Orange and Poppy Seed Muffins

Do you love your local cafe's Orange and Poppy Seed Muffins? This recipe will help you easily re-create your favourite treat at home. And, dare I say, the results are so good you may decide to skip the cafe for good. 

Jump to:

• Love at first bite
• How I developed the best cafe-style muffin recipe
• Ingredient notes
• Variation ideas
• How to make Orange and Poppy Seed Muffins
• Top tips
• Enjoying your muffins
• Recipe FAQs
• More mouthwatering muffins
• Orange and Poppy Seed Muffins

Love at first bite

The warm, fluffy, zesty inside. The crisp, sweet, orange-y, exterior. The ever-so-subtle nutty flavour of the poppy seeds – not to mention the big health benefits that attach to those little seeds.

Out of all the wonderful muffin flavours out there, this one is surely a top contender for "best ever" muffin.

And this particular recipe for Orange and Poppy Seed Muffins is highly rated by readers and one I use myself over and over again. I forget exactly when I discovered the Orange and Poppy Seed Muffin. But, whenever it was, it was surely love at first bite.

(Psst – if you have lots or oranges on hand and need more orange recipes, check out my Old-fashioned Orange Cordial Recipe and Orange and Walnut Cake.)

How I developed the best cafe-style muffin recipe

So as a big fan of these cafe-style muffins, I made it my mission to develop the best recipe out there.

First, of course, I went to Nana Ling's collection. With little success, I'm afraid. Sorry, Nana Ling, but your muffin recipes just don't cut it in today's world. 

Over the years, I've tried quite a few modern muffin recipes from cookbooks and the web. I've found some nice recipes, but never quite nailed it.

So, I turned to Google and researched my way around what makes a perfect muffin to come up with my own recipe. It's based on this research, the many recipes I've tried over the years and my extensive experience in sampling this product in cafes! 

Some of the "secrets" to great muffins that I've incorporated in this recipe include:

• adding yoghurt along with milk, for added moisture
• using both oil and butter, oil to get a little crispiness on the outside and the butter for a richer flavour
• using fresh orange juice and zest, for that real citrus flavour
• avoiding over-mixing (to avoid gluten formation) to ensure that classic muffin texture
• baking at a higher temperature before lowering the temperature, to get a nice rise and crispy muffin top. 

I'm so pleased with the results and, best of all, this recipe is so, so simple.

Ingredient notes

Have you got everything on the ingredient list?

Here are a few extra notes about the ingredients:

• SR flour – or just add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to each cup of plain/all purpose flour
• yoghurt – use greek or natural yoghurt
• oil – vegetable oil works best as the flavour is not too strong and it bakes well
• eggs – as always, fresh is best, and use eggs at room temperature for best results.

If you're going to add the icing, you'll also need some icing sugar along with some extra orange juice and poppy seeds.

Ingredient quantities can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Variation ideas

• Gluten free – a reader has told me that this recipe works well with gluten free SR flour
• Up the citrus hit – try adding more orange zest to the mixture or adding some zest to the icing mixture.
• Glaze instead of ice – I sometimes glaze my muffins with homemade orange marmalade rather than icing them, too. Get the marmalade ready for glazing the muffins as soon as they are taken out of the oven. You may need to warm the marmalade slightly so it will spread and cut any larger chunks of rind.

Equipment

You'll also need to make sure you have the right tins. You can use a cupcake size tin, to make 12 muffins, or a larger Amercian-style muffin tin (usually measuring about 35 x 26cm/9 x 4cm) to make 6 larger muffins. 

There are cooking times for both in the recipe card below. 

How to make Orange and Poppy Seed Muffins

Before you get to sit down with a cuppa and sink your teeth into a freshly baked muffin, there are a few steps to get through. But it won't take long. Promise!

Prepping

Start by pre-heating the oven to 220 degrees celsius / 430 degrees fahrenheit (fan-forced).

Prepare the muffin pans by greasing well or spraying with oil. If you have the large cafe-style muffin tin, this mixture makes 6 muffins. If you have a cupcake-size tin, it makes 12.

Mixing

Next, sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and poppy seeds and stir to combine.

Add the remaining muffin ingredients, and stir gently to combine.

TIP: Don't over-stir. This can negatively impact the texture of the muffin.

Spoon mixture into tins. (The cups should be close to full)

Baking

Place into the oven and bake for 5 minutes before turning oven temperature down to 190 degrees celsius / 375 degrees fahrenheit (fan-forced).

If you're using a smaller cupcake tin, bake for a further 10-12 minutes (or until a metal skewer inserted into a muffin comes out clean). If using a cafe-style larger muffin tin, bake for a further 18 minutes (or until a metal skewer inserted into a muffin comes out clean).

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before easing each muffin from the tin and placing on a cooling rack.

Icing

The icing is optional, and you'll need to wait until the muffins are completely cool before icing them.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add orange juice, one teaspoon at a time, until you have a slightly runny mixture.

Spoon icing over muffins once they are completely cool and sprinkle some poppy seeds over the icing before it sets.

Top tips

When mixing the batter, go easy. Over-mixing is the enemy of lovely, fluffy muffins.

During the baking process, you need to remember to adjust the temperature. Set a timer so you don't forget!

Enjoying your muffins

Put the kettle on because it's time to sample your homemade muffins. You can enjoy them warm or at room temperature.

Recipe FAQs

More mouthwatering muffins

Here are some more favourite muffins recipes: