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These gluten free lemon poppyseed muffins have all the brightness of lemon and the nutty crunch of poppyseeds in a tender sour cream muffin.
The pleasure of baking with lemons
Bite into these lightly sweet muffins through a thin layer of sugar crunch, and they're super soft & moist inside. The poppyseeds add a pleasant fruity crunch.
Lemons are like the salt of the citrus world. They make everything better. Even just a bit of lemon squeezed over your dinner or into your favorite cake will brighten everything up.
Growing lemons
I don't have a lemon tree in my yard or anything. But I would very much like to move somewhere I could have a lemon tree in the yard. ?
Sometimes I see people growing lemons indoors. I live in N.Y., but I wonder if I could grow them in a container, and bring the tree indoors during the cold months.
I imagine myself lovingly pruning my tiny lemon tree, and think my dream might come true. But then I remember. I have 2 cats and 3 dogs and the dream dies.
Muffins fans definitely need to try my gluten free banana muffins, gluten free blueberry muffins and gluten free carrot muffins – so much muffin goodness!
Can you substitute chia seeds for poppyseeds?
If you just don't happen to have poppyseeds on hand, consider buying them. They're so good sprinkled on all kinds of things, from bagels to salads.
But if you can't have poppyseeds, or you're afraid of failing a drug test after you eat poppyseeds because they may contain very small, trace amounts of opium extract, you can replace them with chia seeds.
Black chia seeds look a lot like poppyseeds, but they're larger and denser when they're dry. That will make them more distracting than poppyseeds when you bite into the muffin.
Instead of mixing the chia seeds into the dry ingredients that get whisked together, try adding them to the wet ingredients. It might help them soften up a bit before baking.
Ingredients and substitutions
Dairy
If you can't have butter, you can try replacing it with Melt or Miyoko's Kitchen brand vegan butter. They're my favorite butter substitutes.
You might also be able to use Earth Balance buttery sticks in this recipe in place of butter, but you might find that your muffins rise more and then fall more. Earth Balance has more moisture than butter, so the balance of ingredients will be disturbed.
If you can't have sour cream, plain Greek yogurt is a great substitute. If you can't have dairy yogurt and can't find nondairy plain Greek yogurt, try straining plain nondairy yogurt until it's the proper consistency.
Eggs
There are three whole eggs in this recipe, and they're really important to the rise and texture. I don't recommend trying to replace each of them with an egg replacer, but if you'd like to try, go with one “chia egg” per egg (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel).
Gluten Free Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280 g) all purpose gluten free flour, (I used Better Batter; please click thru for details on appropriate blends)
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum, (omit if your blend already contains it)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
- Zest and juice of 1 medium lemon (3 tablespoons juice), separated
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (240 g) sour cream, at room temperature
- 3 (150 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
Instructions
- Grease or line a standard 12-cup muffin tin and set it aside. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, lemon zest, and poppy seeds, and whisk to combine well.2 cups all purpose gluten free flour, 1 teaspoon xanthan gum, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons poppy seeds, Zest and juice of 1 medium lemon (3 tablespoons juice)
- In a separate, 4 cup measuring cup or bowl, place the butter, sour cream, lemon juice, and eggs, and whisk until very well combined and smooth.8 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 cup sour cream, 3 eggs
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
- Fill the prepared cups of the muffin tin full. Smooth the tops of the batter with wet fingers.
- Sprinkle the tops lightly with more granulated sugar (about 1/8 tesapoon per muffin).3/4 cup granulated sugar
- Place the muffin tin in the center of the preheated oven, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin tin for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool before serving.
Storage instructions
- Completely cooled muffins can be sealed tightly, then frozen. Defrost at room temperature or in a microwave oven.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
We LOVE these!! It simply is not enough to make one batch in this house!! Poof!! Gone!!
So moist and lemony!! Thanks so much!!
Thank you so much for the reply. I’ll give it a try.
Do you think it would it be possible to modify this recipe to make almond poppy seed muffins? Or is there another recipe that would be better for that?
You need the lemon juice in this recipe, Rayne, for the recipe to work. You’re really looking for something entirely different. I guess you could try using my mix-in gluten free muffins recipe, but you’ll have to experiment!
They were delicious. Very easy to make and they turned out well.
Ready to go…. Substituting chia seeds for the poppy seeds because I have them.
Now I’m not sure about when to add the lemon juice. It’s two places in the recipe. I’m going to go forward with it included with the liquid ingredients.
Thank you for the great recipe!
Hi, Kim, in the ingredient list you’ll notice it says the zest and juice of 1 lemon, separated. You add it in 2 parts, as directed in the recipe. I’m honestly not sure how chia seeds would work as a replacement for poppy seeds since they gel when you add moisture to them unlike poppyseeds!
I made these as directed and added just a little extra xanthan gum to the Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour per your recommendation.
My daughter (age 40) declared these the best muffins she ever had. Her wife loved them too and didn’t even realize that they were gluten free.
Thank you for your website which is so comprehensive and helpful.
You’re so welcome, Stephanie. I’m thrilled that you took my advice and added extra xanthan gum to Bob’s 1-to-1 and had such a good result. Thank you for appreciating my advice and following it so carefully, which led to such a stellar result!
What adjustments would be needed to make mini muffins? Can’t wait to try this recipe, sounds delicious!
Hi, Karen, I don’t know since I’ve never used this to make mini muffins. You’d just have to watch the baking time, and experiment!
This recipe turned out great for me! I’ll be adding this to the permanent rotation. Super quick and easy with ingredients I always have on hand. This site is my favorite for gluten free recipes. Highly recommend.
* I did make one swap to bottled lemon juice since that’s all I had. It worked great, but I can see where the lemon zest would add just the right flavor and texture.
* I used a random gluten free cup for cup mix I found at bulk barn. I am also from Canada.