Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Easy vegan lemon poppy seed muffins with bakery-style tops and a luscious lemon glaze! These muffins come together in just 1 bowl and use common pantry ingredients.
These lemon muffins are perfect for Spring just like my vegan lemon cupcakes, carrot muffins or lemon olive oil cake.
Ingredients to make these muffins
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Notes about the ingredients
Dairy-free milk. I prefer using soy milk or oat milk as they usually make the muffins more tender. However, any milk will work!
Any neutral-flavored oil, to allow the lemon flavor to shine through. If you enjoy the taste of olive oil, it can complement the lemon flavor, just like my lemon olive oil cake. Coconut oil will work, but make sure you serve the muffins warm as coconut oil can solidify and will make the muffins feel dry.
Fresh lemon juice and zest for the best flavor! When the lemon juice is mixed with dairy-free milk, it turns into vegan buttermilk which makes lighter lemon poppyseed muffins. If you’re really in a pinch, you can use bottled lemon juice, but the flavor won’t be as good.
How to make vegan lemon muffins
First, add all the dry ingredients to a large bowl and stir until well combined. For extra lemon flavor, you can rub the lemon zest into the sugar. This releases the essential oils in the zest and brings out its flavor. To see exactly what this looks like, check out my lemon poppy seed cake post.
Then add all your wet ingredients to the same bowl, and mix until just combined. It’s okay if there are lumps in your batter, as long as they aren’t lumps of dry flour.
The lemon muffin batter should be a little thicker than regular pancake batter, which you can see in Image 4 below.
Dividing the muffin batter and baking
Each muffin cup should be filled almost all the way. This helps create those gorgeous high muffin tops!
For minimal cleaning and ease, I used a large ice cream scoop to portion the muffin batter.
I’d also recommend sprinkling some flaked almonds on top of the vegan lemon poppy seed muffins! It’s an easy way to add texture to the muffins and elevate their appearance.
For extra lemon flavor, I’d suggest making the easy lemon icing. You only need 2 ingredients and it adds a punch!
The role of acid in baking
In vegan baking, we often add a little acid (in the form of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar) as it helps the cake become more fluffy and rise. This can help with eggless cakes, such as my vegan blueberry muffins.
However, when too much acid is added, it has the opposite effect and can make a cake flatter, as demonstrated by The Cake Blog. That’s why so many lemon cakes are flat! I counteracted this by slightly reducing the baking powder.
Interestingly, these vegan lemon muffins rise best with 2.5 teaspoons of baking powder. This is compared to using 3 teaspoons of baking powder or a mixture of baking powder and baking soda!
Tips for making tall bakery-style muffins
Due to the amount of acid in lemon baked goods, they are usually a little flat. However, I tested out a few methods for getting taller muffin tops:
Chill your muffin batter for 1-2 hours or overnight. This allows the flour to absorb the wet ingredients and thickens the batter. A thicker batter usually rises more in the oven. You can see the between muffins that are baked immediately and those rested overnight in this helpful post by Handle the Heat. If you do this, just make sure you use double-acting baking powder.
Initially bake the muffins at a high temperature. Preheat your oven to 220°C (425°F) and once you put your muffins in, reduce the oven to 180°C (350°F). The initial boost of heat makes the muffins rise quickly but the lower temperature allows the muffins to cook evenly.
Customizing this recipe
This recipe bakes a little differently in a larger pan. Instead, I recommend using my lemon poppy seed loaf cake or my vegan lemon layer cake and adding poppy seeds.
You may also like my:
– Vegan Lemon Blueberry Cake
– Vegan Lemon Olive Oil Cake
– Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake
Yes! You may need to bake the muffins for an extra 2-5 minutes, depending on whether you use fresh or frozen blueberries. I’d recommend adding the blueberries to the batter just before the batter is fully combined.
You do not need to toss the berries in flour beforehand – they will not sink with this batter! Alternatively, check out my vegan blueberry muffin recipe.
The easiest swap would be coconut sugar or any granulated sugar replacer. Note that coconut sugar will make these muffins darker in color.
More easy vegan muffin recipes
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Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose plain flour, (note 1 for gluten free)
- 1 ¼ cups (250g) granulated sugar, (note 2)
- 2 ½ tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest, or zest from 2 large lemons
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt, optional
Wet ingredients
- 1 cup (250g) dairy-free milk, room temperature
- ⅔ cup (165g) neutral flavored oil, such as olive oil (note 3)
- ¼ cup (60g) lemon juice, from approximately 1 large lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
Topping (optional)
- 3 tablespoons flaked almonds
- 1 cup (100g) powdered sugar / icing sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F, note 4). Arrange muffins liners in a muffin pan.
Make the muffin batter:
- Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Mix until well combined and the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Add all of the wet ingredients to the bowl and mix until just combined.
- Use an ice cream scoop or a large spoon to divide the mixture into your muffin tin.
Bake the muffins:
- Optional: sprinkle flaked almonds on top of your muffins.
- Place the muffin pan in the oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F).
- Bake the muffins for around 22-25 minutes. They are ready when you can insert a toothpick into a muffin, and it comes out clean. Some moist crumbs on your toothpick are fine, but there shouldn't be any wet batter on it.
- Cool the muffins in the pan for 10 minutes then allow them to cool on a wire rack.
Make the lemon icing (optional):
- Add the powdered sugar and lemon juice to a medium bowl. Whisk until combined. The icing should be runny but hold its shape for a few seconds when you drizzle it. To make the icing thicker, add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar and mix again. To make the icing thinner, add a few drops of lemon juice and mix again.
- When the muffins have cooled, drizzle the icing on top.
