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Lemon Blueberry Muffins

By FionaUpdated May 20, 2024, Published Mar 18, 2019

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Total Time 45 minutes mins

Servings 12 Muffins

These lemon blueberry muffins have a soft and fluffy texture, delicious lemon flavor, and tons of juicy berries. With golden muffin tops and a sweet lemon glaze – they make for the most delicious muffin recipe! 

This lemon blueberry muffin recipe makes the perfect muffins. They’re

• moist & tender in the center
• have a bright and tangy lemon flavor from fresh lemon juice and lemon zest
• juicy blueberries throughout
• and lemon glaze that makes them extra “bakery-worthy”

The lemon makes them a little more special than your classic blueberry muffins. And you’ll absolutley love the perfectly domed muffin tops that make them picture perfect. 

Lemon Blueberry Muffin Recipe

I originally posted these blueberry lemon muffins waaaaay back in 2016. But since then I’ve learned a lot more about baking (I think at least) and improved my photography (I hope) – so I figured I know I could improve the recipe to be even better. After testing and retesting – this updated recipe creates muffins that are fluffier, softer in the middle, more golden on the top, AND the recipe is less fussy.

I promise – I’m not over selling here. These are just that delicious. 🙂

SO… Let’s talk about the important ingredients for lemon blueberry muffins. 

1. 1/2 Butter. Good old, delicious butter. It adds so much flavor to the muffins – but we need juuust the right amount so that the muffins don’t become greasy. In this recipe you’ll beat together the butter and white sugar until they’re fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Creaming together the butter and sugar adds air to the butter and makes the muffins lighter in texture.
2. 3/4 cup white sugar.
3. 2 eggs for a tender muffin texture.
4. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (always necessary.
5. 2/3 cup sour cream for the softest crumb and perfectly moist muffins. In the original recipe I used a combination of sour cream and buttermilk – but since buttermilk is pretty fussy to buy, I decided to change the recipe so that you could only use sour cream and still get perfectly moist and tender muffins.
6. Freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest from 1 lemon. No bottle lemon juice here – otherwise, your muffins will taste too tart. Using the combo of both lemon juice and lemon zest makes the flavor bright and citrus-y without being sour.
7. 2 cups all-purpose flour. Be very careful when measuring the flour. If muffins turn out dry or crumbly, most of the time it’s because too much flour was added to the batter. Whisk the flour first, then spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level off the top. Don’t just scoop the flour out of the container, otherwise it’ll be packed down too much and you’ll end up with too much flour.
8. 1 teaspoon baking powder & 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. I found that the combo of both made my muffins have the best rise.
9. And blueberries. Because – well, they’re delicious. You can use fresh or frozen berries. If using frozen berries, do not thaw. Toss them in 2 teaspoons of flour to help prevent the juices bleeding all over the batter.

It’s extremely important when making muffins that you don’t over mix the batter. Over mixing creates muffins that are tough, dry and filled with air cavities/tunnels. To avoid over mixing it’s really important to have your butter softened (not melted), and your eggs and sour cream at room temperature before getting started. This makes it much easier to mix everything together without over mixing. Muffin batter will look a little lumpy when you’re done mixing everything together.

Finally, I like to bake my muffins at 375F degrees. At 350F I found that the muffins didn’t rise as well. However, at 400F the tops got too dark. 375F was just right for perfectly domed muffins that are golden brown without being burnt.

The lemon glaze really takes these muffins up an extra notch (if that’s possible). But if you prefer muffins that are a little less sweet you could leave it out. 

I love these lemon blueberry muffins because they’re moist, soft in the center, golden on top and have the most delicious lemon flavor with so many sweet berries. They’re the perfect switch-up fro classic blueberry muffins, and taste delicious for breakfast or a mid-afternoon snack.

For more lemon & blueberry recipes, try these other favorites:

• Lemon Blueberry Cake – it’s topped with delicious cream cheese frosting
• Lemon Cheesecake with Blueberry Compote
• Lemon Loaf 
• Blueberry Muffins – these are your classics

4.84 from 6 votes

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

By: Fiona Dowling

These lemon blueberry muffins have a soft and fluffy texture, delicious lemon flavor, and tons of juicy berries. With golden muffin tops and a sweet lemon glaze - they make for the most delicious muffin recipe!

Prep: 15 minutes mins

Cook: 18 minutes mins

Total: 45 minutes mins

Servings: 12 Muffins

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Ingredients

For the Muffins

• ▢ 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• ▢ 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 2-3 tablespoons lemon zest, about 1 lemon
• ▢ 2 large eggs*
• ▢ 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice, about 1 lemon
• ▢ 2/3 cup sour cream*
• ▢ 1 1/2 cups blueberries**
• ▢ 2 teaspoons flour, - if using frozen berries. See recipe notes

For the Glaze

• ▢ 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• ▢ 1 - 1 1/2 cups icing sugar

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Instructions 

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

• Preheat the oven to 375F degrees. Line a 12-cavity muffin pan with papers. 
• In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt. 
• In a separate large bowl beat together the butter, sugar, and lemon zest until fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). 
• Beat the eggs into the butter mixture 1 at a time. Then stir in the vanilla extract and lemon juice.
• With the mixer on low speed, beat in about 1/2 of the sour cream into the butter mixture. Then mix in about 1/2 of the flour mixture into the butter and sour cream mixture. Beat in the rest of the sour cream. Then turn the mixer off and carefully fold in the rest of the flour using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. ***
• If using frozen berries, in a separate bowl toss the berries with 2 teaspoons of flour. 
• Gently fold the berries into the muffin batter using a rubber spatula. 
• Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling each muffin to the top. You'll end up with 12-14 muffins total. 
• Bake in the preheated oven for 17-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with blueberry juice (not muffin batter). 
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and continue cooling. 

Lemon Glaze

• In a small bowl whisk together the lemon juice and icing sugar. 
• Drizzle the glaze over the cooled muffins. 

Notes

*Room temperature ingredients preferred. Eggs can be placed in a bowl of lukewarm water for 10 minutes to warm to room temperature. 

**Use fresh or frozen berries. I prefer fresh because they're less likely to bleed blue over the batter. If using frozen, do not thaw. Toss the frozen berries in 2 teaspoons of flour before folding them into the batter. If using frozen berries, the bake time will likely be a few minutes longer. 

***We're beating in the sour cream and flour mixture in additions to help prevent over mixing the batter - which makes the muffins tough and dry. 

Muffins are best if enjoyed the same day that they're baked. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Freeze in an airtight container for up to 2 months, then thaw in the fridge. 

Nutrition

Calories: 212kcal

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