Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin Recipe

Do you know that feeling, when you step into your favourite café. That warmth wrapping around you, the smells filling you with happiness before you even sit down. I don’t know about you, but my choice of muffin at the café is always the Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin. I’ve been really missing that feeling lately, so I played around until I came up with the most lemony, scrumptious, lemon poppy seed muffin that will have you melting into a puddle of happiness and content.

Café Style Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins Recipe

Disclaimer: This article may contain commission or affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

There is something about that sour, lemony tang, mixed with a bit of sweet, on a velvety soft muffin that send me to my happy place.

This isn’t one of those dry, dense, tasteless muffins. Oh no!

This muffin is packed with so much flavour. The best part is that it isn’t too sweet. Just the right balance, with a little sweet crunch on top from some raw sugar crystals. Which also means you can control the sweetness.

Sometimes you need a lot of sweet, sometimes you need just a little hit. No matter what you are craving you can easily and instantly customize these amazing muffins to your taste.

Enjoy them with a cup of tea or coffee, while listening to some relaxing music and find yourself melting into the moment. Content. Happy. Satisfied.

Or, if your life is like mine, grab one on the go for that hit of pleasure in the middle of the chaos.!

Oh and my kids love them too. So I have a trick for making sure they last. Read on to discover my tips.

But first, let’s learn how to make these muffins.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin Ingredients

Note, I have provided weights then in brackets the approximate cup measurement. If at all possible always use weight. It is more accurate.

Muffins

600 g all purpose flour (3 cups)
200 g sugar (1 cup)
25 g poppy seeds (2.5 tbsp)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
500 g lemon yogurt (1.5 cups)
6 medium lemons, organic, not waxed
2 large free range eggs
125 g unsalted butter (1/3 cup)
60 g vegetable oil (1/4 cup)
Raw, coarse sugar

Lemon Glaze

1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup berry sugar (aka caster sugar or super fine sugar)
raw, coarse sugar

Instructions

Measure out your butter into a microwave proof bowl. Melt it, then set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, add flour, sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk together until completely combined.

In a separate bowl whisk yogurt and eggs until smooth. Zest all 6 lemons into the bowl. Yes, all six. Trust me, so worth it! Then juice 3 of the lemons into the bowl. Set the other three lemons to the side. Add the melted butter and oil. Whisk until smooth.

Make a well in the middle of the dry mix, then pour in the liquid mix. Using a spoon, gently fold together. Only fold a few times until just combined. You will still see dry flour. That is OK! Over mixing is what causes dense muffins. Do not overmix, it will ruin these fluffy muffins!

Let the mix sit for a few minutes. The batter will become very fluffy and soft. A really cool texture. While it is sitting, adjust the racks in your oven to the middle and heat to 375F/190C.

Grease a 12 cup muffin tin with butter. You can also use muffin cups if you prefer, but I like the way they bake without the cups better.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin.

Once the oven is warm bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, and the tops are turning golden brown. Depending on your oven, you may want to rotate your muffin tin half way through to ensure even baking.

Make the lemon glaze

While the muffins are baking, it is time to make the lemon glaze.

In a small saucepan, juice the last three lemons. It should come out to about 1/4 cup of juice. If you don’t get a enough, add a bit more. Add the berry sugar, which is also known as caster sugar or super fine sugar depending on where you live.

Simmer on low heat for about 5 to 8 minutes, stirring regularly.

Finishing Touches

When the muffins are done, pull them from the oven, remove from the muffin tin and place on a cooling rack over parchment paper.

Drizzle the lemon glaze over the top of the muffins while they are still warm.

Sprinkle with raw sugar.

Let cool and enjoy!

Tips

These lemon poppy seed muffins get devoured at our home. So one trick I learned is to spread the batter into two 12 cup muffin tins. If you only make 12 they are HUGE, but by spreading the batter out into 24 you get lots of perfectly snack sized muffins that tend to last a bit longer with all the snacking my teens do!

The biggest mistake you can make when baking these muffins is to overmix. When you add the liquid to the dry, be very gentle while folding, not mixing, it together. To fold, move your spoon around the edge and under the mix and through the middle. You will only do this about 15 times or so. Yes you will still see some dry mix, but don’t be tempted to overmix. Let it sit. Magic happens while it is sitting and it takes on the most incredible silky, light texture, resulting is a soft, light muffin. If you overmix, you kill the magic and your muffins will end up dense. I know it is sooooo tempting to keep mixing, but resist!

Do you like a sweeter muffin? Double the batch of lemon glaze. The glaze is adding a lot of the sweetness to these muffins. So if you have a sweet tooth, double the glaze so you can really pack in the sweet, lemony flavour.

Definitely double the glaze if you are doing 24 smaller muffins.

If you want to freeze your muffins, Freezer Meals 101 featured this recipe and talked about all the best tips and tricks for freezing muffins (and muffin batter). Check it out here.

More Magic