Lemon Poppy Greek Yogurt Muffins
Walter and I aren’t really into Valentine’s Day, he got me a card and I made him pancakes 🙂 My mom makes lemon poppy cookies at Christmas time that he loves, so I decided to make him Lemon Poppy Pancakes!
(From my Instagram)
This got me started on a lemon poppy kick! So I figured what’s better than a classic lemon poppy muffin? To try to make them a teeny bit healthier I subbed in vanilla greek yogurt. It can help take the place of butter or oil and also sour cream, which is found in many lemon poppy muffin recipes. You could use plain greek yogurt, but I figured a little extra vanilla flavor couldn’t hurt! The greek yogurt also helps to make the muffins moist.
More so than the juice, lemon zest is what really gives the muffins their lemony flavor and yellowish hue.
Lemon Poppy Greek Yogurt Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 large lemon (or 2 small), zested and juiced
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 3 tbs poppy seeds
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 6 tbs unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1 cup vanilla greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
- In a medium sized bowl combine sugar and lemon zest
- Using your hands work the zest into the sugar until they combine and the sugar takes on a yellowish hue
- Add flour, poppy seeds, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt
- In a small bowl whisk together butter, yogurt, lemon juice, eggs and vanilla
- Pour liquid ingredients from small bowl into the dry ingredients
- Mix until flour is fully incorporated
- Bake 5 minutes
- Without opening the oven, lower the temperature to 325 degrees
- Bake 10 more minutes until batter is set
The poppy seeds unfortunately weigh the muffins down a bit making it harder for them to rise. Knowing this, I employed a tip I learned from my mom to help with the rising. You put the muffins (also works for cupcakes) in the oven at a higher temperature than you normally would for a short amount of time then, without opening the oven, you lower the temperature to a lower temperature than you normally would for the remainder of the cook time. For example, for these muffins I would normally cook them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Instead I started them at 400 degrees for 5 minutes and then lowered it to 325 degrees for the remaining 10 minutes.
Do you have any favorite lemon poppy recipes?