Light and fluffy blackberry lemon poppy seed muffins are on a whole new level! Greek yogurt or sour cream keeps them extra moist, creamed butter creates a wonderfully soft texture, and fresh blackberries add a burst of fresh flavor. Drizzle each with sweet, tart lemon icing for a finishing touch.
Today’s blackberry lemon poppy seed muffins are fruity and summery, featuring the season’s freshest berries. I love any and all lemon poppy seed muffins (try my orange lemon poppy seed muffins next), but when you introduce berries—it’s a whole new level of awesome. The sweet blackberries cut the tartness of the lemon muffin and add a new texture to each bite. Let’s dive in!
These Blackberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins Are:
- Like my favorite lemon poppy seed muffins, with a burst of berry flavor
- Light and tender
- Like soft and fluffy lemon cake
- Made with basic ingredients
- Baked at an initial high temperature for tall muffin tops
- Studded with blackberries
- Drizzled with lemon icing
- Perfect for summer mornings, when fresh blackberries are in season
Best Ingredients to Use
These blackberry lemon poppy seed muffins are a variation of my master muffin recipe, which we also use as the base for my favorite blueberry muffins. We’ll use pretty much the same ingredients for today’s batter! Here are all of the ingredients you need and why each is important:
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the base of these muffins.
- Poppy Seeds: Can’t have poppy seed muffins without them! Same goes for lemon poppy seed bread and glazed orange poppy seed bars.
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder: Both leaveners help the muffins rise.
- Salt & Vanilla Extract: Salt and pure vanilla extract add flavor. Try using homemade vanilla extract.
- Butter: We use creamed unsalted butter for a lighter texture. My orange lemon poppy seed muffins are made with melted butter for a denser, heartier texture.
- Brown Sugar & Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens the muffins, balancing out the tart lemon. Brown sugar adds a kiss of flavor, plus extra moisture.
- Eggs: 2 eggs bind everything together.
- Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt: Adds unbeatable moisture.
- Milk: Milk adds moisture. I usually use unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Any milk, dairy or nondairy, works.
- Lemon Juice & Lemon Zest: Both add tartness and lots of lemon flavor.
- Blackberries: Fresh blackberries are best, but frozen blackberries work, too. If using frozen, do now thaw before using. You can use blueberries instead, or try raspberries or chopped strawberries. A mixed berry combination would be a delicious option! Keep berries to a total of 1 and 1/2 cups.
Baker’s Tip: It’s important to fill your muffin pan (or cupcake liners) all the way to the top. You’ll have a lot of batter in each cup. Because we bake the muffins at an initial high temperature for 5 minutes, the muffins won’t overflow. In fact, this is what creates tall muffin tops! The high heat raises the muffin tops up, then you’ll reduce the oven temperature for the remaining time which will cook the muffins inside. Not only does this trick create beautifully sky-high muffin tops, it also makes the muffins extra fluffy inside because the tops don’t stay flat.
Optional Lemon Icing
For a little something extra, I like to top each muffin with a drizzle of lemon icing. You only need 3 ingredients: confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and milk. It’s sweet and tangy and, after an hour or two, sets and becomes reminiscent of doughnut glaze. While totally optional, I always encourage adding extra sweetness!
More Favorite Muffin Recipes
- Banana Muffins
- Morning Glory Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Apple Cinnamon Muffins
- Cream Cheese Zucchini Muffins or regular Zucchini Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins
- Pumpkin Muffins
- Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Blackberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Light and fluffy blackberry lemon poppy seed muffins are on a whole new level! Greek yogurt or sour cream keeps them extra moist, creamed butter creates a wonderfully soft texture, and fresh blackberries add a burst of fresh flavor. Drizzle each with sweet, tart lemon icing for a finishing touch.
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120g) sour cream or plain yogurt, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon zest
- 2 and 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk (any kind), at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 cups (250g) fresh or frozen blackberries (do not thaw if using frozen)
Lemon Icing
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons (22ml) lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk (any kind)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Make the muffins: In a large bowl, toss the flour, poppy seeds, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla extract, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute, then turn up to high speed and beat until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Mixture may look a little chunky and curded; that’s ok.
- With the mixer running on low speed, add the dry ingredients and milk into the wet ingredients and beat until no flour pockets remain. Gently fold into the blackberries; they may bleed a little color and that’s ok.
- Spoon the batter evenly into each cup or liner, filling each all the way to the top. Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C), then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 15–18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 22–23 minutes, give or take. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.
- Make the icing: Whisk all of the icing ingredients together and drizzle over warm or cooled muffins.
- Cover and store leftover muffins for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: For longer storage, freeze muffins (with or without icing) for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature or warm up in the microwave if desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Glass Mixing Bowl | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Cooling Rack | Whisk
- Milk: You can use any milk, dairy or nondairy.
