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. If you are a fan of lovely lemon flavor bursting against fresh blueberries, these are just for you!
We love fun breakfast muffins like Zucchini Muffins, Yellow Squash Muffins, and Banana Chocolate Chip. They are such a great grab-and-go breakfast or sitting down to enjoy with a nice homemade Cold Brew Coffee!
I have been making these for several years, so I know nothing beats the bakery freshness of a delicious, consistent crumb topping. Plus, they are bursting with fruit flavor from the lemon and over a cup of fresh blueberries.
In my opinion, they are the ultimate blueberry muffin recipe!
Ingredients and Notes
Here is an overview of the ingredients you will need to make these bakery style blueberry muffins.
All-purpose Flour: You can use wheat flour but stick to all-purpose for the crumb topping as it will change the texture.
Unsalted Butter: If you have salted butter, decrease the salt by ¼ tsp. The butter must be softened to room temperature, but do not melt. In a pinch, you can cut it into tablespoon sized pieces and pop in the microwave for a few seconds.
Blueberries: You can use fresh or frozen, but frozen blueberries tend to bleed, resulting in purple muffins. For frozen blueberries, thaw them a bit, rinse and pat dry.
Sour Cream: You can use lite or regular sour cream, or Greek yogurt.
Milk: You can use any percentage milk. I have not tried milk substitutes. You can also substitute buttermilk in place of the milk.
Lemon: You want 1 fresh lemon to use for the 2 tablespoon of juice and the zest. The acid of the lemons helps them rise.
Since these are lemon blueberry muffins with crumb topping, they have a little bit denser texture than my standard muffin recipe. They are still soft and fluffy though. Not only does it help the muffins rise well under the crumb weight, but the blueberries won’t fall to the bottom either!
Step by Step Recipe Guide
This section represents a quick visual guide and may answer some questions. This one flows similar to a standard blueberry muffins recipe:
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- In your main mixing bowl, break the eggs and sour cream until the eggs are well incorporated. (photo 2). Then add the add milk, butter, lemon juice, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon zest. Mix to combine. (photo 3)
- With a spoon or spatula, fold in the blueberries gently.
Do NOT OVERMIX! Overmixing causes denser muffins. Batter may be a little lumpy, and that’s fine.
The Perfect Crumb Topping
This is my no-fail crumb topping recipe that works for just about any muffin or in apple crumb cake. It’s a little crispy yet tender and sticks well to the top.
5. Mix all ingredients of the tender crumb topping together in a small bowl. I find this works best with a spoon and then break up the crumbs with your hands.
6. Spoon into muffin tin cups about ¾ full. Muffin pan cups should either be greased well with butter or lined with muffin liners.
7. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoon 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 for fluffy, tender muffins in a fully preheated oven at the right oven temperature. Preheating is key to consistent baking!
Substitutions 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.
- Lemon Extract: Take the lemon flavor the extra mile by adding a teaspoon.
- Blackberries or Raspberries: Add fresh berries 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. If you can find lemon sugar, that would be another tasty option for a burst of flavor from the delicious muffins.
- Lemon Glaze: Take this recipe a step further by topping the muffins with a combination of powdered sugar and lemon juice, serving as a lemon glaze. For best results, allow the muffins to cool a bit before drizzling with glaze.
FAQs
You can use frozen blueberries, but they tend to make the color of the muffin a muddier purple, as in the blueberries tend to bleed more. Thaw them a bit, rinse, and pat them dry. Mixing them less in the batter helps the bleeding a little.
I have another thoroughly teste complete recipe for Lemon Blueberry Loaf here.
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.
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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.
Lemon Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup sour cream
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cup fresh blueberries
Crumb Topping
- 1 cup flour
- 3 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 6 tablespoon 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 tablespoon 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.
Megan says
Yum!
Roxanne says
I love lemon flavored cakes, I can’t wait to try this one with the blueberries! Thanks for sharing!