❤️ You’ll Love Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Quick & Easy: The prep work and batter making take only 15 minutes. Plus, 20 minutes of baking time is required for these muffins. Perfect Texture: These muffins are soft, moist, and fluffy with tender crumbs. Perfect Flavor: It tastes bright and zesty with a perfect balance of sweet and tangy lemon flavor.
🧾 Ingredient Notes
Butter: I prefer to use unsalted butter in my baking so I can control the salt intake. But if you have salted available, you can use that. It is fine. The butter has to be softened at room temperature (not chilled, cold, or not too soft like it is melted). Softened butter will cream really well with sugar. Here butter and sugar are whisked until light, smooth and fluffy. This creaming butter and sugar step is important. As we beat both together, it creates air bubbles. As you continue to beat; those air bubbles get bigger in size. And as you bake muffins, those air bubbles give a light texture. Poppy seeds: These are black poppy seeds. To my Indian friend, this is not khas-khas, white poppy seeds. Yogurt: It creates a tender texture and helps keep muffins moist. Use full-fat plain yogurt. Applesauce: It is used as an egg replacer. While muffins are baking, applesauce gives a rise to muffins and adds moisture to the muffins. Lemon zest: It is the outer bright yellow layer of the lemon rind. Use the Microplane zester to get the zest. Make sure not to grate the inner white part of the rind, just grate the yellow part. The white part is bitter and makes the muffins slightly on the bitter taste. It is easy to zest the lemon first and then squeeze the juice out of it. Optional glaze: it is made from powdered sugar and lemon juice.
👩🍳 How To Make Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins?
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners and keep it ready.
- Take dry ingredients in a bowl (all purpose flour, poppy seeds, salt, baking soda).
- Whisk until everything is combined and keep it aside.
- Take softened butter and sugar to another large bowl.
- Start beating using a hand mixer (or stand mixer with the whisk attachment or wire whisk) until the mixture looks light, fluffy, airy and smooth.
- Add the rest of the wet ingredients (yogurt, applesauce, vanilla) and lemon zest.
- Again beat it until mixed.
- Add dry flour mixture into the wet.
- Fold the flour using a spatula and mix until the batter just comes together. Do not overmix the batter.
- Divide the batter into the prepared muffin pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes. Check the doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center of the muffin and it should come out clean. Let the muffins cool down in the pan itself for 5 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack. Making Glaze (Optional):
- Take powdered sugar in a bowl and add lemon juice.
- Whisk it until smooth.
- The consistency of the glaze should be smooth and runny (not too thick or not too thin).
- Drizzle this glaze over the cooled muffins.
💭 Expert Tips
Always zest the lemon first and then squeeze the juice. Do not overmix the muffin batter otherwise baked muffins will turn tough and dense. For the perfect drizzle of the glaze, transfer the glaze into a ziplock bag, seal it and cut a small tip of the corner off. Then squeeze the glaze over the muffins. Storage: At room temperature, it stays good for a day or two depending on the climate where you live. In the refrigerator, it stays good for 4-5 days. But the muffins become hard as the butter solidifies in the fridge. So bring it to room temperature or warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds only before eating to enjoy the best texture. In the freezer, it stays good for up to 3 months. Wrap the muffins individually in a plastic wrap and freeze in a freeze-safe ziplock bag.
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