Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
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 ;-)
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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
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup (133.33 g) sugar
- Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) salt
- ¾ cup (172.5 ml) sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
Instructions
- 1. 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.
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Nice, soft, cakey muffins. My husband is the lemon poppy seed fan in this relationship. I do usually grab one though when the mood strikes. It’s a great recipe to use up leftover sour cream from the fridge. I found them a little one-note in taste and texture, so i sprinkle turbinado sugar on top for a crunch, for a boost, which works. Around the mid-way point in baking, I also give the pan a half turn so as to get brown on all of them. I’ve made these muffins many times, with great success.
Not worth the ingredients
I made this recipe. The only substitution I made was using yogurt for the sour cream. The muffins came out too dry and too dense. Not even close to what I was expecting. Also not sweet enough and not enough lemon flavor.
I used this recipe today, and it was definitely quick and easy and overall I’m satisfied with the end product. I found that my batter wasn’t sweet enough using the 2/3 cup sugar so I doubled it and used 1 1/3 cups instead. I also drizzled lemon flavored royal icing on them after cooling, for extra sweetness and tang. The consistency was a little heavier than I would have liked but I reckon that it’s because I over-mixed. Also the 400 degrees was a little too hot and dried out my muffins a bit (I live in the tropics), next time i’ll use 350 for 20 mins. Thanks for a great recipe!
Mine turned out very ‘scone-like’ … Any idea why?
Mine just went in the oven, and the batter looked amazing!
Just a quick note that in step 2 you never mention the poppy seeds. It’s easy to figure out, so it’s not really a big deal at all either.
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.
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!
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 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.