Easy Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Submitted by Fauve

"The ricotta cheese in the mix makes these muffins especially moist."

 

• Ready In: 32mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Yields: 18 muffins

ingredients

• 1 (18 1/4 ounce) package lemon cake mix
• 1 (3 1/2 ounce) package vanilla instant pudding mix (4-serving size)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1⁄3 cup vegetable oil
• 1⁄4 cup poppy seed
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest, grated
• 1⁄4 cup sugar

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Prepare muffin tins: grease or paper line one 12-cup and one 6-cup tin.
3. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, ricotta, oil, poppy seeds and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl.
4. Beat on medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes.
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops spring back when touched lightly.
7. Sprinkle tops with sugar, if desired.
8. Note: For a variation, you may omit the poppy seeds, and substitute with 1 cup chopped almonds. You may also use an equal amount of yogurt as a substitute for the ricotta cheese.

Reviews

[Micki S.]

I really loved these! The key is the ricotta. I'm sure yogurt would provide a similar product, but I used ricotta and thought they were awesome. The lemon flavor is actually fairly mild. I actually even put some lemon extract in and the lemon flavor was still mild, which I liked. I didn't add the poppy seeds just because I didn't have any and didn't want to make a trip to the store to get them. I didn't figure they'd add all that much to the final product. I also didn't add the sugar on top prior to baking either so even without those two ingredients, I still thought these were awesome. They were moist and dense. As another reviewer said, they did remind me of Otis Spunkmeyer muffins. I will definitely be making again. <br/><br/>While mixing, I did find the dough to be rather sticky and I wouldn't recommend mixing by hand. This dough definitely requires a hand-mixer at the very least. It's very thick and using an ice cream scoop made filling the muffin tin very easy...I made mini muffins. I'd been looking for a good lemon muffin recipe and this is definitely it!

 

[Stephanie S.]

Oh my these are good. DD#2 took these on her camping trip and they were gobbled up. I added a bit more lemon zest to really add the lemon flavor to them. So good. I think the ricotta in these really makes them moist and flavorful. Thank you for this wonderful muffin recipe, that I will keep in my repeat recipe file.

 

[Mindy in Texas]

Absolutely wonderful even though I omitted the sugar on top, I felt they would be sweet enough. My entire family loved these, I personally think that these are right up there with the Otis Spunkmeyer muffins. I will definitely stock up on lemon cake mix for these! Next time I'm going to triple the recipe and put some in the freezer. Thanks so much for the recipe.

 

[edsmom911]

These were fantastic-and so easy! I didn't put the sugar on the top-they were sweet enough without it. I will definately make these again.

 

[TipMuf]

Man, these are good! I just made these for breakfast and they are a hit! I don't like a strong lemon flavor in dishes, but this one was just right. I left out the lemon zest and didn't put the sugar on top at the end. One of my kids doesn't like poppy seeds, so I just divided the batter. I put poppy seeds in one batch and left the other half plain. The batter was a little thick, but I wouldn't change a thing. They came out perfectly. I plan on making a batch of these for my oamc(freezer cooking). Thanks Fauve for the recipe. BTW, your instructions were written very well.