Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Curd Filling

Teacher Appreciation Week. My students made me cards and the art teacher organized a breakfast in the lounge and my principal called me "one of the best" in front of the whole staff, which I accepted with the combination of gratitude and modest deflection that is the correct response and which does not mean I did not go to my classroom afterward and feel it completely. I have been a teacher for seven years. I am still surprised when someone sees it from the outside.

The school year is in its last month and I can feel it in the students the way you always feel the end of the year: a restlessness that coexists with a particular sweetness, because they know something is ending, and at this age they are just beginning to understand that endings mean something. I have twenty-two students I have known since September. In three weeks they become someone else's students. I am going to miss them in the specific way I miss every class I have taught, which is: genuinely and then transformed into the desire to do it well again for the next one.

The twins are fifteen months old and they are, as far as I can tell, the best possible people. Owen builds things. He stacks his blocks with the precision of an engineer who cannot yet speak in full sentences but communicates structural integrity through the arrangement of objects. Nora deconstructs things. She waits until Owen has stacked and then makes her views on his construction known. They have not yet had a real conflict. I give it another month.

Mother's Day is Sunday. Ryan asked what I wanted and I said: the same three uninterrupted hours as last year, the same baked ziti from Patty, the same afternoon in the backyard if it's warm enough. He said: done. I said: I love you. He said: I know. We have been married three years and we are exactly who we were when we got married, except more tired and more sure.

The breakfast in the lounge on Tuesday — the one the art teacher put together, the one that made me feel quietly seen in the way only a room full of colleagues who understand exactly what you do can make you feel — had store-bought pastries, and they were fine, and I was grateful, and I also came home that evening thinking about lemon. These muffins are what I made that weekend: bright and a little tart, with a ribbon of lemon curd tucked inside like a small surprise, which felt right for a week that was full of small surprises, and also because it’s almost summer and my body already knows it.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Zest of 2 lemons
2 large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup lemon curd (store-bought or homemade)

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or grease well with butter or cooking spray.
Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest until evenly combined.
Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter, lemon juice, and vanilla extract until smooth.
Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold gently with a rubber spatula until just combined — a few streaks of flour are fine. Do not overmix or the muffins will be dense.
Fill and add lemon curd. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup. Add 2 teaspoons of lemon curd to the center of each, then top with another heaping tablespoon of batter, covering the curd completely.
Bake. Bake for 18–22 minutes, until the tops are lightly golden and a toothpick inserted into the side (not the curd center) comes out clean.
Cool. Let muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. Dust with powdered sugar before serving if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Curd Filling — The Kind of Treat That Belongs in a Teacher Appreciation Lounge