Mini Blueberry-Lemon Muffins with Buttermilk

Name: Mini Blueberry-Lemon Muffins with Buttermilk
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 95 min
Ingredients: 57 grams buttermilk ((room temperature)); 1 tablespoon poppy seeds; 120 grams all-purpose flour; 70 grams sugar; ½ tablespoon baking powder; 2 grams diamond crystal kosher salt ((½ tsp, use ¼ tsp of any other salt brand)); 1 teaspoon lemon zest ((zest from ½ a lemon)); 1 large egg ((room temperature)); 57 grams butter ((melted)); 24 blueberries ((stems removed)); 1 teaspoon lemon zest ((zest from ½ a lemon)); 40 grams sugar

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Each of these adorable lemon blueberry mini muffins has one whole blueberry in the center. They're so cute and just as fun to make as they are to eat. If you need a baking idea with blueberries, these are perfect for a quick snack break or as a picnic treat!

24 lemon blueberry mini muffins with sugar topping in a metal muffin pan.

I am obsessed with homemade muffin recipes lately and these mini lemon blueberry poppyseed muffins one some of my faves!

I love combo of lemon and poppyseed and I love the combo of lemon and blueberry, so decided the perfect way to celebrate these flavors was by concentrating them into adorable bite-size mini muffins. Each mini muffin has one whole blueberry in the middle and a crackly lemon sugar topping that is so good.

In fact, I love this mini muffin format so much I even riffed on it to make these cranberry orange mini muffins which have one whole cranberry in the middle and an orange sugar on top!

If you're looking for another recipe with blueberries, or don't have a mini muffin pan, you may like my super moist lemon-blueberry sour cream pound cake which also has a lemon sugar topping!

a bunch of mini muffins on a white counter with a small daisy plant behind them and a white box of blueberries in front.

Why This Recipe Works

These mini lemon blueberry muffins are tiny but mighty thanks to a bright blueberry center just bursting with flavor.

Lemon and blueberry are a classic flavor combination, and though these are mini muffins, I've used a few special techniques to dial the flavors up to the max.

What better way to ensure an even distribution of blueberries in a mini muffin recipe than to put one giant, juicy blueberry in the center of each muffin? It might seem a little fussy having to tuck each blueberry carefully beneath the muffin batter, but it's the best way to get that perfect blueberry center.

And the lemon sugar on top is, well, it's not the icing on the cake — but it is the sugar on the muffin!

three lemon blueberry mini muffins stacked on top of each other.

Ingredient Notes

These lemon-blueberry mini muffins need a few special ingredients, but all of them should be easy to find at your grocery store! As always, weigh the ingredients for best results.

all of the mini muffin ingredients measured out and labeled.

Flour - Regular all-purpose flour is fine. I use King Arthur Baking Company's all-purpose flour.
Sugar - Plain white granulated sugar. The stuff you think of when you think of sugar.
Lemon zest - Fresh is best! Use a microplane or the small very pointy side of a box grater. You'll need the zest of one whole lemon, but half of it will be used in the batter and the other half in the sugar you sprinkle on top of the muffins. If you want a strong lemon flavor, use a large lemon. If you want a mild lemon flavor, use a small lemon.
Buttermilk - I know it's not the easiest to find but real buttermilk it's totally worth it for super tender baked goods. If you really, really, really can't find buttermilk see the FAQ below for some Practical Kitchen-approved buttermilk substitutions.
Poppy seeds - Poppy seeds can be hard to find in the grocery store, but you can order them online from Burlap & Barrel or Spicewalla.
Eggs - One large egg! In the U.S. a large egg (shell removed) is approximately 57 grams.
Blueberries - The bigger the better! If you need a baking idea with blueberries, especially ones that are juuuust starting to wrinkle, this is perfect. Make sure you sift through them to remove any stems!
Baking powder - I like this aluminum-free baking powder. Baking powder has a 6 month shelf life; make sure yours is fresh!
Salt - I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt in all of my recipes. If you're measuring by volume (teaspoons), use half as much of any other brand or type of salt, including another type of kosher salt. If you're measuring the salt by weight, you don't need to make any adjustments.

🍽 Mise en place (aka "the setup")

Mise en place is a French culinary term that literally translates to "putting in place."

It basically means: Measure all your ingredients and make sure you have all the right tools and equipment ready to go when you need them before you start working.

This can make a huge difference in a) how enjoyable you find the baking and cooking process and b) the success of your recipe!

