You will LOVE these lemon poppy seed muffins, with their fluffy, moist, flavour-packed interior, the gorgeous tall bakery-style muffin top and the tangy lemon icing. They’re super easy to make and gluten free!
These are, hands down, the best muffins I’ve ever had.
I’m a huge fan of lemony desserts in general (the Lemon Drizzle Cake and Strawberry Lemonade Cake come to mind), but add poppy seeds into the mix, and you’ll have to fight me to get a bite. We’ve enjoyed the deliciousness of this flavour combination previously, in the Simple Lemon Poppy Seed Sheet Cake and the Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes – and now, it’s time for a new lemon poppy seed fix.
Enter these gluten free muffins. The best way to describe them is as moist, fluffy flavour explosions. Aside from the lemon juice, lemon zest and a handful of poppy seeds in the muffins themselves, we’re going a step further and topping what are already excellent muffins with a tangy lemon icing.
The icing adds a freshness to the muffins and really emphasises the lemon flavour. But more importantly, give it about half an hour to dry out after drizzling, and it’ll firm up into this crackly, sweet, lemony crust that melts on your tongue with every bite.
Is this muffin heaven? Well, it certainly tastes (and looks) like it.
Why are these lemon poppy seed muffins so amazing?
Let me tell you all about them:
- They’re easy to make.
- They have the most beautifully domed bakery-style muffin tops – as all proper muffins should.
- They’re fluffy and moist, which is probably the ideal muffin texture.
- Also, they’re incredibly flavourful, thanks to the addition of lemon zest.
- And I’m sure we can all agree that there are few flavour combinations as amazing as the lemon + poppy seed combo.
- The lemon icing – sure, you could have these muffins as they are… but why would you, when you can drizzle a refreshing, zingy lemon icing on top?!
- And to top it all off: they’re gluten free!!
How to make the perfect tall, baker-style muffins
Here’s a checklist of Top 3 things to remember when making muffins:
- Thick batter consistency: muffin batter has to be fairly thick, much thicker than cupcake batter. This helps the formation of a gloriously domed, tall muffin (rather than a flat, only gently rounded cupcake). When you scoop muffin batter into cupcake liners, you’re looking for a batter consistency that doesn’t spread out (like cupcake batter might) but keeps the shape of the scoop.
- Filling muffin cases (paper liners) all the way to the brim: this is especially important if you want to achieve that beautiful bakery-style (jumbo muffin) top.
- Bake muffins at a higher temperature compared to cupcakes: whereas cupcakes are usually baked at 320 – 350 ºF (160 – 180 ºC), muffins require a higher baking temperature of about 370 – 390 ºF (190 – 200 ºC).
How do you make fluffy muffins, and prevent them from being dense?
A thick batter can sometimes have the “side effect” of dry, dense muffins – but don’t worry, that’s not the case with this recipe. The addition of milk and yogurt keeps the muffins nice and moist, while a generous amount of raising agents and a few tablespoons of lemon juice ensure that they’re tall and fluffy.
The amounts of baking powder and baking soda are optimised to give a soft, fluffy crumb without leaving behind any aftertaste, and the lemon juice (as well as the acidity from the yogurt) gives the raising agents an extra boost.
The end result is nothing short of gluten free muffin perfection. But don’t take my word for it. Make them (ASAP), enjoy them… and thank me later.
Have a wonderful day, friends.
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Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (Gluten Free)
You will LOVE these lemon poppy seed muffins, with their fluffy, moist, flavour-packed interior, the gorgeous tall bakery-style muffin top and the tangy lemon icing. They’re super easy to make and gluten free!
Ingredients
For lemon poppy seed muffins:
- 2 1/3 cups (280 g) gluten free flour blend (Note 1)
- 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp (80 g) almond flour (if you have an almond allergy, you can substitute it with an equal weight of gluten free flour blend, but the muffins will be slightly drier)
- 3/4 cup (150 g) caster/superfine sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp xanthan gum (omit if your gluten free flour blend already contains xanthan gum or if using regular flour)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- zest of 2 lemons
- 2 - 3 tbsp poppy seeds
- 1 stick + 1 tbsp (130 g) softened unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp (140 mL) milk, can be cold or room temperature
- 1/2 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp (140 g) plain yogurt, can be cold or room temperature
- 2 US large/UK medium eggs, can be cold or room temperature
- 4 tbsp lemon juice
For lemon icing:
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered/icing sugar, sifted
- ~3 tbsp lemon juice
- poppy seeds, for sprinkling
Instructions
For lemon poppy seed muffins:
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 375 ºF (190 ºC) and line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases (paper liners).
In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, almond flour, caster/superfine sugar, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, lemon zest and poppy seeds.
