These Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins are moist and fluffy, zesty and tangy and healthy enough for breakfast! They're also refined sugar free, and come together in one bowl.
Tips for baking with lemons
- For optimum lemon flavour, I would recommend using fresh lemons (not ones that you've had sitting in your fruit bowl for weeks!) and organic ones if possible.
- You have to be careful when baking with lemon juice as the acidity and lemon flavour can really vary depending on the lemons you use.
- I would recommend tasting the lemon juice you're using and adjusting the amount of lemon juice you use accordingly.
- For the lemon zest, make sure you use unwaxed lemons.
How to make this recipe
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix together all the ingredients in a glass mixing bowl.
Tip: Make sure to use a measuring jug to measure out the exact amount of plant-based milk!
- Divide the batter between muffin cases in a muffin/cupcake tin.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
Tips for the lemon syrup
I decided to make a sweet, tangy lemon syrup to pour over the muffins. The syrup is refined sugar free and easy to make, and adds a little extra zippy sweetness. Plus, you can quickly mix it together whilst you're waiting for the muffins to bake in the oven.
- I recommend pouring the syrup over the muffins straight out the oven while they're still hot, so that it gets properly absorbed.
- It's optional so you can definitely leave it out if you want.
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of oil: coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- You can replace the ground almonds (almond meal/almond flour) with ground walnuts.
- For a nut-free version: replace the ground almonds (almond meal/almond flour) with ground sunflower seeds or use 30g (¼ cup) coconut flour instead of 150g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds.
- You can use plain flour, wholemeal (whole wheat) flour or spelt flour instead of the gluten-free flour if you're not gluten-free.
How long do these keep for?
These do taste best when fresh, but they do keep covered in the fridge for up to a few days. You can reheat them in the oven or an oven toaster if you like.
For more vegan muffin recipes
- Carrot Muffins
- Blueberry Banana Bread Muffins
- Chocolate Muffins
- Apple Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins
- Muffin Tin Sushi Cups
- Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Orange Muffins
- Orange Poppy Seed Muffins
- Strawberry Muffins
- Raspberry Muffins
- Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Cranberry Muffins
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make it
Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
For the muffins:
- 60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 180 ml (¾ cup) unsweetened almond milk (or sub any other plant-based milk)
- 8 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest (use unwaxed lemons)
- 12 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 3 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
For the syrup (optional):
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions
For the muffins:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil).
- Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the lemon juice, lemon zest, maple syrup, vanilla, salt, poppy seeds and ground almonds.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
- Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry.
- Transfer the mixture between muffin cases in a muffin tin.
- Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
For the syrup:
- Whilst the muffins are baking, mix together the lemon juice and maple syrup.
- Drizzle it over the muffins as soon as they’re out of the oven - it will soak into the muffins better when they're hot.
- These muffins taste best eaten on the day they’re made, but keep for a few days. They can be reheated in the oven or an oven toaster if you like!
Video
Notes
- For optimum lemon flavour, I would recommend using fresh lemons (not ones that you've had sitting in your fruit bowl for weeks!) and organic ones if possible.
- You have to be careful when baking with lemon juice as the acidity and lemon flavour can really vary depending on the lemons you use.
- I would recommend tasting the lemon juice you're using and adjusting the amount of lemon juice you use accordingly.
- For the lemon zest, make sure you use unwaxed lemons.
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Hannah
Made these twice now and absolutely love them! First time I couldn't find poppy seeds any where and made them with chia seeds and they were amazing and it is now my preferred way to make them.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that!
Gymnastgold
I love this recipe I’m gluten and dairy egg free it was nice to enjoy it and my daughter made it for me.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that!
Anne
Lovely lemon muffins , I will definitely be making them again. I really like the way your recipes give so many possible substitutions , I’m always confident I’m making a fairly forgiving recipe. I need this !! Thanks
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that!
Louise
I just tried these.. they are totally “glue-like” I tried cooking them a little longer to see if that would help .. but no luck .. followed the recipe exactly.. any idea why ?!
Rhian Williams
Hi - I'm sorry to hear that. What type of gluten-free flour did you use?
Kelsey
I got the same result as one of the other reviews. It is totally gummy. And I used the same gf flour as you suggested. The mixture as pretty dry so I added a couple splashes of extra milk. Maybe that was my mistake? They have a nice taste, but super bummed about he texture.
Rhian Williams
Hi - I'm sorry to hear that. What type of gluten-free flour did you use? Did you make any substitutions?
Terry
Thank you for this recipe! I made these and they turned out great. I used ground poppy seeds instead of whole ones. I also used Avola almonds for the ground almonds, these are perfect for lemon poppyseed muffins because they have a bitter note and almost have an "almond extract" effect. I might try it with a different variety next time (and depending on the variety, sometimes it is nice to toast them before to extract some of the aroma). I actually didn't love the syrup because it kind of overpowered everything else, so next time I will try it without. I love that this recipe (and many other recipes here) use such simple and quality ingredients.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that!!