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 ¾ 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 ¾″ 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 ½ 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 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon poppy seeds
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- zest & juice of 2 lemons
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Lemon Glaze
- ½ 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 ⅔ 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 tablespoon 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
C W says
Excellent! Light, fluffy, moist and delicious. I always add way more lemon to my cupcake recipe and I'm thrilled that ONE LEMON created such a delicious lemony flavor in this muffin recipe. Thank you for an amazing recipe!!!
Dana Clark says
These are super delicious! I subbed coconut oil and coconut sugar. Very moist and great texture!
Shev says
I used orange instead of lemon, and grapeseed oil instead of the canola oil because that's all I had. These turned out really yummy and were so easy to make. I will definitely be making them again!
Emily says
SO delicious! I just tried one and they were still warm, even better. Can't wait for my non-vegan family to try them..I know they will love them! Thanks for the recipe!!
Sylvie LEVERT says
I followed the recipe, just used coconut oil instead of canola. They turned out great. I had to bake them longer than indicated, and I had 10 muffins instead of 12.
I liked them a lot because they're not overly sweet
Linda Clark says
I used coconut flour and doubled the recipe... the batch came out in crumbles. So, I tried to add more milk. They are moister now, but don't pop up. 🙁 Very sad. But, the flavor profile is on point.
Sarah says
Coconut flour, unfortunately, doesn't work as an all-purpose flour replacement in this recipe.
Barbara Barker says
Made both the blueberry and the poppy seed and lemon muffins and they are to die for! So delicious! Fantastic recipe and so easy to make. Thank you!
Gill says
Tried them today and they turned out delicious! I used almond milk as I didn't have soy on hand, as well as only one tablespoon of poppy seeds, but I'm definitely not complaining! So light and lemony. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Sarah says
Thank YOU! Glad they worked out well.
S Huneck says
Can I use coconut milk instead of soy milk? I cannot have soy. Also is the 1/2 salt supposed to be 1/2 teaspoon?
Sarah says
Yes, that works. And thanks for pointing out the salt. I updated the recipe card.
Kristina says
Thanks for the recipe! They taste quite yummy. I subbed coconut oil for the canola oil and used a gluten free flour with 1/4. tsp of xanthan gum and used coconut milk instead of soy; mine didn't "pop" up like yours... but perhaps because of the flour?! Regardless, I'd definitely make again!
Sarah says
I'm sure it was the flour. It would take some experimenting to get the same texture.
Deanna says
I made some tweaks to this to go with what was in the pantry - I didn't use apple cider vinegar, used coconut milk instead of soy and coconut oil rather than canola. Also used 2 tbsp of poppyseed since I ran out. These muffins turned out DELICIOUS. My vegan friends loved them. They were so fluffy and moist I wouldn't have known they were vegan if I hadn't made them myself!
Sarah says
Yay! I'm so glad they were a hit.
Lu says
Hi! That recipe looks really good but I live in Europe and the cups measures kinda scare me...do you know how I could convert it in grams? Thank you
Sarah says
I will look into a plugin that converts them for you!
Kimberly says
I am so sad! This is my favorite muffin flavor of all time... I followed the recipe but mine turned out very dense and not super good. My glaze was yummy but not my muffins. I don't know what I did wrong! So sad...
Ashley says
You may have overmixed them!
Ashley says
Thank you for this delicious recipe! I subbed almond milk for soy - not sure if it curdled with the ACV, but the muffins still turned out amazing! I didn't do a glaze, because I don't want a sweet muffin in the morning, but the glaze sounds delish! I think these muffins had the perfect amount of sugar in them. I thank you for that. It can be hard to find a good lemon muffin recipe that doesn't come out like a cupcake! I'm saving this recipe for future use! Probably the near future as my husband and I are eating these up pretty quick!
Ruth-Ann says
These look good! Can almond milk be used instead of soy milk? I am not vegan but am making these for a vegan (and some non-vegans) so I don't stock soy milk. I do have boxed almond milk Any changes needed so that the almond flavor doesn't overpower? Still use apple cider vinegar? Thanks!
Sarah says
People have done it will almond milk before and had success. It doesn't curdle as well so it's less like buttermilk (which is what the soy milk/apple cider vinegar mixture is replicating) but should work just fine.
Ruth-Ann says
I just made these to share but had extra for me to taste - yum! I used nut milk (a blend of three nuts). I did add a bit of lemon extract to the batter to up the flavour. Did a bit less than half the glaze recipe. These are like a cross between a muffin and a cupcake - perfect any time of day. Thanks!
Luis Ramos says
I tried this recipe and went very well.
Delicious, thank you very much for sharing!
Luis - London, UK
James says
Thanks for a great recipe.
Any substitute for the soy milk and apple vinegar? A bit hard to come by agree I live.