Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
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These Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins come complete with a simple 2 ingredient lemon glaze and are so delicious they could rival any bakery muffin. It’s a super simple recipe and an easy breakfast your whole family will love!
Easy Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins Recipe
What’s the easiest thing to make when you have a sweet tooth? Well for me it’s either muffins or cookies, like these lemon poppy seed muffins which are a sure way to brighten your day.
The lemon glaze is a must, in my opinion, because it truly adds more lemon flavor to these muffins, especially if you love lemon as much as I do. Just 15 minutes to make and 20 minutes to bake and you’ve got a super delicious muffin that’s perfect for on-the-go breakfasts or anytime you want indulge in a little treat with your cup of coffee.
Why You’ll Love These Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Bursting With Lemon Deliciousness! These muffins are bursting with fresh lemon flavor and a rich nutty flavor from the poppy seeds.
- Easy To Make! This recipe is super easy even for the most beginner bakers. No special equipment needed and just a few simple steps.
- Pantry Staple Ingredients! Everything you need to make the lemon poppy seed muffins is likely already in your pantry.
Muffins
- Flour – Simple all-purpose flour is all you need.
- Sugar – I used granulated white sugar, but you can also use cane sugar.
- Baking Powder – Used as a leavening agent.
- Salt – Balances the sweetness of the muffins as well as enhances the flavor of the lemon zest.
- Eggs – You’ll need 2 large eggs to add structure, leavening and richness to our muffins.
- Vanilla Extract – Use pure vanilla extract if you can to add another layer of flavor.
- Lemon Juice And Zest – I recommend using freshly squeezed lemon juice.
- Butter – Always use unsalted butter in baking.
- Sour Cream – To add moistness to our delicious muffins. Can be substituted with plain yogurt.
- Milk – To make our muffins nice and moist and add lots of great flavor to our muffins.
- Poppy seeds – The other star ingredient in this lemon poppy seed muffin recipe.
Lemon glaze
- Icing sugar – This is the same as powdered sugar or confectioners sugar.
- Lemon juice – You can use milk as well but if you’re going for that lemon flavor, I strongly recommend using lemon juice, freshly squeezed.
Muffins
- Prep the oven and muffin pan: Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a 12 mold regular-size muffin pan with cooking spray.
- Combine dry ingredients: In a large bowl bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt together.
- Combine the wet ingredients: In another bowl whisk the sugar with the lemon zest together. Add the butter, milk, lemon juice, and continue mixing. Add the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and whisk until well blended.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients: Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently until combined. Fold in the poppy seeds.
- Spoon batter into muffin pan: Spoon the batter in each muffin cup, there should be enough batter for 12 muffins. I find it easier to use an ice cream scoop to scoop muffin batter into the pan.
- Bake: Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
- Cool: Cool in the muffin pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack and finish cooling completely.
Lemon Glaze
- Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Drizzle lemon glaze over cooled muffins and enjoy.
How Do I Know If My Muffins Are Done Baking?
There are a couple ways to check if the lemon poppy seed muffins are baked through.
- Touch the muffin top lightly and if it springs back, they are done.
- Insert a toothpick in the center of the muffin and when you pull it out, the toothpick should be free of the batter when baked through.
Expert Tips
- To test doneness without piercing your muffin, poke the top of the dome. If it springs back the muffin is done!
- Don’t over-mix the batter. Mix just until the ingredients are combined.
- Use as much lemon juice or lemon zest as you wish. If you love the flavor of lemon as much as I do, the lemon glaze is a must.
Leftovers
As with any quick breads or other muffins, place them in a plastic bag, seal, and store at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also individually wrap them in plastic wrap.
Freezing
To freeze, wrap each muffin in plastic wrap individually, heavy foil or place them in freezer bags. Freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat them, I usually place them frozen in the microwave for a minute until heated through.
Do you love lemon poppy seed combination? Try my Lemon Poppy Seed Cake!
Other Drool Worthy Muffins To Try
- The Perfect Banana Muffins
- Apple Coffee Cake Muffins
- Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Carrot Cake Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins
- Morning Glory Muffins
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Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup butter (melted)
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (from 1/2 lemon)
- 2 tablespoon sour cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Lemon glaze
- 1 cup icing sugar (same as powdered sugar or confectioner sugar)
- 3 tablespoon lemon juice
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
Muffins
- Prep the oven and muffin pan: Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a 12 mold regular-size muffin pan with cooking spray.
- Combine dry ingredients: In a large bowl bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt together.
