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These Coconut Flour Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins have the perfect balance of sweet and tart flavors, and are naturally gluten-free with plenty of protein to leave you feeling satisfied.
I love adding freshly squeezed lemon juice to baked goods, as it’s refreshing and loaded with vitamin C and potassium, along with other nutrients like iron and magnesium. Poppy seeds add a mild crunch in this recipe, and also contribute a small dose of calcium, iron, and zinc in each bite. Even my toddler son, who typically doesn’t care for add-ins in his muffins and cookies, loves to bite into these light and fluffy lemon poppy seed muffins!
These Coconut Flour Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins are:
- gluten-free and grain-free
- dairy-free
- nut-free (if you omit the icing)
- naturally sweetened
- light and fluffy
- higher in protein and lower in sugar than a traditional muffin
- take only 15 minutes to prepare before baking
You can serve these fluffy muffins as is, or you can top them with the Creamy Lemon Icing recipe I’ve included for a slightly sweeter and fancier presentation. The icing is not nut-free, so keep that in mind if any of your friends or family members have allergies, but it’s quick to prepare and makes these muffins feel more like a cupcake to serve at a special occasion! This is not the type of icing that will harden, since it doesn’t contain refined powdered sugar, so be sure to add the topping right before serving for best results.
Ingredients
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins:
- 3/4 cup coconut flour (level measurement, not heaping)
- 3/4 cup maple syrup , at room temperature
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Zest of a whole lemon (about a teaspoon)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 6 eggs , at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
Creamy Lemon Glaze:
- 1/4 cup raw cashew butter
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 to 3 teaspoons water , as needed to thin
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a standard muffin tin with 12 baking cups. (I use these silicone liners for best stick prevention.)
- Make sure your maple syrup and eggs are at room temperature. You can place the eggs in a bowl of warm tap water for a few minutes to help warm them up quickly. This will ensure that your muffin batter will be runny, like traditional muffin batter, and will easily mix and pour into the muffin cups. (Otherwise the coconut oil may harden and won't mix evenly into the batter.) In a large bowl, combine the coconut flour, maple syrup, coconut oil, lemon juice and zest, salt, baking soda, eggs, and vanilla, and use a whisk to stir the batter until smooth. The whisk should help break up any clumps, making the batter very smooth. Stir in the poppy seeds, then divide the batter evenly among the 12 baking cups.
- Bake at 350ºF until the centers are firm to the touch and the edges are lightly golden, about 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely before topping with the icing below.
- To prepare the Creamy Lemon Icing, stir together the cashew butter, maple syrup, and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth. Add water 1 teaspoon at a time, as needed to thin the icing to your liking. Drizzle it over the top of each muffin just before serving.
- Leftover muffins can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Video
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 135, Fat: 3g, Carbohydrates: 20g, Fiber: 2g, Protein: 4g
Substitution notes:
- Flour: Since the muffins are made with coconut flour, I don’t recommend making many modifications to this recipe– coconut flour is SO tricky to work with and cannot be substituted for all-purpose flour, almond flour, or any other flour that I know of. If you’re put-off by the amount of eggs this recipe calls for, you could try substituting a 1/4 cup of applesauce or a flax or chia egg for 1 of the eggs in this recipe, but I wouldn’t stray too far from the number of eggs called for, as they provide the structure of this recipe. Flax and chia eggs rarely work in coconut flour recipes because they don’t rise and firm up in the same manner that chicken eggs do. If you do decide to try working with a vegan egg, make sure you’re prepared for a different results– the centers of the muffins might remain gooey inside.
- Sweetener: I did try making this recipe with coconut sugar instead of maple syrup, and the results are much darker in color, less sweet, and overall not as pretty. The maple syrup provided a muffin that looks more traditional, as you see pictured in this post.
- Nut-Free: If you’d like to try a nut-free option for the Creamy Lemon Icing, I’d try using coconut butter instead of the raw cashew butter. Just taste as you go and adjust the flavor and texture as needed.
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Reader Feedback: Do you have a favorite baked good for Spring? Let me know if you have any healthy makeover requests!
I’m a big fan of this blog and generally use its recipes to great effect. This one was a little disappointing though. The muffins were quite sweet with all that syrup (and that was without using the additional glaze), which overpowered their lemon content, and they were pretty heavy and greasy. All that said, I’ll keep coming back to Detoxinista again and again because it is such a great resource. Thank you!
I want to make this as a bundt cake. Would you bake for more like 30-35 minutes?
I’d also like to do a vanilla frosting…debating between just making this glaze vanilla instead of lemon or trying the sweet potato since I’ve loved it on other cakes. Suggestions?
The recipe was delicious. We used honey instead since we have bees and probably could’ve used less because they were pretty sweet. The bottoms of every muffin did have a different texture maybe due to the eggs? I will make again.
Are the cups of coconut flour supposed to be unpacked, lightly packed, or packed? My resulting muffins were tasty but pretty “egg-y” (spongy…like egg consistency)
So yummy, Megan! Great recipe. I cut down the maple syrup to 1/2 cup with success! I also used coconut butter in the icing as Megan suggests. Delicious!
could I sub almond butter for cashew butter in the glaze? would it taste funny?
I don’t have cashew butter.
These were so tasty! they had a great texture and flavor. 5 stars!
Did you pack the coconut flour a lot into the measuring cups? My resulting texture was kinda spongy/eggy
I am allergic to cashews. Think almond butter would taste just as good?
These are delicious! I iced the muffins since I couldn’t achieve the drizzling consistency and it was unbelievably good. Also, I ran out of lemon juice and had to use lime juice. Just as good!
Delicious and tangy. Thank you.