
70g (2½oz) butter
200ml (7fl oz) milk
4 breakfast tea bags

With all this, lets make some muffins:

First, you should preheat the oven to 350° and while it warms up you can get started.  Heat the milk to simmering point on the stove then add the tea bags to infuse for 5 minutes, then fish out the tea bags and return the milk to the heat, adding the butter, lemon zest, syrup and vanilla, stirring to combine. You should then allow this to cool for 10 minutes. Then sift together the flour and baking powder then add the sugar, salt and poppy seeds. In another bowl, beat together the eggs and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Add the milk and butter mixture and whisk  it together. Pour this on to the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Avoid over working this mixture or the muffins will not rise. Finally, the oven should be pre-heated by now,  fill a muffin tray with the batter and bake for 25 minutes. When nicely golden brown, remove it from the oven and cool on a wire rack. You can then have your lovely muffins.

With this, you can have your tea and eat it too.  Imagine what other things you can implement tea into. It doesn’t have to be green tea or black tea – with the wild world of tea out there imagine the literal tea cakes and other tea entrees. So I hope this is a starting point. Tea isn’t just for brewing. It is a drink that makes you focus and want to create – so let it do its job, not just on your poetry or that new work of art – try it in the kitchen… even if it is only with these muffins.