- Combine the wet ingredients: In another bowl whisk the sugar with the lemon zest together. Add the butter, milk, lemon juice, and continue mixing. Add the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and whisk until well blended.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients: Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently until combined. Fold in the poppy seeds.
- Spoon batter into muffin pan: Spoon the batter in each muffin cup, there should be enough batter for 12 muffins. I find it easier to use an ice cream scoop to scoop muffin batter into the pan.
- Bake: Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
- Cool: Cool in the muffin pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack and finish cooling completely.
Lemon Glaze
- Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Drizzle the lemon glaze over the cooled muffins and enjoy.
Equipment
Notes
- As with any quick breads or other muffins, place them in a plastic bag, seal, and store at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also individually wrap them in plastic wrap.
- To freeze, wrap each muffin in plastic wrap individually, heavy foil or place them in freezer bags. Freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat them, I usually place them frozen in the microwave for a minute until heated through.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Can you sub GF flour?
Probably but I haven’t tried myself. However, make sure to use a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour that has xanthan gum in it, which acts as a replacement for the gluten that is naturally in all-purpose flour.
Jo, I’m normally a big fan of your recipes and use some of them regularly. However, sorry, but these muffins were not lemony enough (or quite sweet enough) for me. Also, how do you whisk sugar and lemon zest? And why would you? I’m afraid Step 3 makes no sense to me as one is instructed to add lemon zest twice!
I’ll have to tweak the quantities and see what happens – after all, we’re all individuals!
Hi Sarah! Sorry to hear you didn’t like this recipe. You only need to mix the lemon zest with the sugar, the other one was a typo which I’ve fixed. If you’re looking for more of a lemony flavor you could always add more lemon juice to the muffin batter. Yes, you are correct, all recipes could be and are meant to be tweaked to your preferences.
Delicious and very easy to make. I did make some minor changes:
1. Browned the butter
2. Added lemon extract to both the batter and glaze.
I really loved it!
These are amazing with and without the lemon icing!!! They are moist and substantial. We loved them!!!
Great to hear! 🙂
Loved this recipe. Super simple and tastes great. I added some extra poppyseed and baked at 350 for a little longer as I don’t like crunchy tops. I also just mixed all the dry and all the wet separately, and then folded wet into dry, so I didn’t quite follow all the steps but still turned out wonderful.
This is now my favourite muffin recipe… also my husband’s! Comes out perfect every time and I wouldn’t change a thing. Thank you for sharing!!!
This is the best muffin recipe I have ever made and I make a lot. The texture is amazing, these are so much better than shop bought. Thanks Jo x
I loved your poppyseed bread recipe (I made it twice!). Just wondering why that one uses oil, but you use butter for the muffins. Can I use oil in the muffins?
You can use either! We just wanted a buttery flavor for the muffins.
Could you substitute yoghurt for sour cream? Thanks.
Yes you can!
I loved this recipe so much!!!! MMMM LEMON
Jo, I tried your recipe here, but I had to leave the poppy seeds out, as I have diverticula. They turned out great, and tasted even better. However, there is an oops in your #3 directions. You mention adding both the milk and lemon juice twice, where they should only be added once.
Glad they turned out for you. Thanks for that catch, fixed it! Enjoy the muffins.
#3. Didnt make sense for wet ingredients. When do I use butter
In step 3, make sure it’s melted.
Jo, WHEN DO YOU ADD THE MELTED BUTTER ?
It should be added to your wet ingredient mixture – thanks for catching that!
Do these turn out as well making the jumbo muffin size? Are there any different directions ie cook times etc….
You can make them jumbo size. Yes, the baking time might take a bit longer, best to do the toothpick test to check for when they’re done.
Jo, I just love your muffin pan! I have been trying to find a muffin pan with cups that are straight up and down like this, versus angled the way most muffin cups are. Where did you get it??
Hi Jane,
I got it at IKEA. 🙂
Hi Jo!! I’ve been reading your blog for the last couple of months or so and I have to say I love it! I love not only the recipes themselves but also the way you explain them! I’m a Spanish girl, a teacher of English and a lover of cooking but specially baking! Yesterday I baked your lemon and poppy seed muffins and I love them! My family loves them! I’d like to know if I could put a link in my blog (that is completely new and yours would be the first proper post!) to your recipe! Thank you very much for everything! Love from Spain! Arantza
Hi Arantza! Absolutely!
I’m glad you and your family enjoyed them. 🙂
Thank you, thank you very much!!! It means a lot to me! 🙂
I’ll keep reading you! Take care!