Lemon Muffins are a little mid winter treat from me to you. They’re my way of saying hang in there, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and in the meantime, there are plenty of juicy ripe lemons just waiting to be baked up into these sunny streusel topped muffins.
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just the thought of a lemon muffin fresh from the oven
gets my heart to pumping. It’s just about paradise. Luckily these muffins are a snap to whip up, and you can do it one bowl. They’re perfect for breakfast, brunch, or all day snacking. And if your diet doesn’t allow for cakes and cupcakes right now, a lemon streusel muffin is always acceptable 🙂
let’s make lemon muffins!
- 2 lemons ~ for the zest and the juice*
- all purpose flour
- granulated sugar
- unsalted butter
- large eggs
- vegetable oil
- buttermilk
- baking powder, baking soda, and salt
- lemon extract ~ optional
*We know from science that one of the main ways we experience flavor in our food is through our nose, and these muffins don’t skimp in the aroma department. Lemons are famous for the heady oils in their peels, and we’re using lots of it in this recipe. While I do use the juice of those lemons (mostly not to waste it!) the real lemony punch comes from that zest. Take your time and get all you can off your 2 lemons, it will pay back in true lemon flavor.
How to zest a lemon for baking
- The zest of the lemon is the yellow part of the peel. The trick is to remove it without getting any of the white underneath part, which is bitter.
- Start with a clean, dry lemon. I wash mine, and then towel dry really well. It’s a bit of a no brainer, but remember to zest first, juice second!
- A microplane grater made for zesting citrus works best, and is much better and easier to use than the old knuckle buster box grater. A microplane grater will give you a fine zest, which works well for baking cakes, cookies, and muffins because it melts right into your batter.
- I usually give 3 quick back and forth motions to every little section of my lemon to insure I get all the good stuff.
- Plan to zest your fruit right before you need it for a recipe. It will dry out quickly and those essential oils won’t be as potent if you do it ahead of time.
- An alternative technique is to make lemon sugar, which is simply processing sugar and lemon peels together in a food processor. The resulting pale yellow aromatic sugar is amazing.
have you tried lemon extract?
When it comes to infusing lemon flavor into baked goods, I want to use every tool at my disposal. Lemon extract is just a little extra insurance that I’ll get a bright lemon flavor in my muffins, and I happen to have it in my pantry.
If you don’t have it, no worries, just skip it. (Make sure you use that zest!) But if you love lemon you might consider buying a bottle, it will keep a good long time
Look for actual lemon extract, not flavoring, for the best quality and truest lemon flavor. You want flavor from lemons, not a chemically synthesized product.
I’ve recently found a new product I love, lemon paste, which has a thicker consistency but does the same job.
some of you ask me ~
Sue, why do so many of your muffins recipes make 10 or 11 muffins instead of 12?
The answer is I like muffins on the bigger side, and so the batter that goes into that 11th or 12th muffin gets sacrificed for the greater good of the other 10. That’s just the way I roll. If you like, fill your cups a little lighter and you’ll get an even dozen.
What makes this lemon muffin recipe worth your time?
It’s a simple one bowl recipe.
They have a subtle, aromatic, real lemon flavor that you just don’t find in commercial baked goods.
The light streusel adds texture and makes these muffins even more tempting.
Muffins have healthy portion control built right in, and makes them an easy grab and go snack during the day.
You should take any chance you can get to bake with seasonal lemon in winter, it’s an instant burst of sunshine.
kind of obsessed with muffins these days…
- Double Chocolate Muffins
- Fresh Cranberry Muffins
- Perfect Blackberry Muffins
- Apple Cider Doughnut Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
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Lemon Streusel Muffins
Video
Equipment
- 12 cup muffin pan
- muffins liners (optional)
Ingredients
streusel topping
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour (30 grams)
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
muffins
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil (125 ml)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
- zest of 2 lemons
- 1 tsp lemon extract (optional)
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (125 ml)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (63)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 cups all purpose flour, using the fluff, scoop, and level method (250 grams)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
- Make the streusel first: combine the ingredients and rub together with your fingers until the butter is incorporated and the mixture has a dry crunmbly texture. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the eggs, oil, and sugar, and zest until well combined.
- Whisk in the extract, buttermilk and lemon juice.
- Whisk in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then fold in the flour. Mix just until combined and no dry flour remains, the batter will be somewhat lumpy.
- Fill 11-12 muffins cups nice and full with the batter, and then top with the streusel.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes (mine took 23 minutes) until risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out without wet batter on it. Muffins are small and cook fast, so keep alert.
- Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a cooling rack. I like to enjoy one warm with butter…yum!
- Be sure to store the cooled muffins in an airtight container to keep them fresh. They're best eaten the same day.
Notes
- for the perfect day old muffin, pop it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds, then enjoy with a pat of butter!
Nutrition
These were tasty. Based on other’s reviews stating they wanted more lemon taste, I used lemon Greek yogurt instead of buttermilk. I also added two packets of True Lemon to the streusel and topped with a lemon glaze all of which beefed up the lemon taste. I doubled the recipe as I made these for a local B&B. Please note, if you do use 2x or 3x option, the amounts of the ingredients will increase but NOT the weights listed. I bake weighing my ingredients and noted they did not reflect the increase in ingredients so beware if you also weigh ingredients. I rated it four stars since I did make some alterations to the recipe to kick up the lemon taste but otherwise a nice recipe.
These are just perfect! And so easy to make!
Wow! I quadruple the recipe and made it in my Ankarshrum mixer. When I added the baking powder, the mixture expanded by about 8 times the volume. I’m assuming it’s because of the large amount of baking powder. It filled my mixer so I had to transfer the batter into a large bowl to add the flour or it would’ve overflowed the anchor Ank’s bowl, which is quite large. I wish I could attatch a picture! Regardless the muffins were scrumptious.
The texture came out so so soft and amazing but there wasn’t enough lemony taste – next time I’ll add quite a but more
Among all my many lemon recipes I would characterize these lemon muffins as having a more mild lemon flavor. Definitely add more zest to amp it up if you like.
This is a favorite at our house. I make the recipe in three small loaf pans, and they always turn out perfect! I like to buy lemons in bulk and freeze the peel, juice, and whatever’s left in ziplock bags, so I always have it available when I need it. I use the “whatever’s left” to flavor my homemade Kombucha.
Not worth making again. I followed the recipe exactly. The texture was very good.
Light and moist but absolutely no flavor.
I put the zest of two lemons as called for and the lemon juice along with pure lemon extract
Tasted like a bland vanilla muffin
Sorry these lemon muffins didn’t work for you ~ with all that zest and lemon juice we find they have just the right amount of lemon flavor.You might add a lemon glaze made with lemon juice and powdered sugar to increase the flavor even further.
I did make these but I used mini muffin pans and I didn’t use any liners. I misunderstood your “streusel” topping to me that’s usually a crumble texture similar to what would be on a berry crumble bake if you know what I mean? It ended up ensuring the top of the muffins were flat and sort of baked into the muffins. I would definitely try some other “extract” I wonder if almond or vanilla would work because I didn’t have any lemon on hand. They just seemed a little lacking in flavour. The texture is awesome and I’m sure my granddaughter will love them!
These were absolute perfection! Thank you for a delicious recipe. Made it exactly as you wrote and didn’t have lemon extract so I just used vanilla. Such a great recipe!
The combo of lemon and vanilla is a new discovery for me, love it!
These have a lovely lemony flavor. Mine turned out rather dry, despite baking for only 20 minutes. I’d check then at 18 minutes time.
Muffins are small and can dry out quickly if over baked, and everybody’s oven runs a little differently. I tend to make large muffins and if you filled your cups a little less than mine, they would bake more quickly. I agree, with muffins (and cookies!) it’s always good to check on them early.
Awesome. I just made them, gonna give of them to my friends. They look beautiful and smell delightful. They are very soft inside, now I am just waiting for my cup of coffee to be ready and I am gonna have a muffin with butter for my breakfast. This top part of the is something, I’ll tell you! Thanks a lot. I saved the recipe to my bookmarks.
Enjoy them Elena, and thanks for the review!