I remember when I was growing up my mom would always make us “blueberry muffins” aka Jif blueberry muffins with fake blueberry bites in them. I’d cut them in half, lather them with butter, and enjoy them every time she made them. I didn’t realize that those aren’t really blueberry muffins. I actually don’t know what they are, but not blueberry muffins. This lemon blueberry muffin recipe is a fun take on a classic blueberry muffin recipe with just a hint of added citrus flavor to brighten up the muffin. And if you’ve tried my cranberry orange muffins, you know I like citrus flavor! They’re super easy to make and absolutely delicious.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Super moist crumb – the actual muffin itself is super moist thanks to the combination of buttermilk, oil, and greek yogurt in the muffin batter. Streusel topping – the brown sugar streusel topping gets baked onto the tops of the muffins nicely, making these just like the ones you’d get at a bakery! Great for a crowd – these muffins are the perfect choice for an easy brunch with a group of friends or for a family breakfast. Make them one day and enjoy all week long.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Oil – you can use any type of flavorless oil in this recipe. I typically use avocado but vegetable works as well, just don’t use something that has a strong flavor like olive oil or coconut oil. Buttermilk – if you don’t have actual buttermilk, you can combine 1/2 TBS of either white vinegar or lemon juice with enough milk to get to 1/2 cup. Mix it together then let it sit for 10 minutes to sour and use that in place of the buttermilk. Greek yogurt – you can use either vanilla or plain Greek yogurt for this recipe. I like to use vanilla for a little bit of added flavor but plain works as well. If you do use plain, add 1/2 tsp of vanilla to the wet ingredients to still get the vanilla flavor. Lemon juice/zest – these muffins have just a small hint of lemon, if you really want to taste the lemon flavor (like in this lemon poppy seed bread), I recommend using 1 TBS lemon juice and a full tsp of lemon zest to amp up the citrus flavor. Flour – all-purpose flour works best for these muffins.
Instructions
Alright now let’s talk about how to make these lemon blueberry muffins. If you’ve ever made muffins before, you can probably make these muffins. Really if you’ve ever baked anything before, you can make these muffins. Start by preheating the oven and lining a standard 12 cup muffin tin with either muffins liners (I swear by these silicone ones) or greasing each individual cup.
1 – Make the Lemon Blueberry Muffin Batter
Then combine all of your dry ingredients (except 1 TBS of flour that you’ll set aside for later) for the muffins in a bowl together and mix. Set the bowl aside while you work on the wet ingredients. Whisk together the granulated sugar and egg in another bowl. You could also use a hand mixer or a stand mixer for this if you want, I just find it easy enough to whisk the batter that I typically don’t like to get my actual mixer dirty for this. Add the Greek yogurt, oil, buttermilk, and lemon juice to the sugar mixture and combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold until they’re totally combined. Stop as soon as they’re combined so you don’t over mix and end up with dry muffins. Toss the blueberries in the tablespoon of flour you set aside earlier. This will help keep them from just sinking to the bottom of the muffins while they bake. Then fold the floured blueberries into the muffin batter. Do this gently so you don’t totally smash the blueberries while mixing. Fold it until the blueberries are well mixed. The batter is going to be thick, this is totally normal and correct! Use a 1/4 cup cookie scoop (or just 1/4 cup measuring cup) to split the batter into the muffin tins. You want them to be about 2/3 full so that you can still top them with crumb topping without them completely overflowing.
2 – Make the Streusel Topping
Okay now it’s time for that yummy brown sugar streusel topping. This totally makes these muffins so don’t skip it unless you have really good reasons. Just add all of your streusel topping ingredients into a medium-sized bowl (don’t go small or you won’t have space for combining properly). Then use fork or your fingers to combine the ingredients together until you get a streusel topping that has the texture of wet sand. Top each of the muffins with two teaspoons of the mixture then if that isn’t all of the topping, fill in any gaps until the tops are all covered with the streusel topping.
3 – Bake Muffins
Place the oven tin the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. My office cooks pretty fast so I typically start checking mine about 16 minutes in, but they typically take about 18 minutes. Remove from the muffin tin and allow to cool on a wire cooling rack before eating. Enjoy with your favorite butter, jam, or honestly they’re even good topped with a little blueberry whipped cream.
Expert Tips
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days. Then if you have any leftover, freeze in a freezer safe container and reheat individually as desired. Allow muffins to come to room temperature before eating or reheat in the microwave or warm quickly in the oven before enjoying.
More Easy Breakfast Recipes
If you like these lemon blueberry muffins, you’ll love these other simple breakfast recipes!
Lemon poppy seed bread – this delicious and moist citrus bread is topped with a sweet lemon glaze. Homemade sausage gravy – this delicious breakfast sausage and gravy goes wonderful with biscuits and a little fresh fruit. French toast casserole with cream cheese – a delicious overnight French toast casserole that uses cream cheese for a delicious creamy topping. Strawberry danishes – homemade strawberry danishes filled with a sweet cream cheese filling and topped with fresh strawberries. Pumpkin cream cheese muffins – simple pumpkin muffins made even better with a cream cheese swirl, almost like pumpkin cheesecake in muffin form.
