Tarte citron lemon muffins are as enticingly scrumptious as the Lindt chocolate bar that inspired their creation. Here’s the story!
Just weeks after meeting my husband we were separated by the Atlantic. For a LONG time.
He was leading a group into the wild, uncharted territories of the Amazons and I was flying to the frozen land of fairy tales, Lindt country, Switzerland. It would be months before we’d see each other again.
As June rolled around, our AIM chats became more giddy and hopeful, both of us eagerly anticipating the summer backpacking trip we’d planned. Husband (then bf) would fly to Switzerland and then whisk me around to the most romantic cities on Earth.
Heaven only knows how our plan actually worked out.
Husband had forwarded me only his flight itinerary and had never asked for my contact info in Switzerland. How was he to find me? Where would he go from the Geneva airport?
God’s hand beautifully maneuvered the whole thing, once his arrival date finaaaaaally came. A friend accompanied me on a stroll over the green mountain slopes to the nearest rail station. We prayed we’d come at the right time, merely estimating when Husband’s train should’ve been arriving based on flight info and assuming he’d figure where to get off the train.
He’d never been to Europe. He spoke no German or French. He had no cell.
Ten minutes went by. Twenty. Where was my Prince Charming? Would he get off the rail at this particular station? Had his flight been delayed?
After a bit more waiting he arrived, beaming.
We hugged and I gave him an earful for not having planned his arrival with me at all. I suppose it’s the masculine sense of adventure that swept him away, but goodness, this organization junkie was nervous wreck.
Longer story short, we had the most brilliant Euro adventures we could’ve ever dreamed of. It was there that I was introduced to his favorite candy bar, Lindt’s sadly now discontinued Tarte Citron Meringue bar. Imagine bits of smooth-tart lemon buried in silky mouthwatering milk chocolate. Brilliant.
Though it’s been more than 7 years since our first Euro adventures, the memories are vivid as ever, just like the flavor of these buttery Tarte Citron Lemon muffins inspired by my hunky husband’s favorite Lindt bar.
This week my family is house sitting and the lush fruit trees in the backyard are magnets for my older kids. They wake up eager to climb the trees and yank down juicy naranjillas, a lemon of sorts. When they showed up at the doorstep handing me their tart tree booty, I knew exactly what to bake.
Tarte Citron Lemon Muffins, of course!
These lemon muffins are adapted from a recipe in this Dorie Greenspan book and are easy enough to bake with the kids- I did! They’re the basic add-wet-to-dry-and-stir-in-chips kind of muffins. Pop them in the oven for 15 minutes and drizzle those bad boys with more chocolate ganache and BAM! You’re done.Fill
- For the Muffins:
- ⅔ cup sugar
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted and cooled
- ½ cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips
- For the Ganache:
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Muffins: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease or line 12 muffins cups.
- Combine sugar and zest. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and butter until well blended.
- Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently stir to blend. Don't overmix. Stir in the chocolate chips. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold. Cool the muffins completely on the rack before topping with ganache.
- Ganache: Heat cream until it's near a boil. Pour over chocolate chips and let it sit for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Cool until it's a good consistency to drizzle. Use a teaspoon to drizzle chocolate over the muffins or spoon it into a Ziplock bag and snip off the corner to drizzle. Serve.
- Recipe adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan
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Looove that story! Oh how often I used AIM. These muffins look soooo good! I don’t use “mouthwatering” to describe many things, but the combo of lemon and chocolate is making my mouth water haha. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your recipe on Tarte Citron Lemon Muffins! Love it! I have a cup of tea with my friends all the time and this is the sort of thing I love to serve up!
Cara, I’d love to hear about it if you do indeed decide to share these muffins with your gal pals. It must be lovely to sit and chat over tea. Thanks so much for stopping by today!
What a romantic story!! I love Europe! I have been by myself, but would love to experience it with DH!I love the that you created a dessert out of it!
Thanks so much, Jenn! I sure hope you and your man d indeed plan and find yourselves swept up in the beauty of Europe some day soon. Thanks so much for taking a minute out of your busy day to stop by.
What an amazing story. I love a good romance, I am romantic and sap! So creative that you made a dessert out of it. Gonna try it!
This is so awesome…it doesn’t have all the icing so it’s safe to eat while on my diet lol. I love the pictures too. I love a good muffin so this is a must try
Awww, what a great love story!
I would love to try the actual chocolate bar that inspired these amazing muffins. Why did they discontinue them?! They sound so good!
Your guess is as good as mine, Tori. Sometimes Lindt comes out with the flavor in new variations, like truffles, but hasn’t brought back the bar in ages.
I love lemon flavored desserts. These muffins look and sound so delicious. I’d love to try this recipe. My husband would love this, too!
Those Tarte citron lemon muffins look so yummy! I LOVE lemons and I love muffins so this is the PERFECT combination for me. I’ll definitely be trying this recipe out soon <3
Can’t wait to hear what you think of the lemon muffins, Angelic. Thanks so much for stopping by.
I love muffin making for brunches or breakfasts on the go. Yours look so delicious that I think the family would love them no matter when they come out of the oven!
what a beautiful story to accompany a delicious treat!
Love the melon flavor, these muffins would definitely brighten my day!
Katalina, I’ve never made melon muffins. These are actually lemon muffins, buy hey, you might’ve just given me a new idea. Thanks!
It was great that you were able to find each other. I guess that’s God’s hand working in the process. The Tarte citron Lemon muffins looks so tasty.
Aaw I love seeing your pictures from Europe! We went for our honeymoon almost 9 years ago and had so much fun! These muffins look so delicious! Lemon anything is my favorite!
Wow, I can imagine a Euro honeymoon must’ve been absolutely wonderful, Kelly! My husband and I are saving up to go back for our 10th anniversary in a few years. Not sure where we’ll go but I’d love to visit Prague and Greece.
This is indeed a cute story about your adventure. I have not heard of the Lindt bar but it sounds like it was delicious. I will have to try making these Tarte Citron Lemon muffins. They look and sound so good. Yummy!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe and your story.
I would love a couple of these Tarte Citron Lemon Muffins with a cup of coffee right now!! So tasty and I enjoyed reading your story 🙂
Thanks so much, Becky! I sure hope you try the Lemon Tarte Citron muffins soon. They’re super yum with coffee.
What a fun story, thank you for sharing those memories with us. And oh, how I wish I’d have tried these Lindt bars while they were out ,they sound AMAZING! But, so do your muffins…and I’m a sucker for such a great inspired recipe, I’ll definitely give it a try.
I love muffins. Your recipe and photos look great. Would love to try and make my own
I love lemon everything, it’s one of my favorite flavours so I bet I would just adore these. They look delicious, I will have to give them a try.
Whoa! Those look really good! I’d love to try them for a fun family breakfast or brunch this weekend. They are easy to prepare but have chocolate which is clearly my favorite. Save me some! 🙂
Such a cute story! Those muffins look so good too!
These look absolutely delicious and I would have never thought to add chocolate chips or chocolate to a lemon dessert. I may have to try this since we are snowed in this weekend.
I wouldn’t have ever combined lemon with chocolate either, though I do love both. If it weren’t for Lindt, I’d have never found out just how delish a combo they are. Hope you give the muffins a go.
What a sweet story! My kids love Lindt chocolate so much. I bet these muffins are amazing! I love citrus and lemon flavors.
I need to bake these muffins ASAP they look increadibly good!! thanks for sharing the recipe | http://carmelapop.com
Lemon and chocolate?! Two of the only muffins I eat combined into one. Yes please!