- Enjoy the muffins warm or at room temperature. Note that the icing will melt if you warm up the muffins.
- Store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days, in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Video
Notes
- To make these vegan lemon muffins gluten-free, substitute the flour with 1 1/2 cups (150g) almond flour and 1 1/2 cups (240g) gluten-free all-purpose flour. Alternatively, King Arthur’s measure for measure flour works as a 1:1 replacement – if using, I suggest baking the muffins for 24-27 minutes.
- This amount of sugar creates moderately sweet muffins, especially when paired with fresh lemon juice. Alternatively, you may use coconut sugar. This will result in darker and less sweet muffins.
- You may use melted coconut oil (room temperature) for these muffins. However, coconut oil can solidify in colder climates and this will make the muffins feel drier than normal. If so, I’d recommend warming up the muffins before you serve them.
- The initial high temperature encourages the muffins to rise higher.
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These were delicious. Next time I’ll add a bit more sugar.
Hi Janet, glad that you enjoyed these muffins!
These were shockingly just as good as the non-vegan ones. Very moist and amazing flavor. For anyone at at a higher altitude struggling with the doming, at 4600 ft I achieved the best domed top by preheating my oven to 450 instead of 425, and baked at closer to 360-365 on the bottom rack, closer to the heating element, until the domes were formed. I then moved them to the center rack to finish baking. The ones with flatter tops were just as good, though.
Hi Brianne, I’m so thrilled that you loved these! And that’s great advice about baking at a higher altitude with getting the muffins to dome – I appreciate it a lot!! Thanks so much for your feedback 🙂
I made these for a farewell meeting at work and it was a bomb! No one noticed they were vegan. I’m definitely making these again! I’ll try your other recipes! ❤️❤️❤️
Aw, that’s amazing to hear!!! I’m so thrilled that everyone enjoyed them and couldn’t tell they were vegan. I hope you enjoy anything else that you get to make! x
Delish!!
Thanks so much for your feedback!
Utterly delicious!
So glad you enjoyed these muffins, Kylie!
This recipe is very easy to make and they come out supper fluffy and yummy. I used self raising flour instead (because it’s what I had, and they were perfect)
Will definitely make more recipes from this website! ❤️
Aw I’m so happy you enjoyed these muffins, Lore!! Thanks so much for your support, and I hope you enjoy anything else you choose to bake! ❤️
Hi is this recipe can be use in cake tin as well for 20cm cake tin? Thank youu
Hi! I recommend using my vegan lemon cake recipe and adding 2 1/2 tablespoons of poppy seeds instead. The recipes are similar but the cake is lighter and is designed for cake tins (I used 2 x 20cm tins). I hope that helps!
Thanks for this yummy recipe, Anthea! They were super easy to make and so so delicious. I also heated the oven higher then lowered it when the muffins went in, worked a treat!
Aw, that’s amazing to hear, Priscilla!! Glad that the oven trick helped as well – it’s amazing how oven heat can impact muffins :). Thank you so much x
I just made these, and they were absolutely delicious! The recipe was so straightforward, and the muffins came out with beautiful high tops as promised. I’ll definitely be making these again.
That’s great news Sara! I’m so happy you enjoyed these muffins and thanks so much for your feedback :).
Fantastic flavor and consistency. I cut the amount of sugar by about 25% and didn’t miss it at all. I also was a little short on flour, so I replaced about a third of it with almond meal. It worked great!
I did not make/use icing.
Oh I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins, with a little less sugar and with some almond flour! Thanks so much for your review!
Loved these muffins. I did put a little glaze on the top and with the almonds on the top they were delicious. Definitely recommend this recipe.
Oh that’s amazing! I’m so happy you loved these muffins. Thanks so much Meg!
Yum, these look great!
Could you also sub lemon for orange?
Hi Alex! Yes you can but I recommend adding more orange juice because it has a more subtle flavor than lemon. I’d say, replace the lemon juice and half of the amount of milk with orange juice. I hope that helps!
Hi Anthea can I make these in a loaf pan? If so how long do I need to bake it for? Thank you for sharing your lovely recipes!
Hi Belinda! Yes, but I recommend following my lemon olive oil loaf cake recipe instead. It’s very similar but has less flour so it doesn’t dry out in a loaf pan. You can add poppy seeds and use whatever oil you like!
Hi! My muffin does not need to be gluten-free but can I use half plain flour and half almond flour? Or does the gluten-free flour have something that helps the almond flour to work? Sorry for questions!
Hi Sonia, yes you can do it that way! I love the texture almond flour gives any baked treats. Your muffins may not rise as high but they’ll still be delicious 🙂
can it be substituted with whole wheat flour? or oat flour?
Whole wheat flour will work. 100% oat flour will not unfortunately as it’ll need to be mixed with other flours.
I made a batch this weekend and was sooo happy with the results! Lemony and light with a golden top! I used wholemeal spelt flour and increased the baking powder by half a teaspoon. Yummo! The lemon icing is a delicious and zingy touch! Thank you so much Anthea! Will definitely make these again!
That makes me so happy to hear Diane! Thanks so much for your comment Diane 🙂
I made these for afternoon tea and everyone loved them! I made them gluten-free following your instructions and they turned out beautifully! Had to adjust the cooking time as I made 24 mini muffins and 8 patty-sized muffins. Will definitely make these again.
That’s amazing and I’m glad that you enjoyed the gluten-free ones! Thanks for your feedback Marua!
I made these for my mum a few weeks ago and she really loved them. The almonds on top are such a nice touch
Aw I’m so glad your mum enjoyed them! Thanks for your lovely feedback Anna x