In the event of some sort of big fat natural disaster in California, I may be up a creek without a paddle. Sure, I’ve got the canned tuna, the emergency gallons of water and a few flashlights with dying batteries. I’ve got the walking shoes, a space blanket and pepper spray… you need those things, right? It’s just that I’m not sure the internets or my cellphone are going to do me much good in the event of a meltdown. Won’t all the cell towers be jammed? How am I going to reach out to my family? I don’t think Twitter will quite do the trick. Clearly my only option is to jog to them… in a space blanket. That seems to make the most sense.
My parents? I think they’re just ahead of me in the emergency game. They’ve got cell phones from 1993 and a telephone land line. At least the land line will come in handy.
My grandfather!? He’ll fare better than all of us in an emergency. He’s got Ham Radio. Ham Radio is a sort of amateur radio system that allows people to talk to one another all over the world. Don’t be fooled by the name. Ham Radio is actually pretty badass. Sort of like… trucker radio meets old school technology meets grandfather hobby. In emergencies, Ham Radio is booming. You better believe that in an emergency, my grandfather will be all over that radio. Who he’ll be talking to? I’m not exactly sure. He’ll probably be saving the world. I’ll be jogging my way to safety. My parents will still be screening their phone calls with their answering machine. Who is the hero? Grandpa.
I tell you all of this because Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (specifically the giant ((seriously giant)) kind from Costco) are my grandfather’s favorite. He no doubt has a 48 pack of those giant muffins in his emergency kit. You think I’m kidding. I’m not.
Note: my descriptions of Ham Radio here may hinge on trite and are most certainly superficial and inadequate.
How many of these muffins did I eat Sunday morning? What? You weren’t counting. Good. I did count and it wasn’t pretty… I ate five of these muffins with extra glaze. I had to. I did.
These are simple muffins. You know these muffins. They’re no big surprise to you. Lemon. Buttermilk. A little crunch from poppy seeds. Sugary lemon glaze. It’s a beautiful thing. If you’d like to freeze these beauties to enjoy all week, do so without the glaze. Success.
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
adapted from Baking
2/3 cup granulated sugar
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk or sour cream
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick (8 Tablespoons) butter, melted until browned and cooled
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar (for topping the batter before baking)
For the Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar whisked together with 2 or 3 Tablespoons of lemon juice
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12 mold, regular sized muffin tray with paper muffin liners, place the muffin pan on a baking sheet and set aside.
In a large bowl, rub the granulated sugar with the lemon zest until the sugar is lightly colored and scented with lemon. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the eggs, buttermilk (or sour cream) vanilla extract, melted butter and lemon juice.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together. When almost thoroughly mixed, add the poppy seeds. Divide batter between muffin cups. Sprinkle each would be muffing with granulated sugar.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing. If you’re freezing the cupcakes for future eating, skip the glaze. It doesn’t freeze well.
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Lemon poppy seed muffins are my favorite pick at any coffee shop! .. i’m sure to try this recipe out!
Mmmm these look yummy! And I LOVE the look of the icing :) Happy Thanksgiving!!
Joy, I was cracking up! My g-pa is a total ham radio freak (sorry g-pa for calling you freak). Not only does he have an entire room devoted to ham equipment, he even has his call letters on the license plate of his car. I remember talking to people from foreign countries with him when I was little. And I also remember getting on there with my friends when I was a little older and pranking people (very illegal to be unlicensed and ham). Great post!!
I have been crushing on your tree stump plate thingy! Where did you get it?!
Can’t wait to try these.
You inspired me to finally bake these and I’m glad I did. They’re great! Thanks Joy! Happy Thanksgiving!
I love Joys muffins but these didn’t come out too great. They were very doughy in texture. Taste was muted. But I started using those silicone muffin wraps to save money. Do I need to adjust temperature? Joy please give some guidance.
Just wanted to say that I sure enjoying reading about your adventures in the kitchen, let alone the “wonderful” recipes that you tell us!!!!
Keep up the good work, you bring a “smile” on my face!!!
sooooooooo need to make these! hoping i can manage to find poppy seeds here ))
:D These look delicious!! And a Dorie recipe too! Must taste amazing too!
