The cool-turned-warm spring air makes me want to bust out every citrus fruit I can get my hands on and start baking up a storm. The scent of lemons, oranges and limes make the whole world seem brighter. I love their light and fresh flavor and have a ball baking with them once the weather turns. One of my absolute favorite lemon recipes are the Lemon-Limoncello Cupcakes that I made a couple of summers ago. They are awesome, and these Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins would certainly be a great way to start a day that ended with those cupcakes 
All of the Dorie Greenspan recipes I have ever tried have been out-of-the-park winners and these muffins are no exception. They are light, supremely moist, and positively bursting with lemon flavor. With a healthy dose of poppy seeds, these have rocketed to the top of one of my favorite breakfast treats. While I enjoy oatmeal on most mornings, it’s always great to treat yourself to something like muffins, cinnamon rolls or bagels on occasion. And these muffins have definitely secured themselves a spot in my “treat rotation” list!
One year ago: Easter Egg Sugar Cookies
Three years ago: Gooey Chocolate Cakes
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Yield: 12 muffins
Prep Time: 20 minutes | Bake Time: 18 to 20 minutes
2/3 cup sugar
Grated 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 pure vanilla extract
½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons poppy seeds1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough – a few lumps are better than over mixing the batter. Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly among the muffins cups.
3. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.
*Note: The recipe calls for a glaze but I didn’t use it.
(Recipe adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)
Tags: lemon, Muffins
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These look yummmmmy! Lemon is one of my most favorite flavors (next to chocolate!) and I don’t bake lemon goodies near enough. Thanks for the recipe-I’m gonna make a batch in the morning!
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You’re right, these would be a wonderful breakfast treat!
This is one of my favorite muffins of all time! I don’t have a good recipe for it though. I’ll try these tonight!
i’ve been looking for a lemon muffin recipe, so this is great! might leave out the poppy seeds and add cranberries – i always see that combination in a scone at starbucks and it looks so good!
I love the look of these muffins! As is they are inviting you to take a bite.
I adore a good lemon poppy seed muffin!
I posted muffins today too! Can’t wait to try these next!
This exact recipe has been at the top of my list to make for a week now. I keep telling everyone I’m going to make them lemon poppy seed muffins but the weekend slipped away from me. Thanks for inspiring me again!
Yes! I’ve made 2 batches of these over the past 2 weekends and have been taking them for breakfast at work. I kept them frozen and just microwave them at work to keep them as fresh as possible throughout the week. They are SO delicious and I even subbed in oil instead of butter, used a GF flour mix, and Meyer lemons. Even my husband couldn’t tell they weren’t made with AP flour. Dorie never disapoints!
*disppoints. I hate typos.
Pretty little muffins! Yum!
I am in love with these muffins! Yours look gorgeous. They are so perfect for spring!
I love the combination of lemon and poppyseeds.. I think muffins are my favorite.
These poppy seed muffins are right up my alley!
I’ve never been much of a fan of lemon but I always make an exception for these muffins.
You said this specific recipe calls for a glaze, but I’ve never seen them glazed, even in stores. Maybe we just like them plain here in New England?
These look scrumptious! Love your pictures with a little lemon and the fancy white dish too.
I love the combination of lemon and poppy seeds! Gorgeous.
Could these be made as mini-muffins? How would you adjust the cooking time for it?
Hi Erin, Definitely! I would start checking them around 8 minutes.
My mom used to make these for us as a special treat before school sometimes. I’d eat about 4 of them
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Wow, these look so great! I am seriously wanting a nice batch of these for breakfast!
These muffins look great! The only concern I would have would having poppy seeds stuck in my teeth
Dorie’s recipes are fantastic – I’ve always had great luck with them. These muffins are going straight to my “must make” list.
These are really good! I’ve put blueberry jam in the middle before baking and they’re delicious.
I was just going to bake some of these before I came by your recipe! Such a good combo.
That looks great.
Classic!
The problem with making these delicious looking muffins is that I would eat EVERY SINGLE ONE! I have absolutely no control when it comes to lemon poppy seed anything!
I love poppy seed muffins. In fact I ate a poppy seed muffin today and recently made orange poppy seed muffins . Maybe I’ll try these next!
Adam’s favorite muffin. He used to have one for breakfast every day on his way to class in college. This will be a nice surprise for him one of these mornings. Yummy!
I made these yesterday morning and I think they were o.k….nothing great. IMO they could have used a couple of tablespoons more sugar and maybe even the zest of a second lemon. I also liked the idea of Mia’s version with blueberry jam inside – I think that would give them a little more interest. Thanks for posting though…I enjoyed trying them and was able to share some with friends.
I made these for Easter…everybody enjoyed them, but I didn’t think they tasted very lemony. The first batch I couldn’t taste the lemon at all, so with batches 2,3,&4 I used the juice and zest of 2 lemons. Very faint lemon taste..would’ve added more, but didn’t want to make the batter too wet. I, however, love poppy seed muffins, so they were great.
Made these and they are amazing! I added a second lemon to bring out the taste more if you like lemon as much as I do! They are soo good I had to blog them today.
I made these with a very similiar recipe but it used yogurt instead of sour cream. How do you feel about that?
Hi Kristina, Although I have never substituted yogurt I know that it is quite common for plain Greek yogurt to be used in place of sour cream and even mayonnaise in a number or recipes. If you try it let me know how it turns out!
Lovely texture, but I felt they needed more lemon flavor. I had zested an extra half lemon, but it still wasn’t lemony enough for me. The next time, I plan to zest two lemons and use 1/2 tsp lemon extract in place of part of the vanilla. Beautiful, moist muffins, so they definitely have a lot of potential. I’d guess that glazing them, as was intended in the original recipe, would help amp up the lemony goodness. But as a diabetic, I am hesitant to add a glaze. I’m betting that the addition of more zest and some extract might be just the ticket.