Betsy 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

3.39 from 13 votes
Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 12 Servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Shockingly flavorful muffins with lemon zest, greek yogurt, and a lemon glaze. Really good for a morning snack!

Ingredients 

  • 2 Cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (plus some for muffin tins)
  • ¼ Cup sugar
  • 1 Teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ Teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 ½ Cups Greek Yogurt
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice (1/2 juice for muffins and 1/2 for glaze)
  • 1 Egg
  • ¼ Cup milk
  • Pinch of salt

Lemon Glaze:

  • 2 cups confectioner's sugar
  • ½ lemon, juice only

Instructions

  • Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  Whisk wet ingredients (including lemon juice and zest) into a separate bowl.
  • Stir wet ingredients into dry.  If the batter is too dry, add a bit more milk until it’s a thick batter.
  • Lightly butter a 12 muffin tin (or two 6).
  • Fill tins almost completely to the top.
  • Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean from the center of a muffin.
  • Let muffins cool.
  • For glaze, mix powdered sugar with lemon juice and maybe a few drops of water.
  • Drizzle glaze over cooled muffins.

Nutrition

Serving: 1Muffin | Calories: 139kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 98mg | Potassium: 90mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 91IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 63mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Breakfast & Brunch, Desserts

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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.

basics
The real ingredients.

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.

batter
Really thick batter.

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.

tin filled
Fill’em up!

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.

cooked
These will smell amazing. Just a warning.

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.

glazed
The glaze is shockingly good.

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!