I just discovered your blog today, and I have to tell you that I cannot wait to make every single recipe you have on here! They all look soo delicious.
Oh Joy I finally made these muffins! Amazing and I think my new fav!!! They disapeared in an afternoon. They are such a light treat to eat as it is shaping up for another hot Christmas here in Australia.
My poor boyfriend was so upset that I didnt make enough for him to take to work and share…oh well will just have to make them again! Thanks for such inspiring tasty delights. You have inspired me to get into the kitchen more often. I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas! xxoo Cass
Oh my god, how did I miss this post?!
Adding this to the growing pile of baking I am planning (key word) on doing this week, yummmm.
There was a local cafe I always lunched at in high school that made ginormous lemon poppy seed muffins with extra big tops… and sometimes they would have lemon curd centers, but not always. Hmmmm….
I love to bake… so I was digging thru my spice cupboard and spied poppy seeds. Bought back when I was married? So… 2003? (cringe) lol! So I went searching for a lemon poppy seed something, and these were what I found.
Yum. They’re sublime and I totally agree, extra icing takes the cake. Thank you!
I made this, they are good. I felt you are a wee bit heavy on the butter, so I am going to make it again using two T less, and increasing the flour to 2 and 3/4. Also I was using myer lemons that were ripe and I couldn’t get a decent zest. I think I’ll freeze it. Nice pictures, descent presentation. Would you like to know how they turn out with changes? K
FYI, I made these thinking I could just butter and flour the muffin tins, but alas… they still would not break free, so I ended up with 12 beautiful muffin tops, and 12 sad little bottoms stuck in the pan… *pout
I know better next time, and will line with cupcake liners…
Just made these yesterday. They have a really good really lemony flavor. I think I overmixed my batter a mite though as they were a little dense. Muffins should not be badass tough guys, they should be light on their feet sissy boys. But alas, I can never seem to restrain the muffin mixing hand. I loved the flavor of the brown butter, but I didn’t taste it in the muffins. Have you made this with just plain melted butter? Is there a discernible difference? Just wondering. I’m going to try these again and try, try, try to not overmix them. At least that’s the only thing I can think that I did “wrong”. If you can call any sort of muffin wrong. :)
Love your blog, btw.
made these yesterday and they came out well, but not a home run. not a strong enough lemon flavor for me in the muffins themselves (although the delicious glaze saved them in that department), browned butter taste didnt come through at all, and mine were also (like the last poster) slightly tough. My batter was fairly dry, despite having used an extra half lemon. I think next time I will go with buttermilk instead of the sour cream (all I had on hand) and up the liquids slightly making it easier to stir together.
a good base, but for me needs some tweaking.
thanks for keeping up one of my favorite blogs!
When i made them with blended cottage cheese instead of buttermilk or sour cream they were just fantastic and not tough at all!!!! they were light and fluffy!!! Try getting low fat cottage cheese and blending till its smooth in a blender!!!! It is a great substitute and healthy too :)
Just made them for the second time… ready to get out of the oven and straight to the freezer… I’m pilling them up for the my B-Boyz next week! thanks for all the magnificent cupcake/muffin recipes… My kids love’em!!
I made these today and they are AMAZING!!!
Probably the best thing I have ever baked. Thanks Joy!
Hi! Possibly a weird question, but do the poppy seeds have to be ground for this recipe? In Europe we only use ground poppy seeds, and somehow I’ve been labouring under the impression that they were unhealthy in their plain condition. But it would be so much more convenient to use whole poppy seeds…
poppy seeds are super tiny dots. we don’t grind them here and they’re just lovely.
:) I just made these and they were absolutely fantastic!!! I made one alteration however instead of the buttermilk/sour cream I used low fat cottage cheese ( i blended it to a smooth consistency in a blender) . It sounds gross, I know, but it is a great and healthy substitute. They tasted fantastic, where moist and not spongy. I would definitely recommend this recipe especially with the adjustment. Ohh, and also i did not have enough lemon for the glaze so i just used milk and a touch of vanilla extract and it was amazing. Thanks for posting!! A great recipe best one I have found, did you make it up yourself???? : ) thanks
Hey everyone, i just got into baking and this is my favorite recipe so far. I took Irena’s advice with the cottage cheese and they turned out delicious and healthier! Thanks so much Irena and joy for your blog!! i would definitely recommend using the cottage cheese instead.
