Lemon Yogurt Muffins
Shockingly flavorful muffins with lemon zest, greek yogurt, and a lemon glaze. Really good for a morning snack!
Lemon Yogurt Muffins
Jump to RecipeBetsy and I went to a cute little coffee shop last weekend and they had these huge lemon yogurt muffins on display. I didn’t have one because I was in a bagel mood, but I did make a mental note to try out that combo as soon as possible.
Turns out that the combo is pretty genius. The yogurt makes the muffins really tender and soft and the lemon zest and juice just makes them really light and flavorful. I added a lemon glaze on top because it seemed like the right thing to do.
Lemon Yogurt Muffins
- Serves:
- 12 muffins
- Prep Time:
- Total Time:
Helpful Equipment:
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Shockingly flavorful muffins with lemon zest, greek yogurt, and a lemon glaze. Really good for a morning snack!
Ingredients
Instructions
1) Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk wet ingredients (including lemon juice and zest) into a separate bowl.
2) Stir wet ingredients into dry. If the batter is too dry, add a bit more milk until it’s a thick batter.
3) Lightly butter a 12 muffin tin (or two 6).
4) Fill tins almost completely to the top.
5) Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean from the center of a muffin.
6) Let muffins cool.
7) For glaze, mix powdered sugar with lemon juice and maybe a few drops of water.
8) Drizzle glaze over cooled muffins.
Making the Batter
If there’s one thing that I really don’t get, it’s pre-packaged muffin mix. I just don’t get how it’s faster to use a mix since you still have to add in the liquids and stuff.
But, I guess if you make it, people will buy it right?! This batter couldn’t be simpler to pull together. The real flavor in it comes from these guys though.
Take a lemon and use a zester to get off as much zest (just the yellow part) as you can. The zest is very flavorful and just a Tablespoon or so will completely flavor the batter.
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda). Then mix all the wet stuff together (yogurt, butter, lemon zest and juice, eggs, milk).
Then just stir the wet into the dry and your batter is ready to go. The whole thing takes maybe five minutes.
If you’re batter is too dry, feel free to add a bit more milk than I indicated in the recipe.
The Greek yogurt gives a really great texture to the muffins and the lemon is just such a fantastic flavor.
You could use muffin cups for these guys, but I just lightly buttered my muffin tins and then added the batter. You can almost fill up the tins with the batter. It won’t rise quite as much as some muffins do.
Baking the muffins
Bake these guys at 375 for about 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. I pulled mine after 25 minutes and they were pretty much perfect.
As these cook, they will make your whole neighborhood smell like lemon.
Glazing the muffins
You could be done at this point if you wanted. They are very delicious just like this.
If you wanted to take them over the top though, wait for the muffins to cool completely and then add an nice lemon glaze to them.
Just mix a few cups of powdered sugar with the juice from 1/2 a lemon. Depending on how juicy your lemon is, you might need a few drops of water also.
Stir this together until it’s a smooth glaze and then drizzle it over the muffins.
Just really are some super-easy muffins to make, but they’re texture and flavor is pretty complex.
I loved the glaze on them because it just ramps up the lemon flavor even more.
If you’re looking for a quick muffin to try out, ditch the mix and make these guys!
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Hello! My name is Nick Evans and I write and manage Macheesmo. I started Macheesmo 11 years ago when I was just learning my way around the kitchen. I love to cook and love everything food-related, but I have no formal training. These days I focus on fast, accessible recipes with the occasional “reach” recipe!
I’ve posted almost 2,000 recipes on Macheesmo. For each one, I do my best to give full explanations of what I did and tips on what I’d do differently next time. I’ll bring up the tricky parts and the easy parts.
I hope you can find something and cook something!
Lemon is one of my favorite flavors, these muffins look great! I love the glaze, too.
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Oh my, those look absolutely amazing. I've never made muffins with yogurt, but they look incredibly moist. One question– how necessary would you consider the glaze? I'm usually not one for glaze (too sweet) but do you think it's needed here to off-set the lemon flavor?
Duh, sorry, I missed the part above where you said they're delicious without the glaze. Can't wait to make these!
Haha. Yea.. Glaze is optional, but I thought it was pretty tasty.
Do you know if these freeze well? It seems like something that'd be awesome to make and freeze for quick breakfasts or to throw in a bento….
Hmm… not sure on that. I think you might be better off storing them in the fridge for a week or so.
They might freeze okay and then you could just dethaw them in the oven for a few minutes. I wouldn't do the microwave though.
