These light and fluffy lemon blueberry muffins taste just as good—or better!—than any bakery version. Greek yogurt keeps them extra moist, creamed butter creates a wonderfully soft and fluffy texture, and blueberries and lemon add a burst of flavor. Sprinkle each muffin with a lemony-brown sugar crumb topping for a sweet finishing touch.
One reader, Cathy, commented: “I made these today. They were moist, had a nice crumb, and an excellent balance of flavor. I will definitely make these again. Thanks for an awesome recipe! ★★★★★“
It’s no secret that I have a soft spot in my heart (err… stomach?) for the delightful flavor duo of lemon + blueberry. Desserts like lemon blueberry cheesecake bars, lemony blueberry galette, and lemon blueberry tart are always a refreshing change from rich chocolate. But these light and fruity flavors also make for a wonderful breakfast treat or anytime snack, especially when topped with a zesty-sweet crumble that takes these humble muffins to new heights. They’re also a lovely choice for your Easter brunch recipes and add such a beautiful pop of color to your table!
Why You’ll Love These Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Bursting with juicy blueberries and fresh lemon flavor
- Soft, tender, and cakey, like a muffin version of this popular lemon blueberry cake
- Easy to prepare
- Can use fresh or frozen blueberries—so convenient
- Topped with a delicious crumb, like your favorite bakery muffin
Ingredients You Need
Today’s lemon blueberry muffin recipe is a variation of my basic muffin recipe. I slightly reduced the butter because I found the muffins too fragile with the lemon juice and so many blueberries. (You’ll use the rest of the stick of butter in the topping!)
This batter can be used to create endless muffin varieties and you’ll see it again in my classic blueberry muffins, peach muffins, cranberry orange muffins, apple cinnamon muffins, lemon poppy seed muffins, and more.
Here are all of the ingredients you need for the muffin batter, and why each is important:
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the base of these muffins.
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder: Both leaveners help the muffins rise. See my trick below for super-tall bakery-style muffin tops.
- Salt & Vanilla Extract: Salt and pure vanilla extract add flavor. Try using homemade vanilla extract.
- Butter: We use creamed butter for a lighter, fluffier texture. My orange lemon poppy seed muffins are made with melted butter for a denser, heartier texture.
- Sugar: In my muffin recipe, I swap between brown sugar and granulated sugar. I like to use granulated sugar in today’s muffins so the lemon flavor really shines, but like to use brown sugar in my blueberry muffins for a little extra flavor.
- Eggs: 2 eggs bind everything together.
- Yogurt: Greek yogurt adds moisture. Use your favorite yogurt—I prefer nonfat or low-fat plain Greek yogurt but regular (not Greek) would be just fine, and any fat content. Sour cream is a great substitute if you don’t have yogurt.
- Milk: You can use dairy or nondairy milk.
- Lemon Juice & Lemon Zest: We’re using both, for lots of zingy lemon flavor. Make sure to zest the lemon before slicing and juicing it—much easier to do it in this order!
- Blueberries: You can use fresh or frozen berries. If using frozen, do not thaw before using.
You could also add poppy seeds, like I do in these blackberry lemon poppy seed muffins.
You’ll need a couple mixing bowls and an electric mixer (either a stand mixer or handheld), because we’re creaming the butter and sugar together. If you need a refresher on this step, here is my tutorial on how to cream butter and sugar. From there, it’s as easy as combining dry ingredients in one bowl, and wet in another, and then mixing them together and folding in the blueberries.
Expect a thick and fluffy batter:
Easy Crumb Topping
Today’s crumb topping doesn’t have cinnamon, unlike many streusel recipes. It’s just brown sugary, lemony, and sweet. I love cinnamon in the crumb topping on these blueberry muffins, but here the cinnamon would take away from the zesty lemon in these muffins. And we want that lemon flavor to really shine through!
The crumb topping comes together quickly and easily in the small bowl—just use a fork to combine the melted butter, brown sugar, flour, and lemon zest.
It doesn’t make a large amount, just enough for a little crumble on top of each muffin. You can double it if you want extra crumb.
Baker’s Tip: Gently press the crumbles down into the muffins’ surface before baking, or they will topple off as the muffins rise in the oven.
How to Create the Perfect Tall Muffin Tops
For big bakery-style muffin tops, there are 3 directions to follow closely:
- Make sure your muffin batter is THICK. (This one is!)
- Fill your muffin cups all the way to the top.
- Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at an initial high temperature, then reduce the temperature for the remaining bake time. This initial high oven temperature quickly lifts up the muffin tops. Once the temperature is reduced, the centers of the muffins bake. I do this in all my muffin recipes, including zucchini muffins and banana muffins too!
Not only does this trick create beautifully sky-high muffin tops, it also makes the muffins extra fluffy inside because the tops don’t stay flat.
More Lemon Blueberry Recipes
Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 23 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These light and fluffy lemon blueberry muffins taste just as good—or better!—than any bakery version. Greek yogurt keeps them extra moist, creamed butter creates a wonderfully soft and fluffy texture, and blueberries and lemon add a burst of flavor. The lemony-brown sugar crumb topping adds a sweet finishing touch, but feel free to skip it if desired.
