With a ridiculously tender and moist lemon crumb and a wonderful tangy glaze, these paleo and keto lemon poppy seed muffins can’t be missed!
Paleo & Keto Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins 🍋
Suuuper Tender & Moist
These keto lemon poppy seed muffins are simply awesome, and truly a must-make. I mean, it really is no wonder this combo has become a classic!
And this grain free version, topped off with an ultra lemony glaze, varies little from the original.
Note that I’ve since updated the post to provide only one recipe (i.e. the best one!). You see, I was a rookie blogger last year and confused you guys by dropping in a second recipe card (sorry!).
And more good news? This fresh keto delight is just 3g net carbs a pop! Packed with fiber, plenty of nutrients and the best kind of fats.
The Flours
I like a mixture of super fine almond flour and coconut flour (I always use Anthony’s!). Add a touch of psyllium husk and we’re golden.
And don’t skip the psyllium husk. It helps retain moisture, create structure (i.e. it’s highly responsible for the killer crumb). And it just so happens to be a killer source of fiber (it’s responsible for 2g of fiber per muffin 💩!).
You truly need a super finely ground almond flour here, as if you use meal your muffins will turn out dense and oily. Super fine almond flour brands include Anthony’s , WellBees and Bob’s.
The Sweetener
These keto muffins work well with erythritol (my favorite is Lakanto), xylitol, Pyure (at half the amount) and allulose (adding 30% more). And if paleo (or not restricted by sugar), coconut sugar is your best bet here. So you’ve got options.
If you’re opting for the lemon glaze, which comes highly recommended, your best option are xylitol and allulose (barely any after taste), followed by erythritol (some cooling effect). But they must be powdered.
So get your blender out, make sure it’s completely dry, and process your sweetener of choice until powdered. Just make sure you wait a few moments for the dust to settle before opening the blender or food processor.
Or you can always grab a bag of Lakanto powdered or Swerve confectioner’s.
And if using xylitol, make sure to be careful if you have a pup (or kitty) around the house, as it’s highly toxic to the little guys!
Paleo & Keto Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Oh, and if baking with cups rather than grams is your thing, just click on US Customary at the bottom of the ingredients for an instant conversion.
Ingredients
For the keto lemon poppy seed muffins
- 64 g almond flour
- 21 g coconut flour
- 1 tablespoon psyllium husk
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum or 2 teaspoons ground flaxseed
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 2 eggs yolks & whites divided
- 6 tablespoons erythritol *
- zest of a lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 57 g unsalted grass-fed butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons water
For the lemon glaze
- 3 tablespoons powdered erythritol
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line or grease and flour (with coconut flour) a muffin tray.
- Whisk together in a medium bowl almond flour, coconut flour, psyllium husk, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and poppy seeds. Set aside.
- Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and set aside.
- Add egg yolks and sweetener to a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
- Incorporate lemon zest, vanilla extract, vinegar, and melted butter. Add flour mixture slowly, alternating with lemon juice and water and beating until well incorporated.
- Fold egg whites little by little and gently into batter. The dough will be thick initially, but will loosen up as you begin to incorporate the egg whites. Spoon batter onto the prepared muffin tray.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes (covering with aluminum foil at minute 13-15), until deep golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan before removing, and cool completely in a rack (they will be very tender when warm, so handle gently). If they collapse slightly, don't worry the crumb will still be great!
- While the muffins are cooling, make the lemon glaze by mixing the powdered sweetener with the lemon zest and juice. Adding lemon juice as needed until desired consistency is reached. Drizzle over muffins.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days, though we're fairly certain they'll be long gone before then.
Just made the original recipe… Outrageously good! Just like a light and moist regular muffin!
I imported this recipe into my recipe program and now when I go back to your site to check on the US measurements (i imported metric); the recipe has changed. Originally it called for baking powder and baking soda … now the baking soda is no longer listed and the baking powder amount has been increased. What’s up with that?
There are two recipe cards on this page Linda, see both recipes xo!
I just stumbled upon your website while looking for Keto crackers. Lo and behold I found my all time favorite muffin….. LEMON POPPY SEED!!!!! I’m so stinking excited.. Thank you…. thank you… thank you!!!! I can’t wait to make these over the weekend.
Can you substitute the sour cream or coconut cream with cream cheese?
Hi, have you ever had your baked goods turn purple? Apparently this happens with very finely ground psyllium husk powder sometimes, and people recommend getting the husks and grinding them to a powder. I checked your link for the kind you’re recommending and it’s a powder already. Just wondering if I might have a problem with it if I get the pre-ground? I’ve never used it before. Thanks 🙂
Hi Paola,
I made both recipes and both are absolutely yummy, my new favourite muffin😆
One question though, how does your glaze stay white? Mine turns translucent as soon as it hits the muffins (still tastes great but sometimes I am after the visual effects – laugh)….I use Gentle Sweet as a sweetener.
Thanks for all your efforts, my weekly highlights are your new recipes😊
Hi Silke! That’s awesome to hear! Regarding your glaze, you probably just thinned it out a bit too much… or it could be the sweetener you used. In all honesty I’ve never worked with Gentle Sweet so I’m not sure how it works :-S
I hope this helped though! xo
Just made these today, so yummy! Mine turned out purple, which I think you’ve said is because of the psyllium powder? No matter, the taste is what’s important! After making keto pancakes yesterday (from another website) that were gritty and not that great, I was nervous about trying another low carb recipe. I’m glad I did, these were great! Next time I’m going to double the batch and freeze them. Thanks, Paola!
That’s awesome to hear Kristen! And yup on the psyllium! I use NOW and I’ve yet to have a purple bread (though in all honesty I wouldn’t care too much either ;)!) xo
Thanks, Paola! I’ve since read online that psyllium husk oxidizes when you grind it and the result is that it turns purple when it’s baked. Some people say if you grind it again before you use it it will reduce the intensity of the purple (but not get rid of it completely) so I’ll try that next time. I did look for NOW brand but I live in Canada and it’s quite expensive and hard to find.
In all honesty I’m not sure, as I regrind the NOW one and haven’t had it turn purple on me (yet!). I think it could also be a batch thing?
You can find the NOW brand at any Healthy Planet Canada stores or directly from their website 🙂
Hi Paola, I found your website about a week ago and I’ve already made about 5 of your amazing recipes. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome! Thank you!
However, with this recipe I ended up subbing regular brown flax for golden flax, not sure if that altered things, but my muffins had a very strong flax taste and kind of a mushy texture and they didn’t rise. I baked them for 19 minutes. Do you think it was just the flax?
Aside from this mishap, I thank you for your amazing site. It’s by far the best I’ve found for keto and paleo.
Shannon xo
Hi Paola,
I’m super excited to make these but I’m wondering if these are extra large muffins or regular sized muffins? I only have a 12 slot muffin tin so wondering how many of them to fill.
Thanks!
Hi Kaity! A batch makes 6 regular-sized muffins xo!
Thank -you for leaving the old recipe. While both are good, I find the old recipe a bit lighter and more to my taste. Best low carb muffin I have ever made- hands down.
These were so good!!! But mine didn’t rise like yours did. Any ideas what I did wrong? I think I followed the recipe exact! Either way, they are incredible!
Hi Lea! Perhaps the butter wasn’t creamed long enough with the sweetener (can take up to 10 minutes?). Also check expiration date on your baking powder. So happy you enjoyed the taste though! xo
In reply to the comment about bakery style muffins:
To get a better rise have you considered warming the whole eggs slightly and whipping them to ribbon stage? I’m not sure if it would work or but it might, even if it’s outside the realm of most home bakers. I’m going to try that when I do these. Another solution for rise without sugar might be to just add a teaspoon of molasses to the batter to help with crunch and rise. To get the crunchy tops I thought about mixing a tiny drop or two of molasses with lakanto or something to see how that works.
I’m really really looking forward to making these! Almost everything I make from you is awesome so I’m sure my favorite type of muffin will be too.
Do you happen to be in the works for a fabulous bakery style muffin? You know, the kind with the crunchy sugar top that you get from Panera? I just can’t think of how to get that top with anything but sugar and that beautiful rise with a keto or low carb muffin. I’d even be happy to have a little arrowroot or something in there just to have a big fat giant bakery style muffin again.
Hi Gabrielle! That’s awesome to hear, and I’ll always be happy to troubleshoot with you ;).
On the bakery style muffins, I discovered a couple weeks back that the issue isn’t with the flours but with the sugar. I baked a bunch of grain free muffins with cane sugar for a friends birthday (we didn’t want peeps to get upset tummies from the sugar alcohols!), and they turned out wonderfully light, fluffy and tall. It turns out that creaming the butter with the sweetener only creates about half the air bubbles than with sugar. I’ll be testing next month a bunch of sweeteners to see which one gives the best rise though. xo!
Can I substitute monk fruit for the sweetener? I love this blog. I love the keto/low carb gluten free options. Thank you!!
Hi Elizabeth! So happy to hear that! I don’t think pure monk fruit would work well, but something like Lakanto (monk fruit + erythritol would). xo!
These are INSANELY GOOD! My goodness! First keto muffins I’ve baked that aren’t stumps 🙂
Lol that’s awesome to hear Vanessa! So happy to see you’re cooking around the blog this weekend 😉
So many positive reviews and responses… makes my unsuccessful attempt difficult to own up to.
Well, they ended up “dense and oily”. They look like they hardly did any rising at all. Not sure where things went wrong. I used Bob’s almond flour, ultra-dry powdered psyllium husk, very finely-ground flax meal. Went through the steps, the batter looked good… had some nice stretch to it.
Not looking for suggestions (necessarily), but really just wanted to post so that other failed attempts will know they have some company.
Oh no Dylan! Sorry to hear that! I do think I can help though, as this sounds like the typical case of your butter not being creamed well enough (given that you mention the flours were finely ground). This is a common occurrence in both normal and keto baking- I don’t have any videos on this yet, but a quick youtube search will get you loads of tips. xo!
I wonder if the creaming process is not successful if you are using confectioners Erythritol? With white sugar, they rely on the crystal structure to create pockets of air. Make sure you use granular Erythritol.
Am I missing something? The paragraph under “flours” mentions Xanthan gum, but I don’t see it in the recipe ingredient list anywhere. I plan on making these for a friend’s birthday, and I don’t want to mess them up!
Thanks for the heads up Terri! No xanthan gum is needed anymore, just forgot to remove the snippet 😉 xo!
has anyone tried baking this as one larger cake? Wondering if the ratios will allow proper rise in that format. I love lemon poppy seed cake, and these look like they might fit that bill. Would be a great birthday cake, if so. Yum. With the cream cheese buttercream elsewhere on this site, I’d bet a spectacular combo, especially with a little lemon zest in the icing.
BTW, your Print buttons aren’t working on your site at the moment…the shares link thing floats down the page and that’s the only link that works. apparently also including the comments button.
Hi Suzanne! In all honesty I would wait until I post a new version that will work as a cake/loaf too (roughly a week’s wait!). And yup, it goes awesome with the cream cheese buttercream (particularly with added lemon zest yes!).
And THANK YOU for the heads up on buttons, the sharing plugin malfunctioned (in all sites using it!) and it’s causing havoc until they fix it… :-S. Everything should be working again next week! xo!
Just found your site & am impressed so I’m putting this together now. Don’t have poppy seeds though. For next time, Can I sub chia seeds if I increased the liquid somehow?
I Judy! Just skip the poppy seeds. Chia seeds won’t work the same at all as they’ll swell up and mess up your wet-to-dry ratios. xo!
This is definitely a good point, but if you add Chia seeds last, I have found this is less of a problem.
These are fantastic! My batter made 7 huge muffins instead of six but I wasn’t disappointed. The glaze was kinda artificial to me but I just didn’t use a ton on my muffins and it was a nice touch. Definitely love these and will continue to make them!
Hi Devyn! So happy you enjoyed them! The ‘artificial’ taste in you glaze is probably a result to the sweetener your using (xylitol has the most sugar taste, at least according to my taste buds). xo and thanks so much for reporting back!
Just made these — they are great! I used chia instead of poppy seeds, ground flax instead of xanthan gum, and added 1 tsp lemon extract to further pump up the lemon.
That’s awesome Peter so happy you enjoyed! And thanks so much for reporting back with your subs, always super helpful to others xo!
Wow. These are spectacular!
So happy you loved them J! xo!
Amazing muffins! Thank you!
My pleasure Lorraine! Happy you enjoyed them!xo
Paloa, you are a genius. I have tried many keto muffin recipes, searching for one as good as my pre-keto muffins, and had almost given up hope when I found your recipe. These muffins are not just “as good”, they are better! I’ve made them 3 times now and thrown away all my other muffin recipes. Thank you!!!
So yummy!!! Tried this and they turn out perfect, I’m falling in love with ALL your recipes!
I have just made my 4th batch of these muffins. This is best recipe hands down for a low carb muffin I have ever made. Wonderful flavor with a tender crumb. It’s good without the glaze but so delicious with when you make this final step.
Hi Paola. I just found your website and am already bookmarking all the recipes I want to try. Just checking with the psyllium husks, are they whole husks or ground?
Hi Shehneela! I use the NOW brand linked in the recipe, it’s whole xo! Hope you enjoy the recipes!
Hi there! These look amazing! Just wondering if you meant to say whole psyllium because the link you provide is for ground psyllium. Thanks! Can’t wait to try these!
Hi Kayla! You do want to use ground psyllium xo and hope you enjoy!
Thank you!!
Sorry, I meant to type did you mean to say ground psyllium because the link is for ground psyllium.
These muffins are from heaven! Thank you. I used Lakanto Golden and they are perfection. 💕
Awesome Allyson! Glad you loved them and thanks for reporting back! I think they’re pretty heavenly too if you don’t mind me saying 👼🏿 xo!
Hi!
I have all the ingredients except for psyllium husk. Is there a substitute for this ingredient? Thanks!
Hi Mary! Technically you can sub with coconut flour but the results won’t be the same (psyllium husk really is indispensable for the nice crumb) xo!
these are like your orange cranberry muffins right? we made those during the christmas break and they were fa-bu-lous!! might just have found my weekend baking project!
Hi Emma! YES! They’re the same base recipe! So glad you enjoyed those 😉 big kiss and happy baking!