This one bowl, healthy and gluten free lemon poppy seed muffin recipe is made in just 35 minutes. These muffins are made with almond flour and tapioca flour and packed with lemon juice and zest, plus a dairy free lemon glaze on top. They are naturally sweetened with honey and maple sugar. And they’re the perfect little pick-me-up!
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What gluten free flour do you use to make these lemon poppy seed muffins?
For gluten free and Paleo friendly baking flours, we typically turn to Bob’s Red Mill and have for years. You’ll see us using their flours in lots of our recipes – from sweet like these healthy muffins to savory like our creamy Tuscan chicken! We love the quality of their products from mill to table and the fact that they’re a local Oregon company!
For these healthy lemon poppy seed muffins, we used their Almond Flour and Tapioca Flour. Both flours are certified gluten free and non-gmo as well. The Almond Flour is made from whole, blanched almonds and this is important. You want blanched almond flour rather than almond meal for this recipe. Here’s why:
- It’s finer and lighter and results in a fluffier texture.
- It will give your muffins the yellow, lemony looking color. If you used almond meal the muffins would be more of a brown color.
Options for making these healthy lemon poppy seed muffins vegan friendly
These muffins can easily be make vegan friendly. Just note the color of the muffins will come out more brown than yellow. Here are some swaps you could make:
- Eggs => use 3 flax eggs
- Honey => use 1/3 cup maple syrup
- Ghee => use 1/3 cup coconut oil
Making the lemon glaze
You’ll want to note that we used traditional powdered cane sugar to make the lemon glaze white for these photos. If you want to stay refined sugar free, make sure to use powdered maple sugar instead. The glaze will turn out brown, but still tastes delicious! I think I actually prefer the flavor of the glaze with the maple sugar. To make it, you just pulse maple sugar in a high powered blender or food processor until powdery. You could also use coconut sugar – I can never seem to get it as fine as maple sugar though.
Other gluten free and healthy muffin recipes to try
- COFFEE CAKE MUFFINS (PALEO, VEGAN + NUT-FREE OPTION)
- MORNING GLORY BREAKFAST MUFFINS (PALEO, VEGAN + NUT-FREE OPTION)
- PALEO BLUEBERRY MUFFINS (GF, VEGAN, AIP + NUT-FREE)
Try these gluten free lemon poppy seed muffins
These healthy, gluten free lemon poppy seed muffins are great for meal prep to have on hand for snacks and treats. They are quick and easy to make, made in just 35 minutes and with one bowl for less cleanup, too! Leave a comment below to let us know how it goes. Also, take a pic to share on Instagram, and tag us @realsimplegood so we can check it out! Make sure to give us a follow if you don’t already – let’s stay connected!
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Gluten Free Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
- 2.25 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour, (or arrowroot flour)
- 1 tsp paleo baking powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup raw honey, melted
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/3 cup lemon juice, (about 2 large lemons)
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted, (or ghee)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp poppy seeds
Optional topping:
- 1/2 cup powdered maple sugar, (Pulse maple sugar in a high powered blender or food processor until powdery. Coconut sugar works or regular powdered sugar.)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice, (about 1/2 a lemon)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit and line a muffin pan with parchment liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk almond flour, tapioca flour, baking powder and sea salt. Make sure there are no clumps. Make a hole in the center of the flour mixture.
- Add eggs, honey, lemon zest and juice, coconut oil and vanilla extract to the hole. Whisk and then combine the wet and dry ingredients until smooth, and fold in poppy seeds.
- Scoop mixture into lined muffin tin, and transfer to oven. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- While the muffins cool, make optional topping if using. Whisk powdered maple sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl.
- Once muffins have cooled, drizzle with topping and serve. Enjoy. Store in an airtight container on the counter or in the fridge to keep longer.
Do you have any other substitutes for the almond flour? We have allergies in our house. I saw the comment about tiger-nut flour, but we be never used that before. Ever try it with coconut flour?
Hi there – I haven’t tried it with coconut flour. It for sure wouldn’t be a 1:1 ratio since coconut flour is much more absorbent than almond flour. I suspect tiger nut flour would be the closest 1:1 substitute if you are strictly paleo, but again I haven’t tried it myself. Another flour that I think would work well is oat flour, and it would probably be close to a 1:1 ratio. I haven’t played with that idea either, but I think it would be close. It would be gluten free, but not totally paleo. If you try a substitute, I’d love to hear how it goes.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll give it a shot. I do other muffins with oat flour, so hopefully it works with these too. They sound delicious!
I’d love to hear how it goes. Report back because I’m sure someone else will have the same question and be interested to hear as well! 🙂
These are delicious and very filling! I eat one at work in the afternoons so I’m not starving for dinner. This recipe works.
So glad to hear you are enjoying them! Thanks so much for giving our recipe a try and also for taking the time to come back and share! 🙂
Made this recipe to my family and everybody loved it!!!! Very easy and so good.
Yay! Glad you guys enjoyed this one, too! Thanks so much for trying! 🙂
These were really good! The lemon flavor really jumps out, which I love. I skipped the glaze because I didn’t have maple sugar, but just did a tiny drizzle of honey instead. These muffins are a fun little treat for the morning.
That’s great! We’re so happy you enjoyed them! Thanks for giving them a try and coming back to share! 🙂
I made these without poppy seeds or icing and they were delicious! A huge hit with hubby and a great dessert treat 🙂 On the next batch I will add the icing.
So glad you guys enjoyed them! Thanks for giving our recipe a try and for coming back to rate/review it! We appreciate the feedback. 🙂
Can’t wait to try these! I just need to buy some poppyseeds!
Hope you enjoy them! They’re a new favorite around here! Let us know how it goes. We’d love to hear what you think once you make them! 🙂
Just made these delicious babies and they are the best!!! I ran low on honey and added a little stevia. Thanks for creating amazing recipes!!
So glad to hear you enjoyed them! Thanks so much for giving them a try and sharing! We appreciate it! 🙂
I did not have almond flour and used tiger-nut flour- they still turned out great!
That’s great! Thanks for coming back to share the substitution and that it worked! Good to know! 🙂
Wow! These are so delicious! I made them right after you posted, lol. Despite having a few setbacks (no baking powder, not enough almond flour, and not enough lemon juice) I made a couple of adjustments, and they still came out so dang good. I love the slight crust the tapioca gives the muffins, I like my baked goods a little crusty, and the tapioca flour achieves that for me. Four thumbs up! (Mine and hubbys)
Hooray! We are so happy to hear you both enjoyed these muffins!! We love the crisp, too! Thanks so much for jumping right on them and giving them a try! And thanks for coming back to share! 🙂
I can’t wait to try these!
We hope you enjoy them as much we do! You’ll have to report back and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear!