These glazed Almond Poppy Seed Muffins are fluffy, moist and topped with sliced almonds! You can make these bakery style muffins in no time in the comfort of your home. The almond flavor is delicious and will have your kitchen smelling amazing! They're similar to my Almond Coffee Cake with the addition of poppy seeds and a sweet almond glaze!
These are the best homemade muffins I have ever made! ★★★★★ - our reader, Cristi
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If you're a fan of Costco Almond Poppy Seed Muffins, you're going to love this recipe! It's a lighter take on my Almond Poppy Seed Cake recipe. Almond is one of my favorite pastry flavors and it comes through perfectly in these muffins (and in my Almond Danish recipe)! They're a great quick breakfast to start your day with, but can also be enjoyed for dessert or a tasty snack!
Try an amazing variation of these muffins in my Orange Poppy Seed Muffins recipe! If you're looking for a sweet and fruity almond dessert, try my Almond Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting!
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Ingredients
Muffins have always been one of my go-to breakfast foods. I'd order them at cafes or grab packaged ones from grocery stores. These homemade muffins are so much better because they're warm, fresh and you know exactly what ingredients are going into them!
- All purpose flour
- Baking powder: A tablespoon of baking powder is used to help make perfect muffin tops!
- Salt
- Poppy seeds
- Canola oil: Another neutral oil (like vegetable oil) will work as well.
- Eggs
- Granulated sugar
- Almond extract: Use high quality pure almond extract! It has a strong almond flavor and you'll only need a little bit of it.
- Buttermilk: There's a whole cup of buttermilk in this recipe and it plays a big part in the flavor and texture of these muffins, so I do not recommend substituting this!
- Sliced almonds: Regular or toasted, whichever you prefer.
- Milk: This is just for the glaze so it can be any kind. You could also use water instead.
- Powdered sugar
See recipe card below for quantities.
Substitutions & Variations
Substitutions:
- Oil - This can be substituted with melted butter.
- Almonds - The sliced almonds can be toasted or un-toasted, whichever you prefer.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions. If you do replace any ingredients, please let us know how it turned out in the comments below!
Variations:
- Regular sized muffins - This recipe will make 12-14 muffins in a normal pan. Fill liners ⅔ full and bake at 375°F for about 15-20 minutes.
- Mini muffins - This can make 24-28 mini muffins. Bake at 350°F for 10-15 minutes.
Equipment
This recipe is very simple and only requires basic baking equipment!
Bake the muffins in a 6-cup jumbo muffin pan with or without liners. A cookie or ice cream scoop works well to distribute the batter.
DIY Muffin Liners
Want to give these muffins an extra cozy, rustic feel? Make your own parchment paper cups following this muffin liner tutorial!
How To Make Almond Poppy Seed Muffins
Step One (Picture 1 above) - In a small/medium bowl, mix together the buttermilk, oil, eggs and almond extract.
Step Two (Picture 2 above) - Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and poppy seeds in a large bowl.
Step Three (Picture 3 above) - Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Fold everything together using a spatula just until all flour streaks disappear.
Evenly distribute the almond poppy seed muffin batter throughout a jumbo muffin pan. Sprinkle sliced almonds on top and bake at 425°F for 5 minutes. This will help give the muffins nice domes on top! When the 5 minutes is up, drop the temperature to 375°F without opening the oven door. Continue baking them until a toothpick comes out clean (12-18 more minutes). Let the muffins sit in the pan until they're cool enough to transfer to a wire rack.
Step Four (Picture 4 above) - While the muffins are cooling, make the almond glaze. Whisk together the powdered sugar, almond extract and milk until smooth. Feel free to adjust the milk/powdered sugar and almond extract amounts based on your consistency and flavor preferences. Once the almond muffins are cool, drizzle glaze over the tops.
Expert Baking Tips
Tip #1 - Use room temperature ingredients. Take the eggs out of the refrigerator and measure the buttermilk 30-60 minutes before getting started. This will help everything combine better together.
Tip #2 - Weigh your dry ingredients. Use a scale and measure your flour in grams for the best, most accurate results. If using measuring cups, spoon the flour into them and level it off with a knife.
Tip #3 - Use real buttermilk! I know there are homemade buttermilk "replacements" out there. Even I use them in some recipes. However, this muffin recipe uses a lot of buttermilk so I do not recommend substituting it with a DIY version. The buttermilk plays a big role in these almond muffin's delicious flavor and fluffy texture!
Tip #4 - Make your own muffin liners. They're super easy to make and all you need is parchment paper! Cut 5-6 inch squares of parchment and then place a pint glass in the center. Fold the sides up around the glass and make tight creases. You can also buy jumbo liners or just grease the pan without using any.
Recipe FAQs
Sure! Swap out the almond extract for lemon extract and adjust the amount to your flavor preference. Instead of adding extract to the glaze, I'd recommend using a little lemon zest.
No, these are best made with real buttermilk.
Yes, of course!
Absolutely!
The muffins are best served fresh but the batter can be stored in the refrigerator overnight and baked the next day.
This could be from over-measuring the flour or over-baking the muffins. I always recommend using a scale to weigh the flour in grams (see metric tab in recipe card below).
Old, inactive baking powder could cause this. You can test it by mixing a little baking powder with water and if it fizzes, it's still active. This could also be from not baking at the correct temperature. I recommend using an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is at the temperature it needs to be.
Storage
Room Temperature: Store almond poppy seed muffins in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Refrigerator: Storing muffins in the refrigerator will dry them out, but you can store the glazed ones in an airtight container here for 1 week.
Freezing Instructions: Wrap cooled, unglazed muffins tightly in plastic wrap and/or a freezer-safe bag labeled with "Almond Poppy Seed Muffins" and the date. Store in the freezer for up to 1 month. Reheat in the microwave for about 30 seconds and top with fresh almond glaze.
📖 Recipe
Almond Poppy Seed Muffins
Equipment
- Jumbo Muffin Pan
- Mixing bowls
- Whisk
- Spatula
- Measuring spoons
Ingredients
Almond Poppy Seed Muffins
- 2¼ cups (281.25 g) all-purpose flour weighed in grams (see metric tab) or spooned & leveled
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 Tablespoon poppy seeds
- 1 cup (236.59 ml) buttermilk room temperature
- ½ cup (118.29 ml) neutral oil vegetable oil, canola oil, etc.
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ¾ teaspoon almond extract
- ⅓ cup sliced almonds for topping
Almond Glaze
- ⅔ cup (80 g) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- ⅛ teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
Almond Poppy Seed Muffins
- Preheat oven to 425°F and either fill a jumbo muffin pan with liners or coat it with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and poppy seeds.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the buttermilk, oil, eggs and almond extract.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until the flour streaks disappear.
- Evenly distribute the muffin batter throughout the muffin pan. Sprinkle sliced almonds on top.
- Bake the jumbo muffins at 425°F for 5 minutes. Without opening the oven, lower the temperature to 375°F and continue to bake them until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (another 12-18 minutes; about 17-23 minutes total).
- Let the muffins sit in the pan until they're cool enough to handle. Transfer them to a cooling rack.
Almond Glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, almond extract and milk until smooth. Drizzle on the cooled muffins.
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Honestly, great texture. Pretty easy to make, too. But other than that, it's a pretty mid-recipe. The flavor is so extremely bland, taste like almost nothing (we even added extra almond extract). I do get a hint of the oil taste, though. :/
Glad the texture turned out well! That's really strange about the flavors, though...do you mind sharing what brand of almond extract and vegetable oil you used?
Same for me unfortunately. The icing was almond forward. The cake was the perfect texture but really lacked flavor, I was expecting more punch from the almond extract.
Sorry to hear that, Nikki! Do you mind sharing what kind of almond extract you used?
Absolutely amazing!! These muffins are such a winner!!!
Followed instructions to the t and they are perfect.
These got great reviews from my family and for good reason - they are delicious! I made regular sized muffins rather than jumbo. I put 1/4 cup of batter in each spot in the tin and it was just the right amount. A little did spread out on a few of them but who doesn't like a wide muffin top? I used melted butter instead of oil (an option mentioned in your comments about the muffins). I look forward to exploring more of your recipes.
Appreciate you! So tired of "professional chef" recipes and then their baking recipes are (only) in cups instead of grams. Immediately I see that, I am out.
I'm missing the Costco poppy seed muffins, so here I am to try making my own. Yours look delicious, I have a sweet tooth and will definitely enjoy that glaze!
Cheers!
so good! I used coconut oil and gf flour and everyone who tried them loved them! thank you.