Grapefruit Poppyseed Muffins
Lightly sweet and tart, these grapefruit poppyseed muffins make a wonderful breakfast any time of year. Bonus: they keep and reheat beautifully.
This is the time of year many of you will be planning for houseguests and holiday dinners. Things here will be simple, most likely spent celebrating with friends. I feel like this is something a lot of people don’t really talk about, but I’m certain we can’t be the only ones not spending the holidays with extended family. This has been the case for a few years now. After many years traveling back to Alabama for holidays, we decided before Clara was born that, once she arrived, our holidays would be spent where we’d most like to be–at home.
This is appalling to some of our friends, and I get it. It’s a natural expectation (for the majority of people) to be with family during the holidays. It’s this time of year that we get to answer questions of if we’ll be traveling or if people will be traveling to see us. Things get a bit awkward (not for us, for the person asking) when we answer no to both. Clara has yet to understand this expectation, so the way we spend our holidays is perfectly normal to her. Still, I like to make this time of year extra special for her, and really for all of us. We may not spend the day cooking an elaborate feast, but we always wake up and cook a fantastic breakfast.
Our Christmas morning tradition involves eating eggnog waffles before opening gifts. Now these grapefruit poppyseed muffins are a big contender for Thanksgiving morning breakfast. For those of you that will be hosting for the holidays, these muffins can be made ahead of time and frozen so that you’ve got a quick breakfast ready to go whenever people wake up.
These grapefruit poppyseed muffins are perfectly balanced. The tart zest and juice from the grapefruit is tamed with sweetness, both from sugar in the muffin and on top of it. They’ve got that wonderfully nutty flavor from whole wheat and oat flours, plus the added texture of poppy seeds. The simple powdered sugar glaze and grapefruit sugar make them feel decadent but not heavy. They’re delicious and perfect for turning ordinary days into something special.
- COOK TIME:
- YIELD: 12 muffins
For the muffins:
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grapefruit zest
1 cup oat flour
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup milk
½ cup greek yogurt (or sour cream)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2-4 tablespoons grapefruit juice
To finish:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon grapefruit zest
Instead of buying oat flour, you can make your own using rolled oats. Simply use a food processor or, my choice, a coffee grinder, to pulse the oats into flour. Quick tip: to clean your coffee grinder out between different things, just pulse a little uncooked rice in there and wipe it out. Works like a charm.
- 1
Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease muffin tins or line with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine the granulated sugar and grapefruit zest. Rub together with your fingertips until the sugar is moistened and fragrant. Add in the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds. Whisk to blend.
In a liquid measuring cup, combine the melted butter, milk, yogurt, egg, and vanilla. Whisk until well blended. Pour the liquid mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and fold together just until incorporated and no dry streaks remain.
- 2
Use a cookie scoop to transfer the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each about ⅔ of the way full. Bake, rotating halfway through, until the muffins are lightly browned and just set, about 20-22 minutes total. Let cool in the pans about 5 minutes, then gently remove from the pans and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- 3
Place the wire rack with the muffins over a rimmed baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar with 2 tablespoons of the grapefruit juice. Add more juice as needed a teaspoon at a time until the glaze is thick but can still be drizzled. You don’t want it too thin or it will soak into the muffins. Drizzle some over each of the muffins.
- 4
In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar and grapefruit zest and rub together until well combined. Sprinkle a bit on top of each muffin.
If freezing the completed muffins, place on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze until firm. Transfer to an airtight container to store. Warm in the microwave on the defrost setting when ready to serve.
Wow Courtney, I envy that you and your husband can tell your families that you will be staying home for the holidays and that is the end of it. My parents would never accept that response, yet they refuse to visit us so that we can be home. Makes me crazy at the logic. We do put our foot down and only travel for one of the holidays each year though and spend the other at home. Yet every year I yearn to spend both. Guess I can’t have it all. These muffins look awesome. May have to add them to my christmas breakfast list since we are home for that holiday this year.
Ha! It’s not totally the end of it, so I feel you. We reached the point of being over spending what amounted to days in the car traveling all over. Simple holidays at home are much less stressful than traveling to see multiple families, so in the end, simplicity won out. Sanity over stress, right?!