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120g) plain Greek yogurt or sour cream, at room temperature*
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) milk*
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1 and 1/2 cups (210g) fresh or frozen blueberries, tossed in 1 Tbsp flour*
Crumb Topping
- 1/3 cup (41g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 Tablespoons (25g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Make the muffins: Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the lemon zest and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the eggs, yogurt, and vanilla, and beat for 1 minute, then turn up to high speed until the mixture is combined and mostly creamy. (It’s ok if it appears somewhat curdled.) Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- With the mixer running on low speed, add the dry ingredients, milk, and lemon juice into the wet ingredients and beat until no flour pockets remain. Gently fold in the blueberries. Avoid over-mixing. Batter is thick and fluffy.
- Spoon the batter into prepared muffin cups, filling them all the way to the top.
- Make the crumb topping: In a small bowl, use a fork to mix all of the crumb topping ingredients together.
- Spoon topping evenly on top of each filled muffin cup, gently pressing it down onto the surface so it sticks. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F, then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 18–19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 23–24 minutes, give or take.
- Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling. Enjoy warm, or at room temperature.
- Muffins stay fresh covered at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Freeze baked & cooled muffins for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature before enjoying. Warm up in the microwave if desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Cupcake Liners | Citrus Zester | Citrus Juicer | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer)
- Yogurt: You can use nonfat or low-fat plain yogurt, Greek or regular. You can also use sour cream.
- Milk: You can use any milk, dairy or nondairy.
- Blueberries: If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw.
- For a jumbo muffin pan: 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce to 350°F for 22–25 minutes for a total of 27–30 minutes. Makes about 6. For mini muffins: 350°F (whole time) for 12–14 minutes. Makes about 36–40.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I have made these muffins many times. Always perfect! My question is, can I bake this in a 9×5 loaf pan? If so, what temp and time? Thanks!
Hi Geri, this recipe would work well in a 9×5-inch loaf pan. You can use the baking time and directions from our blueberry muffin bread as a guide.
Just baked these and I’m disappointed because the tops are flat. I set a timer to make sure I beat it long enough and the batter was light & fluffy. I didn’t have the crumb topping ready immediately so maybe I shouldn’t have put the batter in the pan then have to wait to make the topping and put it on?
Can you advise why this happened?
Hi Patricia, Careful not to over-mix the batter. Did you keep the oven closed when you changed the temp? Opening the oven can deflate the muffins.
Hi, I’ve baked these before can they be prepared the day before and keep in the fridge to make the next day? These are very good buy the way.
Hi Cam, we don’t recommend that, because leaveners are activated when they’re mixed with liquid, so batter should really be baked right away.
Hi, thank you for the response. Is there any safe way to break down the recipe for pre day prep or is that just unsafe for the recipe?
It’s really best to mix muffin ingredients fresh. You could pre-mix the dry ingredients to save a couple steps!
I’m trying to use up fruits I have in the fridge, and I only have a little less than a cup of blueberries, would I be able to sub in blackberries for the rest of the blueberries? Maybe if I chopped them? Just unsure if them being more juicy than blueberries would affect the recipe
Hi Paige, that shouldn’t be a problem! If they’re big, you can cut them in half.
Thank you Sally and team for these wonderful recipes. I’m a new fan! Baked these for the first time this week and they were the best muffins of any flavour I’ve ever managed to make. They were moist, light, flavourful and very easy to make. I used frozen blueberries, but 180g was more than enough. I also subbed some of the sugar with Pure Via caster sugar for a slightly healthier option, added a scoop of ground flaxseed and some poppy seeds. Did not bother with the topping as we try to keep our sugar intake on the lower side. Have a fan oven so reduced the second cooking time to about 15 mins. The family loved them! Thank you for such an easy to follow and execute recipe.
PS really appreciate the quantities being offered by weight as well for those of us outside the USA.
The lemon blueberry muffins were delicious. My husband isn’t very fond of blueberry baked goods, but after eating one of these muffins, he was ready for another. They are soft and fluffy. Just the right amount of lemon flavor. Yum!
I’ve made these a few times and they always turn out perfect! I do wish they were a little bit more lemony though. Is there a way to amp up the lemon a bit without changing the consistency too much? Would lemon extract help?
You could absolutely add some lemon extract here, Ari.
All muffins can be made with 1 to 1 GF flour. They turn out perfect too!
I use alot of your recipes and generally they turn out perfect. But with this one the topping just kind of melted into the muffin. I made it as the instructions said so I’m just curious if there was a reason you can pin point that might have made that happen. Anyways, they are
Hi Shannan! Was the crumb topping mixed into a paste consistency, or was it pretty crumbly after mixing and sprinkling on the muffins before baking? Make sure it’s extra crumbly, and careful not to overmix into a paste. For next time, you can add a little more flour which will help soak up some of the butter. (And prevent it from melting and sinking down into the muffins.) Thank you for giving these a try!
My grandaughter said it was like eating a rainbow!
Can I use cake flour instead of all-purpose flour? Thanks.
Hi Stephanie, since creamed butter and sugar make the base of this recipe, the muffins are already quite cakey. We fear cake flour will just be too light, and if you try it, you may want to increase the amount. Blueberries are heavy, and there’s a lot of moisture in this recipe!
Hi! Is it possible to substitute unsweetened applesauce instead of using Greek yoghurt?
Hi Renée, Sour cream is a great substitute if you don’t have yogurt. Swapping for applesauce would change the intended outcome. We do have quite a few muffin recipes that call for applesauce, if you’re interested in browsing!