Blind date set-ups in the movies invariably feature a well meaning person describing their friend as “nice”.  Or having a “great personality”.  We in the film audience know those are cue words for not-so-easy-on-the-eyes, right?  But, in real life, what if a date really is nice and they do have a great personality?  As I got older and realized that “cute” could only take me so far, nice and great personality sounded pretty good.  (As it happens, I got all three.)

These muffins are kind of the food equivalent of those set-up dates.  They are not going to win any beauty contests and if they were placed next to something else – anything else – you would probably just pass them by.  But they are lemon sour cream muffins.  In 12 muffins, you will find 1 1/2 cups of sour cream and a full stick of butter.  The tops are dipped into a lemon juice and sugar glaze which takes them from very nice cakes to Wow! – sweet, tart, and super moist all at once.

I tried taking decent photos of these modest muffins, but they didn’t end up looking like anything that would make a reader of this blog jump up and head to the kitchen.  My kids were in the dining room with me (where the majority of Dana Treat photos are taken) and they thought it was very funny to pretend to eat them.  These shots are better than the food porn equivalent of just muffins.  The funny thing is, the only reason they were slightly interested is because they thought the muffins were cupcakes.

Although I told myself I would not mess with Holly’s recipes so I could accurately portray what a wonderful cookbook this is, I just had to change a little something here.  She instructs you to put all the dry ingredients right on top of the wet without mixing them first, but I think they need a good toss in a separate bowl first.  If you have those giant sized muffin tins, this recipe will fill 12 of those.  If you have standard tins, it will make 18.  (I found this out the hard way when I crammed all the dough into 12 standard sized and there was much oozing.)

You can buy a copy of Holly’s cookbook by visiting this site.

Lemon Sour Cream Muffins
Adapted from With Love and Butter
Makes 12 large or 18 medium muffins

1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. butter, melted
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
Grated zest of 1 1/2 lemons
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp. flour
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Lemon Glaze
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 375°F and position the rack in the middle.  Butter the rims of your muffin tin(s) and line the cups with papers (or grease generously).

Whip together the sour cream, milk, melted butter, egg and and egg yolk, zest, and lemon juice in a blender (or use a beater or whisk), then pour into a big bowl.  In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then add dry ingredients to the big bowl.  Mix just until smooth and combined.  Divide the batter between the muffin cups.

Bake the muffins 10 minutes, turn the pan, and bake 5 more minutes.  Check for doneness with a toothpick; bake a few minutes longer if still gooey on top.  Bake until just done – these muffins are best before they get at all brown.  Remove the muffin tin to a rack to cool while you prepare the lemon glaze.

Mix the lemon juice and sugar and warm in the microwave (about 1 minute) or on the stove until the sugar dissolves.  Stir again.  Holding each muffin at the bottom, dip the top into the warm glaze.  Let stand a moment before serving to absorb the glaze.