Lemon is one of my favorite flavors as well. I can't wait to try these. I've recently started making my own yogurt and I love it so I might try my own yogurt for this recipe after I've given the Greek stuff a shot! I hope mine turn out half as good as your's look!
as a consumer of several of these muffins, they were delish.
all muffins freeze well.
oh my goodness – this looks divine!
I made these and love them…between me and my husband we ate them all in 2 days. And while uniquely delicious, they also feel kinda healthy! I couldn't believe how much protein is in greek yogurt.
So glad you posted a lemon yogurt recipe that does not include lemon "flavored" regular yogurt. That stuff is disgusting and waaaay too sweet. Anyway, thanks! I heart muffins! P.S. Made your sun dried tomato & basil/cream cheese pinwheels and they were AWESOME!!!
These look absolutely awesome! Do you think the recipe would work with plain, natural yogurt too?
Yea. It would work fine. I would start with NO milk if you use plain yogurt because it has a lot more liquid than greek yogurt. You might still need to add a tablespoon or two of milk, but i'd start with just yogurt and then add milk if the batter looks too thick.
.o0 (Omg, I just had a reply directly to me from someone famous!! Squeee!)
Excellent – I'm off to try them. I'll let you know how they turn out :)
Haha. I think we have different definitions of fame ;)
Bad news – total muffin fail!
They look great, but the texture is very spongy – as in kitchen sponge – and barely sweet at all. Not sure what went wrong, but I'm absolutely trying these again with different flour, and perhaps a little more sugar.
And I was so looking forward to them, because they made my entire house smell FANTASTIC.
Huh… what kind of flour did you use???
I used organic white whole wheat. Thinking that right there might just have killed them. :
How long would you cook mini-muffins for?
Hmph. For this being such an easy recipe, I sure managed to confuse myself. I just finished baking these babies and must have gone wrong somewhere…
In terms of things done differently from what you mentioned in the ingredients/directions: only had salted butter, so I omitted the pinch of salt and instead used salted butter; I used Ener-g egg replacement instead of an egg; I used whole milk yogurt, not Greek, and after seeing your note in the comments here about if you use other yogurt aside from Greek to withhold the milk and examine the texture to see if the mix needs it — I ended up adding a splash because the mixture seemed a bit dry and looked incredibly fluffy.
Lastly, I was going to do mini-muffins. So I set the timer for 10 min, to be on the safe side. At 10, the muffins weren't golden in the slightest, so I put them back in the oven and proceeded to check them for the next 2-5 minutes for the next 20 minutes. Each time I took them out and inserted a knife or a toothpick, and it was starting to come out (seemingly) cleaner. Since the minis had been cooking for 30 min, I took them out and cut one in half — golden browned, crispy on the outside and soggy on the inside.
Since I had to halved the mixture to make minis, I put the remaining batch in normal-sized muffin pan and cooked it for 25 minutes…which turned into 30. At 35, I took them out and just like their little guy counterparts, these were golden on the outside and uncooked-looking on the inside.
Now that they've had time to cool (at least the minis) the insides look similar to your pictures, but it's too soon to tell on the biggins.
Is this a matter of impatience and I didn't cook them long enough for my oven's settings? Or was I simply cutting into them too soon and they need to completely cool first? If that's the case, what's the most effective method to making sure they're done? as the toothpick & knife test kept coming out with dough and I would have continued to cook them until that stopped happening. Normally I would have cooked them until the knife/toothpick came out clean, but I was growing concerned w/ how much longer mine were taking than you noted in your recipe.
FYI – my oven has 5 different levels that the rack can sit on, I had it on the 3rd (the middle).
Nick, or anyone else, any idea what happened?
Wow. That's kind of a lot of changes, but I don't see anything that shouldn't work… theoretically. I've never baked with the EnerG eggs so I'm not sure how they perform…
One thing that stuck out to me, which is actually very common is that I feel like your oven is maybe not hot enough. Do you use it often? Have you ever tested it's temperature with an oven thermometer?
Minimuffins should've only taken 10-15 minutes I would guess to cook so I think maybe your oven temp is off. As long as your batter looks like mine does in photo three it really should cook fine.
Nick, thanks a bajillion for being so responsive so quickly! Yes, that's quite a number of changes, so perhaps it was just a bad combination of subs and I was delusional about my batter resembling yours when it actually didn't (although I'm confident it was at least close).
I suspected the oven temp may be off — baked some bread yesterday that took 1/3 more time than called far — as it's not a new oven, but it is new to me and I'm still getting used to it. Various things I've made thus far have taken longer than recipes have called for, so I'm going to get a thermometer today and see if that's the problem. If it's not, I'll be sure to post as much on the blog (in case anyone else is plagued by the same combination of issues).
