Lemon Blueberry Muffins are a delightful way to start the day. Bursting with a fruity flavor, the addition of lemon takes blueberry muffins to a whole other level. Sweet, with just the right amount of tangy, this is a recipe you’ll make time and time again.
Reasons You’ll Love This
Blueberry Muffin Upgrade – Nothing beats an old-fashioned blueberry muffin, but wait until you add that zing of citrus from the lemon! You’ll fall in love all over again.
Gorgeous Glaze – These muffins are finished off with a light lemon glaze, which is so good you might be tempted to eat it with a spoon!
Fresh or Frozen – You can still make these muffins whether it’s blueberry season or not. Fresh and frozen blueberries are used in this recipe!
Citrus Season – AZ locals know, if you don’t have a lemon tree yourself, you know someone who does! Put those lemons to good use and make yourself a batch of these goodies.
On the Go – These are great pastries to keep on hand when you need something quick to grab on the way out the door in the morning.
Can there be anything more satisfying than sinking your teeth into a warm, lemon blueberry muffin, and having that juicy, tart, explosion of warm blueberries in your mouth? Bubbling blueberries, a sweet and moist lemon batter topped with a dreamy lemon glaze? I’m drooling just typing this!
Ingredient Info
- Butter – Use unsalted butter, and make sure it’s softened to room temperature before use.
- Sugar – White granulated sugar is recommended for this recipe!
- Lemon Zest – You get lemon zest by grating the peel of a lemon. The best way to do this is by using a lemon zester, and scraping the sides of a lemon until you get little lemon peel shavings.
- Flour – To ensure your muffins don’t come out too dense, measure your flour by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off before adding it to the recipe.
- Cornstarch – This is the secret ingredient to getting a beautiful chewy, and soft texture in the muffins.
- Lemon Juice – Fresh lemon juice is always ideal when it comes to any baking recipe, but bottled will work just fine. You’ll need some lemon juice for the batter and for the glaze. For the batter, you can substitute for 2 tsp of lemon extract instead.
- Buttermilk – Buttermilk is one of my favorite baking ingredients, and one you should always keep on hand. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can either make your own, or use regular milk. They’ll still be delicious!
- Blueberries – This recipe calls for a combo of both fresh blueberries and frozen blueberries. You can use all frozen blueberries, or all fresh blueberries instead if you’d like. Make sure you rinse both the fresh AND frozen blueberries VERY well. Pat them both dry as much as you can, otherwise the frozen blueberries will turn your muffins purple.
- Powdered Sugar – Also known as confectioners sugar, this will be used for the glaze.
Step by Step Instructions
- Begin by preheating the oven to 400°F. Line a muffin tin with liners, parchment paper, or grease them really well. Set this aside. Grab a large mixing bowl and add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Whisk this together until combined, then set it aside.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, add the softened butter and granulated sugar. Beat that together using an electric hand or stand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time and continue to beat it together, scraping the sides of the bowl in between each addition. Make sure everything is combined well before adding the lemon zest and mixing until incorporated.
- To the wet ingredients, add half of the dry ingredients and mix that together by hand.
- Once combined, add half of the buttermilk, and stir that by hand until combined. Add the remaining flour, stir, then add the remaining buttermilk and stir until combined.
- Pour in the fresh and frozen blueberries to the batter and fold them in until evenly incorporated. Do your best not to over mix at this point, the batter will be fairly thick and possibly a bit lumpy.
- Scoop a quarter cup of the batter into each of the lined muffin tins. The wells will be fairly full, this is okay. Bake the muffins in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, and the muffin tops have turned a golden brown.
- While the muffins bake, make the icing by combining powdered sugar and lemon juice in a separate bowl and whisking until you get the consistency you like.
- Take the muffins out of the oven when they’re done and let them cool slightly. Drizzle the glaze over top of the muffins, serve and enjoy!
Tips And Advice
Storage – Store the lemon blueberry muffins at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Depending on how you choose to glaze these muffins, you may want to consider holding off on adding the icing until it’s time to serve the muffins. The longer the glaze sits on the muffins at room temperature the stickier it could get.
Making Icing:
You can make an icing as thick or as thin as you want. If you want your icing to be thicker, add more powdered sugar. If you want an icing to be thinner, add more lemon juice, or a splash of milk if you don’t want an overpowering lemon flavor.
If you go for a thinner icing, know that it may soak into the muffins. This is still just as tasty and will look just as cute, but it may be a bit stickier. You can also decide to leave the icing off the muffins completely!
Hot and Cold – Let’s talk glazing! You can add the icing to the top of the muffins a few minutes after they leave the oven, or wait for them to cool completely before glazing.