Here's the mise en place you'll need before you begin this recipe:

Soak poppyseeds. Stir the poppyseeds into the buttermilk and set aside for 30 minutes at room temperature. This helps bring the buttermilk to room temperature, too.
Bring the egg to room temperature. Submerge the egg in hot water for 5-10 minutes prior to use. You can do this at the same time as the poppyseeds if you want, the egg will be fine in the water for 30 minutes.
Measure the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. You don't have to do this in advance, but what else are you going to do while the poppy seeds soak? Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest together in a medium mixing bowl.

stirring poppyseeds into buttermilk with a small wooden spoon.

flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest in a brown mixing bowl.

It is super important that the liquid ingredients (egg, buttermilk) are at room temperature before you add the butter. If your eggs and buttermilk are cold when you add the melted butter, the melted butter will firm up and incorporate unevenly.

How to Make Lemon Blueberry Mini Muffins

Lemon blueberry mini muffins follow your standard muffin making procedure: mix the dry ingredients together, mix the wet ingredients together, then fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined.

The only prep-ahead step is to make sure you soak the poppy seeds in advance (this also gives the buttermilk time to come to room temp). You also want to have the eggs at room temp so the melted butter doesn't solidify when you mix it into the other wet ingredients.

Start by whisking the egg and sugar into the buttermilk and poppyseed mixture. You want to break the egg up pretty well here. (And yes, in baking, sugar counts as a wet ingredient.)

slowly pouring melted butter into the buttermilk, egg, and sugar mixture.

Slowly pour the melted butter into the buttermilk mixture, whisking constantly to prevent clumping.

folding the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a white spatula.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a spatula or a dough whisk to gently fold them together just until combined.

When you mix flour with wet ingredients, the flour will begin developing a gluten network. Gluten provides strength and structure which is great in bread, but not something we want when we're making delicate, tender muffins.

Folding is a super gentle mixing technique. It's used when mixing something light with something heavy (e.g. whipped egg whites into chocolate ganache) and in some quickbread and muffin recipes to avoid developing too much gluten in the batter.

When mixing muffin batter, the goal is to mix the wet and dry ingredients in as few motions as possible just until combined and then STOP. The stiff wire coil of a dough whisk is a super efficient way to gently mix the batter without developing too much gluten.

If you don't have a dough whisk, use a spatula to "fold" the wet and dry ingredients together.

Draw a line down the center of the bowl with the edge of the spatula.
Slide the spatula in a clockwise motion, scraping along the side of the bowl to scoop up the batter.
Twist your wrist away from your body to "fold" the batter over itself. Rotate the bowl as you go to ensure even mixing.

Once the lemon poppyseed muffin batter is mixed, cover the bowl and set it aside to rest for 30-60 minutes. This gives the baking powder time to activate. It's a little hard to tell after just 30 minutes, but you'll be able to tell the mini muffin batter looks a little airier and bubbly!

Here's a side by side after 30 minutes of resting:

freshly mixed lemon poppy seed muffin batter in a brown mixing bowl.

lemon poppy seed muffin batter after resting for 30 minutes has expanded slightly and has a smoother, airier surface.

If you give it the full 60 minutes, you'll really be able to tell the difference!

USA PAN Mini Muffin Pan

Heavy gauge aluminized steel mini muffin pan with 24 wells. Warp-resistant with FDA-approved non-stick coating. Corrugated surface aids with air flow. Wide rim makes it easy to grab out of the oven.

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Williams Sonoma

Sur La Table

Assembling Mini Blueberry-Lemon Muffins

Line the wells of a mini muffin pan with mini muffin liners. If you have a good non-stick mini muffin pan, you don't necessarily need them but I always use them because it's easier to clean up later.

a hand using a metal scoop to portion muffin batter into a lined mini muffin pan.

Use a 1 tablespoon scoop to portion the batter out into 24 mini muffins. If you scrape the muffin batter flat on the edge of the bowl (as opposed to heaping scoops) before dropping it into the muffin tins you will get exactly 24 mini muffins.

a single blueberry pressed into the center of each scoop of mini muffin batter in the muffin pan.

Gently press one blueberry into the center of each muffin cup. Push each blueberry down until it's suspended in the middle of the mini muffin well. Don't push them all the way to the bottom — you don't want soggy muffin bottoms!

Then, use a toothpick to gently and carefully push the muffin batter over each blueberry to tuck them inside.

using a toothpick to push some muffin batter over the blueberry in the center of a mini muffin.

Yes this step is a little bit fussy, but it's so worth it! I find sliding the toothpick under or around the blueberry and then "pulling" or "folding" the batter over the blueberry works well.