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OK, problem solved. I got an oven thermometer today and my oven was cooking 50 degrees cooler than it should have been.
well, that's a bummer but at least you know the problem now!
Just finished glazing these babies. You're right, these muffins are amazing!
I just made these (bc I had a whole tub of yogurt I had gotten for smoothies and was going thru it too slowly – only about 3TBS a day – and it'll expire next week). So obviously I was making them with regular (well low-fat) yogurt instead of greek style. I didn't read the comments about leaving out the milk, but they still turned out great (I'm at 8,400 ft so if i left out the milk, they prob would've been very dry). I was nervous about the altitude, but the only changes I made were adding the milk an extra tablespoon or so of flour, and cooked em for about 10 extra minutes. Very moist and delicious. The glaze tasted delicious, but my texture was kind of gristly (as tho i'd used granulated sugar instead of powdered… idk why. I used powdered sugar. Oh well. I can definitely live with it!!) Thanks for the great recipe it was very quick and easy (like homemade pancake… I would never use a mix, theyre so easy anyway!!)
I love to cook and bake. I especially love tasty breakfast carbs with my coffee. I eat a lot of nonfat plain Greek yogurt and had a tub to use up. So I tried your muffins this morning. Sorry…I followed them to a T. They were gooey(raw) in the middle, they tasted super bland…so I drizzled with the glaze..it helped. But I also doctored them up with berry preserves and some lemon curd, helped even more. The biggest disappointment? They would NOT come out of the paper muffin cups. I have never had that happen with any muffin or cupcake before. They completed adhered to the sides and bottom of the paper cup, so I had to scoop out the muffin leaving about 1/4 of the muffin left, stuck to the paper cup. For half the recipe I added fresh blueberries, which improved the flavor. Sorry! Any suggestions?
Hey Debi, sorry they didn't work out for you! A few comments… On the gooey issue, my guess is that either A) you're using larger muffin tins than me or B) your oven is a bit cold. If you have an oven thermometer then test it to make sure that 375 is actually 375. Ovens vary a lot and it's pretty impossible to nail down a cooking time that will work for everybody. That's why it's important to test them.
On the baking cups, I'm not sure why they would stick, but I never really use them honestly. I just buttered or greased my tin directly and cooked them in that. So maybe try that if you're feeling like giving these another go.
On the taste, these are light muffins. If you're used to something with fruit then you might find them to be not very flavorful. Personally, I like the light texture with lemon flavors, but I get that some might see it as lacking.
Anyway, thanks for reading and good luck in the future!
Hi, I tried your muffins, and loved the texture that the muffins had! Like the previous commenter, I had problems with the muffin papers. The muffin stuck right to the paper like glue. I also didn't get a strong lemon flavor which I had been hoping for (I didn't make the glaze, I was out of sugar). I think when I try them again I'll add zest from a second lemon, or maybe even an orange.
was wondering about how many calories was in this recipe. or in one muffin…
Hmm… tough to calculate exactly. If I had to guess, I'd say around 200-225 with the glaze.
These look fantastic! They are baking right now, but as I was reading the comments, someone had muffins with whole wheat flour, and it had turned badly. Oops! I made mine all whole wheat! Darnit. So, does whole wheat change the muffin?
Whole wheat will definitely change the muffin… or most recipes actually. It won't necessarily change it in a bad way though! I've gotten mixed results from readers who make the change so please let me know how it goes.
I've just had one, and they still are pretty good… a little bit more dense than I would've imagined, but not bad, not bad at all! Next time, I'm going to try with all white flour, hopefully it will turn out a bit fluffier and lighter!
Just made these to bring to work today. They were FANTASTIC! I only made a half batch of the glaze, and I still had some leftover!
Absolute the WORST muffin recipe I have ever used. The muffins were like gummy bears and the GLAZE was nowhere near the color of this. I think this recipe is fiction!
Hey Jim, sorry you didn’t have success. You might want to make sure your oven is calibrated correctly. Sometimes I’ve seen ovens off by as much as 50 degrees which can really change a recipe results. Also, if you used regular yogurt instead of greek yogurt that can mess it up.
Again, sorry it didn’t work out for you.
Hi!
Just wanted to thank-you for this wonderful recipe. I’ve posted your link on my blogpost (http://www.shelovesbiscotti.com/lemony-greek-yogurt-muffins/) Thanks again!
Maria :)