When we moved to our new (older) house right after I turned 10, the abundance of lemon trees excited our entire family. The main one in the backyard looked more like an overgrown bush. The second one, a traditional tree, grew right next to it and produced lemons the size of footballs, and the third dormant tree sat quietly in the front yard.
While we occasionally picked one to squirt into fresh salads or pasta dishes for a bright citrusy note, the majority of the lemons made their way into baked goods and desserts. My dad and brother adore lemon treats (it’s all they ask for on their birthdays!), so we tried plenty of recipes.
Our favorite was a lemon bundt cake with lemon glaze, which usually appeared at least one birthday dinner each year. Sweet, light, and sunshiny—we rarely ended up with leftovers, even with just 5 of us celebrating! I must have inherited my sweet tooth from my family…
Not everything turned out quite as nicely as that cake. The popsicles we attempted one year tasted like pure lemon juice, no matter how much sugar we added, and the recipe for 100% whole wheat lemon muffins I tried turned out drier than the desert. We left them off of our brunch menu that weekend!
However, I decided to create my own recipe for Brunch Week here on AHB, one that was moist and tender and bright and cheerful and put those previous desert-cactus-muffins of my childhood to shame. The result? These Lemon Blueberry Muffins, which have the same texture as cupcakes!
True to my word, I made these 100% whole wheat. Instead of regular whole wheat flour, I went with whole wheat pastry flour because it’s lighter texture and milder wheat-y flavor. This means that the muffins will definitely stay moist and tender, and it also allows the lemon flavor to really shine.
Greek yogurt also adds to the muffins’ tender texture. It’s my favorite secret weapon in healthier baking! Greek yogurt adds the same moisture of butter or oil for a fraction of the calories. Bonus: It gives your baked goods a little protein boost too!
The citrus flavor comes from two sources: lemon juice and lemon zest. The latter actually provides the majority of the iconic taste because the oil in the lemon peel contains a more concentrated flavor than the juice. Don’t skip it! You’ll need about 1 medium lemon, and try to pick one that’s completely yellow. Any green spots tend to taste bitter.
And of course, the blueberries! Although I almost always bake with frozen (they’re cheaper and readily available year-round), I went with fresh for these muffins. Frozen blueberries usually bleed and turn muffin batter slightly gray, and I wanted these muffins to have a pretty yellow hue, just like the sun.
Yes, I added a lot of blueberries! I prefer a high fruit-to-muffin ratio, so these muffins are positively packed. It’s always disappointing to bite into a blueberry muffin and not get a single piece of fruit, so these are the exact opposite. I want at least two berries per bite instead!
Even better? All of that juice from the berries helps the muffins taste even more tender!
Because various members of my family are trying to eat fewer baked goods (and thus have me somewhat questioning whether we’re related…), I intentionally designed this recipe to yield half a batch—just 6 muffins. Enough for one week’s worth of breakfasts or snacks, or the perfect amount for one weekend family brunch. No tempting leftovers to worry about!
Because with all of those gorgeous juicy berries? My self-control would fly straight out the window!
| Small-Batch Lemon Blueberry Muffins | | Print |
- 1 cup (120g) whole wheat pastry flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp (5g) lemon zest (about 1 medium lemon)
- ½ tbsp (7g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 large egg white, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60mL) agave
- ¼ cup (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp (30mL) lemon juice (about half of 1 medium lemon)
- 2 tbsp (30mL) nonfat milk
- ¾ cup (125g) fresh blueberries
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and lightly coat 6 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg white, and vanilla. Stir in the agave and Greek yogurt, mixing until no large lumps remain. Stir in the lemon juice. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk to the egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour, and stirring until just barely incorporated. Gently fold in the blueberries.
- Divide the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350°F for 20-22 minutes, or until the tops feel lightly firm to the touch. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before carefully transferring to a wire rack.
White whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour may be substituted for the whole wheat pastry flour.
I recommend using fresh blueberries since frozen tend to bleed and turn the batter gray. However, if using frozen, the bake time may need to be increased.
{clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
More lemon muffin recipes from other food bloggers…
♥ Raspberry Lemon Muffins by Crunchy Creamy Sweet
♥ Meyer Lemon Muffins by French Press
♥ Lemon Streusel Yeasted Coffee Cake Muffins by The Sweet {Tooth} Life
♥ Vegan Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins by Minimalist Baker
Amy, these muffins look perfect! Love those huge blueberries!
Thanks Jen! Our grocery store had the biggest berries last week — it was nearly impossible to save enough for the muffins! 😉
The Ads on your page are insane!!! AGH!!!! Difficult to try and stay on your page with them interrupting continuously!! Frustrating to say the least. :(((((((((((((((
My team and I have addressed the issue, and that shouldn’t be happening anymore. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what recipe you try next Gio!
Where do you buy whole wheat pastery flour? I live in AL & we don’t get the good stuff. One usually has to order it from somewhere.
I can always find whole wheat pastry flour at Whole Foods and other health-oriented super markets. Some well-stocked Walmarts and Targets sometimes carry it too! Otherwise, I’ve bought it from Amazon (there’s a link to it on Amazon in the recipe, as well as acceptable substitutions). I hope that helps and you’re able to make the muffins Mary Leigh!
Thanks. Our Wal-Mart & Target aren’t very well stocked. We do have an EarthFare & Whole Foods is coming soon.
You’re welcome! Hopefully one of those stocks the flour! 🙂
I love the look of these muffins – so many blueberries! I hate it when you get a blueberry muffin, only to discover that there is only 1 or 2 blueberries actually in it. The lemon makes these muffins even better, pinned!
Thanks Eve! I’m exactly the same way — the more blueberries, the better!
These look so luscious!
Thanks GiGi!
FINALLY! A blueberry muffin with an actual REAL amount of blueberries in it. When I want a blueberry muffin, call me silly but I want to bite into a BUNCH of berries, not a tease amount. Your recipe is awesome and contains everything I love!
You aren’t silly at all Laura — that’s exactly how I want my blueberry muffins to be too! 🙂
those are some serious blueberries – and the lemon blueberry combo cannot be beat
Thanks Heather!
Can you substitute coconut flour?
I don’t recommend it Autumn. Coconut flour behaves very differently than regular flour, so these muffins wouldn’t turn out. However, I do have two lemon-flavored muffin recipes made with coconut flour (here and here), and it’d probably be much easier to tweak those to include blueberries instead! I hope you enjoy them if you try them!
Looking forward to trying this recipe! Do you think you can use oat flour in this instead? I’ve made other skinny muffins with fresh made oat flour instead and they turned out great. I was just curious if it would work the same in these?
I haven’t tried that substitution Mandi, so I can’t guarantee the results. The muffins would probably be denser and not rise as much, and the lemon flavor may not be as prominent. I hope you enjoy them if you try them!
Amy! This recipe was fantastic! Thank you 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed the muffins Karrie! 🙂
These look de-lish!! Do you think I could sub the agave for coconut or date sugar instead?
Thanks Kiki! If you substitute for either of those sugars, you’ll need to add an additional 2 tablespoons of milk to compensate for the missing liquid. I hope you enjoy the muffins!
Hi! These look great! I’ll be making them this weekend. Can I substitute almond milk for nonfat milk?
Yes, almond milk will work just fine. I hope you enjoy the muffins Sheila!
I tired this recipe and my muffins came out crumbly. There is nothing holding them together. What do you think went wrong, they taste good but a really dry and like I said crumbly.
I’m sorry the muffins didn’t turn out for you Krista; that must have been disappointing. If they’re dry and crumbly, there was too much flour in the batter. How did you measure it? I’ve found that when I scoop the flour directly from the container, I end up with 1.5 times as much as when I lightly spoon and level (I describe more about that method here) or use a kitchen scale. That extra flour would definitely cause the problems you describe! You can also see what the batter’s texture should look like in the photo third from the bottom (with the bowl and blueberries resting on top). Hopefully your next batch turns out better! 🙂
Hi Amy,
These muffins look so yummy is there a substitute for agave that I could use?
