Lemon Blueberry Muffins - Sally's Baking Addiction

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.

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 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.

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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, 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 now thaw before using.

You could also add poppy seeds, like I do in these blackberry lemon poppy seed muffins.

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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. 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 muffin tops 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:

1. Make sure your muffin batter is THICK. (This one is!)
2. Fill your muffin tins all the way to the top.
3. 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 top. 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.

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