These Easy Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins are a delicious way to start your morning! They're fluffy, flavorful, and smell insanely good! Drizzle this simple lemon glaze over the top for a little more burst of lemon flavor!
2tablespoonLemon Juice(fresh from approx. 2 lemons)
1teaspoonLemon Paste (or lemon extract)
1teaspoonVanilla Extract
2Large Eggs(room temperature)
½cupUnsalted Butter(melted)
2 ½tablespoonPoppy Seeds(soaked in warm water and drained)
Sparkling Sugar(for sprinkling over the glaze)
lemon honey syrup
1tablespoonLemon Juice(fresh)
1tablespoonHoney
lemon glaze
1cupPowdered Sugar(sifted)
3tablespoonLemon Juice
Instructions
lemon poppy seed muffins
In a small bowl filled with warm water, soak the poppy seeds for 1 hour or preferably overnight. Drain and set to the side.
In a heat-proof measuring glass or bowl, melt the unsalted butter in the microwave until fully melted. Set to the side and allow to cool slightly.
In a medium size bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set to the side.
2 ¼ cups All-Purpose Flour, 2 teaspoon Baking Powder, ½ teaspoon Baking Soda, ¼ teaspoon Salt
In a separate bowl and with clean hands, rub the granulated sugar and lemon zest together. Set to the side.
1 cup Granulated Sugar, 2 tablespoon Lemon Zest
Using a whisk, hand-held mixer, or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the sour cream, whole milk, lemon juice, lemon paste, vanilla extract, and eggs on medium-high speed until well blended. Add the granulated sugar and lemon zest mixture and continue mixing.
1 cup Sour Cream, ¼ cup Whole Milk, 2 tablespoon Lemon Juice, 1 teaspoon Lemon Paste, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract, 2 Large Eggs
With a spatula, stir the dry mixture in only halfway. If using a stand mixer, stop your mixer, add in the dry flour mixture in, then mix the batter on low speed only halfway.
Gently fold in the melted, slightly cooled unsalted butter and poppy seeds. Finish stirring the muffin batter until there are little to no visible areas of flour. A few visible streaks of flour are okay.
½ cup Unsalted Butter, 2 ½ tablespoon Poppy Seeds
Let the mixture sit covered in the fridge for 30-45 minutes. You can let this muffin batter rest overnight in the refrigerator, if needed.
Adjust your oven rack to the 2nd level rack (from the top) and preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with muffin liners.
Using a large scoop, divide the muffin batter into the 12 cupcake liners (the batter will come up high), then bake for 18-20 minutes at 400ºF. If desired, top each muffin with sparkling sugar. When done, the muffins tops should spring back when lightly pressed.
Sparkling Sugar
Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to cool within the tin for about 5-10 minutes. If desired, you can immediately apply the honey lemon syrup mixture to the tops of each muffin using a pastry brush.
Transfer the muffins to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling a bit more or fully. Drizzle with the lemon glaze and/or garnish with lemon zest, if desired.
lemon honey syrup
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and honey until blended. Brush over the tops of just baked muffins.
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice, 1 tablespoon Honey
lemon glaze
In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice until well blended. Drizzle over the top of somewhat cooled muffins.
1 cup Powdered Sugar, 3 tablespoon Lemon Juice
Notes
Soak the poppy seeds. I recommend soaking them in warm water for at least one hour or, for the best results, overnight.Sift the flour. For fluffier lemon muffins, I highly recommend sifting your all-purpose flour.Don't over-mix the batter. When you over-mix the muffin batter, you can wind up with a tougher texture muffin when baked. Over-mixing also adds more air to the mixture creating holes.Rest the muffin batter. If time allows, I recommend resting your lemon poppy seed muffin batter in the refrigerator (covered) for 30 to 45 minutes, max. You can even let the batter rest overnight if you need to.Brush on the lemon honey syrup (optional step). You can brush on some lemon honey syrup over the top of each lemon poppy seed muffin right after they've come out of the oven. I do this with my small-batch lemon cupcakes recipe, and it's easy to whisk together and adds an even greater lemon flavor!Nutritional information is only for the lemon poppy seed muffins, not the glaze, syrup, or sparkling sugar.