Double Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Healthy lemon poppy seed muffins made with whole wheat flour and yogurt. These delightful muffins have tons of flavor!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
I’m mad at these muffins. Mad because they took me three tries to get just right yesterday. Mad because the third variation turned out so well that I filled my belly with muffins before I went to bed last night. Fortunately, they’re composed of yogurt (instead of sour cream) and white whole wheat flour (instead of all-purpose flour), so they are more redeeming than your average muffins.
I realize that being mad at an inanimate, edible object is totally ridiculous. It’s like being mad at a puppy who’s been caught nibbling on your favorite pair of shoes. Impossible! They’re just muffins and puppies being their irresistible little selves.
Actually, after my leavening issues with the other batches yesterday, I’m downright proud of these muffins. After my lackluster first batch, I doubled the amount of lemon zest found in typical lemon poppy seed muffins, so these guys are bursting with flavor. No sissy muffins here. I also decided to use white whole wheat flour, which retains all of the nutrients of whole wheat flour but has a lighter flavor and color. That way, the lemon could really shine.
Before baking, I opted to sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar, which produces a sweet, crackling top that complements the texture of the poppy seeds. The finished muffins dome up nicely—not as high as they would if they had less poppy seeds and were made of all-purpose flour—but the resulting texture is rich, almost like pound cake.
I learned a few tips for muffin making yesterday that might be of interest to you (source: Diana’s Desserts). First, don’t fill your muffin cups over three-fourths full or you’ll get flat, flying saucer-like tops. For nice rounded tops, grease only the bottom of the cups and halfway up the sides.
I’ve also found that paper liners make for easier clean up, but I much prefer the crisp bottoms that result from baking the muffin batter directly against the pan. Lastly, rubbing the zest into the sugar imparts way more citrus flavor than just whisking the two together. Now you know!
Lastly, while I love to use natural liquid sweeteners like honey in my baked goods, honey didn’t work here. I tried reducing the amounts of liquid so I could add one-half cup honey in place of the sugar, but the resulting texture seemed kind of spongy and the muffins didn’t taste sweet enough to delight. Plus, it’s impossible to rub zest into a liquid like honey, so the muffins didn’t taste very lemony. I opted to use organic cane sugar instead of honey for these and I’m pleased with the results. One-half cup sugar divided by twelve muffins really isn’t an amount worth worrying about.
Double Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
These delightful muffins are bursting with lemon flavor and poppy seeds. These healthy muffins are made with whole wheat flour and yogurt. Serve with yogurt for a quick and filling breakfast. Recipe yields 1 dozen muffins.
Ingredients
- ½ cup cane sugar
- 2 medium lemons, preferably organic (you’ll need the zest of both and the juice of one)
- 1 ¾ cups whole wheat pastry flour, white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and lightly cooled
- 1 cup plain yogurt (plain Greek yogurt works, too)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line your muffin tin with paper liners, or grease your muffin pan using butter or non-stick cooking spray. (Pro tip: grease only the bottoms and halfway up the cups so your muffin tops don’t flatten out while baking.)
- Combine the sugar and lemon zest in a medium mixing bowl. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar until it is fragrant and pale yellow. Whisk in the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a separate, smaller mixing bowl, combine the butter, yogurt, eggs, vanilla and the juice of one of your bald lemons. Whisk until combined.
- Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Use a large spoon to mix the two together. Stir only until the flour is fully incorporated into the liquid.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. The batter will be thick, but don’t worry; your muffins will turn out great. The cups should not be more than three-fourths full. Sprinkle the muffins with turbinado sugar (if using) and wipe off any sugar that lands between the muffin cups.
- Bake for 16 to 19 minutes, until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then carefully transfer the muffins to a baking rack to cool completely.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my blueberry lemon muffins, with references to The Fauxmartha and Two Peas and their Pod.
2025 edits: I retested this recipe and lightly tweaked the amounts of poppy seeds, baking soda (for more browning), flour, butter and yogurt.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
P.s. For more lemon and poppy seed goodness, try my orange poppy seed pound cake (rich and decadent, made with olive oil and yogurt, feel free to sub lemon for the orange), lemon blueberry muffins and lemon blueberry scones (both are made with yogurt, frozen blueberries work great).
