I feel like muffins the way I feel about men — there’s only one for me.
For my entire life I will live to love Mr. Making Life Sweet, and though it’s not a comparable kind of emotion, I will also live to love lemon poppy seed muffins — especially this new recipe for gluten-free lemon poppyseed muffins.
I’m not going to lie, I’ve botched a lot of baking recipes since going gluten-free. I’ve made cupcakes that ended up tasting like cardboard, and muffins that turned out hard as a rock. Let’s face it folks: baking, let alone gluten-free baking, is not always easy.
At the end of the day no matter how hard it is, however, I keep trying. No, gluten-free baking is usually not as pretty as traditional baking, but I’m telling you when you finally nail a recipe it might not look as spectacular but it tastes even better.
You probably noticed these lemon poppy seed muffins look a little more dense and rigid than ones you might see at the supermarket bakery. This is because they are made with a gluten-free, whole-grain flour blend and refined sugar-free. They are the clean cousin of the bakery muffin. You know what that means? Yes, you can eat one or even two of these for breakfast and feel good about it.
The best part about these muffins is that although they look different, they don’t taste any different than your traditional lemon poppy seed muffin. The bottom line? Using healthy ingredients doesn’t have to equate with a less delicious outcome.
You might be wondering why a lot of the baking recipes on Making Life Sweet have recently been refined sugar-free. This is another thing I am doing for my overall health and treatment of my connective tissue disorder. There are lots of studies out there that show refined sugar can have negative effects on the body, so I’m sticking with unrefined sugars from here on out to help cut down on my pain. It seems to be working, too!
Oh, and if you’re wondering about the lemon blueberry cream cheese — yes it is as delicious as it looks! 😉 Happy Monday friends and make it a great day! XOXO
Note: If you want to make these with regular, all-purpose flour (not gluten-free), you can substitute regular flour and they will turn out just as good!
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup coconut sugar or cane sugar
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
- 2 large eggs
- 1½ cups plain coconut yogurt
- 3 cups all-purpose 1:1 gluten-free flour (I use Williams & Sonoma Cup for Cup [url href=”http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/cup4cup-wholesome-flour/” target=”_blank”]Wholesome Blend[/url] for an added nutritional bonus)
- 3 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- [br][br][b]For the lemon blueberry cream cheese:[/b]
- 1/4 cup dairy-free cream cheese
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 tablespoons frozen blueberries
- 3 teaspoons honey
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 375˚ F. Grease a muffin tin with coconut oil and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat sugar, butter, and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Add eggs and yogurt and beat until combined.
- Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients in two installments. Do not overmix or your muffins with be hard and chewy.
- Divide batter evenly among muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove muffins from oven and allow to cool.
- When you’re ready to eat the muffins, make the cream cheese by stirring all ingredients together in a small bowl. If you’re like me and you like warm cream cheese, I recommend heating everything up in the microwave for a few seconds before stirring together. It makes it extra creamy!