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Soft, sweet and a little tangy, these Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins will turn into your new favorite breakfast! While lots of bakeries have their versions, this homemade recipe is the *best* version. Butter and sour cream keep these muffins moist while the lemon juice, zest and almond extract gives lots of flavor you will love! If you don’t like lemon, try my popular Banana Bread Muffins or Morning Glory Muffins.
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
The lemon lover in me is freaking out just a tad because I’m so excited to be sharing these lemon poppy seed muffins with you today! I have no idea why I haven’t shared this ever before because it seems like such a basic recipe, but here we are! If you like muffins or lemon flavored anything (*raises both hands) read on!
What Are Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins Made Of? | Main Ingredients
Just like any other muffin recipe or baked good, this recipe is made up of wet ingredients (like eggs, butter, sour cream and milk) and dry ingredients (like all purpose flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda). These muffins are unique because they also include lemon zest, lemon juice, almond extract and poppy seeds! Obviously you need lemons and poppy seeds for lemon poppy seed muffins. The almond extract is classically added to these but if you don’t like it, feel free to substitute for more vanilla extract.
Do Poppy Seeds Go Bad?
Yes, poppy seeds can go rancid. Poppy seeds have high fat content and those oils overtime can go rancid and taste unpleasant just like other oils, shortening, nuts and other seeds.
On average, poppy seeds will last 6 months sitting on your spice rack at room temperature and up to a year in the fridge. Check expiration dates before using your poppy seeds. If you’re on the fence or unsure, just smell and/or taste them. If they taste off, then they are rancid or ‘bad’ and you’ll have to get a new jar.
How to Make Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
If you’ve ever made cookies, cakes or other muffin recipes, this will be a breeze. Even if you are a novice, this is a really simple recipe! I’ve got you covered. For all the specifics, be sure to head to my printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Combine Dry Ingredients
In a large bowl, whisk all purpose flour together with salt, baking powder and baking soda. A lot of recipes will call for sifting all the dry ingredients not only to combine them all together but to aerate. Whisking them works just as well…it’s like the poor man’s version of sifting that works perfectly.
Make the Muffin Batter
Start making the batter by creaming the butter with the granulated sugar. Stir in the eggs, sour cream, lemon juice, lemon zest and extracts. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Over stirring will create gluten and gluten will create a tough muffin with domed tops. While we want gluten for bread and pizza dough, we want tender and soft muffins. So once the dry ingredients are incorporated, stop stirring. Fold in the poppy seeds by hand.
Bake the Muffins
Once your muffin batter is ready to go, portion it into your muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until lightly golden brown and they are thoroughly baked. Enjoy them warm with butter or at room temperature.
Storing Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Any extra muffins can be stored at room temperature for two days in air tight containers or up to four days in the fridge. To freeze baked muffins, cool completely to room temperature, then add to a gallon size ziploc bag and freeze for up to four months. To defrost, you can either transfer entire bag to the fridge and wait 24-48 hours or microwave muffins in small batches at 50% power.
How Can I Make Muffins More Moist?
There are a few tips and tricks built right into this lemon poppy seed muffin recipe that will yield you super soft, sweet and moist muffins every time.
- Butter– butter, oil or any fat in any baked good is a good sign that the finished product will be moist.
- Sour Cream– the dairy and slight fat content from sour cream really makes a world of difference in muffins, cookies or cakes. Plain greek yogurt works in a pinch too.
- Whole Milk– adding extra liquid to the muffin batter that happens to have a little extra fat (whole milk is 4% milk fat) really helps keeping muffins moist! If you’ve been baking with nonfat or 1% milk, try switching.
- Do not Over Bake– I think we all have experience leaving some muffins or cakes in the oven a little too long and ending up with an overly dry finished product. Start checking your muffins fore doneness earlier than later to ensure you aren’t going to dry them out.
Are Poppy Seed Muffins Good For You? How Many Calories in a Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin?
Because these lemon poppy seed muffins have that addition of 1 tablespoon of poppy seeds, it makes this recipe higher in calcium, phosphorus, iron and zinc. It is also said to be good for digestion and hair health. My recipe makes 24 muffins and each muffin is 185 calories with 8 gram of fat, 25 grams of carbs and 3 grams of protein. They fit nicely into a well balanced diet.
Other Lemon Poppy Seed Recipes You Will Love
- Lemon Poppyseed Bread (low fat recipe)
- Lemon Poppyseed Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Strawberry Salad with Poppyseed Dressing
- Strawberry Avocado Kale Salad with Bacon Poppyseed Dressing
Anyways, I hope you love these muffins as much as my family did. They are nearly perfect and certainly pleased the masses. Grab a few lemons and poppy seeds and get baking!
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
- 12 tablespoons butter at room temperature, 3/4 cup
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest zested
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Equipment
- muffin tins
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners and set aside.
- In a large bowl, stir butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, sour cream, milk, lemon zest and juice together until well combined.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour dry ingredients into wet and stir until just combined.
- Fold in poppyseeds. Scoop batter into prepared muffin tins until filled 2/3 of the way.
- Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
Lauren, I have tried making these twice without success. I noticed today that your directions with the pictures on here are totally different than the printed recipe. My butter, sugar, egg, sour cream mixture almost looks curdled. The muffins come out really dry and you can’t even taste the lemon.
All your recipes are great, thank you and by the way how do you like Oregon vs New York?