Moist, tangy, and topped with sanding sugar, these lemon poppyseed muffins are the perfect breakfast treat. Resting the batter makes these muffins extra tender, just like you’ll get from the bakery.

Try my easy lemon bars for another delicious way to bake with fresh lemons.

A lemon poppy seed muffin garnished with coarse sugar with more muffins in the background.

While I’m a sucker for lemon desserts and homemade lemon curd, whenever I’m looking for a quick and easy way to use up lemons, I turn to muffin recipes. Usually, I make lemon blackberry muffins or lemon raspberry muffins, which use the same base as today’s lemon poppy seed muffins recipe. These are classic bakery-style lemon poppy seed muffins, packed with moisture and flavor from buttermilk and sour cream. Best of all, they’re freezer-friendly and perfect for taking on the go for a sweet breakfast or midday snack.

Why This Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins Recipe Works So Well

Simple ingredients. These muffins are easy to make, and most of the ingredients are pantry staples.
Real lemon flavor. Fresh lemon juice and zest fill these poppy seed muffins with bright, tart, tangy flavor that you just can’t get from bottled lemon juice.
Bakery-style domes. Simple tricks like resting the batter and baking high, then low, contribute to big, bakery-style muffins with an ultra-tender, cakey texture. Sprinkle the domes with sanding sugar for a sweet, sparkly finish!
One base, endless possibilities. These lemon poppy seed muffins are easy to make, using a similar base recipe you’ll recognize from favorites like cranberry orange muffins and blueberry muffins.

A lemon poppy seed muffin with a bite missing resting on top of a pile of muffins.

Ingredient Notes

Here are the key ingredients you’ll need to make this homemade lemon poppy seed recipe (I use similar ingredients in many of the muffin recipes you’ll find on the site!). Scroll to the recipe card for the printable details, including ingredient measurements and step-by-step instructions.

All-Purpose Flour – Too much flour makes baked goods dry. Measure the flour using the spoon-and-sweep method or a kitchen scale for accuracy.
Baking Powder and Baking Soda – My muffin recipe uses both to make tall, bakery-style muffins. Check the expiration date on your leavening, and if it’s old, I recommend buying fresh.
Poppy Seeds – Alternatively, you can substitute poppy seeds 1:1 with chia seeds or black sesame seeds.
Oil and Butter – I use both; butter for flavor, and vegetable oil for added moisture. You can use all of one or the other if needed.
Buttermilk – If you don’t have buttermilk, make a homemade buttermilk substitute from regular milk and white vinegar. Works like a charm!
Sour Cream – For extra-soft, flavorful muffins. Plain Greek yogurt is a good substitute.
Lemon – You’ll need the juice and zest from fresh lemons for this recipe. See below.

Lemon poppy seed muffin ingredients with text labels overlaying each ingredient.

How to Zest a Lemon the Right Way

The best way to zest a lemon is to use a microplane (or the small holes of a box grater) to zest the lemon before you squeeze it for juice. This way, the skin is smooth and firm and easier to zest. This is my favorite zester.

Overhead view of a mircoplane with lemon zest next to a small bowl with more zest and whole and half lemons.

Step-by-Step: How to Make Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

The secret to these lemon poppy seed muffins’ high domes is a technique I learned ages ago when I first started making muffins. It involves baking the muffins at a high temperature for the first 5-6 minutes and reducing the temperature afterward. The high heat lifts the muffins quickly, creating tall tops, and the lower temperature cooks the middle of the muffins afterward. Try it, you’ll see!

Mix the muffin batter. First, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds). Next, beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Add the oil, melted butter, lemon juice, buttermilk, sour cream, and lemon zest. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the wet batter in thirds, and try not to overmix. You should have a thick, wet batter.
Rest the batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave the batter to rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes, while you preheat the oven.
Prepare the muffin pans. Line two 12-well muffin pans with liners, 6 liners per pan. Leave an empty well in between each muffin. This allows the muffins to rise up and over, creating those perfect, round, lipped muffin tops you see in bakery muffins.
Fill the pan. Now, use a large cookie scoop (for even portions) and add two scoops of muffin batter to each lined well, about 6 tablespoons per muffin. I like to sprinkle the tops with sanding sugar for a sparkly finish. If you’d prefer to leave them plain, you can always add a glaze after the muffins have cooled, like the one from my lemon bread recipe.
Bake. Bake these lemon poppy seed muffins in the middle of the oven, at 425ºF for 6 minutes. Without opening the oven door, lower the temperature to 350ºF, and bake for another 12-17 minutes. If a toothpick stuck into the center of the muffin comes out clean, they’re done.
Cool. Give the muffins 10-15 minutes to cool in the pan before moving them to a wire rack to finish cooling to room temperature.

Lemon poppy seed muffin batter in a glass bowl. — Mix the batter.

Lemon poppy seed muffin batter in a muffin pan with an empty well between each muffin. — Mix the batter.

Bake Without Muffin Liners

If you don’t have muffin liners, you can grease every other well generously with butter or cooking spray. If you find that the muffins are sticking a bit when you go to remove them from the pan, run a knife gently around the edges so they loosen.

Close up of lemon poppy seed muffins in a muffin pan.

3 Tips for Bakery-Style Poppy Seed Muffins

Rest the batter. This isn’t a groundbreaking technique, but it does make the difference between good muffins and GREAT muffins! Similar to how you’d rest the batter for buttermilk pancakes, this resting time allows the batter to fully absorb the flour and relaxes the gluten, for lighter, fluffier muffins.
Line every other muffin well. This is a trick I picked up from my muffin expert friend, Beth. Leaving an empty well in between each muffin means that you can fill the muffin liners almost to the top with batter, and when they rise, the muffins won’t spill over into each other.
Bake high, then low. Starting muffins in high heat (425ºF) and then reducing the oven temperature to 350ºF ensures that they rise quickly in the first few minutes of baking. This creates big, tall domes.

Two lemon poppy seed muffins stacked on a plate with more muffins in the background.

Storage and Freezing

Store at room temperature. Wait until the muffins have completely cooled before storing. Keep these muffins covered airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Freeze. You can freeze these lemon poppy seed muffins for up to 2 months. Thaw them at room temperature when you’re ready to serve.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins