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Healthy Lemon Blueberry Muffins

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These Healthy Lemon Blueberry Muffins are THE most moist, cake like muffin on our entire site. Made with fresh blueberries, lemon, creamy yogurt they are also packed with nutrition and less sugar than most other muffins out there!

Healthy Lemon Blueberry Muffin Split in half on a plate

Muffins can be part of a healthy diet, especially when you can incorporate nutrient dense foods like blueberries.  We get so many questions about making, freezing and storing muffins. It makes sense, since cooking has the potential to be a big production when you have kids under tow.  Cooking once and eating all week can be such a relief!  So, I thought I’d address the most asked questions about muffins.

Top Tips for Making Next Level Muffins

  • Use room temperature ingredients. When eggs, milk, and yogurt are room temp, they form a better emulsion, which traps air and creates lighter, fluffier baked goods.
  • Use oil rather than butter. Oil produces a more tender and moist muffin.
  • If you want beautiful tall muffins, don’t be afraid of baking powder. Add a heaping teaspoon instead of a level one.
  • Don’t overmix your batter. We have all heard this before, but is truly the key to a fluffy, moist muffin. As soon as the flour disappears, step away from the spoon.

Can I Freeze Lemon Blueberry Muffins?

Not only can blueberry muffins be frozen, the taste and texture does not suffer after they’ve defrosted.  In order to freeze, we first bake and cool the muffins completely.  Then, we toss into a freezer safe, zip top bag, making sure not to over stuff the bag.   When we want to defrost them, there are three methods.  First, and preferable to me, we set them out the evening before we want to eat them. They defrost on the counter over night, and in the  morning, they ware ready to eat.  If we forget this, we can put it in the microwave for about 30-60 seconds.  I like to wrap them individually in a paper towel or napkin.  Lastly, if you don’t like the microwave idea, you can wrap the muffins individually in foil, and put them in the oven for about 10 minutes while they warm up.

Lemon Blueberry Muffin on a plate

How long are blueberry muffins good for?

If you store muffins in the freezer, they should be good and keep their flavor for about 3 months. If you keep them in the pantry, I would eat them within 3-4 days of making them. They will begin to dry out, so they won’t taste as moist as the first day when stored in the pantry.

How to make blueberry muffins without eggs?

Eggs are perfect for muffins because it not only provides structure and bonding to the muffin, but it also assists with the rise of the muffin.  There are many kids with egg allergies though, and for a baked product like blueberry muffins, there can be a substitute!  To replace the egg for binding, applesauce or mashed banana can do the job.  Just replace the same volume in equal amounts.  For example, 1/2 of a banana would be the same volume approximately as one egg.  To replace the process of leavening (rising), add 1 tablespoon of oil, mixed with 1 tablespoon of water and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder.

lemon blueberry muffins on a cooling wrack

Why do you use buttermilk for blueberry muffins?

When we add buttermilk to our muffins, I can tell a distinct improvement!  Buttermilk helps keep the muffins moist, light, and fluffy.  It breaks down the tough gluten bonds keeping the muffins flaky.  Buttermilk also changes the pH of the batter, so your baked goods are less likely to brown while cooking, giving muffins a nice light golden finish.  Many people don’t know this, but you can make your own buttermilk if you don’t have any.  We use 1 cup of milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice. Leave it on the counter to curdle slightly. After about 5-10 minutes you have buttermilk!

How to make blueberry muffins healthy?

My final word about blueberry muffins is how to make them healthier.  There are three major things that can make a muffin healthier. The first is using whole wheat flour.  The more whole wheat flour you can use and still have the muffins taste great, the better.  Whole wheat flour provides fiber and B Vitamins that refined white flour is missing.   This blueberry muffin recipe uses 100% whole wheat four and they taste great!  Another grain to incorporate is bran for extra fiber. Check out our blueberry bran muffins here.  Secondly, extra berries! Blueberries are a super food, and the more that you can incorporate without the muffin falling apart altogether, the better! And the third  is to lower the sugar.  While you still want them to be sweet and taste good, we like to cut the sugar back a little bit each time, until the flavor still tastes great, but we are using a minimal amount of sugar.

