Healthier lemon poppy seed muffins made with 100% whole wheat flour. They are tall, fluffy and tender, everything that a muffin should be. They are speckled with earthy poppyseeds and have a bright lemony flavor. Plus they are super easy to make.
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Muffins are a staple baked good for people with kids and large families. But sometimes you don’t want a full batch of muffins. That’s where our small batch muffin recipes come in handy.
Muffins are one of the easiest things to make when you’re just starting with fresh whole wheat flour. And these whole wheat lemon poppy seed muffins are no different.
What's Cool About This Recipe
- 100% whole wheat: These muffins are made with 100% whole wheat flour, making them much better for you than traditional muffins. Using fresh milled whole wheat flour will gives you the most nutrients.
- Lemon flavor: A combo of lemon juice and zest really make the lemon flavor come through in these poppy seed muffins.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Soft white wheat: This recipe calls for soft white wheat flour, but hard white wheat and spelt work great also.
- Poppy seeds: The biggest thing to look for in poppy seeds is making sure they aren’t stale. Tip: store your poppy seeds in the freezer to prolong their life.
- Baking powder: Make sure you use double acting baking powder.
- Salt: Salt is important to help all the flavor come together.
- Sugar: We use raw granulated cane sugar.
- Oil: We usually use olive oil or avocado oil.
- Egg: Eggs are important to the texture of these muffins.
- Milk: We use a mixture of milk and lemon juice to make a faux buttermilk that gives the muffins moisture and lemon flavor.
- Lemon: You’ll need the zest and juice of a fresh lemon.
- Vanilla extract: Vanilla just adds a little bit of yummy flavor, you can substitute it for ⅛ - ¼ teaspoon of almond extract for almond poppy seed muffins.
See recipe card for quantities.
Variations
- Add ½ cup of fresh or frozen and rinsed blueberries for blueberry lemon poppy seed muffins.
- To make mini lemon poppy seed muffins, bake for 10-12 minutes in mini muffins tins. Makes approximately 12-18 mini muffins.
While testing this recipe we learned the hard way the importance of using double acting baking powder. Now it is included in our muffin baking tips. I could not get the muffins to rise as big as I knew they should. I was using fresh baking powder (that I had recently purchased), and all the same ingredients as usual. I randomly decided to use a different baking powder, and it fixed everything. The muffins rose tall and beautiful, like they should. The baking powder I was using didn’t say double acting anywhere on it, now I have 2 pounds of baking powder I don’t know what to do with, fun huh!
Instruction Photos
Overview of instructions with photos. See recipe card for quantities and full instructions.
Step 1: Zest and then juice 1 lemon.
Step 2: Combine the milk with 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice.
Step 3: Stir the dry ingredients together.
Step 4: Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
Step 5: Divide batter evenly between 6 buttered standard size muffin cups.
Step 6: Bake at 400°F for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Serving Suggestions
Muffins can be served in a variety of ways, our favorites are:
- Warm from the oven plain, with butter or homemade honey butter
- With hot cereal for breakfast
- With a drizzle of cream cheese glaze
- With scrambled or boiled eggs for breakfast
- As a snack with coffee or tea
Storage
Store cooled muffin in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
Tip: Place a paper towel over the muffins to prevent the tops from going sticky.
How to Freeze
Place cooled muffins into a freezer safe bag, or wrap muffins individually in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature, or microwave.
Tips From Our Kitchen
Use double acting baking powder for the best rise.
For the fluffiest muffins, use fresh milled flour.
Measure the ingredients by weight for the most accurate results.
FAQ
Poppy seeds will go rancid quite quickly if kept at room temperature. And rancid poppy seeds can ruin the taste of your baked goods in a hurry. We recommend storing poppy seeds in the freezer to prolong their life by a long time. You can use them directly from the freezer in your recipes.
Poppy seeds should have a sweet, nutty smell and flavor. If they have a rancid or stale aroma, we recommend getting fresh ones.
Fun fact
Did you know you can grow your own poppy seeds? We tried it and they are sooo good! We’ll definitely be adding them to our garden every year. We grew these Hungarian Blue Bread Seed Poppies.
Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
Easy Whole Wheat Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
- ¼ cup (60 g) whole milk
- 2 tablespoons (30 g) fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup (120 g) soft white wheat flour
- ⅓ cup (70 g) granulated cane sugar
- 1 tablespoon (10 g) poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup (48 g) oil olive or avocado
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons (4 g) fresh lemon zest from 1 lemon
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Zest and juice 1 large lemon. Preheat the oven to 400℉ with the rack in the center position.
- Combine ¼ cup (60 g) whole milk with 2 tablespoons (30 g) fresh lemon juice. Let sit for about 5 minutes. It will curdle and look kind of like buttermilk.
- In a medium mixing bowl stir together 1 cup (120 g) soft white wheat flour, ⅓ cup (70 g) granulated cane sugar, 1 tablespoon (10 g) poppy seeds, 1 teaspoon baking powder and ⅛ teaspoon salt.
- Add the milk and lemon mixture, ¼ cup (48 g) oil, 1 large egg, 2 teaspoons (4 g) fresh lemon zest and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, stir until well combined.
- Divide the batter evenly between 6 greased standard size muffin cups.
- Bake at 400°F for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for about 3-5 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool on a wire rack or serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
We calculate these nutritional facts using an estimate and they can vary drastically between ingredients used and measuring technique. So, they are not intended for medical use.
Brie
Delicious! Not too sweet. I like how you left the note about increasing the sugar if you like your muffins sweeter. We subbed out granulated sugar for honey (we used 1/4 cup honey) and it worked perfectly. Thanks for the great recipe!
WholeWheatKitchen
Wonderful! Glad you liked the recipe and great to know they work with honey, thank you!