If you do it while it’s still hot, just know that the icing may soak into the top of the muffins. This will still look and taste delicious, but it may be a bit stickier. If you wait til the muffins have cooled completely, the icing will likely harden on top.
Here’s a photo of muffins glazed while hot, which allows the icing to sink in. You can’t go wrong either way
Equipment
For this recipe, you’ll need the following materials:
- Muffin Tin
- Muffin Liners, Parchment Paper or Grease
- Large Mixing Bowls
- Electric Hand Mixer or Electric Stand Mixer
- Whisk
- Silicone Spatula
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
FAQs
Deciding to use fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries is really a matter of personal preference. Personally I’ve always had a bit of a preference for the smaller, frozen blueberries in my blueberry recipes.
If you use frozen blueberries, I recommend gently rinsing and draining them a few times prior to use.
Use lukewarm water which will help to both thaw the blueberries, and remove from the intensely colored juice that can turn your muffins purple. If you bake your muffins with your blueberries still frozen, they will likely require additional baking time.
I usually rinse mine until the water runs clear, then sit on a paper towel to dry prior to adding to the muffin batter.
Recipes You’ll Love
Still need some recipes to satisfy that citrus craving? Maybe you have an overload of lemons in your backyard? Regardless, here are some more sweet recipes for you to try your hand at!
- Lemon Blueberry Scones
- Lemon Blueberry Bread
- Starbucks Lemon Loaf Copycat
- Lemon Loaf
- Lemon Bars
- Lemon Cookies
- Lemon Cake
- Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze
- Orange Loaf
- Blueberry Pancakes
- Easy Lemon Rolls
- Lemon-Lime Bundt Cake
More Muffin Recipes!!
Blueberry Lemon Muffins
Equipment
- Muffin Pan
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter (softened)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 TBSP grated lemon zest
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 TBSP lemon juice (2 tsp lemon extract can be substituted)
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup fresh blueberries (washed and dried well )
- 1 cup frozen blueberries (rinsed and dried well)
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice (more lemon juice can be added for a thinner glaze)
Instructions
- First, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each egg, making sure they are combined well. Add lemon zest and mix until combined.
- Add half the dry ingredients (flour mixture) to the wet ingredients (sugar, butter and eggs mixture), stirring by hand until just combined.
- Next add in half the buttermilk and lemon juice, stir until just combined.
- Then add in remaining flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Follow with remaining buttermilk, stirring until just combined.
- Fold in blueberries, mixing until just combined. Do not over-mix or as a result muffins may be tough. Batter will be thick and may be a bit lumpy.
- Scoop batter by quarter cups into a 12 count muffin pan that has been lined with paper liners or greased. Each muffin cup will be quite full.
- Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and tops are starting to turn golden brown.
- Remove from oven and place muffin pan on a wire rack. Remove from muffin pan after 10 minutes and allow muffins to continue cooling on the wire rack, which will reduce condensation which may occur when cooling directly on a surface.
- Finally, if topping with lemon glaze, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until well combined. Glaze can be as thick or as thin as you like. Add more lemon juice for a thinner glaze or more powdered sugar for a thicker glaze. Drizzle glaze over muffins. Muffins can be glazed hot, which will allow the glaze to soak in, or can be glazed once completely cooled. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
The nutrition facts provided are calculated using a third-party tool and are estimates only. Actual nutritional content may vary based on the ingredients and brands you use, as well as portion sizes. For accurate results, please consult a registered dietitian or nutritionist.
Meet Christi, Love From The Oven
I’m Christi I love sharing easy & delicious recipes that your family & friends will love. I’m a mom, baker, cookbook author and lover of sprinkles.
I made 2 dozen for a meeting. They were very good.
My granddaughter made these. They were delicious’
They would have been better had you proofread your recipe and cleared the confusion about when to add the flour when and to what. Wound up way overstirring these..
These sound delicious. Question: step #6 says to add remaining flour. But step #4 & #5 adds half of the wet and 1/2 of the buttermilk to the dry. Do you reserve half of the flour in step #3? Thanks.
Can I freeze these?
You can, if possible I would freeze them unglazed.
Delicious !
I was a little hesitant about the lemon icing because it was so strong by itself but eating the icing with the muffin was perfect! thank you for the recipe!
I made these a few weeks ago and I will be making them again this week because everyone LOVED them. I used regular milk instead and I was too lazy to make the glaze and it turned out amazing.
Excellent flavor With the lemon. I substituted sour milk for buttermilk ,that’s what I had.Very moist.I made 1 1/2 dozen