I have a deep love for muffins. When I was a child, my mom often made muffins from the Betty Crocker mixes. The double chocolate chip muffins were my favorite, and then they got discontinued (which I’m still a little upset about). But, with the loss of my favorite, it allowed me to branch out and try new things. So, try I did. I tried chocolate chip and blueberry and lemon poppyseed. And I found out that I liked them all! The thing I love most about these Lemon Poppyseed Muffins with Lemon Glaze is their balance of acidity and sweetness. I purposely made the muffins a bit more tart to leave room for the glaze to add just the right amount of sweetness. When made together, I think it is the perfect combination, and it makes a wonderful snack or breakfast!
Do I have to really squeeze all of those lemons?
I have seen many recipes that use lemon extract for lemon flavored baked goods. I disagree with this method because I simply think that natural is the best way. I use fresh squeezed lemon juice for these lemon poppyseed muffins, and I really do not think there is a substitute for it. I know you can buy pre-squeezed juice in the grocery store, but it never has the full robust flavor that fresh juice does. So, even though you can take a short cut with pre-squeezed juice, I do not recommend it. I think you will be much happier with yourself for putting in the extra effort, not to mention you will simply have a better tasting product at the end. So, please don’t slack in this area, I promise it will be worth it!
Something I love most about this recipe is seeing just how far poppyseeds will go. There is only one tablespoon of poppyseeds in the entire recipe, but you will see that there are PLENTY of poppyseeds to go around. Each muffin has a perfect distribution of seeds, and they compliment the flavor wonderfully.
Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
Ingredients
For the Muffins:
- 1½ cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 tablespoon Poppyseeds
- ¼ cup Vegetable Oil
- ⅔ cup Sour Cream
- ⅓ cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ¼ teaspoon Almond Extract
- ½ cup Lemon Juice
- 1 tablespoon Lemon Zest
For the Lemon Frosting Drizzle:
- 2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
- 4 tablespoons Cream Cheese (2 oz)
- ⅓ cup Powdered Sugar
- 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
Instructions
For the Muffins:
- Preheat your oven to 425°F.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and poppyseeds. Whisk to combine, then set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the vegetable oil, sour cream, granulated sugar, and brown sugar and whisk to combine. Add the eggs, vanilla, almond extract, lemon juice and lemon zest. Whisk until homogenous and combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk together until no dry flour remains. Do not over mix.
- Pour batter into lined muffin pan. Fill the muffin cups 2/3 of the way full with batter.
- Once you have filled and portioned the entire muffin pan, bake the muffins for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Once they are finished take them out and allow them to cool before drizzling with the lemon frosting.
For the Lemon Frosting Drizzle:
- In a clean, medium sized bowl using a hand mixer, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth and no chunks remain. Add the powdered sugar and lemon juice. Beat until incorpoarted. It is okay if it is a bit thin.
- Add the frosting to a piping bag with a small hole in it. Drizzle the frosting over the muffins in a zig zag pattern.
Follow me on Instagram @BAKINGWITHLEMON and hashtag your posts #BAKINGWITHLEMON if you make one of my recipes! I adore seeing you guys get creative with baking!