- Why is everything at room temperature? All refrigerated items should be at room temperature so the batter mixes together easily and evenly.
Would it be possible to not add the blackberries so the muffins could only be poppyseed or would that mess with the consistency of the batter?
Hi Hadley, you can do that or use the batter from this lemon poppy seed bread instead. The recipe notes there include directions for making as muffins. Enjoy!
These were absolutely fabulous, even using frozen berries! I realized just before I put them in that my poppy seeds had gone bad so sadly had to skip those- I’m sure they’ll be even better next time when I can include them. The batter did seem extremely thick when I was filling the muffin cups but once baked they were super light and fluffy and the blueberries stayed well dispersed- so impressed by that 🙂
Are the pictures on this from using a larger six muffin pan? Or are they just regular sized in a six count pan? Just wondering because yours are beautiful and I’d like the same effect but imagine the smaller ones may look different than what’s pictured
Hi Katey, the muffins pictured are standard sized (not jumbo). You can use a standard 12-count pan (the pan pictured was a smaller 6-count pan, but still standard size). Hope this helps!
Another tasty recipe!! Thought I’d made a mistake when I added the eggs, vanilla, and yogurt to the creamed butter only to have it appear like a liquid with butter speckles in it. However, I pressed on and this made a very tasty batch of muffins!
The tops are crisp and risen, the inside is mild and delicious (almost perfect enough that you could do without the glaze, but it’s a simple addition anyway), and they made my house smell wonderful!
You could probably make a spare muffin or two with the amount of batter this makes.
SO YUMMY!! I even made them gluten and dairy free and vegan! Excellent!
Lovely, soft muffins. I made mini muffins with dairy-free ingredients (coconut cream w/ lemon juice in place of yogurt) and baked at 350 for about 13-14 minutes as Sally’s mentioned in reply to other comments. They turned out well once I stopped over-filling the muffin tins 🙂 Unfortunately they ended up being a little light on the lemon flavor, which was sad, but they still taste good.
Hi Sally,
Can I ask why every time I made this muffin recipe, most of the blackberries sank to the bottom of the muffins? Is that because I used jumpo muffin pans? Thank you!
Hi Elizabeth! Berries sink when the batter isn’t thick enough to support them – using jumbo pans can affect the outcome as well. You try try coating the berries in just a bit of flour before incorporating them.
My family love these muffins. I was impressed with the beautiful crowns they have. They are light and airy. We waited the 10 minutes, wished we would have waited longer. We think they would of been stiffer. We had to use forks on some of them. We did use lemon jam instead of lemon juice. Also blueberries instead of blackberries. Amazing. Thanks for the recipes.
I’ve just made 30 of these using homegrown blackberries. They smell delicious-they’re for a birthday celebration tomorrow many thanks for the recipe
I’ve never had a miss with your recipes before but this one left me underwhelmed. They tasted good but the butter soaked the bottom of the muffins in the tin and made a greasy mess. I’ll probably look for a more traditional oil based muffin recipe and add the flavoring to that next time. (I didn’t use the berries b/c he didn’t want them and it only made 10 muffins. I was okay with that given my change. That wasn’t my issue with the recipe, just an FYI!)
Can I double or triple this recipe without making any other adjustments?
Hi JJ, for best results (and to prevent over or under mixing), we recommend making separate batches rather than doubling or tripling.
Thank you for the advice. I will make separate batches. I’m making muffins for a brunch birthday party for my grandson’s first. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Omg – so thank you to the person below who commented and to you for posting the elevation tips! I moved to CO and have thrown away so many trial and error recipes and decided to try this one with the edits and with my new oven and boom, they came out so good. I will post what I changed based on MY elevation per king arthurs website –
MILK – 1/4th cup plus 2 tablespoons plus 3 teaspoons – add 1 tbsp of butter to make “sweet milk”
Flour – 1 and 3/4THS cups plus 2 extra tablespoons
Use only Baking Powder, 1 teaspoon. No sour cream or yogurt.
5 mins at 450, decrease to 335 for the remaining 13 minutes.
They were’t the moistest things I’ve ever made but we will get there eventually! Thank you!
Lovely, Delicious, High Muffins w/No sinking middles at 8000’!
THX for your High Alt., changes. What is your elevation?
Made Half a recipe w/an extra Egg yolk bc I had one & left out 1 1/2 T Milk to compensate. Added 3>4 T Candied Lemon peel to batter for more flavor.. Baked in muff cups 450* 6 min; 375* 8 min; 350* ~5 min in convec/micro oven.
