The Best Lemon-Blueberry Muffins
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This is the best lemon-blueberry muffin recipe: sugar-crusted, lemony crumb, loaded with blueberries: what’s not to love? This is a long-time family favorite recipe and always a crowd-pleaser.
Last Sunday morning while purchasing eggs at the San Clemente farmers’ market, I spotted a flat of blueberries and blackberries I couldn’t resist purchasing. This lemon-blueberry muffin recipe, the best I’ve ever tasted, was on the brain.
The recipe comes from my mother via my aunt via The New York Times. A few notes:
- Make the muffins in a 6-well jumbo muffin pan. (Though, update 2020: a 12-well muffin pan works great, too.)
- Ensure your butter is at room temperature. It will make the creaming process go swiftly and smoothly.
- Don’t skimp on the sugar dusting before baking. It creates an irresistible crusty topping. Turbinado and demerera sugar are great here, too.
- Fresh blueberries are best, but you truly can make this year-round with frozen blueberries — no need to thaw first.
I have safely filed this lemon-blueberry muffin recipe in my search-no-further-for-that-ultimate-recipe folder. I hope you approve. And if you love the lemon-blueberry combo, you must try this lemon-blueberry Dutch baby and these lemon-blueberry scones and this lemon-blueberry quick bread.
PS: Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake
More Delicious Muffin Recipes
- Apple Orchard Muffins
- The Best Bran Muffins Ever
- Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins
- Coffeecake Muffins with Streusel
- Millet Muffins
All the muffin recipes right here → Muffins
Here’s the play-by-play: Gather your ingredients.
Zest a lemon over 1 stick (8 tablespoons butter).
Cream it with a cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Add an egg and some vanilla, and beat again.
Add dry ingredients alternately with milk, and beat until creamy.
Fold in the blueberries with a spatula.
Transfer batter to a jumbo 6-cup or standard 12-cup muffin pan.
Bake until the tops are golden.
Let cool for about 10 minutes before serving …
… with butter.
Is there anything better??
The original recipe calls for baking the muffins in a jumbo muffin tin, which I have to say is really fun. But, a 12-cup muffin tin may be more practical if you are entertaining for a larger crowd. Here are a few images of the jumbo muffins:
The Best Lemon-Blueberry Muffins
- Total Time: 52 minutes
- Yield: 6 or 12 muffins
Description
Adapted from The New York Times
This is a long-time favorite recipe. The original recipe calls for making the muffins in a 6-cup jumbo muffin tin, which is especially fun, but which maybe isn’t the most practical if you are feeding a small crowd. A 12-cup muffin tin works beautifully.
Salt: If using table salt or Morton kosher salt, use 3/4 teaspoon. If you are sensitive to salt altogether, use 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113 g ) unsalted butter, room temperature
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 cup + 1 tablespoon (214 g) sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups (256 g) all-purpose or cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, see notes above
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- ½ cup milk or buttermilk
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 375ºF. Cream butter with lemon zest and 1 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with ¼ cup of flour; then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the milk. Fold in the blueberries. Note: Batter will be thick. This is OK.
- Grease a jumbo muffin tin (or a 12-cup muffin tin… though the jumbo is really fun) with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Distribute batter among muffin cups. Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 30 minutes (or less, roughly 18-25 minutes, if using a 12-cup muffin tin). Check with a toothpick for doneness. If necessary, return pan to oven for a couple of more minutes. Let muffins cool in pan for about 7 minutes before serving.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
738 Comments on “The Best Lemon-Blueberry Muffins”
The best you will ever make!
Yay Christina 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hi, I tried the recipe and it was yummy, moist and flavorful! However, the only lemon taste was if you happened upon a piece of the lemon peel, which was rare. Is there a way to add lemon juice without much change to the recipe? Thank you.
Hi! One thing you could try first is this: zest the lemon into the sugar, then massage it with your fingers — it releases oils in the zest and smells so good. That should heighten the lemon flavor for you. You could also try more zest. If neither of those options work, try 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice and see how you like it.
hi… I have made these a dozen times……favorite!! How do you think they would freeze want to ship to tx for grandson
They freeze great! Go for it 🙂
I am always on the hunt for the BEST blueberry muffins. I made these yesterday and added in extra lemon (love lemon) by adding in the rind of 3 lemons, cardamon, and some poppy seeds. They were really wonderful. I used the cake flour as I find that makes things fluffier than regular flour….
Thank you, will make these again!
Great to hear! Thanks for writing and sharing your notes 🙂 🙂 🙂
Can I use frozen cherry in this recipe?
Worth a shot!
Can I use gluten free flour, like almond flour or any other, what would be the amount? Thanks
I don’t think almond flour will work. I would use a gluten-free 1:1 substitute like Cup4Cup.
Delicious. Perfect blueberry muffin
Can I use paper liners with this recipe?
Yes!
Can I make these ahead of time and freeze them for later use?
Yes!
These are also amazing when made with King Artrthur measure for measure flour. Even the non gluten free people loved them.
