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The Best Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Perfect Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Yield: 20 Muffins
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

Muffins:

  • 3 cups (426 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (212 g) granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ cups plain yogurt, Greek or regular or buttermilk (or a combination; see note)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, from 1-2 lemons
  • 1 ½ tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest, from about 3 lemons
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cup (113 g) salted butter, melted and cooled until no longer hot

Glaze:

  • ¼ cup (53 g) granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
  • Coarse sugar, for sprinkling (optional, but fun and delicious)

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (if using a dark-coated pan, preheat to 350 degrees F). Lightly grease two 12-cup muffin tins or line with muffin liners. If you only have one pan, you can easily bake in separate batches. See note about using a USA brand muffin tin.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  • In another bowl or large liquid measuring cup, whisk together the yogurt/buttermilk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and eggs.
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together once or twice to start combining (stop stirring before it's fully combined; it's ok if there are dry streaks remaining). Add the melted butter and gently fold/stir until just combined. Don't overmix or the muffins might be dry and tough!
  • Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 of the way full (I use this handy dandy #20 cookie scoop to fill the muffin tins).
  • Bake for 17-20 minutes until the top springs back lightly to the touch.
  • For the glaze, while the muffins bake, simmer the sugar and lemon juice together in a small pan on the stove, for about 5 minutes until the mixture is thickened into a light syrup. Remove from the heat.
  • Pretty quickly after the muffins come out of the oven (within 2-3 minutes), keeping the muffins in the tin, brush the top of the muffins equally with the lemon syrup. Sprinkle with coarse sugar, if using.
  • Let the muffins cool another minute or two in the muffin tin before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

Lemons: you only need about 3 lemons total for the recipe if you zest the lemons before juicing!
Yogurt: I've used 100% yogurt in these muffins, and I've also used a combination of yogurt and buttermilk (I use lowfat yogurt each time). I have not used sour cream (although I think it would probably work quite well), neither have I tried 100% buttermilk (yet). NOTE: some readers using extra-thick Greek yogurt haven't loved the result, so I'd recommend using regular yogurt or a Greek yogurt that isn't super thick.
Muffin Tin: if you have USA brand muffin tins, you likely can get away filling the liners quite a bit more full (the muffin tin is structured differently so muffins don't overflow as easily as they are likely to do in other types of pans) and end up with more like 12-16 muffins that will be larger (and a bit more bakery-style).