Turned out awesome. I usually hate making muffins because it happens all the time where I follow the recipe and they still turn out too dry or barely sweet. The only changes I made was omitting the lemon juice, and rubbing the zest into the sugar before mixing (a trick learned long ago). The batter doesn’t need anymore lemon flavour beyond that. I also mixed the yogurt and milk together, and I folded in the dry ingredients a little at a time. Batter turned out perfect.
Can I use sour crem instead of yogurt
Hi Leah, sure can!
These sound delicious, I cannot wait to try them. Do you think this recipe could be baked in a loaf pan?
Yes! Any muffin recipe yielding around 12 standard size muffins doubles as a quick bread recipe. You can use this batter and follow the baking instructions for our Blueberry Muffin Bread.
When I made these muffins, the tops didnt rise into a dome at all and simply went out. Also, the blackberries sank to the bottom and soaked in the bottom of the muffins. I dont know if this is a high altitude thing or if i just did something wrong.
Hi Mocat, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
See my post above for high altitude if you haven’t tried it already!
Have never had this happen before but on step 3 when I put mixer at high speed as directed my mixture completely separated and turned to liquid. What went wrong?
Hi Susan, were all of your ingredients room temperature? When ingredients are varying temperatures, it can sometimes cause batter to split.
Could I make the batter to step 4 and then freeze it in cooked/portioned? Then thaw and bake it later? Thanks!
Hi Emily, unfortunately, batter isn’t the best to freeze as the leavening agents are activated once mixed with the wet ingredients. You can freeze the baked muffins for up to three months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature or warm up in the microwave if desired.
Hi! Can I use 1/2 cup of honey instead of 3/4 cup sugar in the muffins without making any other changes? Thanks!
Hi Dana, We haven’t tried the recipe this way, but it should work! Let us know how it goes.
Do you think these would work if I left out the blackberries without making any other changes?
Yes, definitely!
Hi Irena,
I didn’t see your comment fast enough. I made them with the cake flour. They turned out very flat. I followed the recipe very closely.
Can I make these muffins with cake flour?
Hi Nadia, We fear cake flour would be much too light for these muffins. They would likely be flimsy and you’d have a hard time taking them out of the wrapper. Best to stick with all-purpose flour here!
Do you have any tips for creaming the butter without any mixer? Can I do it with a whisk or baking spatula?
Hi Sally. Very excited to start my muffin journey with the help of your clever base recipe plus add-ins approach. Have tried these lemon and poppy seed beauties. They taste great however after forming perfect domes during baking they partly deflated afterwards and formed funny peaks. Followed the recipe to the T. Set oven to bottom heating only and without the fan. Is that correct? Would appreciate any other suggestions before I tackle the apple walnut muffins. Many thanks.
Hi Irena, If they are deflating after you take them out of the oven then it’s likely that they are simply a bit underbaked. Next time, leaving them in the oven for even an extra minute should help. We use conventional heat (not fan forced) and the heating elements are on the top and bottom. If you have the ability to use top and bottom heat that should help also!
I have. Question: why did my muffins turn out dry? I baked them at 425 for 5 min and 15 min at 350 with a crumb on toothpick I followed recipe
Hi Donna, how are you measuring your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or weight measure) your flour to ensure you’re not adding too much flour to the dough. Too much flour can lead to dry muffins. Hope this helps!
I made a HUGE mistake!! I poured the batter in a 6 count muffin pan (that’s all I have) and the remaining into a small bundt pan. The muffins in the muffin pan turned out tall and PERFECT. However, the batter in the small bundt pan overflowed and made a mess…..still tasty and edible.
Hi Sally! I love all your recipes and can’t wait to try these. I am having a bridal shower brunch and I want to make mini muffins instead of regular size muffins. Do you happen to have the adjusted bake time? Thank you!
Hi Melissa, For mini muffins, the blackberries are pretty large, so we would cut them so they are a nice size for mini muffins. Bake at 350°F (177°C) the whole time for about 11-13 minutes, give or take.
Super delicious, great recipe! These muffins were light and fluffy and just the right combination of sweet and tart. I love that you use non-dairy milk alternatives. I used oat milk for mine and they turned out great. Thank you, Sally!
I just made these so delicious! Note: I didn’t have yogurt so substituted 4oz cream cheese ( room temp) and no poppy seeds. They were so yummy. I can’t wait to try them with all the ingredients. Thank you
These are the most delicious lemon muffins ever! Every flavor is in perfect balance. Super moist. And the blackberries add a wonderful touch.
These are seriously some of the best muffins I have made in a long time. Light, moist and a nice mix of sweet and tart. Thanks for this recipe. Just FYI, I used sour cream instead of yogurt. I just took some out of the freezer and they held up so well.