I first made these maybe a year ago, and my wife and I go back to them all the time. They’re great to have around for breakfast during the week, and they’re now also my go-to recipe for learning more about the flavors and strength of a citrus fruit I haven’t used in baking before. Thanks for providing these lovely recipes!
I have been searching for a recipe like this for years – ever since I moved from Saint Paul, MN and could no longer get muffins from Bread and Chocolate Bakery on Grand Avenue.
These muffins are moist like pound cake, but still a little crumbly, with a crispy crunch. Not too sweet.
I am happy this recipe helped to fill a void! Thank you for your review.
I just made these and wow! The smell alone is so bright and makes me smile. I did some substitutions and I’m happy to say they worked well. I am celiac so I used GF flour (1/2c sorghum, 1/2c millet, 1/2c tapioca starch). I also used applesauce instead of the butter to lighten them up even more. Finally, I didn’t have poppy seeds so I used chia seeds instead to give them that great texture. Thanks for creating such a great recipe! Next time I will try making them with Saskatoon berries or blueberries.
Thank you, Andrea for sharing! I appreciate the review.
Hi Kate! Would this recipe work as a bread instead of muffins? Obviously bake temp/ time would differ but any other tweaks I should make? Thanks!
Hey Alexandra, I think it would work well as a bread! You don’t need to change the baking temperature when you change baking vessels. It’ll definitely need longer in the oven as a loaf, but I’m not exactly sure how long. Good luck!
Hi Kate,
I really love these muffins! My new roommate is Vegan, do you think we could make it Vegan like your other muffin recipes?
Thank you!
These muffins were just what I was looking for!! Lemon is one of my favorite flavors so I’m happy there’s enough of it in here to actually taste it! I’d tried a couple other healthier lemon poppy seed muffin recipes before and they were always coming out pretty bad. Thanks so much for this recipe!
You’re welcome, Lisa!
Finally a lemon poppyseed muffin recipe with lots of citrus and poppyseed flavor. I only had spelt and whole wheat pastry flour and still came out great. I did make a lemon glaze instead of sugar sprinkle as per family’s request. Crushing the zest
into the sugar granules when making batter was genius-don’t skip this step. I actually found the flavors were best second next day much like banana bread!
Thanks for sharing, Anne!
I made these muffins this weekend and they are delicious! I enjoy recipes that don’t have a lot of sugar. These have a nice lemon flavor and are not too sweet at all. I gave a few to my neighbor and he loved them too. Thanks for a great recipe!
You’re welcome, Jennifer!
This recipe was not good. I made them for my dad’s birthday because he loves lemon desserts and these muffins got really good reviews. They were not good. They didn’t bake at all. I put them in for an extra 10 minutes and they still didn’t bake. They were also very pale and had a weird shape (nothing at all like the pictures). I find a lot of recipes like this that try and be “healthy” turn out this way. If your going to eat a dessert, it’s going to be unhealthy, so just accept it and eat some sugar!
Hi Avery, I’m sorry these didn’t turn out for you. Did you use both baking powder and baking soda?
We absolutely loved these!!
I love that, Alex!
I am now mad at these muffins too! They are way too good!!!
I’m glad you enjoyed them, Ellie!
These are tasty little hummers! I made two modifications — only because of ingredients on-hand. I used half white and half whole wheat flour, and I didn’t have enough Greek yogurt, so i used about half Greek yogurt and half sour cream. I also forgot to put the sugar on top. Nonetheless they were tasty and will be a nice add to my recipe collection.
Thank you for sharing, Kathy!
Delightful! Mixing the lemon zest with the sugar is genius, and I now realize this is what is missing in some other recipes that I have. I meal prep and make these for breakfast for the week – a quick 40-45 seconds (for two) in the microwave and they are still great.
Thank you for sharing, Rossalyn!
Thanks for this amazing recipe! I just made this recipe for my son’s lunchbox and I’m so happy with it. It’s so fluffy and bursting with flavor. I know I will be making it again and again.
These were so yummy!!! However I was wondering how do they keep? Usually after a recipe, you have suggestions on storage but I don’t see it for this one! Thank you
I really enjoyed making these. All of the flavors fit perfectly together. Random question, would you suggest refrigerating them?
