Lemon Poppy Seed Mini Muffins

I got another new baking tool for Christmas - a mini muffin pan. Seeing as how there's not a lot of choices for mini cupcake liners, I decided to use it for muffins, as least at first. I even had a recipe in mind: a muffin recipe I found in the newspaper insert Parade back in 2012 (at least I think it was Parade - the torn page I saved doesn't have the name of the publication on it). It's a base muffin recipe with almost a dozen different variations, including lemon poppy seed (just like with soft pretzels, I think this lemon "kick" is permanent). I quickly realized that I wasn't sure how long to bake them for since this is a mini pan. After doing a little research, I found an informative page that explains how to convert a muffin recipe into a mini muffin recipe, specifically for the baking time. Pretty simple - I think I might do all my muffins like this from now on.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

I've never really had the popular lemon poppy seed flavor. If I'd had, it wasn't memorable. So for my next Sunday breakfast (after the waffle recipe I made in high school cooking class - one of my faves!) I decided on something lemon poppy seed flavored. I also decided on bread because I had mentioned to my family that I don't have a loaf pan and Kati said "Take some of ours! We got more than we need for wedding gifts." So I now have two loaf pans. I searched all the sources I have and finally decided on a recipe from the Joy of Baking website (I swear, this was one of the most decisive moments I've ever had. So quick to pick the flavor and type).