Mandy's Recipe Box

Where a balance diet is a dessert in each hand

Greek Yogurt Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

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Cure the winter blahs with these sunny and bright Greek Yogurt Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. These lightened up muffins contain no butter or oil and rely on applesauce and Greek yogurt for a protein-packed snack.

 

Hi everyone! It’s Eva from Eva Bakes here to share another recipe with you!

Something about the cold days of winter makes me crave citrus. Are you the same way? Do you dream about lazy days on the beach with tropical umbrella-filled drinks? Well, I had the winter blahs one day and needed something citrus-y to cheer me up. Enter these Greek yogurt lemon poppy seed muffins.

I have already made lemon poppy seed muffins before but made a few slight alterations to this batch. First, I subbed applesauce for the melted butter; second, I dialed back on the poppy seeds; and third, I omitted the glaze. I tried to make these somewhat healthier than the first recipe, and if you want to make these even healthier, you can swap out half of the all-purpose flour with white whole wheat flour (or replace it completely, but you will most likely need more liquid in the batter so the muffins don’t dry out).


My 4-year old daughter loves muffins, but for whatever reason, she initially did not want to lay her little fingers on these. When I told her that they were mommy’s lemon muffins, she took one bite and said, “Mommy! These are the best.” She continued to wolf down her muffin and barely drank any milk between each bite. My husband also made a point to say that these were fantastic muffins, and that is saying something since I make a lot of muffins. He said that these were one of his favorites since they seemed light yet healthy.

He and I have been eating at least a muffin each day for breakfast and snacks. I’m definitely going to be sad when the batch is gone. But hey, at least these muffins made me forget about the dreary days of winter (albeit temporarily) and gave me a good reason to daydream about the beach and sandy toes. Hmm, maybe it’s time to start planning our next vacation to Hawaii.

Greek yogurt lemon poppy seed muffins
 
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Author:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • ⅔ cup sugar
  • grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup Greek yogurt (I used 0% Chobani Greek yogurt)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 and ½ TBSP poppy seeds
Directions
  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Generously grease a standard muffin pan (or use a silicone muffin pan like I did) and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips. The sugar will become lumpy and you will get a strong lemon aroma. Whisk in the flour, baking soda, baking
  4. powder and salt and set aside.
  5. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the Greek yogurt, eggs, vanilla and applesauce. Mix well until everything is well incorporated.
  6. Transfer the Greek yogurt mixture into the large bowl with the flour and gently fold the ingredients together, using as few strokes as possible. You do not want to overmix this. The batter will be very thick and lumpy. Gently add in the poppy seeds and mix to distribute.
  7. Evenly distribute the batter into your prepared muffin pan and fill them ⅔ full.
  8. Bake in your preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are a light golden color and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool completely before serving.
  9. Muffins can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for several days or frozen and reheated.

Source: Barely adapted from my lemon poppy seed muffins here

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Comments

  3. These would definitely bring in some much needed sunshine on this cold February day. They look amazing and I love the Greek yogurt and applesauce in here! Our whole family would gobble these up in no time:)

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