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.
Jump to:
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.
Ann DAmico
Can I make these as mini muffins? Would I need to alter the cooking time?
Also, do I need to change anything if I don’t use blueberries or use frozen ones? Thank you.
Celebrating Sweets
Yes, you can make mini muffins. You’ll need to reduce the bake time. I would suggest checking them around 10 minutes then every couple minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If you use frozen blueberries keep them frozen when you add them. If you leave the blueberries out the bake time will likely be a bit less than if you use frozen berries.
Enjoy!
Sarah
Would I be able to replace the sour cream with something else?? Thanks
Celebrating Sweets
You can try plain yogurt or buttermilk. Enjoy!
Theresa butt,
I can’t see on the recipe ,how many cups of blueberries I need
Celebrating Sweets
You need 1 generous cup of fresh blueberries.
Ruth
Can I use almond flour? Ruth
Celebrating Sweets
No. But a gluten free 1:1 flour blend should work fine. Enjoy!
Ida
Mine also came out dense. So disappointed! I’ve been baking Blueberry muffin using other recipes on the web sites. So I don’t think I over mixed it ?
Celebrating Sweets
Sorry to hear that. These are not cakey muffins, they are a bit more sturdy (to support all those blueberries). Thanks for sharing your experience.
Ravern
Hi! Allison,
I tried out your recipe this morning which made 12 muffins. Really nice and fluffy. My family love them .
The only difference from yours was vegetable oil in replacement of melted butter.
Thank you for sharing the recipe 🙂
Cheers!
Allison
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Robyn Carmichael
Tried this and switched out the butter for oil. They came out perfect! very light, not dense at all.
Allison
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Yael
Hi, can I make these ahead and freeze with the icing? Thanks!!
Allison
Yes, you can. The extra moisture from freezing might thin out the icing a bit.
Laura Mozeleski
I made these last night. Subbed oil for melted butter. Were delish from oven if maybe a tad not sweet enough. But glazed them this morning and perfection! Really amazed at the perfect portions for 12 muffins. No small ones, no extra batter!
Allison
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Matthew Griffin
Really liked them! Thank you!! Whole family agrees!
Allison
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Fina Zarzar
I saw your lemon blueberry muffins. What can be substituted for lemon zest? Can I use lemon extract or lemon juice and how much?
Allison
There is already lemon juice in the muffins. You can try adding 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract in place of the lemon zest.