Whole Wheat Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Poppy seeds are so cute and tiny. They take a simple lemon muffin and zing it up a little bit.

Whole Wheat Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Lemon poppy seed muffins are perfect for spring with their light lemony flavor and their light yellow color. Because these muffins are whole wheat, they are a little darker than regular lemon poppy seed muffins.

Whole Wheat Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

      makes 8 muffins

      adapted from a bicycle built for two

1 C whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

1/3 C + 1 T sugar

Zest and juice from 2 small lemons

1/4 C + 1 T non fat Greek yogurt {I like Chobani}

1 tsp vanilla extraxt

1/4 C canola oil

1 1/2 T poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

In a large bowl, mix the sugar with the lemon zest, until the sugar turns a pale yellow color. In the same bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In a smaller bowl, mix together the lemon juice, egg, Greek yogurt, vanilla extract and oil, until well combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined. {Do not over mix}. Gently fold in the poppy seeds.

Grease a muffin tin {I use Baker's Joy} or use muffin liners, and pour the batter into the wells. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

I love these healthy muffins. They are low in fat and use heart healthy oil instead of butter. They also have the Greek yogurt to help keep them moist and to bump up the protein. And in make them a tad more healthy, I swapped all the regular flour for fiber rich whole wheat. The other thing to note is they aren't too sweet. They are muffins and not cupcakes, after all. So eat up. Now you can feel good about having your muffins and eating them too!

Poppy seeds don't add a lot of flavor to bakes goods. They just add a little SURPRISE and a lot of fun.
And these muffins wouldn't be the same with out them. :)
For other fun poppy seed recipes, try my zucchini walnut poppy seed bread, or my lemon poppy seed cookies!