One of the best summer flavors is lemon, hands down. I find myself using them more over the summer than any other time of the year. When it comes to baked goods and desserts, the possibilities are endless with this citrus fruit. Personally, I find lemon is a great option for breakfast items, because they tend to seem a little lighter and brighter. These lemon crumb muffins are just that... a light and bright way to start your day! I know lemon poppy seed is popular in baked goods, but I wanted to do something a little different with these. The crunchy crumb topping is the perfect contrast to the fluffy, tender muffin. Ugh, SO GOOD!
What do I need to make these muffins?
A lot of the ingredients for these muffins are common pantry items, with just a few things extra you'll need.
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Buttermilk
- Eggs
- Melted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Lemon juice
- Lemon zest
- Lemon extract
This recipe makes 14 muffins, so you will need two muffin pans. I like to spread out the muffins between the two pans, leaving space between them (you'll have 7 muffins per pan). This will help the muffins rise. You can line the pans with muffin cups, or grease them.
What will I need for the crumb topping and the glaze?
Both of these only need a few ingredients each, and they take these muffins to the next level.
For the crumb topping, you'll need:
- Flour
- Brown sugar
- Melted butter
- Lemon zest
- Salt
The crumb topping is so easy to make. All you need to do is combine the ingredients in a bowl until everything is mixed together and the mixture is clumpy. Then, it's ready to go!
And for the glaze, you'll only need these four ingredients:
- Powdered sugar
- Lemon juice
- Lemon zest
- Salt
In a small bowl, combine the ingredients until all of the powdered sugar is mixed in. If you want your glaze thicker, you can simply add a bit more powdered sugar.
Helpful Tips
I tested this recipe probably 7 different times to make sure that everything was just right. And let me tell you-- as much as I wanted to make these muffins, they gave me hell! But alas, it all worked out eventually. With experiencing to much trial and error, I thought I'd share some tips and tricks I have found to make these muffins perfect:
- Mix the lemon zest with the granulated sugar first. By mixing them together really well, the sugar helps release the oils in the lemon zest, which leads to more lemon flavor in the muffins.
- Lemon extract is optional. These muffins are packed with natural lemon flavor. But I wanted a liiiittle bit more lemon to come through, without adding a ton more moisture from the lemon juice. Also, if you choose to top these muffins with glaze, you are definitely fine to opt out of the extract. There's TONS of lemon flavor in the glaze 🙂
- Allow the batter to sit for at least 10 minutes before baking. This one is key. While testing this recipe, I baked the muffins straight off after mixing the batter. Both times, I got absolutely no muffin top.
- Do not overfill your muffin cups. Unlike other muffin recipes I've made, these ones do not have super big muffin tops. While testing these, I found that if the muffin cups are filled too much, with the crumble on top, the batter will spill over and not rise properly. It results in overflown, flat muffins.
- Try to pile on as much crumb topping on the middle of the muffin as possible. As the muffins rise, the crumb will start to fall to the sides of the muffin top. The crumb tends to get a little crispy on the edges because it's on the edge of the muffin pan. The more you pile in the middle, the more even layer you will have once they're baked.
Hope you all love these muffins as much as we do! Happy baking! ♥
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