Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
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Incredibly tasty, luscious Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins made super-moist with Greek yogurt and topped with sweet and tangy cream cheese lemon glaze!
Want all the lemon desserts you can get? Then you’ll definitely want to try my popular posts for Snow-Capped Lemon Cookies, Cream Cheese Lemon Bars, Lemon Poppy Seed Cake, and Cream Cheese Lemon Crumb Cake.
Okay, I admit, everyone and their dog has a lemon poppyseed muffin recipe. I’m not claiming to reinvent the wheel here. After all, lemon poppyseed muffins are a classic. But this recipe is my absolute favorite and, as your personal source for yummalicious recipes, I am committed to sharing any recipe that makes me say “mmmmm!!” which, obviously, this recipe does.
The difference in this ever-so-slightly tweaked version of my mother’s lemon poppyseed muffin recipe is that, while she makes hers with oil, I use plain, fat-free Greek yogurt because it adds protein and a LOT of moisture, and replaces the fat from the oil. I also added a rich and tangy lemon cream cheese glaze because, well…do I even need a reason for frosting?
Why This Recipe Works
Simple ingredients — You know what makes baking so much better? When you have all the ingredients and they’re not complicated. You probably have everything you need right now or one or two missing ingredients are just a quick grocery trip away. Nothing fancy or hard to find here.
Lemon glaze — These lemon poppyseed muffins are fabulous without the lemon glaze but just a drizzle and you’ll be forever a convert to muffins with frosting. Or, glaze, because the word “glaze” makes it sound less like a cake and more like a healthy muffin.
Fresh lemon juice — Sure, you can use the bottled lemon juice, and it’ll work just fine. But I truly believe in my heart of hearts that fresh lemon juice just tastes better. It’s more tart and tangy and really has a much better lemon flavor.
Zest — You know, while we’re on the topic of fresh lemons, I should probably mention how good it is to use fresh lemon zest for adding real lemon flavor to the actual muffin. Try this at home. You’ll thank me later.
Here’s How You Make It
Making the Muffins
- First, preheat that oven to 450. Then grease a muffin pan or line it with cupcake liners. (not pictured)
- Then, in a medium bowl, add in the flour, baking soda, and salt, and whisk together. (photo 1)
- In another large bowl, mix together the butter, eggs, sugar, lemon zest, Greek yogurt, and vanilla. (photo 2)
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix till everything’s combined, then add in the poppyseeds and stir. (photo 3-5)
- Add the batter to the muffin tins, only filling about ⅔ full. Bake in preheated oven for 12-16 minutes, or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean except for a few moist crumbs. (photos 6-7)
- Let the muffin tin cool on a wire rack. (not pictured)
Making the Icing
- While the muffins are cooling, make the icing by first beating together the softened butter and cream cheese for about 2 minutes until fluffy. (not pictured)
- Now add powdered sugar and lemon juice to the cream cheese and butter and mix in. Add more lemon juice to taste if you like. (photo 8)
- Drizzle the icing over the cooled muffins. Serve the muffins right away or you can store them on the counter in an airtight container for 3-5 days. (not pictured)
Frequently Asked Questions
My secret to making moist muffins is to use both butter and Greek yogurt and to be careful not to over-bake. These should take no longer than 20 minutes, max to bake. If they take longer, then they’re probably filled up too much. The longer they bake the most likely they are to get dry.
Poppy seeds are, indeed, good for you. They are a great source of fiber, which can keep you feeling fuller, longer. They are low in fat, sugar, and calories, and are a good source of magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, and also contain a little bit of protein. All good things!
Poppy seed oil (oil made from pressing poppy seeds) is a good source of omega-6 and -9 fatty acids, which are a good source of fat for your heart.
Expert Tips
- Did your glaze come out more like a frosting? That’s okay. You can thin the glaze out a bit by warming it up in the microwave for a few seconds at a time until it’s to your desired consistency.
- Want to skip the poppy seeds in this lemon poppy seed muffin recipe? No problem. Simply don’t add them and the lemon muffins will still be delish!
- If you don’t have Greek yogurt, you can substitute sour cream or you can use vegetable oil but it’s not a 1:1 ratio, so you’ll need to add about 1 ½ cups of oil instead of yogurt.
- For a lighter lemon glaze you can just use powdered sugar and lemon juice. The ratio is about 1 ½ cups of powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. Whisk and drizzle over the top of the muffins for a sweet, light tasty glaze.
