Serve up a plate of Gluten Free Lemon Poppyseed Muffins with coffee, and you've got a morning right out of my dreams.
This post has all my top tips for big, drool-worthy bakery-style gluten free muffins. This lemon poppyseed version makes the ideal morning treat!
TLDR: Quick tips
SPOON-LEVEL: To make sure your muffins don't come out too dry, it's incredibly important to use the "spoon and level" method when using gluten free flour.
STAGGER LINERS: For those big, bakery-style domed muffins, you're only going to use half the muffin tin to ensure there's room for those muffins to grow!
TOP WITH SUGAR: A sprinkling of turbinado sugar makes a HUGE difference for bakery-style muffins.
Jump to:
Ingredients
GLUTEN FREE FLOUR: My favorite brand for virtually all my gluten free baking projects is Bob's Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour. You can find it in almost every grocery store, it works well for a variety of baking, and it already contains xanthan gum (an important ingredient in gluten free baking.)
Feel free to use another gluten free flour blend, but know the results might differ.
SUGAR: Just a cup of cane sugar for these lemon poppyseed muffins - they're not overly sweet, which I personally love.
BUTTER: Make sure the you melt and cool the butter for this recipe. Quick tip to help the butter cool faster: melt only 6 tablespoons of butter, then add the last 2 tablespoons after. The residual heat of the melted butter will melt the cold 2 tablespoons, but the cold tablespoons will help cool the rest!
YOGURT/SOUR CREAM: This ingredient serves a couple different purposes. Low-fat Greek yogurt or sour cream helps keep these muffins moist, while the natural acidity works with baking powder to help with that lift.
MILK: A little milk adds extra moisture and liquid to the batter. I tested this recipe with only Greek yogurt, but it was a little TOO thick. Milk helps keep the muffins from becoming overly dense.
EGGS: 3 eggs might be more than you're used to seeing in a muffin recipe, but very needed here for fluffy muffins! After testing these muffins a couple times, they clearly needed a little more lift and structure, and eggs did the job.
LEMON JUICE + ZEST + BAKING POWDER: LEMON JUICE + BAKING POWDER - Without gluten, baked goods need a little additional help with lift. The combination of a little extra baking powder and lemon juice creates a chemical reaction that creates LIFT! That's what makes the big, beautifully-domed muffins that are soft and fluffy inside. Hooray!
POPPY SEEDS: The last mix-in for these muffins! If you'd like, you can omit them for just gluten free lemon muffins.
TURBINADO SUGAR: A sprinkling of turbinado sugar before baking helps brown the muffins and creates that almost-crackly texture for the muffin top.
Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients: Add the gluten free flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a bowl and stir to incorporate.
- Combine wet ingredients: In a separate bowl, stir together the cooled melted butter, Greek yogurt, milk, eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla.
- Mix it all together: Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just until no dry flour remains. Add the poppy seeds.
- Bake! Add the batter to a lined muffin tin and bake at 425 degrees F for 7 min before dropping to 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.
Tips for bakery-style gluten free muffins
Big, beautifully-domed sugared tops catch your eye in cafes and bakeries. You can make muffins like that at home, too!
Here are my top tips for achieving bakery-style muffins with tantalizing tops:
- Batter should be thick
The batter for these muffins should be pretty thick! If you are worried it's too thick, trust the process.
However, if it is SO thick that you can't plop it into the muffin liners, you may need to add some additional milk to thin out the batter.
- Lots of leavening
As mentioned in the ingredient notes, gluten free baked goods need a little extra help to create the structure and fluffiness we want in our sweet pastries.
So for these gluten free lemon poppyseed muffins, I employed several strategies to get the lift needed: using both baking soda and baking powder, adding a little extra lemon juice, and leaning on the acidity in Greek yogurt or sour cream all help in this department.
- Don't overmix!
Overmixing the batter leads quickly to tough, not fluffy muffins.
Mix the batter just until all the ingredients are combined. For this reason, I don't suggest using an electric mixer.
- Fill the muffin liners to the top
Want to get those big, beautiful, bakery-style muffin tops? Fill those muffin liners, baby!
General advice suggests filling ¾ full, but this recipe will ask you to fill them to the top. Trust me, you'll love the results!
- Only use half the muffin tin
Because we're filling those muffin liners to the top and we want the domes to lift and spread beyond their boundaries, you'll leave half the tin empty. Skip every other indent to give the domes room to grow without bumping up against each other.
- Start baking at a high heat for a boost
You'll notice that this recipe asks you to start these gluten free lemon poppyseed muffins at 425 degrees F. You'll only do this for a few minutes, and it's just to give the acid and leavening a boost at the beginning!
After about 7 minutes, you'll drop the heat down to 350 degrees F.
FAQs
Usually expired baking soda or baking powder are to blame for baked goods that don't rise. We often keep these ingredients around in perpetuity without checking whether they still work!
To test if your baking soda or powder are fresh, put ¼ teaspoon soda or powder in a cup and add a small amount of vinegar or very hot water. If it doesn't bubble, it should be replaced.
The muffins got too much lift! If you were a little heavy-handed with the lemon juice, that may be a contributing factor.
I also found that if the batter sat around too long before baking, I'd run into the same issue - mountainous, pointed top instead of rounded, domed tops.
They'll still taste great, either way!
You can keep them on the counter in an airtight container overnight. For longer storage, however, keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
More gluten free baking recipes
Want to make more bakery-style gluten free muffins? Check out Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins! For grain- and dairy-free muffins, try Apple Pecan Streusel Muffins.
If cookies catch your interest, you've got to try our house-favorite GF White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies.
Or lean into the lemon poppyseed flavor with Lemon Poppyseed Zucchini Bread!
Have you made these gluten free Lemon Poppyseed Muffins? I'd love to hear what you think! Comment below or tag me on Instagram.
Print📖 Recipe
Gluten Free Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 19 minutes
- Total Time: 34 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Fluffy, beautiful bakery-style gluten free lemon poppyseed muffins that taste fantastic! These got compliments all around, even from friends who had no idea they were eating gluten free muffins.
Ingredients
- 3 cups gluten free flour blend, spooned and leveled (my go-to is Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Baking Flour)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 8 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- ½ cup plain low or whole fat Greek yogurt or sour cream, room temperature
- ½ cup milk
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 ½ tablespoons lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar, for topping
Instructions
- Move one oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Stir with a spoon or whisk to fully incorporate ingredients and set aside.
- In a larger mixing bowl, combine the melted and cooled butter, yogurt, eggs, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Whisk until smooth.
- Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until a batter is formed - don't overmix, or you'll end up with chewy muffins. Add the poppy seeds and mix just until combined.
- For bakery-style muffins, line a 12-count muffin pan with 6 muffin liners (this leaves room for those extra-big domed tops - meaning you'll have to bake in 2 batches). Fill the liners with about ½ cup of batter, so the batter rests just above the liner. Top the muffins with turbinado sugar or coarse sugar, if desired.
- Place one pan in the center of the oven and bake for 7 minutes at 425 degrees F, then (without opening the oven door) decrease the temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for an additional 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool for a couple minutes before removing to a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining batter, starting with the oven at 425 degrees F.
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