Amish Friendship Bread: Lemon Zest Muffins and Margarita Bread

After reading the Friendship Bread book, I couldn't wait to make the starter and then the bread.  I am really excited to try out all of the different recipes.  I made the starter and waited the 10 long days for it to be ready.  What great timing because I was ready for some baking and some treats!!!

I decided to start with this recipe for Lemon Poppyseed bread (minus the poppy seeds).  I feel like citrus makes you feel like it is more healthy so it is probably just a trick on my mind so that I can eat more!!  I mixed it all up per the directions below (with the "help" of my three year old which is why there are no pictures along the way).  The batter was nice and thick and yellow even though we only had 1 1/2 tsp lemon extract left in the jar... of well!

I made the muffins first per the instructions with greasing and sugaring the muffin pan.  Then I topped them with sugar and lemon zest.  I was going to get out the bigger granular sugar but wasn't sure how they would cook up so I thought it was best to stay with the basics the first time around.  They looked like this:

 Hoping my bread with ignore my yucky muffin pans.  I can't seem to get the burned sections off them no matter what I do.  I used metal pans and they were gross so I switched to silicone but they get a burned look on the top...luckily, the muffin cup comes out totally clean.  Here it is close up so that you can see the zest and sugar yumminess.

My muffins cooked a little faster than the recipe and were done in about 20-21 minutes.  They smelled and looked amazing so I had to start eating right away.  I might have already eaten two (and my mouth is still numb from the dentist this morning so this was challenging and I ate it with a fork but it was well worth it).  Check it out... wouldn't you want to eat it too???

Okay, back to baking.  I ran out of lemon zest on the first batch of muffins so I decided that it would be super interesting to try it with lime zest (since I keep all the zest in the freezer and had lime and orange so it could have gone either way).  I couldn't add lime to the top without adding lime flavor to the batter.  I decided to try a trick that I learned at Let's Dish from a Tilapia dish (of all things...since I don't like fish).  They used sweetened lime juice that you use with mixed drinks instead of lime juice or extract.  I decided that I would try it out and see if it worked in baked goods.

It looked a little strange when I added it to the batter.  I couldn't figure out what measurements to use so I decided on 2 tsp. (just in case you want to try it out).

I mixed it in and made a mini loaf which I sprinkled the remaining lemon zest and some lime zest.  I decided since I was making something that was lemon lime flavor with flavoring from the bar that it was going to be like a Margarita so that is how I decided on the name of the bread.

The bread took a little longer to bake than the muffins but I made one mini loaf with the lemon and lime zest.

Then another without zest (just in case my son didn't like it with the zest) but I did still put the sugar on it.

There was still some batter left in the bowl so I decided to mix in a little zest and put it in another dish to bake and see how it turned out.  It looks pretty neat and puffed up right out of the dish.

They were all really yummy and a great first recipe to try out my Amish starter!!  I hope that this inspires you to try out some Amish friendship bread soon.  Check out this recipe and over 200 more at the Friendship Bread website.  More recipes to come soon!!

Lemon Poppyseed Amish Friendship Bread Muffins

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Servings: 24 servings

Yield: 24 muffins

Ingredients

1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
3 eggs
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1-2 teaspoons lemon extract
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1 small box lemon instant pudding
Zest of one lemon (for topping)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325° F (165° C).
2. In a large mixing bowl, add ingredients as listed except grated lemon zest.
3. Grease muffin tins.
4. Dust the greased tins with sugar.
5. Pour the batter evenly into muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops mixture of sugar and grated lemon zest.
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until the bread loosens evenly from the sides and a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.