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4.1 from 118 votes

Healthy Lemon Blueberry Muffins

These Healthy Lemon Blueberry Muffins are THE most moist, cake like muffin on our entire site. Made with fresh blueberries, lemon, creamy yogurt they are also packed with nutrition and less sugar than most other muffins out there!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time18 minutes
Total Time33 minutes
Course: Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine: American
Servings: 12
Calories: 162kcal

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray muffin cups lightly with cooking spray or use muffin liners.
  • Combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
  • In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, yogurt, buttermilk, lemon juice, lemon zest and egg until incorporated. 
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix just until combined. Gently fold in the blueberries.
  • Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups (using an ice cream scoop works great here if you have one!).
  • Bake for 18 minutes or until golden on top and the muffins bounce back when touched.
  • Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Notes

These muffins will be fluffier and moist if you use room temperature ingredients – specifically the yogurt, buttermilk, and egg.  
 
*If you are looking for the original recipe, here it is: 
  • 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 cup white flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/8 cup applesauce, unsweetened
  • 2/3 cup buttermilk, low fat
  • 1 teaspoon lemon extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup blueberries

Nutrition

Calories: 162kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 132mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 15g
Keyword : Lemon Berry Muffin

www.superhealthykids.com

Natalie Monson

I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.

Learn More about Natalie

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Recipe Rating




60 Comments

5 stars
Subbed lemon juice for extract and Greek yogurt for buttermilk and apple sauce. They turned out amazing!

3 stars
This turned out ok, it just tasted a lot like something my health conscious sister could make using a lot less sugar or a healthier substitute.

5 stars
Huge hit. Definitely will make again. Sub’d coconut sugar for white and sub’d 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk with 2tsp lemon juice for buttermilk.

4 stars
Made them entirely with whole wheat flour and with coconut sugar imstead of regular sugar, so they turned out a little darker. Used a frozen berry mix instead of blueberries. Nice combo of tart and sweet taste. Kids didn’t want to try them yet (as a snack) – I’ll try again for breakfast tomorrow. 😉

I doubled this recipe and it did not make 24–not even close. Only made 18–and the last 6 weren’t full-sized.

I thought these were delicious. Quick and easy. Nice and moist and very sweet. Good lemon flavor too.

5 stars
I used raspberries instead of blueberries plus the zest of a lemon and these were perfect. Wish I made more!

5 stars
These didn’t last long in my house. Easy and tasty. I used Better Batter gluten free flour mix and they turned out great!

5 stars
We loved these and I’m glad I could use fresh lemon juice instead of extract. That should be in the recipe instead.

5 stars
Love it! I made these with frozen raspberries and fresh lemon juice. Also i used coconut milk instead of buttermilk and i added chiaseeds and flaxseeds and they came out delicious! Yum ?

These are divine! Doubled the recipe and got exactly 20 plump, full size muffins. Also subbed homemade coconut milk for the buttermilk, cut back on 1/3 of the sugar, used fresh lemon juice and didn’t have any apple sauce so I threw in a couple spoonfuls of coconut oil. Added 3 tablespoons of chia. Totally delicious, will make again and probably add a bit more lemon or a dash of zest.

5 stars
They turned out really good. I will definitely cut down on the sugar next time. They don’t need so much.

5 stars
I used 5 tblsp coconut oil, no applesauce, subbed coconut milk for buttermilk, decreased sugar to 1/4 cup with coconut sugar and added 1 ripe banane to the batter. Also used 50% almond meal. Turned out great!!

5 stars
I used gluten free flour & calamansi extract instead of lemon extract & it was delicious, not too sweet too, My sweet spinach muffin was a success too so I guess, this site will be my baked goods source for my toddler 🙂

Hi Dayana, I haven’t tried it myself but “all purpose” gluten free flour would probably work!

Hi! It looks like you’ve changed this recipe recently. Is it possible to direct me to the old version? We loved it!

5 stars
Love these! Made them today with my toddler. It’s true about involving kids with the cooking process to create buy in. She loves them! Not too sweet, fluffy, and they are a nutritious snack or breakfast option to have on hand! Will definitely make again. Thinking of adding a little basil to a few as an experiment next time.

5 stars
These came out fluffy and yummy. I used milk plus vinegar substitute for buttermilk. Definitely making these again.

I tried this recipe for the first time for my granddaughter, I my self loved it so much .. I don’t like muffins at all but make different recipes for others, this one was totally different than what I used to taste .. thanks a lot for sharing the recipe and wonderful tips