Hello,
First of all, thank you for the best Blueberry Muffins, Alexandra! I’ve made this recipe a couple of times, and it’s always a crowd pleaser! I enjoy baking and since I SHOULD not be eating a dozen blueberry cupbcakes, I share the goodies with my coworkers and neighboors. And these cupcakes are ALWAYS a hit! Not only are they yummy, but also very easy to make with ingredients I almost always have on hand. The only thing I do different is that I use unsweetened almond milk to make butter milk by adding 1-2 tablespoons of lemon. Which in turn, helps to enhance the lemon flavor. (Insert chef’s kiss)
Great to hear all of this, Cat! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes. So helpful for others 🙂
Wonderful & easy! Doubled zest (2 lemons), replaced a portion of the milk with juice of 1/2 lemon. (Poured juice into measuring cup then poured whole milk up to 1/2 cup measure.) Just lemony enough. Used frozen blueberries so they didn’t break when mixing. Made mini muffins and standard. Both perfect!
Yum! All sounds delicious. Thanks for writing and sharing your notes 🙂
I made 12 DELICIOUS muffins with this recipe. I substituted with coconut sugar and added juice from 1/2 a fresh lemon to the milk in place of buttermilk. I also massaged the zest into the sugar, used cake and pastry flour, frozen blueberries and sprinkled with coconut sugar plus a few extra berries on top. The crumb on the cake was moist, fine and very tender. These muffins are definitely a hit with the family and only lasted a few hours.. 😋 Next time I make these, I’ll skip the sugar topping and substitute for a simple lemon zest glaze to amp up the lemon flavour. Definitely a winner of a recipe!
Great to hear, Kayla! Thanks for writing and sharing these notes 🙂
These were way too salty!!!
I imagine with half as much kosher salt they would be perfect!
What kind of kosher salt are you using? I just updated the notes section to reduce the salt if using Morton kosher salt which essentially is twice as salty as Diamond Crystal, which is what I always use.
Do you use the “spoon and level” or scoop method for measuring flour? This makes a big difference in terms of the amount of flour in the batter. I always do spoon and level, but these ended up kind of falling apart so I thought I’d check.
I actually always use my scale. It’s possible you used a lighter hand with the flour. What type of flour are you using?
Came out perfect
Great to hear, Emily!
I made 6 large muffins using cake flour and measured all ingredients in grams. I substituted one cup of frozen cranberries (cut in half because they were huge berries) instead of the fresh blueberries. These are fantastic muffins and I am looking forward to trying them with the blueberries, as well as making more with cranberries.
I plan on making these again using some extra lemon zest and some coarse sugar as a topping, both as a personal preference. I will have to double the batch too!
Great recipe, thank you!
Great to hear! Thanks for writing and sharing all of this 🙂
Hi! When I am mixing the 1/4 c flour to mix over the blueberries when I add the blueberries to the batter do I add all that residual flour, or leave that behind?
Add the residual flour!
Hi! Where does the milk come in? I’m in the middle of making these and I can’t find it in the recipe.
Hi, I’m likely too late here… hope you saw it in step 3, alternating with the flour mixture.
Beyond delicious. I’ve made Blueberry scones enough times but these muffins are next level! So lemony and light with the tartness of the blueberries. The only thing I altered was not adding sugar on top, as my preference is for the muffins to be less sweet.
Great to hear, Krissy! Thanks so much for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
LOVE this recipe as a fairly new baker. I usually only get one or two out of the whole batch because they get scooped up so fast. I tried using less sugar – don’t do it lol. I do, however, prefer to use two teaspoons of vanilla. I’ve also used 1.5 teaspoons of lemon extract with perfect results!
I’ve alsooo utilized this recipe to make other flavor combo muffins with varying (but mostly successful) results! Even when they turn out a little dry, they’re still pretty good – and get better after they’ve sat for a day. One I really like to make is a Dark Chocolate and Orange.
Substitute the lemon zest with the zest of 1-2 clementines (depending on if you want a strong orange flavor or not). Add 1.5 cups chopped, 72% dark chocolate Ghirardelli chips, chopped.
Yum to all of this, Kristie! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes. I love orange and chocolate together and will definitely give that a try. Thank you 🙂
Looks great but as I’m making them you didn’t address the milk requirement. Do you add it to the wet ingredients?
Hi! It’s in step 3, alternating with the dry ingredients 🙂
Sounds delicious- could softened coconut oil be used in place of the butter and/or avacado oil. Thank you!
That should work just fine! I’d consider using slightly less. My experience with coconut oil is that it can leave things with a greasy texture (which I don’t mind because I love oil-based cakes, but just something to consider).
Thank you!
Yet another great recipe Ali, I made them last night (12 regular size muffins). They were amazing for our breakfast this morning. You are right about the sugary crust… so good.
I was lazy so melted the butter in a small pot, then whisked it with the lemon zest, sugar, added the vanilla and milk (to cool it off before adding the egg) and then egg and flour mix. I used frozen berries. my oven is on the hot size so 30 minutes on 350. It’s a keeper.
Great to hear, Hilla! Thanks so much for writing and sharing these notes 🙂