These blueberry lemon poppyseed muffins are made with browned butter and lots of lemon zest, making them super flavorful. Moist, fluffy, and delicious, these are a perfect treat for breakfast or brunch.
Why I Love These Blueberry Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
I think you’ll love these blueberry lemon poppyseed muffins! This recipe was a tricky one for me to get just right. Growing up spoiled by the most amazing lemon poppyseed muffins at the coffeeshop down the block, I have stupidly high standards. So I made this recipe every weekend for the past four weekends, trying to get them just right! All the zesting and juicing was so worth it in the end though–these muffins are amazing! Here’s why you’ll love them too:
- They’re made with browned butter: browned butter makes these muffins so flavorful and rich. I just love browned butter–it is such an easy, foolproof way to make baked goods taste 10000x better! The original iteration of this recipe used regular softened butter, and I have to say that using browned butter made all of the difference in the world.
- They’re bursting with blueberries: blueberry and lemon are contrasting flavors that pair wonderfully together. Blueberries have this complex sweetness that balances out the acidity from the lemons. It just makes these muffins even more flavorful!
- They’re ultra moist and fluffy: these use milk, yogurt, lemon juice, and browned butter for lots of rich moisture.
Ingredients Needed
For these blueberry lemon poppyseed muffins, you will need:
- Unsalted butter: cut it into slices before using. More on how to brown it later!
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda & baking powder
- Fine sea salt
- Lemon zest and fresh lemon juice: you’ll need around 2-3 large lemons for this recipe
- Granulated cane sugar
- 2 large eggs: make sure they are at room temperature. If needed, you can soak them in a bowl of hot water.
- Vanilla extract
- Milk: any kind will work
- Plain Greek yogurt
- Poppyseeds
- Blueberries: either fresh or frozen
And then for equipment, you’ll need:
- A heavy-bottomed skillet for browning butter
- Two mixing bowls
- A whisk
- A 12-cup muffin pan
How to Properly Brown Butter
Browning butter is super easy and only takes 5-10 minutes! Once you’ve mastered it, you’ll find yourself doing it all the time. It really does make things taste amazing (have you tried it in cinnamon rolls yet? game changer). Here is a step by step:
- Start by cutting your butter into slices to ensure that it melts evenly, then layer it into a thick-bottomed skillet. Melt it over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
- After the butter has melted, it will begin to crackle. Stir it frequently at this stage.
- After the sizzling subsides, the butter will start to foam up. Continue stirring and keeping a close eye on it. Meanwhile, be on the lookout for a nutty aroma, an amber color, and brown flecks.
- Once the butter has reached this stage, remove it immediately from heat and pour it into a heatproof bowl to prevent burning.
- Let the butter cool down before using it.
The most important things are to stir frequently and to keep a close watch on it so that it doesn’t burn. The butter can very quickly go brown perfectly browned to burnt. Therefore, I always like to have a heatproof bowl nearby and ready. As soon as the butter is done, I immediately transfer it to this separate bowl to cool down.
Tips for Muffins
- Use room temperature to warm ingredients: there are several ingredients in this recipe that typically live in the fridge–milk, yogurt, eggs, even the fruit–which means a lot of opportunities to add cold into your batter. Unfortunately, cold is not welcome in this muffin batter. Cold ingredients don’t mix as well, lead to a less tender crumb, and can inhibit your muffins from rising. For the sake of those beautiful muffin tops, make sure all your ingredients have a chance to warm up! A quick 10-15 zap in the microwave for any liquids will usually get the job done.
- Don’t over-mix the batter: lumps are okay! When it comes time to mixing the wet and dry ingredients together, you only need to give it a few strokes. Mixing too much will result in tough, gummy muffins.
- Toss blueberries with flour: To prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom, toss them with an even coating of flour before folding them into the batter.
Recipe Q&A
How do I store leftovers? Store muffins in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. You can also wrap and freeze these muffins for up to 3 months. Regardless of how you choose to store them, I recommend heating them in the microwave before eating the leftovers.
Can I bake this into bread? Yes, absolutely! To make a bread, grease and/or line a 9×5 inch loaf pan and pour the batter in. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes.
Can I really use any type of milk? Also yes! I made a batch of these using almond milk and they turned out perfectly.
If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments!
Did You Make This Recipe?
If so, I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a rating and/or comment to spread the love and help others find this recipe (shameless SEO plug)
Also feel free take a picture and share it with me on Instagram @toppedwithhoney. Looking forward to seeing your wonderful browned butter blueberry lemon poppyseed muffins!
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Have fun baking and check out some other breakfast recipes here!
Browned Butter Blueberry Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
Equipment
- 12-cup muffin pan
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cut into slices
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 1½ tbsp lemon zest
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup milk, any kind, at room temperature
- ¼ cup Greek yogurt, at room temperature
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp poppyseeds
- ½ cup blueberries + 1 tsp flour
Instructions
Brown the Butter
- Cut the butter into slices to ensure they melt evenly. Then, place them in an even layer in a skillet over medium heat.
- Melt the butter, stirring frequently. Once the butter is fully melted, continue heating it. It will begin to start bubbling and crackling. Continue stirring. After a while, the crackling will subside and butter will begin to foam. At this point, keep a close eye on the butter while continuing to stir. Be on the lookout for brown flecks and a nutty aroma.
- Once you see brown flecks and the melted butter turns a rich amber color, immediately remove it from heat and pour the butter into a separate, heatproof bowl. Let the browned butter cool down before using.
Muffins
- Preheat your oven to 375°F and line a muffin pan with liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together until fully combined. These will be your dry ingredients– set this aside for now.
- Prep the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, use your fingers to rub the sugar and lemon zest together until the sugar takes on a light yellow tint. Then, pour in the cooled butter, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk until very smooth and creamy.
- Then, whisk in the milk, yogurt, lemon juice, and poppyseeds until smooth.
- Create a well in the middle of your bowl of dry ingredients and pour in all the dry ingredients. Whisk until the batter comes together. Make sure to not overmix–lumps are okay.
- Toss the blueberries with one tsp of flour to evenly coat them. Then, fold the blueberries into your muffin batter.
- Divide the muffin batter evenly between the muffin cups. Sprinkle with demera sugar if desired. Bake for 18-21 minutes, or until muffins are set and a toothpick comes out clean.
- After baking, let the muffins rest for 10-15 minutes in the pan before removing them. Enjoy!
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