Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
These lemon poppy seed muffins are made with buttermilk and fresh lemons, making them perfectly moist and bursting with fresh lemon flavor. Plus, learn how to make TALL bakery-style muffins!
There is nothing like pulling warm muffins out of the oven at home, filling your kitchen with the smell of homemade muffins! Lemon poppyseed muffins had to make it into my collection of muffin recipes.
Packed full of zesty lemon flavor, these poppy seed muffins make the perfect breakfast, afternoon snack, or my favorite – the late night snack! Muffins are good any time of day or night, and the perfect lemon poppy seed muffin, made with fresh lemon juice and fresh lemon zest, will make your day a little brighter!
The tartness of the lemon in this lemon poppy seed muffin recipe pairs perfectly with the nutty flavor of the poppy seeds. The crunchy poppy seeds also add a nice texture to these tender muffins. Not only are these delicious muffins, but I’m sharing all my best tips for creating gorgeous bakery-style muffin tops below. Happy Baking!
Why You’ll Love These Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Perfect any-time food
- Best flavor with fresh lemons
- Can be made ahead and frozen
- Beautiful bakery style muffins
How to Properly Measure Flour
The most accurate way to measure flour is to use a kitchen scale, weighing it in grams.
If you don’t have a kitchen scale, follow this method.
- Aerate the flour with a whisk or spoon. Flour becomes heavy and compact as it sits. Aerating is the same as fluffing the flour, but not the same as sifting it. Do not sift the flour unless the recipe specifically calls for it.
- Use a spoon to sprinkle the flour into the measuring cup. Do not tap the cup against the counter, as this will compact the flour.
- Use the back of a butter knife to level off the excess.
What You’ll Need for Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
These simple ingredients make the best lemon poppy seed muffins! Keep scrolling to get the full measurements and instructions in the recipe card below.
- All purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Poppy seeds
- Large eggs
- Buttermilk
- Butter: Make sure it’s melted and cooled
- Lemon zest: Fresh lemon zest is best
- Fresh lemon juice: Juice from fresh lemons is best for a stronger lemon flavor!
How to Make Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
These easy lemon poppy seed muffins look like they came from a bakery, but are so easy to make! Get the entire recipe in the recipe card below.
Note: This recipe requires that the batter rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator before baking. I cannot guarantee the same results if the batter doesn’t rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
Combine dry ingredients. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds. Stir with a spoon to combine and set aside.
Combine wet ingredients. In a larger mixing bowl combine the eggs, buttermilk, melted and cooled butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir to combine with a fork or spatula for 30 seconds.
Combine all ingredients. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, mixing by hand just until combined. The batter will be very thick!
Let batter rest. Cover the bowl with a towel and allow the batter to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. I cannot guarantee the same results if the batter doesn’t rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. During this time, preheat the oven to 425ºF.
Add batter to muffin tin. For bakery style muffin tops, line a 12 count muffin pan with 6 muffins liners, meaning you’ll only fill every other muffin well with batter. Filling every other well allows the muffins to spread and dome without running into each other.
Fill liners. Fill the paper liners super duper full with batter – see this photo. My muffins probably had about 8-10 heaping tablespoons of batter in each muffin liner. Use a butter knife to smooth the tops of the muffins if lumpy. Sprinkle with sanding sugar.
Refrigerate batter waiting to be baked. While one pan is baking, be sure to refrigerate the other pan if it has batter in it. Or refrigerate the remaining batter if still in the bowl.
Bake. Place one pan in the center of the oven and bake for 7 minutes at 425ºF, then keep the muffins in the oven, and turn the temperature down to 350ºF and bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining batter, making sure to bump the temperature back up to 425ºF.
Add extra sanding sugar. I like to sprinkle a little extra sanding sugar on my muffins right when they come out of the oven.
How to Create Bakery-Style Muffins
Bakery-style muffin tops are known for their domed taller muffin tops. Plus, who doesn’t love them? I used a few techniques to help “lift” these muffins so they would have domed tops.
1. THE REST PERIOD
Let the batter rest for 30 minutes, covered, in the fridge after it’s mixed and before you scoop it into the muffin pan. During the resting period, starch molecules in the flour are absorbing the liquid in the batter, causing them to swell and giving the batter a thicker consistency (ref the kitchen whisper).
2. BAKE AT HIGH TEMPERATURE INITIALLY
Bake the muffins at a high temperature (425ºF) initially, then lower to 350ºF. Starting the muffins off at a higher temperature causes the batter to rise rapidly, setting the outer surface of the muffin, producing a domed shape.
3. FILL THEM TO THE TOP
Fill your muffin liners to the top with batter. Yes, this goes against everything you’re heard, but it’s important in helping the muffin gain that height.
For a true bakery style muffin, top the final product with coarse sanding sugar, also called sparkling sugar, or sugar crystals.
4. FILL EVERY OTHER MUFFIN CUP
This tip has been a game changer! For bakery style muffin tops, line a 12 count muffin pan with 6 muffins liners, meaning you’ll only fill every other muffin well with batter. Filling every other cup allows the muffins to spread and dome without running into each other. This technique also encourages the muffins to brown, creating a golden muffin top.
