Fast, easy, and super moist lemon poppy seed muffins – with blueberries and streusel.
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lemon blueberry poppy seed muffins
Hello hello! 🙂 I’m here today with a delicious springtime muffin. I love all things lemon, which of course includes the classic lemon poppy seed muffins. These lemon poppy seed muffins are packed with a TON of lemon flavor, are topped with a lemon streusel and are loaded with fresh blueberries.
why you’ll love these lemon blueberry poppy seed muffins:
- They’re small batch: meaning it makes the perfect amount to have fresh muffins for a few days to yourself.
- They’re moist: as all muffins should be. Kefir is my secret ingredient for the *best* muffins.
- Super flavorful: these muffins are *packed* with lemon flavor and fresh blueberries.
expert baking tips
Weigh your ingredients:
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale.
Use room temperature ingredients:
It’s important that your ingredients are at room temperature so that they can easily incorporate with each other. Take out your cold ingredients about an hour before starting the muffins.
Mix the batter carefully
It is super important to not overmix the muffin batter. Overmixing the batter leads to more gluten development which is not desirable in these muffins. Not only will you get those pointy tops on the muffins, but you will end up with tough and chewy muffins.
keep a close eye on the muffins while they bake
Muffins like to go from under-baked to over-baked super quickly so it is important to keep a close eye on them. Start checking at 15 minutes with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out wet, check them again in 2 minutes and so on until only a few moist crumbs stick to the toothpick.
how to get bakery style muffin tops
One trick to getting those nicely domed muffin tops is (mostly) all in your oven’s temperature! Bake the muffins at 425°F / 220°C for 5 minutes. Then, without opening the oven, reduce the temperature to 350°F / 175°C and continue baking until done. The super high heat will make the muffins rise nice and tall! You will also want to bake them lined in every other tin on the muffin pan, and fill them to the very top. This recipe makes the perfect amount of batter to fill every muffin liner straight to the top for those perfect muffin tops!
Another trick, that’s optional, is resting the muffin batter. After making the muffin batter, let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour before baking. This will give time for the starches in the flour to absorb the moisture in the batter and will give you more flavorful, higher-rising muffins. Most baking powder is – but – just make sure your baking powder is “double acting” if you try this method.
how to evenly distribute your muffin batter
My favorite way to evenly distribute muffin batter is to use cookie scoops! Works perfectly every time. So long are the days of eyeballing which muffin may need a little more batter.
A note on oven temperature:
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature and might not always actually be at the temperature they claim to be at. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
ingredients for lemon blueberry poppy seed muffins:
Lemon Streusel:
- Unsalted butter: the base of the streusel & what makes it buttery and delicious. You can use salted butter here as well.
- Lemon: you’ll need a fresh lemon for lemon zest in the streusel.
- Light brown sugar: for sweetness. You could substitute in granulated sugar in a pinch.
- All purpose flour: for structure.
Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Muffins:
- All purpose flour: for structure.
- Baking powder: for helping the muffins rise.
- Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the muffins.
- Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor.
- Granulated sugar: for sweetening and for locking in moisture.
- Egg: for binding and for moisture.
- Vanilla: for flavor. I use and love this vanilla extract!
- Lemon extract: how we’ll add even more lemon flavor into these muffins. You could definitely omit this, just note that you would have less of a lemon-y flavor. Here is the one I used.
- Kefir: I would consider this the *secret ingredient* to these muffins, if you will. It makes these muffins super light, fluffy, and moist. I recommend plain whole milk kefir, but any flavored whole milk kefir will work as well (lemon would be delish.) You can also substitute in buttermilk here, or greek yogurt.
- Lemon: you’ll need a couple fresh lemons for the zest in the muffins.
- Blueberries: fresh or frozen will work, just note that frozen blueberries will bleed more in the batter.
how to make lemon blueberry poppy seed muffins
Here are a few images of what the process of making these muffins look like. You can find the full recipe and instructions at the end of this blog post.
- Zest the lemon into the sugar.
- Then mix in the butter, followed by the wet ingredients.
- Fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the blueberries.
- Distribute the batter between muffin liners, top with streusel, bake and enjoy!
lemon poppy seed blueberry muffins recipe q&a
can I double this recipe?
Of course! Obviously they will not be small batch anymore but small batch isn’t always what we need. Simply double all of the ingredients in the recipe to make 12 delicious muffins. I even more strongly recommend measuring by weight if you are going to double the recipe for the best results.
can I use frozen blueberries?
Yes, of course! They are a little bit more finicky to work with but honestly, fresh fruit can be expensive (especially if not in-season) so frozen is always a great back-up option. If you are using frozen, make sure to keep the frozen blueberries in the freezer until the last step where you add in the blueberries. Remove them from the freezer, coat them in flour, and gently mix them into the batter. You’ll want to mix just until they are evenly distributed and no flour streaks remain. Be aware that frozen berries tend to bleed more than fresh berries (but that doesn’t make them less delicious of course!) You may need to add an extra minute or two to the baking time since the frozen blueberries bring down the temperature of the batter.
how to store muffins
Like most baked goods, these muffins will taste the best on the day that they are baked. They will keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days.
tools and ingredients:
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
other recipes you might enjoy:
did you make this recipe?
I’d love to see and know your thoughts! please leave a comment and review below, and tag me on instagram @freshbeanbakery. #freshbeanbakery
Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
Lemon Streusel
- 28 g unsalted butter (2 tbsp.)
- 30 g light brown sugar (2 ½ tbsp.)
- zest of 1 medium lemon
- 45 g all purpose flour (¼ c. + 2 tbsp.)
Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Muffins
- 100 g granulated sugar (½ c.)
- zest of 2 medium lemons
- 70 g unsalted butter (5 tbsp.)
- 120 g plain whole milk kefir room temperature (½ c.)
- 1 egg room temperature
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- ½ tsp. lemon extract
- 140 g all purpose flour (1 c. + 2 ½ tbsp.)
- 1 tbsp. poppy seeds
- 1 ¼ tsp. baking powder double acting
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 120 g blueberries (1 c.)
- 2 tsp. all purpose flour
Instructions
Lemon Streusel
- If you plan on baking off the muffins right away, preheat the oven to 425°F / 220°C and alternate lining a muffin pan with 6 parchment liners. If you plan on letting the batter rest, proceed with this step after letting the batter rest.
- In a small microwave safe bowl, melt the butter. Zest the lemon into the butter, then add in the brown sugar and flour.
- Stir the mixture together until you have little clumps of dough. Set aside.
Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Muffins
- Add the sugar to a medium sized mixing bowl. Zest the lemons into the sugar, then use your fingers to rub the lemon zest into the sugar.
- Melt the butter, then mix it into the sugar mixture.
- Add in the kefir, egg, vanilla, and lemon extract. Whisk until well combined.
- Add in the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the mixture until only a few streaks of flour remain.
- Add the blueberries to a separate small bowl, and toss them with 2 tsp. of flour to coat them.
- Add the blueberries into the batter, and gently fold them into the batter just until no streaks of flour remain.
- (OPTIONAL) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour before baking. This will encourage a more flavorful, higher-rising muffin!
- Evenly distribute the muffin batter between the six parchment liners, then top the muffins with the lemon streusel.
- Bake the muffins at 425°F for 5 minutes. Without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 350°F / 175°C. Bake for an additional 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that the nutrition facts are only an estimate and may vary based on different brands of ingredients and any substitutions made.