It's okay if the blueberries are still a little bit visible under the muffin batter, just get them tucked in as best you can.

a hand over a bowl showing the lemon zest rubbed into sugar to make lemon sugar.

In a separate bowl, rub the lemon zest into granulated sugar to create the lemon sugar topping.

a hand holding a quarter teaspoon measuring spoon with lemon sugar in it over one of the mini muffins in the pan.

Top each mini muffin with about ¼-1/2 teaspoon of the lemon sugar mixture.

You can use the back of the spoon to spread it out evenly, but I kind of like leaving the sugar a little bit clumpy on top.

How Long to Bake Mini Muffins

Because they're so small and have a big ol' blueberry center, this mini muffin recipe has a bake time of just 13-15 minutes. They go into the oven at a higher heat — 400°F — to activate the baking powder and give them a taller rise.

When a toothpick inserted comes out clean (or a thermometer registers between 190°-210°F) they're done. Just make sure not to pierce a blueberry with the toothpick or thermometer!

Let these buttermilk lemon-blueberry muffins cool completely before eating. They're small and delicate with an unstable center; if you try to peel the paper off while they're warm, the paper won't release cleanly.

a close up of half a mini muffin sitting in front of more muffins and fresh blueberries

Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

DO NOT OVER MIX. This is the biggest mistake people make with muffin recipes. When you mix the batter together you're starting to create gluten strands — those gluten strands tighten up and create tough muffins with air trapped inside. For tender muffins gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with slow, smooth strokes. Stop mixing as soon as there are no dry bits in the bowl and walk away. Don't worry about lumps, they'll bake out in the oven.
Your liquid ingredients need to be at room temperature before you add the butter. If the eggs and buttermilk are cold when you add the melted butter, the melted butter will firm up as you pour it in and incorporate unevenly.
To zest the lemon, you'll want a fine rasp-style zester. I swear by Microplane's classic zester (it comes in a bunch of fun colors!) and if you use code TPK10 you'll get 10% off your whole order!

close up of the corner of the mini muffin pan with the baked lemon blueberry muffins. a white box of blueberries is next to it.

Mini Buttermilk Lemon-Blueberry Muffins Recipe FAQ

What can I use instead of buttermilk?

My favorite substitute for buttermilk is buttermilk powder. Mix 1 tablespoon in with the dry ingredients and use 57 grams warm whole milk or warm water in place of the buttermilk. America's Test Kitchen even approves of this swap (h/t to recipe tester Beth for this tip!). I tested this myself and it worked remarkably well, way better than I expected! I wouldn't say it's a perfect buttermilk substitute for every recipe, but it does work just fine here. As a bonus: Buttermilk powder can last a long time in the fridge, much longer than fresh buttermilk.

According to baking expert Stella Parks' buttermilk substitution tests, the best substitute for buttermilk is actually kefir. But, if you're avoiding buttermilk because you're worried about having buttermilk left over, let me share this from Stella's research: "Buttermilk doesn't spoil, it gets better. There's nothing wrong with using buttermilk well past the sell-by date; its acidic nature and complement of beneficial bacteria make buttermilk much less perishable than fresh milk. And if it gets a bit tangier over time, that's a win for most recipes." Buttermilk also freezes exceptionally well. So if you buy it for these muffins, don't worry about it going bad — you'll have it for plenty more muffins in the future.

Why do I need to soak the poppyseeds?

Poppyseeds have a hard outer shell which can be hard to digest if they don't soak before you bake them. By letting them soak for 30 minutes in the buttermilk, you soften the seeds and bring the buttermilk down to room temperature. This also infuses the buttermilk with poppyseed flavor.

Can I make these in a standard size muffin pan?

You can but it'll be kind of weird to only have one blueberry in the middle. You'll also need to extend the bake time significantly.

Can I use a stand mixer or hand mixer to make muffins?

I don't recommend it unless you have limited dexterity preventing you from stirring comfortably. One of the biggest reasons muffin recipes fail is because of over-mixing. The high speed and power of most mixers will give you tough muffins with lots of tunneling inside. If you need to use a mixer, make sure to use the lowest possible setting and stop mixing as soon as the batter is combined.

Why do I need to let the muffin batter rest?

Baking powder is double acting — it reacts first in contact with liquid and again in the heat of the oven. Letting the batter rest helps fully hydrate the baking powder and helps your muffins rise omre in the oven. This is a tip I picked up from Hummingbird High's sky high blueberry muffin recipe, and while these muffins won't rise nearly that high, the resting period will give them an extra boost and a nicer texture.

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