Almond Poppyseed Muffins

From time to time I check out High Altitude Baking books from the library. Admittedly, I don't always have enough time to read them, or try anything, before they are due. Finally, I tried something from one of them, called Baking at High Altitude: The Muffin Lady's Old Fashioned Recipes. They were good. A little dry, but again that can be an altitude thing, or I could have left them in too long, or it could be because of the whole wheat pastry flour I used. It was a good enough recipe to keep though. They didn't fall, and they cooked all the way through. I'm learning that if I get my hands on a recipe like that up here, I need to hang on to it. (For those of you out of the area, I believe we are at 5960 ft here)

Almond Poppyseed Muffins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1/4 cup melted butter or margarine
3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
2 1/4 cups flour ( I used whole wheat pastry)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/3 cup sliced almonds

1. Thoroughly mix the melted margarine/butter, sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, and almond extract.

2. Add the dry ingredients and poppyseeds, if using, to the egg mixture. Thoroughly mix the batter until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

3. Grease 5-6 large muffin pan sections or 10-12 regular size muffin pan sections or 2 dozen mino muffin sections.

4. Fill each muffin section 7/8 full with the batter. Sprinkle almond slices on top of each muffin.

5. Bake 15-35 minutes (I know, big variance - I did 12 regular size muffins, and it took 15 minutes, just to give you some idea) until firm on top or until the inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Add 1 extra egg when doubling or add 2 extra eggs when tripling this recipe.
To change it up, substitute 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips for the poppy seeds!