Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins & Our 2nd Mother’s Day Treat

I hope all the international mothers had a wonderful day of rest, relaxation and pampering last Sunday 🙂  Unlike the rest of the world, here in the UK we celebrate Mother’s Day in March rather than in May but, despite this, last Sunday did feel like Mother’s Day as we had lovely day out with my parents’ in law at Wisley Gardens.  We even had some Mother’s Day gifts for my mother-in-law as we didn’t get to her on the UK Mother’s Day.

Rhododendrons at Wisley in May

www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Wisley/

Funnily enough, M thought it was Mother’s Day last Sunday as the date was printed on his works calendar.  Shame I didn’t keep my mouth shut otherwise I could have been in for another treat 😉  He said he was going to remind Lil’ L to make me a card.   I didn’t need another card though as the one I received on our first Mother’s Day was perfect.  In fact, I still haven’t put it away as it makes me smile every time I re-read it.  Here’s what he wrote:

My Mothers Day Card 2013

How sweet is that?

He sure knows how to encourage me to keep baking him treats 😉

Since he loves lemon cake so much, I thought I’d treat him (and M) to some lemon poppy seed muffins this week.  I’m happy to report that they turned out really well and received great feedback from the family 🙂  Even though they’re made with wholegrain flour, they’re light, fluffy and moist.

Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin

This is what they look like inside:

Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin

They’re very easy to make.  Here’s how I did it:

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Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (Dairy free, Egg free, Vegan)

Makes: 12 muffins
Hands-on time: 10 minutes    Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients
280g / 10 oz / 2 cups fine wholemeal (wholewheat pastry) or chapatti flour (I use the latter)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
¼ tsp sea salt
1½ tbsp poppy seeds
100 ml / 3½ fl oz / ½ cup rapeseed (canola) oil
120g / 4¼ oz / ½ packed cup & 1 TBSP unrefined caster sugar (add up to 4 TBSP more sugar if you prefer sweeter muffins)
3 tbsp agave syrup (or maple syrup)
65 ml / 2¼ fl oz / ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (roughly 2 lemons)
zest of 2 lemons, finely chopped
185 ml / 6½ fl oz / ¾ cup fortified sweetened soya milk (or other non dairy milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1½ tbsp unrefined demerara (turbinado) sugar

To make gluten-free muffins, use a gluten-free flour blend, like the ones produced by Doves Farm. You may need to add a little more liquid (see instructions on the packet)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 355 F / Gas 4.  Line a muffin tray with paper liners (or use  silicon moulds)
  2. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl.  (If the wheat flakes are too large to be sieved, grind them finer using a coffee grinder or mini chopper).  Stir in the poppy seeds.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, syrup, lemon juice, lemon zest, milk, vanilla extract and vinegar until completely combined.
  4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, until just combined (do not over stir).
  5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.  Sprinkle a little demerera sugar on top of each muffin.
  6. Place in the pre-heated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.  Leave to rest for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.  Once completely cool, store in an airtight container.  These muffins will last a week in the refrigerator and several weeks in the freezer.

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Here’s another of our favourite muffin recipes: Mama Pea’s Blueberry Streusel Muffin

Mama Pea Blueberry Streusel Muffin

And if you like lemon cakes, how about a slice of Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake?

Lemon Drizzle Cake

I don’t know about you, but I find that muffins are a bit too big for me to eat in one go.  I often slice them and save half in the fridge for another day.  It’s my birthday next month and on my wish list is one of these mini muffin trays.  They look so cute and this muffin size would be perfect for me.  They’ll also be great for lunchboxes (and waistlines) too!

What’s your favourite muffin flavour?  The next two flavours I’d like to try baking are raspberry & coconut, and maple syrup with maple glazed walnuts.  I just need to wait until I have a bit of space in the freezer then I can get recipe testing 🙂

 

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13 thoughts on “Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins & Our 2nd Mother’s Day Treat

  1. These muffins look more like gorgeous upmarket friand than simple little muffins. I think that is what I am going to call them and I am going to make them today :). Cheers for the great recipe

    1. Thank you so much for your lovely comments! I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as we do. Just to let you know, they freeze really well too. I’ve stocked up the freezer, so that I’ve got muffins on hand for lunch boxes and coffee mornings with the girls. They defrost really quick 😀

  2. Funny that…..Mini Muffins is the way for me too……plain with almonds ……You can always have a couple…x

  3. haha, I can definitely eat a whole regular-size muffin! Especially one of these gorgeous looking lemon poppy seed ones. I’m with Lil’L on the lemon love. It’s definitely a favourite. I love nuts in my muffins too- carrot,raisin + nut and banana walnut are 2 of my top varieties.

    1. Hey Emma! I love the sound of your favourite muffin recipes. I’m definitely going to have to give them a try 😀
      I hope the exams have been going well for you. I’m guessing they’re nearly over by now! Have a wonderful summer… you definitely deserve a break after all that hard work! xx

  4. Look at that lovely light moist crumb! I think even I – with my evil anti-carrot cake oven – could bake these. I’ll have to give them a go this weekend 🙂

    1. Ah yes, I must order a bag of carrots so I can get on with that carrot cake trial!
      I really hope these lemon muffins work out for you. I’m guessing you may need to bake them at a higher temp or for a little longer, but do let me know how you get on. I’ve made 3 batches in the past couple of weeks and they’ve worked out every time. They freeze really well too, and only take about an hour to defrost. I think I’ll freeze all my cakes in future… it’ll save me eating them all in one go 😉

  5. What a sweet note from Lil’ L! It’s funny, lemon is my older son’s favorite cake/muffin flavor too. I made him a lemon cake for his birthday not too long ago and you know how much I love lemon anything. 🙂 He and I happily shared leftovers. For Mother’s Day I received several handmade cards, letters and beautiful gifts and we spent a lovely weekend at the coast. So nice to get away and celebrate my little family. Sounds like you had a nice time too!

    1. So lovely to hear from you Candy! It sounds like you had the most wonderful Mother’s Day 😀 Those handmade cards are the best aren’t they? I absolutely treasure the words written inside them… spelling mistakes an’ all 😉

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