Add the butter and, using a hand mixer with the double beaters attachment or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, work it into the dry ingredients until you get a mixture resembling breadcrumbs.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, yogurt, eggs and lemon juice, and add them to the butter-flour mixture. Whisk them together until you get a thick, smooth batter with no flour clumps.
Scoop the batter into the muffin cases, dividing it equally between 12 (for standard muffins, cases filled to the brim) or 9 - 10 cases (for jumbo muffins, batter makes a small mound rising above the edge of the muffin cases).
Bake at 375 ºF (190 ºC) for about 18 minutes (standard muffins) or about 20 minutes (jumbo muffins), or until risen, golden brown on top and an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs attached.
Leave in the muffin tin for 3 - 4 minutes, then remove from the tin and place onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
For lemon icing:
In a bowl, whisk together the powdered/icing sugar and lemon juice until smooth. You should get a fairly runny icing that still coats the back of a spoon.
You can adjust its consistency by adding more powdered/icing sugar or lemon juice, as desired.
Once the muffins have cooled, drizzle them with the icing, and sprinkle with extra poppy seeds.
Storage:
The gluten free lemon poppy seed muffins are best eaten on the day of baking, but they can be kept in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 4 days. On days 3 and 4, they're best if first microwaved for 5 - 10 seconds.
Recipe Notes
Note 1: I used Doves Farm Free plain gluten free flour blend, which contains no xanthan gum. Alternatively, you can use a blend composed of 50% white rice flour, 30% potato starch and 20% maize flour. You can also use an equal weight of regular plain wheat flour if gluten free isn't a requirement.
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13 thoughts on “Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins”
1st time making these muffins and they turned out perfect, divided equally between 12 muffin wraps, well risen, light and spongy. I was wondering if lemon curd was incorporated after the mix has been added to the wraps/cases and lightly incorporated using a skewer for example would you advise adjusting the recipe?
Hi Neil, so glad you enjoyed the muffins! I don’t think the recipe would need to be changed if you wanted to swirl in some lemon curd just before baking – that said, I haven’t tested it, so I really couldn’t say with absolute certainty.
I’ve made these muffins twice now and everyone has loved them! I added blueberries instead of poppyseed for the second batch, and they were delicious. One question: both times, the muffins have come out of the oven with the beautiful dome but deflated as they cooled. What could have caused this?
Hi Sophia, so glad everyone enjoyed the muffins! There could be three reasons for deflating muffins off the top of mu head:
1. The blueberries: in general, muffins or cakes with fresh fruit in them can sometimes collapse – the fruit can disrupt the internal structure of the bakes.
2. The muffins were slightly underbaked – did you check them with a toothpick to see if they’re done?
3. Did you add xanthan gum or did you use a GF flour blend with xanthan gum? Xanthan gum adds structure to GF bakes (acting as a gluten replacement) and in its absence, muffins and cakes can sometimes collapse slighty.
These are super light and moist muffins with great lemony flavors! I think my batter was slightly on the runny side because, although I got a nice rise, they were actually a bit overflowing. I can fix that next time. The only thing is that with that amount of baking powder, I can actually taste it a little in the muffin. Do you think playing around with the proportions of the baking soda and baking powder would be worth trying? Thanks!
Hi Liina! SO glad you enjoyed the muffins. 🙂 That’s odd that the batter was runny, it definitely shouldn’t be too runny… which GF flour mix did you use? Different brands can absorb different amounts of liquid/moisture, so that might’ve been the reason. You can definitely tweak the amounts of baking soda and baking powder to your personal taste.
Thanks Kat! I used King Arthur gluten free Measure for Measure flour. I totally agree that the runny batter was most likely because of this flour, which I normally do need to scale up in GF recipes. For whatever reason, I just didn’t follow my instincts yesterday. Your recipes have so far been working really well for me, so I’m excited about the coming book 🙂
Great recipe! First batch I think I cooked a little too long, but 2nd batch was perfect at 15 min! (I live at high altitude) Added an extra egg (mine were small) and a little bit of vanilla & lemon in 2nd batch for extra flavor. (Also, I made both batches dairy free & they were great!) Thank you! 🙂
Can I substitute the milk part for almond milk? Or some other dairy free milk option?
You can definitely use a non-dairy milk – almond, oat, rice or soy will work.
I made the muffins; however, they didn’t get rise and have the dome shape on the top. The one thing I had difficulty with was after mixing the butter and the flour then adding the wet ingredients it was hard to get rid of the flour clumps. Would I be able to next time just add the softened butter to the wet ingredients first then add it to the flour? Thanks so much!
Was your butter properly softened? If it was too cold or if you didn’t properly work it into the dry ingredients, it makes it difficult to get a smooth mixture. Also, you can add the wet ingredients in several batches – the slower addition makes it easier to get a smooth batter.
I will try that next time thank you! The flavor and texture of the muffins were awesome! I posted pics on my Instagram and tagged you! Thank you for a great recipe!