Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Two posts in as many days! It's amazing what I can accomplish when I'm home on the weekend and avoiding my grading.

In reality, making these muffins was preceded by the local food co-op ordering me a case of vanilla soy yogurt. I use vanilla in some of the varieties of Overnight Refrigerator Oats, but I can't get it around town. Luckily, we have great people at the food co-op who will order things for you if you need them. Awesome. However, since yogurt has a shelf-life, I needed to use some up rather quickly. This muffin recipe is a delicious way to do so!

Originally a non-vegan Alton Brown recipe for blueberry muffins, I've made slight modifications to make lemon poppy seed muffins. However, you can easily use the base recipe to make fruity muffins of your choice (see the Helpful Hints). Regardless of what kind of muffin you make, they are bound to be tasty, fresh or from the freezer.

Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
1 c. vanilla soy yogurt
1/2 c. canola oil
1 c. sugar
1 "egg"
2 T. lemon juice
1 T. lemon zest (okay to omit)
2-3 T. poppy seeds
13 oz. (by weight) all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
1. Mix yogurt, oil, sugar, egg, lemon juice/zest, and poppy seeds in a bowl.
2. Add dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Stop stirring. Seriously, stop.

This is what it should look like.

3. If adding berries (see below), add and stir 3-5 more times. Stop stirring.
4. Fill muffin tins (I use liners) 2/3 full and put in oven.
5. Increase oven heat to 400, then bake for about 22 minutes or until golden brown on top.
6. Cool upside down.

Helpful Hints

Shana's version

• It's tempting to keep stirring muffins, but really, DON'T DO IT! Doing so will upset the delicate leavening action of the baking powder and soda, leading to heavy muffins. Just walk away. 
• These muffins freeze like a dream. I simply put them in a gallon-size zip top baggie after they are completely cool and then take out one or two for breakfast. Pop them in the microwave for 30ish seconds and they'll be all nice and warm and ready to eat. 
• I make two batches of these muffins when I make them. One is mine and is just plain lemon poppy seed. The other is Shana's, where I add about 1 cup of crushed frozen raspberries to the lemon poppy seed muffins. 
• One cup of soy yogurt is slightly less than 2 single-serve containers. I use what I need then help myself to the 2 extra bites while the muffins are baking. 
• To make these into muffins other than lemon poppy seed, do not add the lemon juice/zest or poppy seeds, and reduce the flour by 1/2 oz. 

The post "Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins" originally appeared on Maggie's LesVegan Kitchen.