A couple of days back I had asked my Facebook fans a question about recipe requests, which is if they have any recipe they would like to see here. I got a lot of feedback. Poppyseed cupcakes or muffins, choux pastry, eclairs, yeast breads, pies, cheesecakes were asked the most. I didn't have time to bake something as elaborate as pies, cheesecakes or choux pastry so decided to go with a rather simple one.
I too have wanted to try baked treats with poppy seeds for a long time now, especially after trying a moist lemon poppy seed bread in my son's school 2 months back. The Facebook request made me go for it immediately.
I started browsing for recipes and found that either lemon or orange or a combination of both was used in combination with the poppy seeds, be it muffins, cupcakes or quick breads. I liked the bread which I had in school so wanted to try that flavor combo itself but decided to bake muffins instead.
I bookmarked a couple of recipes but ended up tweaking the vegan chocolate chip muffin recipe itself because I loved the taste and texture of it. The original recipe is from Vegan Brunch, but I have modified it to bake these moist lemon poppy seed muffins.
It can very well be cupcakes too because it had a nice smooth top when it was done baking. With some lemon-cream cheese frosting, these poppy seed cupcakes would be a cute addition on any breakfast, brunch or party table. Initially, it felt like that it was not sweet enough but ended up being perfect for us.
Recipe
Vegan Lemon Poppy Seeds Mini Muffins
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 cup rice milk
- 3.5 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ¼ cup avocado oil
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 2 and ½ tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F/190C for 15 minutes. Lightly grease a 24 cups mini muffin tin or line it with paper liners.
- In a medium size bowl mix together the milk and lemon juice; set aside for about 5 minutes (Check My Notes). After that stir in applesauce, oil and lemon zest.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mix and stir until just combined. Do not over mix.
- Scoop out about a tablespoon of batter in each muffin cup. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Mine was done in 10 minutes.
My Notes
- The milk and lemon juice mixture did not curdle as much as I expected. The milk and vinegar combination curdles very quickly but since I was making lemon poppy seed muffins I decided to use extra lemon juice itself.
- The mixture of non-dairy milk and vinegar/lemon juice is to make a vegan alternative for sour milk or buttermilk. I started off with just 2 tablespoons of lemon juice but after tasting the batter once everything was mixed I felt that it did not have enough "lemony" flavor. So ended up adding another 1.5 tablespoons of the juice, making it 3.5 tablespoons in total which was the entire juice from 1 lemon.
- I guess the amount of juice you use will actually depend upon how sour the lemon you are using it.
Nutrition
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Susan says
These are nice and lemony as it should be! I actually added 4T of lemon juice and the zest of two large lemons. I subbed in about one third whole wheat into the flour mix and some brown sugar for part of the white, which I cut back on a bit. My granddaughter loves these and I made them for her when she was here last month and again this month! Everyone loves.
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for the detailed comment, Susan.
Kira says
Amazing!!! Light and fluffy and delicious. Non-vegan family members loved them to. Thanks for the recipe!
Madhuram says
You're very welcome, Kira.
Liz says
Can I also use Cassava flour?
And a liquid that is dairy, nut and grain free
Madhuram says
Cassava flour is gluten-free and it cannot be replaced measure to measure for all-purpose flour. You will have to find a gluten-free mix which has xanthan gum and other leaveners premixed. Yes, you can use any type of liquid.
Liz says
Is there another liquid I can use as the person I'm cooking these for is diary, nut and grain free
Madhuram says
You can try hemp milk, oat milk or even orange juice.
Denise P Hopkins says
Do you think this could be made into a bundt cake? Would there be any changes needed in the ingredients? Thank you so much for your website! My grandson has an egg allergy and your yellow cake is our favorite - - we use it for all parties!
Madhuram says
You're very welcome, Denise. It should work. You might have to bake it a bit longer than muffins.