These Ultimate Lemon blueberry muffins are moist, lemony, and full of juicy blueberries. The crumb topping is the perfect addition to create a heavenly breakfast treat.
We love fun breakfast muffins like Zucchini Muffins, Yellow Squash muffins, and Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake. They are such a great grab and go breakfast! I have been making these for several years because they are one of the kids favorites and mornings are always so busy around here.
While it may be cold outside still, these Lemon Blueberry Muffins will make you feel like it is already clear blue skies spring. They are bursting with fruit flavor from the zingy lemon flavor and over a cup of fresh blueberries.
Plus, nothing beats the bakery freshness of a good consistent crumb topping. In my opinion, they are the ultimate blueberry muffin recipe!
Ingredients
Here is an overview of the ingredients you will need to make the lemon blueberry muffins.
And here are my go-to ingredients for crumb topping (for any muffin):
Ingredient Notes
Flour: I use all-purpose flour, but wheat will also work as a 1:1 substitution in the muffins. I would probably stick to all-purpose for the crumb topping as it will change the texture.
Butter: Use unsalted butter. If you have salted, decrease the salt by ¼ tsp. The butter must be softened to room temperature. In a pinch, you can cut it into Tbsp sized pieces and pop in the microwave for a few seconds. Do not melt the butter.
Blueberries: You can use fresh or frozen, but frozen blueberries tend to bleed more and make the muffin purple. If you do use frozen blueberries, thaw them a bit and rinse and pat dry.
Sour Cream: You can use lite or regular sour cream, or Greek yogurt.
Milk: You can use 1%, 2% or whole milk. I have not tried milk substitutes. You can also substitute buttermilk in place of the milk. With buttermilk, you can leave the lemon juice out to create bakery style blueberries muffins.
Since these are crumb topping muffins, they are a little bit denser, cakey texture than my standard blueberry muffins recipe. That’s to help the muffins rise well under the weight of the crumbs. I love it!
Step by Step Recipe Guide
- Whisk together the dry ingredients – Flour, salt, and baking powder.
- Whisk together wet ingredients – Eggs and sour cream until the eggs are broken and incorporated.
- In the wet ingredient bowl, add milk, butter, lemon juice, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon zest. Mix to combine. Do NOT OVERMIX! Overmixing causes denser muffins. Batter may be a little lumpy, but nearly smooth.
- With a spoon or spatula, fold in the blueberries gently.
5. Mix all ingredients of the crumb topping together. I find this works best with a spoon and then break up the crumbs with your hands.
6. Spoon into muffin cups at least ¾ full. Muffin cups should either be greased well with butter or lined with muffin liners.
7. Sprinkle about 2 Tbsp of crumb topping over the muffins. Very gently pat the topping to keep it from rolling off as the muffins rise.
8. For regular sized muffins, bake for about 18-25 minutes at 400 degrees.
If you want classic blueberry muffins, you could also leave out the lemon juice and zest. The acid of the lemons does cause them to rise a bit more, but you could either skip it completely or possibly substitute buttermilk for the regular milk.
Toppings and Variations
There are so many fun options to make this recipe your own:
- Almonds or Walnuts: Add a half cup of whatever nuts you prefer.
- White Chocolate Chips: If you want to make this a dessert treat, White Chocolate Chips work great with these flavors.
- Buttermilk: Substitute buttermilk in place of the milk. With this, you could also leave the lemon juice out to create bakery style blueberries muffins.
- Blackberries or Raspberries: Add in addition to or in place of the blueberries.
- Sparkling Sugar: You can use turbinado sugar either with or instead of the crumble topping. Sprinkle in the sugar just after adding to the baking cups.
Lemon Blueberry Muffin FAQs
You can use frozen blueberries, but they tend to make the color of the muffin a little muddier, as in the blueberries tend to bleed more. If you do use frozen blueberries, thaw them a bit and rinse and pat them dry. Mixing them less in the batter seems to help the bleeding.
Scoop the muffin batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 55-60 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Remove from the loaf pan and cool on a wire rack.
Fruit muffins like blueberry muffins tend to be a little trickier to keep from sticking to the cups. Silicone baking pans and muffin liners like these are great for nonstick. Parchment muffin cups also tend to release easier, and you can spray the liners with cooking spray.
Store muffins and quick breads in a sealed container like a cake dome or resealable plastic bag, in a single layer. Place a paper towel on the bottom, then cover the top of the muffins with another paper towel. You can also freeze them in an airtight container.
Watch the Recipe Video
I have also taped myself preparing these ultimate lemon blueberry muffins in the video below. The written instructions are in the recipe card further down the page.
I hope you’re going to give this a try to make your mornings extra special – especially for those busy on-the-go mornings like ours.
PS If you make this recipe, leave a COMMENT AND A STAR RATING in the comments section at the bottom and be sure to take a photo and tag it #cravingcreative on Instagram! I appreciate you for taking the time to read about me and my family recipes.
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Ultimate Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup sour cream
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cup fresh blueberries
Crumb Topping
- 1 cup flour
- 3 tbsp light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 6 tbsp butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a muffin pan or line with muffin cups.
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a second large bowl, or stand mixer, add eggs and sour cream. Mix until eggs are broken and mostly combined. Add butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest, and mix until well combined.
- 1 cup at a time, add the dry mixture into the wet ingredients, stirring after each addition. Mix until well combined. The batter may be a bit lumpy. Using a spoon, fold the blueberries into the batter.
- Spoon batter into muffin tins until ¾ full.
- Crumb Topping: In a small bowl, add all the crumb topping ingredients. With a spoon or your hands, mix the ingredients, breaking up any large lumps.
- Sprinkle about 2 tbsp of the crumb topping onto the muffins in the tins. Very lightly press a little into the batter just enough to keep them from rolling off when baking.
- Bake in the oven for 18-25 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Roxanne says
I love lemon flavored cakes, I can’t wait to try this one with the blueberries! Thanks for sharing!