Cafe Style Blueberry Lemon Muffins
INGREDIENTS
312g (2 & ½ cups) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
½ tsp salt
113g (½ cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
200g (1 cup) sugar
Zest from 1 lemon
2 large eggs
1 cup milk combined with 1 tbsp lemon juice (250mls) or Buttermilk*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 & ½ cups blueberries, frozen*
METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to 220C fan forced (or 425F) and generously grease a 12 cup muffin baking pan with butter or oil.
2. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and whisk well to combine. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the melted butter with the sugar and lemon zest and whisk well. Add the eggs, milk and lemon juice mixture and vanilla and mix again.
4. Take 1 tablespoon of the dry mixture and place in a smaller bowl and stir through blueberries until the berries are well coated in the flour mixture (this helps evenly distribute the berries throughout the mixture and prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins).
5. Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture and add the wet ingredients. Gently fold the mixture until just combined (about 9 folds) and then gently fold the berries in until just incorporated.
6. Evenly divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups, making sure that the mixture is topped to the brim (tip: using an ice cream scoop can help ensure even amounts of mixture in each muffin cup).
7. Bake for 5 minutes at 220C (425F), then reduce the heat to 190C (375F) and bake for another 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Muffins will keep up to 3-4 days in an airtight container -simply reheat in oven or microwave and top with a knob of butter (for extra buttery deliciousness, of course).
NOTES
* Let the milk and lemon juice mixture sit for at least 5 minutes or so before using so that it curdles and thickens. Learn more about making this mixture (e.g. buttermilk substitute here).
* You can substitute the blueberries for any other fruit (chopped), dried fruit or even chocolate chips or nuts (you might want to remove the lemon zest if using chocolate, but leave the lemon juice with the milk). You can also use fresh blueberries however in my experience, frozen berries prevent the berries from ‘bleeding’ into the mixture better.
PRO TIPS, TRICKS & EXTRAS
GET CAFE-STYLE MUFFIN
BAKING SECRETS HERE
If you’ve been looking for the perfect cafe-style muffin recipe, this blueberry lemon muffin recipe is it!
These muffins are everything you want a muffin to be – they’re light, fluffy, big, and full of zesty flavour. They’re also full of frozen blueberries which means we can enjoy eating them all year round.
There are a few important baking secrets behind making perfect cafe style muffins. If you’d like to know what these are then read this post before making these blueberry lemon muffins to become an expert.
INGREDIENTS IN BLUEBERRY LEMON MUFFINS
There’s nothing fancy that you need to make these delicious blueberry lemon muffins – just staple ingredients that you will have in your pantry already.
Each ingredient plays an important role in ensuring that they are not an ordinary muffin, but a cafe-style bluebrry lemon muffin!
FLOUR: plain flour (all-purpose flour) is needed for these muffins, and a lot of it. The proteins in the flour work together with the wet ingredients to provide just enough gluten to hold the muffin’s cafe-style structure (or Mexican hat as I like to call it).
BAKING POWDER: This recipe uses a whopping 1 tablespoon of baking powder – you read correctly! This ensures a lovely rise and height in the muffin.
BAKING SODA: This ensures a nice spread at the top of the muffin, creating that great Mexican hat look.
SALT: Every great baked good recipe needs good quality salt to add flavour. The muffins won’t be the same without it so be sure not to leave it out.
BUTTER: The butter provides moisture and helps carry the flavour throughout the muffins. You can substitute with oil if you would prefer (1:1 ratio).
SUGAR: Sugar also provides mositure and great taste. You can lower the amount to 3/4 cup if you are wanting a lower sugar recipe.
LEMON ZEST: Do not underestimate the power of lemon zest! This will give you the lemon flavour needed to create a fresh and zesty lemon flavour
EGGS: These help bind all the ingredients together as well as help the mixture to cook and set in the oven.
BUTTERMILK (or milk with lemon juice added): This helps add a wonderfully moist texture to the muffins and a slight tang with pairs with the lemon flavour so well.
VANILLA: Used for flavour, you could omit this and use extra lemon zest if preferred.
BLUEBERRIES: Frozen or fresh blueberries can be used for this recipe. Gently fold them in at the very end of mixing the batter so that they don’t turn the muffins purple.
HOW TO MAKE CAFE STYLE BLUEBERRY LEMON MUFFINS:
These cafe-style blueberry lemon muffins are easy to whip up – perfect for busy mornings or last minute visitors!
Use the muffin method for this recipe: Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl and wet ingredients in another bowl.
Add some of the dry mixture to the blueberries to coat them in flour – this prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin.
Then combine the dry and wet ingredients and mix together until just combined. Gently fold through blueberries mixed in flour mixutre at the end.
A MUST KNOW TIP:
An important tip to create true cafe-style muffins is to fill the muffins tins to the brim with muffin mixture.
Also, bake in a hot oven (220C (425F) for 5 minutes and then lower the temperature to 190C (375F) and bake for another 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
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