More Tasty Muffin Recipes
- Cinnamon Swirl Banana Muffins
- Carrot Cake Muffins
- Bran Muffins
- Cinnamon Muffins
- Zucchini Bread Muffins
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Did you try this Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins recipe? EXCELLENT! Please rate the recipe below!
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cups flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup butter, (4 tablespoons)
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla, (or almond)
- zest of 2 small lemons , (or 1 large lemon – about 2 tablespoons)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ¾ cup plain fat free greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon poppyseeds
Icing
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar
- 1-2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 (see note) and grease a muffin pan or line with cupcake liners.
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl cream together butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, lemon zest and juice, and greek yogurt.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in poppyseeds.
- Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full with muffin batter. Bake for 12-16 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
- (See note about icing) To make the icing, cream softened butter and cream cheese for 2 minutes until very fluffy. Add powdered sugar and lemon juice and mix well. Taste and add more lemon juice if desired. Drizzle icing over cooled muffins. (If icing is too thick you can warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds ) Serve immediately or store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3-5 days.
Notes
- Did your glaze come out more like a frosting? That’s okay. You can thin the glaze out a bit by warming it up in the microwave for a few seconds at a time until it’s to your desired consistency.
- Want to skip the poppy seeds in this lemon poppy seed muffin recipe? No problem. Simply don’t add them and the lemon muffins will still be delish!
- If you don’t have Greek yogurt, you can substitute sour cream or you can use vegetable oil but it’s not a 1:1 ratio, so you’ll need to add about 1 ½ cups of oil instead of yogurt.
- For a lighter lemon glaze you can just use powdered sugar and lemon juice. The ratio is about 1 ½ cups of powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. Whisk and drizzle over the top of the muffins for a sweet, light tasty glaze.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Try these Cream Cheese Lemon Bars next!
The recipe looks divine! I don’t want to mess with it the first time (maybe add a bit more lemon juice based on comments). So, I bought some almond flour on a whim – do you think I could work it in here?
Thanks!
Hi Mack! I actually haven’t baked with almond flour before but it’s worth a try? I’d love to hear how it turns out if you give it a go!
I thought 450 was way too high. I was so wrong!!!! Delicious, moist, perfect. I think I have been cooking my muffins at the wrong temperature. Thank you for the great recipe
I made these and they came out amazing! I didn’t have powdered sugar so I couldn’t make the icing but they were still so good! I was wondering if I wanted to add raspberries would I have to adjust any of the ingredients or the bake time?
Thank You!
Hi McKenna! so glad you liked these! You could definitely add some raspberries, you shouldn’t need to adjust the baking time.
5 stars! These came out wonderfully! I even replaced half the flour with whole wheat and reduced the sugar by half in the icing. Thank you!
These are on my list to try when my lemon extract is ready to use next month. I’m hoping to replace the lemon zest with it.
Thank you! Keep moving
Do you have to use poppeyseeds for them to turn out?
Hi Alisa, They definitely won’t be lemon poppyseed muffins anymore but they would still come out as lemon muffins and they’d be tasty I think 🙂
Your recipe is wonderful! I did not make the icing, but I did try the muffins, then made them again, then started playing around with other flavors, and just today I baked lime and coconut muffins (same amount of lime juice and zest as the recipe says for lemon, but 1/2 cup coconut flakes added to the batter), and those turned out wonderful, too! Your recipe gave me courage to experiment. Normally I am very anxious about experimenting, but the texture of your original is so perfect that it made me feel braver, and each version I tried turned out perfectly every single time. Thank you for sharing!
Is this volume enough to bake this in a bundt pan?
These cupcakes are delicious! I made the batter with about 1/2 tablespoon more lemon juice than the recipe calls for and the cakes turned out fluffy with a noticeable hint of lemon. For the icing I used only 1 cup of powdered sugar and 2.5 teaspoons of lemon juice. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla extract. This made the icing a little less sweet and more flavorful/tangy, but it was still a very sweet icing. I will definitely be making this recipe again!
Hey! I made these and they taste pretty good–not too sweet at all! My muffins, however, didn’t come at as moist as yours (look) even though I only baked them for 12 minutes. Do you know why that might have happened? (I might have beat the wet mixture too long for example.) Also, I only used 2 cups of powdered sugar but the icing was very opaque and thick. What are some tips on making icing? Thanks!
Hi Sandra! I think it’s very possible that you overmixed the batter – try just mixing until dry ingredients are incorporated and no longer. Also for the icing, a great tip is to pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to get it nice and runny, this makes it perfect for drizzling or dipping!
I made these last week, and they are incredible!!! I did add a little more lemon(2 TBSP), and mine turned out perfect!