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.
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.
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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
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.
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.
For sure! For gluten-free muffins, I recommend using a 1:1 baking blend.
Sure. If you would like to make this recipe oil-free, simply swap out the oil for additional applesauce at a 1:1 ratio.
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
- Blueberry Muffins
- Mixed Berry Crumb Muffins
- Healthy Vegan Banana Muffins
- Pumpkin Muffins
- Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
And make sure to check out all my muffin & pastry recipes for inspiration.
Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- 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
Lemon Glaze
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 tsp. fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F. Line a muffin tin with baking cups and set aside.
- In a small bowl combine soy milk and apple cider vinegar and let sit for 10 minutes to curdle. In another bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds. Set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and the lemon juice and zest. Slowly add curdled soy milk, whisking while adding, until completely incorporated. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, folding in gently until just combined.
- Fill the muffin liners 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle come out clean. Set the muffins on a cooling rack to cool.
- While the muffins bake, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice. You may need to add a little extra lemon juice to get a thick and smooth consistency.
- Spoon about 1 tbsp of glaze over each warm muffins then let the muffins continue cooling until completely cool.
Video
Notes
- The most accurate way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- 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.
- 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. Muffins may take a few minutes longer to bake since the batter will be chilled.
Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m a 14-year (and counting) vegan, professionally trained photographer, former pastry chef, founder of My Darling Vegan, and author of the
Sara says
I made mine into a loaf cake and baked for 55 minutes, I also added extra lemon zest. Turned out awesome!
Sarah says
Yay! Glad it was a hit!
Jessica says
these turned out awesome!!!! any chance you know how many calories per muffin?
Maria says
I made the muffins yesterday and my 3 year old son loved them. It was really easy to prepare, fast and pleasant. I had fun and I trully liked the taste. Great muffins! Will make them often.
Briennca says
I’m not a fan of canola oil. So I’m wondering what kind of oil could I use intead or any other binder?! Thanks
Sarah says
Other people have tried it with melted coconut oil and had good results.
Jackie says
Can you substitute almond milk for soy milk?
Sarah says
Sure, that should be fine.
clea says
Hello,
do you think I could substitute the oil with fresh avocados?
Thank you!
Sarah says
Not without changing the taste and texture. Applesauce would probably be a better substitution.
Erin says
I love love love lemon poppyseed baked goods so I had been searching for a vegan protein version to make so I could have some hearty protein-filled muffins for breakfast throughout the week, but just about all the recipes I found were paleo, gluten-free, and used ingredients I don’t have and frankly don’t feel like buying. So I decided to try this recipe and sub 1/4 of the flour (1/2 a cup) with some vegan protein powder. I was pretty nervous because the only baking I’d done prior with protein powder was with pancakes AND I just bought a new protein powder that’s pea-based and has other stuff in it (and frankly smells/looks pretty weird… I’ve always used isolated soy protein powder before). But the muffins turned out GREAT! Still super fluffy and moist and they taste wonderful. And if I did the calculations correctly, there’s about 5.3g of protein per muffin (if you make 12). So having 2 for breakfast will be 10+ grams! I’m sure I’ll be making these again. Next time I might add some more lemon juice/zest because I really do like the lemon flavor. Thank you for a great recipe!
Monique says
I just made these and they turned out soo good! I cant have any dairy and i was surprised how well these rised and tasted. I changed the soy milk to silk brand coconut milk just for preference. I also made the glaze and put 2 layers of glaze on each muffin. So good! Love this recipie definitely a keeper.
Sarah says
I’m glad it was a success! Enjoy.
Talasha says
Hi. Can I use fat free milk? Definitely going to try it
Sarah says
That should work just fine.
Jennifer says
Delicious! I am surprised at how light and fluffy they are. This recipe is a keeper! I used a coconut/almond milk blend, and it curdled just fine. I made less glaze with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 2 tsp lemon juice and had just enough glaze for all 12 muffins. Adding this recipe to the family cookbook. Thank you!
Katy says
The Costco muffins are fresh, not frozen. Many a time I would manage to get them while they were still warm. I miss those and look forward to trying your muffins.
Nanda Guruswamy says
I had to use almond milk instead of soy milk. I think it was an ok substitute, the muffins tasted really good. However, they were sticking to the wrappers… anyone run into this problem? Any recommendations to remedy it?
The Vegan Test Tube says
These came out amazing and even the non vegan husband couldn’t help himself. I think this dozen will survive two maybe three days ????
Nicole says
Says 1/2 salt…1/2 what size??
Meredith Collack says
I used 1/2 tsp…I didn’t even see it didn’t have the type of measure; only because I bake often and it made sense. They came out divine!
Regina Anaya says
I am so happy I found this recipe!!! Lemon is my absolute favorite and I just made lemon poppy seed pancakes this morning. Is there any way to make these gluten free? Normally I’d sub in buckwheat flour or all purpose GF but any suggestions?
Nansy says
These turned out amazing! Can’t wait to bring these to a gathering tomorrow and watch everyone fall in love with them just as I have 🙂 They are aesthetically pleasing too! Thank you for the awesome recipe!