These are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Just made them a few hours ago and glazed them. I made six jumbo muffins and cooked them for 21 minutes. They definitely weren’t dry, so not sure about those comments. I used the buttermilk and king arthur’s all-purpose flour. So good, and hubby loves them too! Thank you!
I LOVE lemon poppy seeds muffins and if eating them, can put me again into a bikini, I go straight to the kitchen (lol)!!
Amazing post, like always!
Cheers,
Lia.
Made these last night to take to my boss today. She’s a super professional manhattanite who has never cooked for herself, much less baked something, so I’m having second thoughts about giving them to her. She already thinks I’m a hillbilly since I’m originally from the south. My mom always says “kill her with kindness,” which for me means baking someone’s favorite muffin. Fingers crossed she won’t cock one eyebrow and look down her nose at them . . . at least I know they’re delicious, though! Thanks for the recipe, Joy.
I made these today…. oh goodness…
they are so wonderful and perfect.
I made the icing out of a lime instead of a lemon because i used my last one in the batter… but it was a nice flavor.
Joy, these are amazing! I just ate one straight out of the oven (I didn’t even make the glaze yet) and they are soft and lemony and perfect. I opted for buttermilk and took them out of the oven before they got too brown. Thanks for the recipe!
I love poppy seed muffins and I love your website. I’m sixteen and i am so passionate about baking. i aspire to own my own bakery one day.
I just finished devouring two of these so I figured that I oughtta come and leave a comment about how AMAZING these muffins are.
Albeit, I did make some changes, mostly to suit my husband’s diet:
I used Bob’s Red Mill’s All-Purpose Gluten-Free flour blend, and added xanthan gum accordingly. I also halved the amount of sugar and used honey instead, as he’s trying to stay away from white sugar (sadly this means no glaze for him *sniff*).
I also didn’t have sour cream OR buttermilk, so I used regular ol’ heavy whipping cream instead and figured it wouldn’t make too much of a difference since there’s a lot of lemon juice.
Overall, a wonderfully easy recipe to whip up on a whim. I can’t wait to make these again. Thanks so much, Joy.
Lemon poppy seed is my favvvvvvorite. Thankfully I cut this recipe in half because they came out of the oven about 10 minutes ago and I’ve already eaten 2. Delicious! Thanks for sharing, Joy!
I’m totally making these tonight… they look SO good!
Great pics, too!
I have lemons at home and found poppy seeds in my pantry.
I also keep a list of the things I want to bake and to my surprise had 2 recipes for these muffins. So I checked the list of ingredients to decide which one to make.
Well, they are identical. Yours seem to be an exact replica of Dorie Greenspans from the book “Baking: From my home to yours”. Sure, these are just muffins. Similarities aren’t uncommon.
I feel awkward, mentioning this now. At the same time, if you did use Dorie’s recipe, you should give credit, no?
She does give Dorie credit. Not only is Dorie’s book shown in the photos of the muffin, but also at the top of the recipe, it says: “Adapted from…” with a link to Dorie’s book on Amazon. Duh!
I just made this recipe the other day and it was great! I used whole wheat flour since that’s all we had, and it turned out pretty awesome. Thanks! They’re all gone now and I’m about to make some more.
I have these muffins in the oven right now! They smell great. My son keeps coming in the kitchen wanting to know when they will be ready. I love your blog and am having such a great time trying your recipes.
i just made these. joy, you are brilliant!
I just made this recipe today with a couple changes and blogged about it. This is by far the best muffin I have ever tasted. I’m in LOVE! I used yogurt instead of the buttermilk and basil instead of poppy. YUMMMMMMM
They are in the oven and I already can see they are going to be amazing. I’ve never made muffins that actually rose above the pan……….SO EXCITED
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