Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Name: Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 1 cup soy milk; 1 tsp apple cider vinegar; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 2 1/2 tsp baking powder; 1/4 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp salt; 3 tbsp poppy seeds; 2/3 cup granulated sugar; 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp vegetable oil; zest & juice of 2 lemons; 1 tsp. vanilla extract; 1/2 cup powdered sugar; 2-3 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Wake up to these PERFECT Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. They are everything you want in a muffin: moist, citrusy, sweet, and with a little crunch. Make them in under 30 minutes!

Do you remember those HUGE muffins from Costco that came in large cardboard trays and wrapped in cellophane?

Each package contained 12 deliciously enormous muffins: blueberry, double chocolate, and lemon poppy seed. For a short time when I was a child my family had a Sunday breakfast tradition of eating these Costco muffins. Despite all the freshly made, home-baked pastries and desserts that were accessible to me growing up, these store-bought muffins were the. best. thing. ever.

So on Sunday mornings, we would each get to choose one muffin that was all ours.

As I remember it my sisters always went for the double chocolate muffins. My parents’ muffin of choice was for the blueberry, and I thought they were all crazy because is there anything better than a lemon poppy seed muffin?

No. No, there is not.

And so, today, I bring you Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. And I think you’re gonna love them.

Table of Contents show

Recipe Video

Ingredients & Substitutions

Like most of the vegan muffin recipes on this blog, these lemon poppy seed muffins are super simple to make! They just require a little bit of whisking, folding, and baking. If you think you can do that, then let’s make some vegan muffins!

Here is everything you need.

Non-Dairy Milk – I recommend soy milk because it curdles the best. Almond milk will often curdle but not as well. This may affect the overall texture of the muffin.
Apple Cider Vinegar – This is my vinegar of choice when making vegan buttermilk (vinegar + soymilk) but white vinegar, white wine vinegar, and lemon juice are great alternatives.
All-Purpose Flour – For healthier flour options, you can use a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend, buckwheat, or spelt flour.
Baking Powder & Soda
Salt
Poppy Seeds
Granulated Sugar – Check out my guide to vegan sugars and alternative sugar replacements. For a healthier sugar alternative, I recommend coconut sugar.
Oil – This recipe calls for canola oil because it creates the best texture without added flavor. If you want to avoid hydrogenated oils, try avocado or melted coconut oil. Olive oil also works but adds a slightly savory flavor. If you want to eliminate the oil altogether, swap it out for the same amount of applesauce.
Vanilla Extract
Lemon Juice & Zest

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step One – Make the Batter

To start, we must first make our “buttermilk”. To do this, mix together soymilk with 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and set it aside for 5 minutes to curdle. Once it’s curdled, whisk in the sugar, oil, lemon juice, and lemon zest.

Vegan buttermilk in a liquid measuring cup

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In a small bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. That’s the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds. Whisk until it’s well combined and set aside. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until all the flour is evenly hydrated.

Step Two – Bake the Muffins

Scoop your batter into a greased muffin tin. I find that using an ice cream scoop is the cleanest and easiest way to get the batter into the muffin molds. With an ice cream scoop, you can ensure the muffins are equally sized as well. Fill each muffin mold about 3/4 of the way full and bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove the vegan lemon muffins from the oven and let them cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before flipping out to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Step Three – Make the Lemon Glaze

While the muffins are baking, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice to make your lemon glaze. Once the muffins are out of the oven, spoon about one tablespoon of glaze over each warm muffins then let the muffins continue cooling until completely cool.

Serving and Storing

Serving – Serve these muffins immediately. They come out of the oven warm, buttery, and hard to resist! Serve them with a matcha latte or chai tea.

Storing – Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You can also freeze these muffins for up to 2 months. To thaw, pull the muffins from the freezer and let them thaw at room temperature for several hours.

Tips and Tricks

The most accurate way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling it off with the back of a knife.
Do not overmix your batter. Overmixing allows the gluten to develop and too much gluten will give you gummy and dense muffins.
Fill muffin tins about 3/4″ of the way full. Any fuller than that and they will overflow.
Let the muffins sit in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before flipping them out to a wire cooling rack. Otherwise, the muffins may fall apart.
Glaze the muffins while they are still warm. This allows the glaze to melt over the lemon poppy seed muffins.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use something other than soymilk?

Yes. While I choose soy milk because it curdles so well, many people have had success with almond milk, oat milk, and cashew milk as well.

Can this batter be made in advance?

Yes! If you want to make this muffin batter in advance, store the batter in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours. To bake the muffins, preheat the oven and bake according to the instructions. However, these muffins may take a few minutes longer to bake since the batter will be chilled. The muffins will also be slightly denser as the baking soda begins to activate once it’s mixed into the batter, causing it to be slightly less potent.

Can these muffins be gluten-free?

For sure! For gluten-free muffins, I recommend using a 1:1 baking blend.

Can I make these muffins oil free?

Sure. If you would like to make this recipe oil-free, simply swap out the oil for additional applesauce at a 1:1 ratio.

What can I use to replace the refined sugar?

I recommend coconut sugar. Other readers have replaced the sugar with 1/2 cup maple syrup or simply reduced the sugar by 25%-50% with great success. Check out my complete guide to vegan sugar for more ideas.

More Vegan Muffin Recipes

And make sure to check out all my muffin & pastry recipes for inspiration.