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Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I love lemon poppy seed muffins. This recipe is based on the same Cook's Illustrated master muffin recipe on which I based our blueberry and lemon ginger muffins. The balance of flour, leavening, eggs and yogurt results in a light and fluffy muffin. The important things to remember with making these muffins is to make sure your baking powder is no older than 6 months (it may not work if older), and to not over-mix the batter.

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Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Ingredients

  • 3 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder (make sure your baking powder is no older than 6 months)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 Tbsp poppy seeds
  • 10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 1 Tbsp lemon zest

Glaze

  • 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 cup confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)

Method

1 Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt and set aside.

3 In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy (about 2 minutes with an electric mixer). Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the lemon zest.

4 Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat.

5 Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Coat each muffin cup lightly with olive oil, grapeseed oil, or a little melted butter using a pastry brush. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set muffin pan on wire rack to cool. After 5 minutes, remove muffins from pan.

6 While the muffins are cooling, in a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze. Add more lemon juice if necessary. While the muffins are still a bit warm, use a pastry brush to brush the glaze over each muffin. The muffins will absorb some of the glaze, so you add more glaze to each muffin if you like.

Makes 12 muffins. Best eaten fresh and warm.

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21 Comments

Just curious -- when do y'all actually eat muffins? For breakfast? (A muffin for breakfast just doesn't sound right to me since they're basically empty calories.) For a "teatime" snack? I love the idea of muffins, their ease to make and endless variety, but how to fit them into a daily menu throws me a bit.

Posted by: alamobecky on February 3, 2007 11:57 AM

Hi Alamobecky,
The best time to eat them is right after they've been baked, which around here is either in the morning or in the early afternoon. They're not completely empty calories, no less so than pancakes with maple syrup. Eggs, grains, yogurt - these things are good. It's the sugar you need to watch out for, but sugar is what you get when you put jam on an English muffin. So breakfast food it still is for me.

Posted by: Elise on February 3, 2007 12:08 PM

Hi Elise,

I'm finding my pantry without butter, and yet you've given me quite the hankering for muffins!

Do you have experience substituting oil for butter in this recipe?

thanks!


Posted by: McAuliflower on February 3, 2007 6:25 PM

When I bake I use splenda as a sugar substitute.If a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar I replace 3/4 of the cup of sugar with "splenda" . That leaves enough sugar in the batter to allow the carmelization that gives baked goods their golden colour and it reduces the calorie content and does not affect the texture or taste of the muffins.

Posted by: Jay on February 4, 2007 10:37 AM

Well... my craving took hold.
One batch of blueberry muffins and one batch of persimmon muffins later, I'm happy to report that a direct substitution of canola oil works beautifully!

Cheers

Posted by: McAuliflower on February 5, 2007 11:03 AM

I loved these muffins. I took them to work for a morning meeting and they were all gone in no time at all.

Posted by: laura on March 9, 2007 10:08 AM

Didn't find this recipe all that great. The muffins turned out pretty dry. I would suggest using more yogurt or an extra egg.

Posted by: Savannah on March 18, 2007 1:21 PM

Hi Savannah - they shouldn't be dry. If they were, they probably needed to be taken out of the oven a little earlier.

Posted by: Elise on March 18, 2007 1:40 PM

My batter turned out with enough to make 16 muffins instead of 12. Maybe we have different sized muffin tins?

Posted by: Jenny on June 3, 2007 2:07 PM

These muffins are fantastic. Thank you for the recipe!

Posted by: Emily on January 6, 2008 5:58 AM

These muffins are amazing...I'd go so far as to say they're the best I've ever tried! I had a food and film night with one of my friends - curries, curries and more curries! - and we decided to make these for breakfast the next morning...divine! Thanks for the recipe, will definitely make again!

Posted by: Krissie on February 17, 2008 1:57 AM

I liked these muffins except they didn't taste very lemony. I really wanted the tangy lemon flavor. Any suggestions on how to get that?

Add more lemon zest to the batter. ~Elise

Posted by: hoppab on April 18, 2008 7:05 PM

I think these should be renamed as "Awesome Muffins". Made them yesterday and had to resist the urge to devour them all at once. My husband gave into his desire and polished off three as soon as they were warm enough to handle. Normally, I'm not a big fan of icing on muffins, but this topping is the perfect combo -sweet with just the right amont of tart from the lemon and zest. This recipe is definitely in my "go-to-can't-wait-to-make-again" file!

Posted by: Elizabeth on April 19, 2008 7:07 AM

Hi Elise,

Thank you for a wonderful recipe. Just finish making them now and they are awesome. I did reduce an amount of sugar because I dont like it too sweet.

Posted by: Em on May 25, 2008 12:28 PM

I just made these -ostensibly- for dessert, having lazily stumbled across the recipe, but the aroma from the oven was far too overpowering so we had them for dinner instead, then had another cooling down over ice cream for dessert. Now posting here only as a probably futile attempt to avoid a third-- a million lemon yellowed thanks.

xo
-- Mtte.

Posted by: miette on June 6, 2008 3:57 PM

Perfect muffin recipe. They came out moist and tender and the kids loved them. I substituted almond extract for the lemon zest and omitted the glaze for Almond Poppy Seed Muffins.

Posted by: Pam on July 15, 2008 9:32 PM

These muffins are also great with frozen cranberries thrown in. I also added a couple of tbsp. of lemon juice into the batter as I like a real lemony flavour.

Thanks for the great recipe!

Posted by: Sharon on July 22, 2008 4:36 AM

Why did the muffins sink in the middle instead of rise?

Could be your baking powder is too old. It loses its efficacy quickly, within 6 months of purchase because it is a dry acid and a dry base together, which over time react with each other to cancel out the baking leavening power. ~Elise

Posted by: savi on January 16, 2009 11:29 AM

Luckily I had everything I needed for this recipe already. I used honey and agave instead of sugar and lowered the temp to 350 degrees, baking for only 18 minutes. I also halved the recipe but it still made 8 large muffins.. No complaints though, they are so delicious!

Posted by: Laura on February 21, 2009 2:37 PM

Could this recipe be used to make Lemon Poppy Seed Bread? How would you recommend changing the method?

Posted by: Andrea on March 31, 2009 8:26 AM

These are delicious! Really just perfect and moist. I didn't have any unflavored yogurt, so I substituted buttermilk. Made 16 for me.

Posted by: April on May 29, 2009 8:03 PM

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