Our favorite Lemon Blueberry Muffins! Fluffy and tender muffins filled with lemon zest, lemon juice, and blueberries and finished with a lemon-sugar crumb topping and tangy lemon icing. These flavorful muffins are perfect for breakfast or snacking. They can even be served as dessert.
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In my world, muffins fall under one of two categories:
- “Company Muffins”: These are the muffins you make when you want everyone to be impressed. You make them for company, you bring them to a brunch, and you serve them on holidays. They’re buttery, sweet, and tender – like something from a bakery.
- “Everyday Muffins“: These are the muffins that I make for my family on a regular basis. Because we can’t always start our day with something that closely resembles cake (dang it!), I make some healthy swaps like reducing sugar and swapping in whole grain flours, etc.
These Lemon Blueberry Muffins fall squarely into the “Company Muffin” category, and I couldn’t be happier about it. You need to make these and share them and spread the Lemon Blueberry Muffin love!
Recipe overview
This recipe is super easy. You don’t need any fancy equipment. You can use a hand mixer or make it by hand.
- Start with the crumb topping. Assemble it and place it in the fridge while you continue with the muffins.
- Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl.
- Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then stir in the blueberries.
- Place in a muffin pan and top with the crumb topping.
- Bake!
- Cool and add the lemon icing.
What makes this recipe the best
There are several things that make these muffins better than any other lemon muffin I’ve made before:
- Lemon zest, lemon juice and lemon glaze ensure that every bite of these muffins is loaded with bright lemony flavor.
- Sour cream makes these muffins extra moist and gives them a tender texture. The tang from the sour cream also complements the lemon.
- A splash of almond extract imparts a subtle almond flavor that goes great with lemon.
- Blueberries! Lemon and blueberries were made to be together. The pop of fresh blueberries takes these over the top!
- Lemon sugar crumb topping AND lemon icing. The perfect finishing touch on top of the muffins.
FAQs
Yes. Keep the blueberries frozen and stir them in straight from the freezer. The smaller they are the better, since large (frozen) blueberries will hold quite a bit of moisture. Note: The color might bleed into the muffin batter a bit more than it would with fresh blueberries.
Sure! You’ll have a delicious lemon muffin.
Try one of these Sour Cream Substitutes.
Two large lemons should provide enough juice and zest for this recipe.
Nope. This batter is supposed to be thick. I recommend scooping it with an ice cream scoop to fill the muffin cups. It will likely be too thick to pour.
You can make my Blueberry Bread or Lemon Loaf Cake.
Try this recipe instead: Lemon Blueberry Bread.
Recipe tips
- Don’t overmix when combining the wet and dry ingredients.
- If you choose to use a hand mixer instead of a whisk (for the wet ingredients) make sure you don’t beat the mixture for too long. You don’t want to incorporate too much air.
- Use a fine grater (like a Microplane) or zester to remove the zest from the lemons. Only remove the yellow part of the skin, not the white pith.
- Use an ice cream scoop to scoop the batter into the muffin pan.
- Prefer to skip the crumb topping? You can absolutely leave it off and these muffins will still be delicious (see pic below).
Serving and storage
Serving: These muffins are best the day they are made. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. They are perfectly delicious on their own, but adding a pat of salted butter makes them extra tasty.
Storage: Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 2 months. Note: The crumb topping might soften over time.
Recipe
Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
Crumb topping:
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Muffins:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup sour cream
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
- 2 large eggs, room temperature*
- ¾ teaspoon pure almond extract
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 ⅓ cups fresh blueberries
Icing:
- ¾ cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- a pinch of lemon zest
Instructions
Crumb topping:
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 12-count muffin pan with paper liners.
- For the topping: In a medium-sized bowl rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingers. Stir in the flour. Add the cubed butter and use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour/sugar until all of the butter is in small pieces and the mixture resembles sand. Place in the refrigerator while you continue with the recipe.
Muffins:
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk, sour cream, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, eggs, almond extract, and melted butter. You can do this by hand with a whisk or with a hand mixer. Mix until just combined. Don't over mix.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and carefully stir with a rubber spatula until the two mixtures are just combined (it will be thick and a little lumpy. That's OK. Don't overmix). Carefully stir in the blueberries.
- Evenly divide the batter among the muffin cups (I use an ice cream scoop). Sprinkle the crumb topping on top of each muffin cup, lightly pressing the crumb onto the top of the muffin batter.
- Bake for 18-23 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 5-10 minutes, then remove each muffin to cool completely.
Icing:
- Whisk all ingredients until smooth. Adjust to your desired consistency by adding more powdered sugar to thicken or more lemon juice to thin. Drizzle icing over cooled muffins.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!Recipe adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours.
Susan Latham
Delicious!
Allison
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Liz
Blueberry muffins are my favorite and the lemon takes these to the next level! Yum!
Izzy
I love the blueberries in a muffin, and I must admit that the lemon really adds to the flavor! Irresistible to the last bite!
Allison
I’m glad you enjoyed them!
wilhelmina
These muffins were dreamy! I enjoyed one with my coffee while soaking in a beautiful morning on the porch, it was perfect!
Sam
These muffins were delicious! My family loved them!
Allison
I’m so glad! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Betty Crocker
OMG, these muffins are amazing. I didn’t have sour cream so I used 9% full fat vanilla yogurt and it worked really well as a replacement. I’ve used frozen berries in muffin recipes but am not a big fan. Not only do they bleed in the batter a lot but they don’t taste the same as fresh berries. Use fresh berries whenever possible. The fresh burst of blueberries in this recipe is awesome!
Allison
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Laura G
I love this recipe, it is my all-time favorite. I bake it frequently.
The MAJOR caution is that prep and bake times are significantly understated. I bake often. I have made this recipe often. No matter what I do, it is a 35 minute prep time. Baking time is 25-30 minutes. I’ve got a high-end double oven and I’ve calibrated oven temp. At 375 convect bake, it is 25 minutes – 33% longer than stated. At 375 it has been closer to 30 minutes bake time. It is 30 minutes in the oven at our home on the beach in FL. My sister lives in Boulder, she is still waiting for her muffins to bake.
The minor improvement: 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons… that is a heaping 1/3 cup. So skip the extra measuring!
Crystal
These are boyfriends favorite muffins! I make them every year for his birthday or whenever i have extra time. I leave out the crumbs and just do the icing and butter when they are out! They do take longer to bake tho. I always double the recipe and give them to friends and family. Thank you for the recipe!
Allison
You’re welcome! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂
Kate
These muffins are absolutely delish! I prefer just the top crumble unless you want more sweet and lemon. It makes 13 every time for me, I’m thinking because I add 2 Tbls extra flour for my high altitude location. Number 13 goes in a silicone extra, and works out for a Mama tester😉 I also found it difficult to put the crumble on without it fly all over, so I came up with a clever solution. The batter is actually somewhat manageable with floured fingers. After making a big scoop of batter, just plop it in the crumble, and maybe press it lightly. With your floured fingers, you can pick it up and turn it over into your silicone or paper liner. If there’s extra sprinkle it on. Thank you so much, this will be my go to FOREVER😀❤️
Allison
Thanks for the kind review! I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
Donna
To prevent frozen blueberries from bleeding into batter, rinse them under cold water before using. Hope this helps if you don’t have fresh blueberries on hand.