Bakery Style Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Muffins will always be on rotation in my house. They’re so easy to make and the variety of flavors is virtually endless. I also love that muffins can be thrown in the freezer and taken out the night before for a perfect breakfast or snack. This week will be heavy on the muffins as I am recipe testing two other muffin flavors, and these lemon blueberry muffins are bakery style, meaning, they’re fluffy, perfectly golden on top, with bright citrus flavor in each bite. It’s taken me quite some time to perfect my muffin batter, in fact, I’ve created three different versions! Let’s dive into these bakery style lemon blueberry muffins.

What makes these bakery style?

In my opinion, a bakery style muffin is fluffy, filled with berries or chocolate, and topped with that amazingly crunchy demerara sugar. Demerara sugar is a coarse sugar, specifically made for topping cereals or baked goods, which is perfect for muffins. You can snag some of that yummy sugar topping here. These lemon blueberry muffins are packed with flavor, insanely fluffy, and when made in jumbo size, really look and taste as if they were made in a professional bakery.

How do I make Bakery Style Lemon Blueberry Muffins?

I’ve learned over the last year or so that over-mixing muffin batter can leave muffins tasting gummy, chewy, and very flat. I’ve also come to rely on using my hand whisk when making muffins. An electric hand mixer goes too quickly and can easily make muffin batter overdone. I don’t have a stand mixer (YET!) but I know I like how the hand whisk works its magic with the batter I make. Another trick for bakery style muffins is to let the batter sit for at least 20 minutes. The rest time allows the gluten to work through the batter and for all of the leavening ingredients to marry. Isn’t science fun?!

What other flavors go with lemon muffins?

My favorite citrus to bake with is lemon, because of the bright flavors, acidity, and the color the lemon zest gives the batter. I absolutely love making lemon blueberry muffins because the flavor combination is so good, but I really also enjoy a lemon raspberry muffin too. Another fun flavor to create is using blackberries or even strawberries.

Tips for Making Bakery Style Lemon Blueberry Muffins:

• Gluten free flour: this won’t really change the bake time, but it will alter the taste and texture. I swear by Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour, which you can find on Thrive Market or in a variety of other stores.
• Milk: if you want to make this dairy free, swap out the regular milk for almond or oat milk!
• Sugar: I like using Wholesome Sweet’s brand of organic cane sugar, but I also really like their coconut sugar (Bob’s Red Mill makes a great coconut sugar too). Coconut sugar is usually a 1:1 replacement, but sometimes, real organic sugar is best, and in these muffins the real deal is where it’s at. Plus it’s one cup of sugar across all 16 muffins so it’s not super sweet.
• Weighing ingredients: have ditched weighing all of my dry ingredients solely by a measuring cup. I invested in a digital scale and for all of my current muffin recipes (and cookies for that matter) have been measured in grams and ounces. It makes a difference. Oat flour, coconut flour, all purpose flour, etc. all weigh different when thinking about the how much flour goes into a batter. Buying a scale was by far a huge investment and a game changer with my baking