You can, if you like!
It turns to be my hubby’s fav. Thank you!
Super delicious!
Hi Kate!
Is it possible to double this recipe and have the muffins taste the same?
Best lemon muffins ever!!!
I just made these with a few modifications and also following your healthy apple muffins recipe. I used 1/3cup olive oil instead of butter and added another roughly 1/4 cup of flour. I also added white choc chips and macadamia nuts. Holy Moly. My boyfriend was transfixed. Thank you! We love them!
Light, tender and flavorful. A real winner. Thanks for including the nutritional information on your recipes!
Looks like a great recipe, I’d love to make it vegan, any tips? Thanks!
Hey Midori! I haven’t tried, and since this is a baked good, I’m hesitant to offer suggestions that aren’t tested. Maybe vegan yogurt and flax eggs would work?
Ok I’ll try and let you know how it turns out! Thanks!
Well I tried it, not vegan all the way, used the egg and subbed almond milk with a lil vinegar (didn’t have the yogurt) and coconut oil, also used sprouted spelt flour..and they turned out great! Will try again with a flax or chia egg. Love the tips about rubbing zest into sugar and greasing cups only half way, they really work! Thank you Kate!
Thank you for this recipe! I subbed in the flour with some cassava flour to make it GF, and I used chia seeds instead of poppy seeds because I didn’t want to make a run to the store. The flavor was so delicious, but for some reason they came out really rubbery and chewy. Maybe I might have over stirred the batter? I don’t think I did though. I want to try this again in the future, do you have any tips for a better result? Thank you!
Hi Chloe, I don’t have much experience with cassava flour, but my assumption it was the difference in flours. I do know Bob’s Red Mill gluten free 1:1 baking flour has a great result with many of my recipes. Maybe try that next time?
I made these also today!! They’re really good. I doubled the egg to make them more fluffy….. The extra poppy seed gives it a really nice texture. Maybe I would of put more lemon. The one thing I have to say is that I wish you wrote how much juice one ‘medium lemon’ yields, to know roughly if I am needing a cup, 3/4s or whatever. I went to a special store to get organic lemons and the sizes varied so greatly and I was confused.
These were ok – I would prefer a strong lemon flavor. Not too sweet which I liked!
Just made these used lemon extract in place of vanilla, chia seeds, and replaced a 1/2 cup of wheat flour with protein powder to try to make more filling. They are delicious! First protein muffins my family actually liked. I am definitely adding this to my files. Thanks!
Just took out a batch with a bunch of persimmon puree substituted for some of the other liquid ingredients. Persimmon bread never comes out right for me, so I looked for a recipe like this with lemon to cut the sweetness for a different flavor profile. They came out great! Definitely use the two eggs since persimmon is dense, and a lemon glaze makes a more appetizing product than just sugar.
Just made these! Very delicious. Threw my discarded sourdough starter from today in too! Thank you for creating this.
You’re welcome, Rosalee!
These came out great! Used 1 cup wheat flour and 1/2 cup almond flour and added some turmeric for color.
My 11 year old just pulled these out of the oven and they’re delicious! I am not usually a muffin fan, but these are so bright and fresh tasting and not at all heavy or greasy.
I made these today and they came out DELICIOUS! They were as crumbly as a muffin should be, and the perfect amount of poppy seeds to get that crunch. The lemon flavor was light but present. It wasn’t sickening sweet like the muffins you get at a deli or grocery store, but still satisfying. Add the tang of the yogurt, the substantiality of the white whole wheat flour, and aromatic vanilla permeating through, and you have a cacophony of textures and flavors.
Thanks for this recipe. I WILL make this again.
Hey,
I’ve used this recipe a couple of times and i love it. I actually used slices of a pear roasted in lemon juice and added it to the mix at the end. I didn’t use any poppy seeds, but I the flavour is a dream combined with your lemon muffin recipe .
Um these were insanely good. I subbed lemon strawberry vital protein collagen powered in place of 1/2 c flour. Added 3/4 c strawberries too. Thank you Kate!! So good!!
Great recipe! They were moist and fluffy, with a slightly crunchy top. Not too sweet and very flavourful. Perfect with a cup of tea.
