Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
You are going to love the moist texture and zesty flavor of these lemon poppy seed muffins. They are sweet, tangy and so lemony.
I have made these muffins a few times, adjusting the ingredients until I achieved the flavor and texture I wanted.
They come together quite easily, ready in less than 30 minutes. They don’t require an electric mixer, use a wooden spoon to stir together the wet and dry ingredients just until they are combined. The batter will look lumpy with little bits of flour, it’s ok.
Rub the zest and sugar together before combining them with the other dry ingredients. This releases the oils from the zest and gives these muffins a more intense flavor. The poppy seeds add a great contrast and a nice little crunch.
Greek yogurt helps to create wonderfully soft, tender and moist muffins. You can use plain or flavored, full fat, low fat or non-fat. I used non-fat, plain.
Store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or make a double batch and freeze the extras. When the muffins are completely cool, wrap each one tightly with cling film or aluminum foil and freeze for up to 3 months.
These lemon poppy seed muffins are probably my favorite muffins. They are not too sweet which makes them perfect for breakfast. Delish!
More Lemon Recipes
How To Make It: Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 ⅓ cup (270 g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- the zest of 2 medium lemons
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons poppy seeds
- ⅓ cup +1 ½ tablespoon (90 g) vegetable oil
- ¼ cup (60 ml) milk I used skimmed milk
- the juice of 2 lemons (5 tablespoons)
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup (120 g) Greek yogurt I used non-fat plain Greek yogurt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375° F (180° C).
- Grease a 12-cup muffin tin by brushing the bottoms and sides with softened butter, oil or spraying them with nonstick cooking spray. If you use paper liners, there is no need to grease.
- Combine the sugar and lemon zest in a medium mixing bowl. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar until the sugar is fragrant and pale yellow.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and poppy seeds.
- In a separate bowl combine the vegetable oil, milk, lemon juice, eggs, greek yogurt and whisk together until well combined.
- Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir together until just combined. Do not over-mix.
- Use a large ice cream scoop and fill each cup in the muffin tin almost to the top.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool the lemon poppy seed muffins for a few minutes before serving.
- Enjoy!
Fantastic. I use Coconut oil rather than vegetable oil, and cream instead of yoghurt (as I don’t have it) and tastes just as good!
This recipe makes lovely light muffins
I couldn’t get any poppyseeds so I substituted with desiccated coconut and chia seeds. They were incredibly delicious… I’ll definitely bake this again.
Delicious!!!
I used 100g sourdough starter discard in place of the yogurt and added a 1/4 tsp vanilla extract. Came out not too dense and not too sweet and not too lemon-y!
This recipe is so great! Our family is dairy free so I couldn’t use sour cream, but I read that mayo can be subbed 1:1. I used aseasyasapplepie’s homemade mayo recipe and then incorporated that instead of sour cream and it turned out perfect and moist. I highly recommend!
Sorry I meant Greek yogurt not sour cream!!
I loved it and pulled it off. I used cream cheese as I’d finished my Greek yoghurt the night before.
Glad you liked these muffins, Tariro! :)
These muffins were easy enough for this very novice baker! Lemon poppyseed is my daughter’s favorite so I had a tough critic… she loved them!
So glad your daughter loved these muffins! Thank you for the feedback, Misty! :)
Muffins – top class, just as easy to follow recipe. Thank you!
Glad you liked these muffins, Bronia! :)
I will make these tomorrow with my kids…just one question…are these standard muffins or big ones? Thank you
Standard muffins. I hope you will like them :)
Happy baking!
My girls and I just made these for the first time…they were so soft, moist and tasty. We used half-half lemon and orange juice and zest. I made lemon-orange glaze to top them up. We made 8 big muffins. Cooking time 25 min. OMG awesome
Thank you for the recipe.
So glad you liked this recipe, Zoe! Thank you for the feedback! :)
These are soooo tasty, I’m making my fifth batch since I found this recipe a month ago.
I didn’t have any poppy seeds for my first attempt, so I used desiccated coconut instead and muffins turned out to be as good as with poppy seeds (which I tried second time).
Then I tried to make peach muffins using this recipe as a base and they were absolutely delicious. I added some sliced canned peaches to the batter, and instead of lemon zest and lemon juice, I just used peach syrup from the can. Added some vanilla extract and obviously didn’t add poppy seeds.
This recipe is perfect for any flavour muffins I guess :) But the lemon ones are the best. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed them, Camilla! Now I want to try the peach version :D
Really nice and moist! I used coconut sugar, coconut oil and coconut yogurt as I am dairy free!
Turned out perfect!!
Thank you for a great recipe! I used 1/2 white whole wheat flour to try to make it a little healthier. They still turned out fluffy and soft. These aren’t overly sweet, which I love, but may not be sweet enough for some tastes. I also added some coarse baker’s sugar on the tops, just for a fun bakery feel.
Thank you for the feedback, Amy! It’s a great idea to add the coarse baker’s sugar. :)
Hi Calli!
1 cup of flour = 120 grams 1 cup of sugar = 200 grams
1 cup of feathers doesn’t have the same weight as 1 cup of rocks even though they have the same volume.
These are lovely! I made a batch with some homegrown lemons and quickly followed a week later with another lot, Nice and lemony! As a regular small yoghurt pot is 200g I used 120g for the first batch and then the remainder with a bit more milk for the second lot and they were equally as good. I highly recommend these!
I am glad you loved these muffins, Erica! Thank you for the feedback :)
How did it go? :)
Does this make six muffins?
12 muffins