Recipe: Ginger Lemon Muffins (Made with Fresh Ginger)

UPDATED 2011-05-11

These ginger lemon muffins were a big hit! They are light, healthy, and bursting with fresh zesty ginger flavor! The fresh ginger requires a bit more work, but it’s worth it!

The recipe was inspired by “Marion Cunningham’s Fresh Ginger Muffins” in the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library – Muffins & Quick Breads, a bargain of a cookbook at one of the Amazon 3rd party sellers. A used copy including shipping is $4! Can’t beat the price, and the recipes are awesome!

Ingredients UPDATED

• 1 piece of fresh ginger root (4-5 2-3 oz or about 2.5 to 3 inches)
• 1/2 1/4 c sugar plus an additional 3 Tbsp – totaling less than 1/2 cup
• 1 Tbsp dried lemon peel reconstituted in 1T water (or 2 Tbsp fresh lemon zest)
• 2 cups (10oz) Whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 1/4 cup almond oil or olive oil
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup water plus 1/4 c dried buttermilk powder)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375° and line muffin tin with papers (or oil/butter)
2. Mince or grate the fresh ginger. You could also opt to use a food processor to finely chop
3. In small saucepan, combine the ginger with 1/4 cup of sugar and cook over medium heat until melted. Make sure you keep stirring. It takes about 2 minutes. Set the mixture aside to cool.
4. In a small bowl, mix the lemon zest & 3 Tbsp of sugar. Once the ginger has cooled to lukewarm, stir into the bowl with the lemon zest. Set aside.
5. In large bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda
6. In medium bowl, whisk the oil and sugar, then whisk in the eggs, then buttermilk. Mix until blended.
7. Pour the wet mixture into the dry flour mixture and stir briefly until just blended.
8. Gently stir in the ginger lemon mixture
9. Spoon equally into muffin tins
10. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
11. Once baked, remove muffins from tin, and cool on wire rack.

Then ENJOY the spicy ginger goodness!

Extra Notes

• If you don’t have buttermilk, then use milk, but don’t use baking soda. Substitute 2 tsp of baking powder instead. You might also reduce the salt to 1/4 or 1/8 tsp.
• For extra richness, I also tried 1 cup So Delicious Coconut Milk (unsweetened) with 1/4 cup dried buttermilk powder
• I thought having to cook the ginger and sugar would be a hassle, but it really was pretty easy. The recipe does require some extra clean-up though, with the pot and all the bowls.
• After the ginger and sugar melted, I used the same saucepan to reconstitute my dried lemon peel with water. That way none of the ginger goodness was wasted. If you are using fresh lemon zest, then it isn’t an issue.
• The original recipe called for unpeeled ginger, but the ginger I was using wasn’t as fresh as could be, so I peeled it. I now keep ginger in the freezer in a heavy freezer bag so it will stay fresh until I need it.
• Speaking of the freezer, these muffins also freeze very well. I love freezing muffins for a later date. These muffins are great for breakfast or a snack.

Nutritional Data UPDATED

Bakes 12 muffins – nutritional data is approximate

Calories: 218 166
Total Fat: 10g 6g
Saturated: 1g
Polyunsaturated: 2g 1g
Monounsaturated: 7g 4g
Trans: 0
Cholesterol: 36mg
Sodium: 198mg
Potassium: 17mg
Carbs: 28g 25g
Fiber: 3g
Sugars: 13g 9g
Protein: 3.5g
Vit A: 1%
Vit C: 1%
Calcium: 4%
Iron: 6%