You always have a healthier version of a recipe I want to make! My boyfriend really wanted lemon poppy seed pound cake and the NYT cooking recipe calls for a lot of sugar and buttermilk. I immediately came here and found exactly what I was looking for. We made them this morning and they are perfect! Thank you!
This is a great recipe! I made the following modifications and it was a big hit for Mother’s Day.
– 1 egg 1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water (plus another 3 tbsp water after mixing the wet and dry ingredients, because at first was more like bread dough than batter)
– 2 tbsp frozen lemon zest which I had in the freezer + fresh zest of one lemon; this made is beautifully lemon-y and really brought out the tartness of the greek yogurt in a fun way
I made this recipe and it was soooo delicious. The flavor of the lemon really comes out when you add the zest. I tried this recipe as well as Sally’s Baking Addiction, and this one came out so much tastier. I do wish however that it could rise a bit more. Other than that, this recipe is perfection.
I’m really enjoying your recipes for healthy treats for my children’s lunch boxes. But one of my kids is dairy free. What’s a good substitute for yogurt in your muffin recipe? (Only because he won’t eat coconut yogurt normally but maybe in muffins?)
Thanks Doadie! Coconut yogurt would likely substitute 1:1. I’m not sure he would taste it in these muffins since the lemon flavor is very present. Otherwise, you can usually replace yogurt in baked goods with a lesser amount of “buttermilk” made from mixing dairy-free milk with vinegar. In a muffin recipe that called for 1 cup Greek yogurt, it works to mix ⅔ cup non-dairy milk with 2 teaspoons vinegar. Let it rest for 5 minutes before adding it to the other liquid ingredients. So for this one, you could try 1/2 cup dairy-free milk with 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar. Haven’t tried it in these, hope it works for you! (For future reference, most of my other muffin recipes include these details under the “make it vegan” recipe note.)
Hi! Can I use maple syrup instead of cane sugar?
Hi Amanda, you want to use the liquid sweetener here as it will help with the moisture.
I made them with cane sugar, as the recipe calls for and they are DELICIOUS! I’ve been eating them or your strawberry oat muffins with a side of yogurt for breakfast everyday. Yum!
These are delicious. I love the flavor and cake-like texture, which makes them taste richer than the ingredients suggest. I used Greek yogurt, and had to add an additional couple teaspoons of milk to get all the dry ingredients mixed in, I’m guessing due to the lower moisture content in Greek yogurt.
Thank you for sharing, Lauren!
I loved these! Do you think I could replace at least half of the flour with buckwheat flour? I’m trying to go on a reduced gluten diet…
Hi Elena! I haven’t tried is and can’t say for sure without testing it myself. Buckwheat flour can act differently, so I’m not sure about mixing the two.
Excellent!!
This recipe looks so delicious! Have you ever made almond poppy seed muffins? I’m not a big fan of lemon but I totally love almond extract.
I haven’t, Molly. Almond flour isn’t a great 1:1 and can take several adjustments to get just right. Checkout my almond flour banana bread for reference.
Made these this weekend and they were absolutely delicious! Will definitely be making this again.
These were easy and absolutely delicious! I love the texture too. They’re a great mix of dense, but fluffy at the same time.
Yum! These turned out amazing.Inwas a bit short on butter, so I subbed about half of the butter with olive oil. These were so lemony, a nice texture, and the perfect level of sweetness. Will definitely make these again. So much better than store bought sticky lemon poppy seed muffins.
Love these! I made them vegan by switching coconut oil in for butter, doing a flax egg, and using plain Kite Hill vegan yogurt. It’s delicious!
Hi, do you think I could replace half of thr ww flour for oat flour? I don’t like the wheaty taste of whole wheat and we don’t have white whole wheat flour where I live and I dont want to use AP flour. thanks!!
Hi Matias! I don’t know about mixing the flours. But, you could try to see if oat flour would work. I haven’t tested it in scones, but I do know it works in my muffins and bread. More on my oat flour suggestions in the blog!
What is the reason for using unsalted butter, then adding salt to the recipe? After seeing this over and over in recipes, I am finally asking!
Hi Kathleen! Great question. I find salt can very in the butter so this way you have more control over how much to get the flavor just right. I hope that helps!