Substitutions & Variations
- Chia seeds: Use chia seeds instead of poppy seeds if you don’t have poppy seeds or can’t eat them.
- Gluten Free Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins: Instead of all-purpose flour, you can use a gluten-free flour blend. I recommend King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour. Use it as a one for one substitute for regular flour.
- Simple Lemon Glaze. Add a simple sweet lemon glaze to make these moist muffins even more decadent.
- Lemon Blueberry Muffins. Make these into lemon blueberry muffins just by adding fresh blueberries.
Storing & Freezing Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
To store this lemon poppyseed muffin recipe, make sure your baked muffins are completely cooled before you store or freeze them! You can store these muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 or 4 days.
You can also freeze these in a freezer safe container. I like to wrap mine two at a time, end to end, in plastic wrap and store my wrapped muffins in a freezer zip lock bag. You can thaw them individually to satisfy a sweet tooth whenever you want to! To thaw, you can leave them out on your kitchen counter or heat them in the microwave for 15-second intervals until they’re thawed completely.
More Lemon Recipes
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups all purpose flour, 420 grams
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp poppy seeds
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup butter, melted and cooled
- zest of 2 lemons
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- This recipe requires that the batter rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator before baking. I cannot guarantee the same results if the batter doesn’t rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
- In a mixing bowl combine the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds. Stir with a spoon to combine and set aside.
- In a larger mixing bowl combine the eggs, buttermilk, melted and cooled butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir to combine with a fork or spatula for 30 seconds.
- Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, mixing by hand just until combined. The batter will be very thick!
- Cover the bowl with a towel and allow the batter to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. I cannot guarantee the same results if the batter doesn’t rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. During this time, preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- For bakery style muffin tops, line a 12 count muffin pan with 6 muffins liners, meaning you’ll only fill every other muffin well with batter. Filling every other well allows the muffins to spread and dome without running into each other.
- Fill the liners super duper full with batter – see this photo. My muffins probably had about 8-10 heaping tablespoons of batter in each muffin liner. Use a butter knife to smooth the tops of the muffins if lumpy. Sprinkle with sanding sugar.
- While one pan is baking, be sure to refrigerate the other pan if it has batter in it. Or refrigerate the remaining batter if still in the bowl. Place one pan in the center of the oven and bake for 7 minutes at 425ºF, then keep the muffins in the oven, and turn the temperature down to 350ºF and bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing. Repeat with the remaining batter, making sure to bump the temperature back up to 425ºF.
- I like to sprinkle a little extra sanding sugar on my muffins right when they come out of the oven.
First time making lemon poppyseed muffins. They were delicious and the whole family loved them even my 9 and 6 year old. Absolute perfection! I look forward to making these again for our family and for special occasions.
Best muffins I have EVER made, and I’ve been baking for 40 years. Followed the recipe exactly, with the sugar on top and they came out perfect. Like real bakery muffins!
Loved to read how measurements are much more precise when using a kitchen scale. Yes!!! Finally!
But then the recipe doesn’t…. bummer….
I will make them anyway. Looking forward to them!
Hi Cathy! The most critical ingredient to measure on a kitchen scale is the flour, which I provide a gram measurement for.
All I can say is wow! These lemon muffins were crazy easy to make and moist and flavourful! I love that I don’t need to whip out my mixer to make this one. Easy directions to follow and I’m hooked on these bakery style big muffins! I won’t make them any other way now. I’ve also tried the orange one and there just is no other! I’ll be sticking to your recipes for all my muffin needs! Thank you!!
These are the best lemon poppyseed muffins! This is my first time making muffins from scratch, the recipe is easy to follow and results are delicious!
I made these exactly as directed. I don’t know if I was supposed to have a bigger muffin pan, but I filled the cups as suggested and they started overflowing in my pan and oven. The edges burned so when I popped them out, the tops came off. They weren’t very lemony even though I added extra zest.
Hi Katie! Did you refrigerate the batter? You can see in the photos that my edges got golden brown, but not burned. Do you think they were over baked?
Do you have any suggestions on cooking time/temperature when using a convection oven?
I would use the same cooking temperature suggestions, 425 for 7 mins, but decrease the amount of time baked at 350 slightly.
This is the one y’all! This is the PERFECT recipe. I felt so proud after my batches came out, perfect domes every single time. Not to mention moist and delicious, bakeries cannot compete! Don’t skip any steps, Beth knows what she’s doing!!
Hi! Looking forward to making these muffins for the first time and wondering if I could use a “jumbo” muffin tin instead of a regular size? If so, would I follow the same baking temps and times? Any advice is appreciated!
Hi Michelle! I haven’t test my muffin recipes in a jumbo pan, but I can give you an idea of baking times. Bake at 425ºF for 10 minutes, then lower to 350ºF for the reminder, which will probably 5-15 minutes longer then the listed bake time at 350.
I was so happy that the muffins got the dome look that I was wanting!! They were moist, but I did find they lacked the flavour. I don’t want to add more lemon juice as I don’t want to mess up the consistency and ruin the dome look. Any suggestions?
You can add more lemon zest and / or lemon extract!