This easy Lemon Muffins Recipe has summer written all over it. Light, tangy, and perfectly moist, lemon muffins will brighten up any breakfast table or picnic.
Make the most of your lemons with these lemon zucchini muffins and lemon poppy seed muffins.
Table of Contents
When life gives you lemons, make lemon muffins! I have a ton of easy muffin recipes and I am thrilled to share this lemon muffins recipe with you today.
Super light and full of zesty flavor, I love this bakery-style muffin with my morning coffee.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Quick: From start to finish, they’re ready in less than 40 minutes.
- Easy: You only need one bowl to make this lemon muffin recipe. They also make a quick grab-and-go breakfast, snack, or treat!
- Lots of lemon flavor: Both lemon juice and lemon zest are added to create a bold taste.
- Texture: These rich, cake-like muffins are super fluffy and moist.
- Versatile: Make with regular flour or whole wheat flour.
- Kids love them! They definitely fall in the best muffin recipes category.
Ingredients for Lemon Muffins Recipe
This lemon muffins recipe is made with very simple ingredients. I’m sure you have most, if not all, on hand.
- Milk: Use your milk of choice. I like to use whole milk because I believe it yields more moist muffins.
- Lemon: For the lemon zest and juice. Freshly squeezed lemon juice is best!
- Egg: You’ll need 1 large egg for lift and binding.
- Oil: Any mild tasting oil will work. I like using avocado oil.
- Maple syrup: I love lemon and maple flavors together. Any liquid sweetener like honey or agave will also work to make these lemon muffins.
- Flour: All-purpose flour or whole wheat flour. Please stick to these two flours for the best results. Baking is a science, all flours are different and do not act the same.
- Baking essentials: Baking powder and baking soda give these muffins a beautiful rise, and salt enhances the flavor.
How to Make Lemon Muffins
Here is how to make this lemon muffin recipe with 15 minutes of prep time and one bowl!
- Zest and juice the lemon: Wash and dry lemon. In a large bowl, zest the yellow part only with a zester. Then squeeze the fresh lemon juice.
- Combine lemon and milk: Add milk and whisk to combine, then let stand for 10 minutes so the mixture curdles.
- Add sweetener and baking essentials: Add egg, oil, maple syrup, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk liquid ingredients until smooth with no lumps.
- Finish muffin batter: Use a spatula to gently stir in the flour, just enough to combine. Do not overmix the lemon muffin batter, it’s OK to have a few white flour patches.
- Fill muffin pan: Using a regular ice cream scoop, fill 12 openings of a muffin tin with batter.
- Bake: Place in the oven and bake lemon muffins until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine were done after 18 minutes in one oven and the other one in 22 minutes.
- Cool: Remove muffins from the oven and let them cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack. Enjoy!
Tips for Best Results
Here are my top tips for the best lemon muffins!
- Zest your lemon properly: A Microplane grater is the best for zesting lemon, it’s also the easiest. But a box grater will work in a pinch. The most important tip is to make sure you zest only the yellow part of the lemon, the white part underneath will add a bitter taste.
- Substitute buttermilk for milk: If you do so, there is no need to let buttermilk sit with lemon juice and curdle. You can skip the 10 minute wait time in the beginning of the recipe and make lemon muffins right away
- Don’t overmix the batter: This applies to all muffin recipes. For light, fluffy lemon muffins mix the batter until just combined.
- Do not overbake the muffins: All ovens vary. The oven in my house bakes much slower than my studio kitchen oven. Time varies from 18-22 minutes. Watch them closely and do a toothpick test. Overbaked muffins are dry muffins.
- Fun add-ins: Add up to 1 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries, or chocolate chips. Make a healthy treat and drizzle with this lemon glaze from healthy lemon poppy seed bread!
How to Store and Reheat
Store: Moist lemon muffins are best stored at room temperature. I keep mine on the kitchen counter, covered with a towel for the first 2 days. Any leftovers can then be placed in the fridge for up to 3 days in a container with a lid on.
Freeze: Once baked and completely cool, place muffins in an airtight container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw by placing one lemon muffin on a counter for a few hours or warm in the microwave.
Storage Tip
Check out my detailed posts how to store muffins and how to freeze muffins for all my best storage tips and tricks.
FAQs
Wash and dry the lemon. I use a microplane grater, the fine zest is best for baking. Go back and forth 2 or 3 times in each section and make sure you zest the yellow part without getting any of the white underneath, the white will add a bitter taste to your muffin.
You can add up to 1 teaspoon of natural lemon extract in addition to lemon juice and zest. If you would like to use only lemon extract I recommend to use 2-3 teaspoons and buttermilk with this lemon muffins recipe.
Dry, dense muffins are a result of overmixed batter, and overbaked. To bring back moisture to baked muffins place them in resealable Ziploc bag.
Possibly but I haven’t tried. I would use 1/3 cup of Greek yogurt or sour cream along with 2 tablespoons of milk. Then mix with lemon juice and let it sour for 10 minutes.
Yes! Bake mini lemon muffins for 12-15 minutes and do a toothpick test.
This lemon muffin recipe relies on gluten in the flour. You can try to use all-purpose gluten-free flour but it tends to be more dry, so I can’t guarantee the results. If you have almond flour, try my almond flour lemon poppy seed muffins and omit poppy seeds or just make these almond flour muffins.
More Muffin Recipes to Try
- Lemon blueberry muffins
- Strawberry muffins
- Raspberry muffins
- Almond flour yogurt muffins
- Strawberry muffins
- Healthy cranberry orange muffins
- Almond muffins with berries
- Rhubarb muffins
Lemon Muffins Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup any milk I use whole milk
- 1 large lemon zest and juice of (3 tablespoons)
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup any mild oil I use avocado oil
- 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour or 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray non-stick 12 muffin tin with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add milk, lemon zest and lemon juice. Whisk and let mixture stand for 10 minutes. It should curdle somewhat and become sour milk.
- Add egg, oil, maple syrup, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk well until combined and no small lumps are visible.
- Add flour and mix gently with spatula just enough to combine. Do not overmix and a few white flour patches are fine.
- Distribute batter evenly between 12 openings of a muffin tin (I used regular ice cream scoop) and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove lemon muffins from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Enjoy!
Notes
- Store: On a plate on a kitchen counter covered with a towel for first 2 days. Then transfer them to a container with a lid and into the fridge for another 3 days.
- Freeze: Bake, cool and place in an airtight container. Freeze for up to 3 months. To thaw, just place one muffin on a counter for a few hours or microwave.
These muffins are fantastic ! They have such a bright lemon flavor and are so moist! Next time, I will add some blueberries.
Thank you for another wonderful recipe.
I am so glad glad that you enjoyed your trip to New Orleans! New Orleans is my hometown and where I spent the first 39 years of my life. Since I still have family there, I visit frequently. The food, the music, the history and the amazing gumbo of cultures make New Orleans one of the truly unique cities in the United States.
I’m so happy to read this! Thanks for your positive feedback! NOLA was definitely a very unique experience and super fun to explore!
Lemon muffins are delicious easy
Thank you so very much for sharing
All recipes on this blog are awesomely
Great
My pleasure. Glad to hear you’re enjoying my recipes!