One bite into these lemon yogurt muffins and your morning just got instantly better.
A couple of years ago, my daughter and I would go to a coffee shop every Thursday afternoon to wait forty-five minutes until it was time to go to art, after dropping off her brother at gymnastics.
For a while, we were in a lemon-poppy seed kick, until she decided she no longer liked the “little black things” in her muffins. We moved on to lemon pound cake, but it wasn’t the same since pound cake, while still delicious, it has a totally different texture.
As the school year and art classes ended, so did our weekly ritual. Recently, my daughter suggested I make lemon muffins without poppy seeds, and thus these muffins were created.
First, check out how easy they are to make in this quick video.
My daughter and I love baking together on the weekends, and this recipe just came together so easy. It is similar to my Very Blueberry Muffin recipe and my Strawberry Yogurt Oat Muffins. It’s super moist from the yogurt and incredibly fully at the same time.
While I include an easy glaze in the recipe below, full of lemon zest, I don’t usually glaze them, just on special occasions.
Zesty Lemon Muffins
- Yield: 9–12 muffins 1x
Ingredients
Muffins:
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Zest of 2 lemons, about 2 tablespoons
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 6oz plain Greek yogurt
Icing drizzle:
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F and line a 12 muffin pan with liners.
- In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer or large bowl, cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add lemon zest, juice, and Greek yogurt, mix to combine.
- Fill each muffin cavity and bake, 12-14 minutes until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow muffins to cool down completely prior to serving or drizzling with glaze.
For the glaze:
- Combine melted butter, cream cheese, lemon juice, and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and whisk until it’s thinned out to the consistency you like. Drizzle lightly over muffins.
Notes
This recipe can be made with whole-wheat pastry flour or half white and half whole-wheat flour. Making these muffins 100% whole wheat will yield denser muffins. To make these gluten-free, use a 1:1 gluten-free flour.
If you’re baking in high altitude or want to use the 375F temp like in the video, these muffins will take 18-22 minutes, making sure to test with a toothpick and remove them from the oven when they come out clean.
These look delicious! Love lemon muffins.
Yum! Lemon muffins without the poppy seeds? Yes please. I am right there with your daughter. I just don’t like them.
I could eat lemon pastries every day, a true weakness of mine.
These are the BEST lemon muffins I’ve ever made!
Made these this morning. They were amazing -even if I did not glaze.
★★★★★
I love that you always say that the glaze is optional. These were super moist muffins with the perfect amount of lemon!
They were delicious!!
I didn’t get a full 12 out of this batter. That always happens to me! Why so??
★★★★
Are you over-filling the muffin tins? that happens to me sometimes.
These were delicious!! Thank you for the recipe!!