Honey would be a great substitute Livi, if you have that! I hope you enjoy the muffins!
Hi Amy 🙂
So aside from the mocha protein bars, I also made these puppies. I subbed half the pastry flour for 60 g of the Bob’s Red Mill Soy Protein Isolate (trying to eat more lean protein). Also used whole milk instead of nonfat, , maple syrup instead of agave (I don’t have any agave), a mashed banana, and simply used more Greek Yogurt to sub for the oil.
These are miraculous. I want to eat the whole batch in one sitting…….but I’ll try to refain 🙂
I’m so touched that you loved these muffins so much! And again, I really appreciate you telling me what you tried — I love hearing what tweaks and modifications work! 🙂
Can you freeze these muffin to make them last through the week?
Yes! These muffins freeze really well, but they’ll also last for about a full week in the refrigerator if stored in an airtight container. 🙂 I’m excited to hear what you think of them Heather!
They are delicious my fiance and I love them there a keeper! 🙂
I’m so glad you and your fiance both enjoyed them Heather! 🙂
Could you leave out the egg white, we have a egg allergy?
I don’t recommend completely omitting it, but you can substitute for it! My brother also has an egg allergy, so I use Ener-G as my preferred egg replacer. It works perfectly in this recipe! You’ll need the Ener-G equivalent of one egg (1 ½ teaspoons Ener-G + 2 tablespoons warm water). I can’t wait to hear what you think of the muffins Jenn!
My daughter has been sick for a week and has been really finicky with eating. I wanted to make her healthy muffins and came across this recipe. She loved it and ate the whole batch herself. Definitely a keeper – thank you!
I’m so glad she enjoyed the muffins Kristen! Hearing that warms my heart — thank you so much for sharing that with me. 🙂 I hope she’s feeling much better and well on her way to being healthy again!
Made these today!!! For whatever reason my store didn’t have blueberries so I substituted raspberries and it was amazing!!!! Great for a snack or breakfast 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed the muffins Katie! Raspberries sound lovely — I definitely need to try that! 🙂
I made these yesterday, and the texture turned out gummy, almost like a bread pudding. They also took a LOT longer to cook. I’m wondering what I did wrong. I used all purpose flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour. Could that have done it? The batter wound up being kind of stretchy and sticky. Perhaps I over-mixed it? Also, I assume you meant agave nectar, which is what I used. I love the strong lemon-y taste of these guys, and want to figure this out!
Yikes! That definitely isn’t how the texture is supposed to turn out. If the batter was stretchy and the muffins were gummy, then you’re correct in thinking that the batter was over-mixed. Did you use an electric mixer or just a fork/spoon when mixing together the ingredients? (And yes, agave nectar is correct!) I’d love to solve this with you too so your next batch turns out much better Claudia! 🙂
PLEASE let us know how to lower the carbs in your recipes without using a sugar substitute. They’re all varying degrees of horrible!
I’ve made these muffins twice already and they were delicious! My son loves them too. I’m happy you offer small batch muffin recipes; they make the perfect amount of muffins that we can eat fresh without needing to freeze them.
I’m so glad you and your son love the muffins Renee! That means a lot to me that you’ve made these twice already. Thank you for sharing that with me!
Could I use frozen blueberries instead of fresh?
Yes, you can! The baking time may be slightly longer, but you shouldn’t need to make any other adjustments. I can’t wait to hear what you think of the muffins Michelle!
I love lemon blueberry muffins and was looking for a “healthier” recipe to use. I will probably sub raw honey for the agave nectar, so should I thin it out a bit (with a bit of water perhaps ?) so it more closely resembles the consistency of agave?
Also we have some lemon flavored Greek yogurt in the fridge right now I’d like to use; since flavored yogurt is sweetened should I cut down the amount of honey? or possibly totally eliminate it?
Thanx, can’t wait to make/try these!
Substituting honey for the agave is a 1-to-1 substitution; you don’t need to do anything differently! Even with your lemon-flavored Greek yogurt, I’d recommend making the recipe exactly as written. Since different brands of flavored Greek yogurt contain different amounts of sweetness, it’s safer to bake the muffin recipe as is and adjust future batches to suit your tastes, if you feel the muffins are too sweet. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of the muffins Stacey!
Thanks Amy! I’m gonna make ’em today and I will post again after they’re done,
You’re welcome Stacey! I can’t wait to hear how they turn out! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe! I used coconut oil and it started getting lumpy as I was stirring it since it was cooling. Any suggestions for this? Also, the batter was way thicker than expected so I added in another tbsp of milk. Is it supposed to be like this? Thanks in advance for the tips.
I appreciate your interest in my recipe Ivy! Yes, the batter is supposed to be very thick, almost like an overly wet cookie dough rather than thin like cake batter. Does that make sense? If your egg white was fully at room temperature, along with your agave, and you still saw the coconut oil turn lumpy, then try bringing your Greek yogurt to room temperature too before mixing together the batter. That will prevent the coconut oil from rapidly chilling and turning lumpy. 🙂
One word: delicious😍 Made them over the weekend and they were great! Gone so quickly though, will need to double the recipe next time 😊
I’m so glad you enjoyed these too, Katja! That means so much to me that you want to make a double batch next time — thank you!! 🙂
Hi Amy ,
This looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it out . I just wanted to know if the coconut oil would lend a coconutty smell to the muffins ? I’ve extra virgin coconut oil and would love to use it rather than butter .
Yes, coconut oil will be fine in place of the butter! I can’t wait to hear what you think of these muffins Vinita! 🙂
Hello Amy,
Lovely recipe indeed – may I know if I can substitute agave with maple syrup please?
Yes, maple syrup will work in place of the agave! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these muffins Veda!
Hello Amy,
Tried making the first batch today – taste was wonderful. Particularly liked the lemon – works magic with the blueberries! Maple syrup does the job too. Will definitely try making a bigger batch next time. Reckon I may use a cake tin instead of muffin cases, you think it will work too?
Thanks tonnes! 😊
I’m so glad you enjoyed them Veda! If you’d prefer to use a cake tin instead of muffins, then I’d suggest using this recipe of mine so you know how long to bake it for! 🙂
Perfect! Both tart and sweet. Awesome recipe! Will definitely be taking a look at your others! Thanks for a winner!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins Aly! I can’t wait to hear what you try next! 🙂
Just made these! Only changes I made were using whole milk and adding in some rehydrated strawberries because I didn’t have quite enough frozen blueberries. SO delicious! Thank you for a healthier recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins Emily! 🙂
Hi Amy! If I had to swap the agave for low GI cane sugar (currently out of any liquid substitutes like honey or maple syrup 🙁 ) would I just replace the lost liquid from the syrup with the same volume of milk? Am I able to do that with most of your muffin recipes (for example, 1/2 of honey substituted with 1/2 cup sugar requires 1/2 cup of milk to compensate?). So excited to make these!!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipes Claudia! In general, to replace ½ cup of liquid sweetener (maple syrup, honey, agave) in my recipes, you’ll need ½ cup of granulated or brown sugar + ¼ cup of milk. 🙂 I can’t hear what you think of these muffins!
The muffins turned out yummy. I tried a few other muffins recipes from your page and this one was a success. I added strawberries instead of blueberries. A perfect summer taste.
I wished your site had more vivid colours. It looks washed out, and the print is small greyish – pretty hard on the eyes.
On the other hand, the pictures are beautiful. 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins Agnes! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you try next!
Hi! Do you have a non-D or substitute suggestion for the plain nonfat Greek yogurt? Thanks!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Abbi! Any non-dairy yogurt alternative (ie soy-based or almond-based yogurt) would work fine in this recipe. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these muffins!
Do you have a non-yogurt substitution suggestion? Thanks!
I haven’t tried these with any other substitute for the yogurt, so I don’t feel confident giving you a different recommendation. 🙂