Williams-Sonoma's Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Whenever I post recipes on my blog or post pictures of food on Facebook, people are always asking me how I find the time to do it all.  Since I've started working from home, I've certainly found more time to experiment with new recipes but even still, there aren't enough hours in the day.  Sometimes, you just need to take some shortcuts - whether it thawing out some soup that you've previously frozen, having a bowl of cereal for dinner or ordering a pizza delivery.  These shortcuts also extend to baking.  Although I've been on quite the baking streak lately, I still like to take shortcuts from time to time with pre-made mixes.  I will say, however, that I've been making an attempt to find quality mixes.  I might have to pay a little more for them but if I'm going to cheat, I don't want to do it with over-processed baking mixes.

Before our dinner at 5 Napkin Burger on Friday night, Bret and I decided to splurge a little at Williams-Sonoma.  I won a $500 gift card to the store when I won the Olivia's Organics Summer Harvest recipe contest last year and we decided to spend some of that contest money.  One of the items we picked up included a Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Quick Bread Mix.

On Monday afternoon, after a rainy walk to and from Whole Foods, I was feeling rather grumpy.  The bright yellow package of the Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed mix perked me up and I decided to bake some muffins to get me out of the rainy blues.

In addition to the mix, you just need three other ingredients:

• 1 stick of unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 eggs

I opened the mix and it smelled unbelievable.  The bright scent of meyer lemons instantly started to cheer me up from my grumpy disposition.

I melted the butter in the microwave at three fifteen-second intervals and added the butter, water and eggs to the bread mix.  I mixed the batter until it was smooth.

I spooned the batter into twelve paper-lined muffin cups.

I put the muffin tray in the oven and turned the oven on to 350 degrees.  You should note that I didn't preheat the oven.  My friend Justin advised me that if you don't preheat the oven and let the oven temperature rise as the muffins bake, the muffins will rise higher!  You know what?  It worked!  The muffins rose a lot and looked fantastic!  The muffins baked for twenty minutes until they came out clean under the toothpick test.

These Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed muffins were so light and fluffy.  The candied meyer lemon peel in the mix added a nice natural sweetness.  I ate half a muffin plain and the other half I smeared with Sarabeth's strawberry raspberry jam. 

I honestly didn't feel an ounce of guilt that these muffins were from a mix and not made from scratch. 

Tell me, what shortcuts do you take in your kitchen?