Freaking Amazing Lemon Raspberry Muffins
These lemon raspberry muffins were dubbed “freaking amazing” by taste testers, hence the name! With a soft, moist, and tender crumb stuffed with fresh raspberries and tons of lemon flavor, this will be your new, go-to fruit muffin recipe. To take them over the top, these zesty muffins are sprinkled with a lemon infused streusel and then drizzled with a sweet lemon glaze. If you’re a lemon lover like me, l’ll bet you start raving about them too!

My taste tasters for this recipe called these lemon raspberry muffins “freaking amazing” on DAY 2 after I baked them! If they are this good on day 2, can you imagine how good they are fresh out of the oven?
What makes them so amazing? Lets talk about it.
They are MOIST with a capital M. What makes and keeps them moist is the combination of using melted butter, vegetable oil, greek yogurt, and milk. Used alone or without one of these ingredients the muffins were just ok. Using them all together makes them incredible.
Melted butter adds flavor, oil helps with keeping a soft texture, greek yogurt and milk together keep the muffin moist for days. This is seriously the perfect ratio for moist muffins- I tested them 5 times to make sure!
As a professional baker, its helpful to know what you need to add when creating recipe to get the texture you want. Adding the greek yogurt and not just the milk is what really changed the game here.
Other things that take these muffins to the next level are the lemon infused streusel topping (that I also used on these lemon muffins), and the simple lemon glaze.
The different textures (soft, crunchy, silky) and flavor you get here is what I think got these rave reviews. There is so much lemon flavor infused from lemon zest and extract, plus the sweet tartness of the raspberries is a classic combo that so many people love.
With all the love and 5 star reviews on my lemon raspberry bundt cake, Im SO excited to bring you these same flavors in muffin form!
A note on lemons and raspberries
You need fresh lemons for this recipe. There is a lot of zest in here and its what gives it that really bright fresh flavor.
I use 3-4 lemons (total) to add the streusel, muffin batter, and the lemon glaze. Lemon extract instead of juice is what helps to punch the flavor up a bit.
You can use lemon juice instead but the flavor wont be as vibrant. Just an FYI.
For the raspberries I use a whole 6 oz container of fresh berries. You can use frozen berries, just make sure you defrost and dry them really well. Soggy raspberries will create soggy muffins and no one wants that.
Make the streusel
First you’ll make the lemon streusel. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, both sugars, zest (always zest on top of the sugar to retain the oils), and then the small cold diced butter.
Mix it with a dough blender or if you dont have one just use your fingers like I do.
Pinch the butter into the mixture until it has small crumbly pieces like the picture below. Put it in the fridge to firm up and stay cold. The colder the mixture the crunchier the streusel will be.
Lemon raspberry muffin batter
Next make the muffin batter. I love making muffin batter because the process is always the same and its SO simple. It’s called the muffin method (shocker!!).
All you have to do is put the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in the other. In this case, add the flour, sugar, lemon zest (again on top of the sugar to retain as much flavor as possible), baking powder, baking soda, and salt into one bowl. Whisk together lightly.
In a larger microwavable bowl- because were pouring the dry ingredients in here after- melt the butter. Then add the vegetable oil, milk, eggs, greek yogurt, and lemon extract. Whisk this together well.
Combine the two bowls by pouring the dry into the wet and not the other way around.
You want to pour it this way because we want to make sure not to over mix the batter. Over mixing can cause the gluten to toughen and make the muffins dense.
When you add the dry to the wet ingredients theres less room for error in over mixing because it makes the dry ingredients easier to mix in. You’re not wondering if theres a ton left on the bottom of the bowl.
Mixing in the raspberries
Once you pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, add the raspberries before you start mixing. This gives them the chance to get coated in the flour which keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins.
Mix the batter with a spatula, just until the dry ingredients are combined into the batter. Small streaks of flour are ok. The batter is gonna be lumpy but thats what you want! Do not mix until its smooth, this is not a cupcake batter.
Resting time
Let the batter rest for 15-20 minutes before scooping it into the tin. This really helps the gluten relax a little and absorb all the wet ingredients we used to make sure they are moist. It results in a better textured muffin.
Baking
Ok so now for the fun part! Make sure your oven is preheated to 425° F.
Scoop out the dough using an ice cream scoop and fill alllllll the way up to the top of the muffin tin.
Again this is not a cupcake batter. If you want to have high rounded tops, then the batter needs to bake over the rim of the tin. You gotta fill all the way up!
Grab the streusel and sprinkle it all over the top of the batter. This is totally gonna make a mess and thats ok! Try to get the streusel to stick mostly to the batter but its for sure gonna be a little scattered. No worries.
High heat temp
Bake on 425 for just 7 minutes, then lower the heat to 350° and continue baking for another 13-15 minutes, depending on your oven. The muffins are done when the streusel topping is nice and browned over.
Baking this way allows for the top part of the muffin to get baked first which creates that rounded top. Then when you lower it, it will bake the middle and rest of the muffins.
If you bake all on one temp, you wont get these sky high tops!
Cool the muffins for 10 minutes in the pan and then completely on a wire rack.
Lemon glaze
When the muffins are cool make the lemon glaze. Whisk together the ingredients in a small bowl (powdered sugar, lemon juice, milk, and zest.) Drizzle the glaze over completely cooled muffins.
If you drizzle when the muffins are still warm, the icing can melt into the muffin tops. It will still be delicious but you wont be able to see it.
Yield
You’ll get 12 perfect muffins from this recipe. Make sure to fill the muffin batter to the top in the tin!
Storing and freezing
You don’t have to store these in the fridge if you are eating them that day or even the next day- which is the prefered time frame. But to keep them extra fresh, store them in the fridge.
To freeze, wrap each muffin separately in plastic and then store multiple in a large freezer safe zip top bag. Take out one at a time when you want a treat. Defrost on the counter. You can also warm it up in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.
Freaking Amazing Lemon Raspberry Muffins
Ingredients
For the streusel
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 60 grams
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp lemon zest
- 1/8 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup butter
For the muffins
- 3 cups all purpose flour, 360g
- 1 cup white sugar, 200g
- 2 tbsp Lemon zest
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup veg oil
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup greek yogurt
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 6 oz fresh raspberries, washed and dried well
Instructions
- Make the streusel crumb topping. In a small bowl combine the 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 brown sugar, 2 tbsp granulated sugar, ½ tsp lemon zest, 1/8 tsp salt and ¼ cup butter.
- Using your fingers, pinch the butter into the mixture gently until small clumps form and are about the size of a pea. Place in the fridge while you make the muffin batter.
- Preheat the oven to 425° F and line a 12 cup muffin tip with muffin liners.
- Take out 2 mixing bowls. In one bowl, add the 3 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp lemon zest, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp kosher salt. Mix lightly with a whisk.
- In the second bowl- a larger one if possible- add the 4 tbsp butter and microwave for 30 seconds at a time until fully melted. Then add in the 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup greek yogurt, 3 eggs, and 1 tsp lemon extract. Mix well with the whisk.
- All at once, add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add the washed and dried raspberries on top of the dry ingredients coating them well.
- Using a large spatula, lightly and gently fold in the flour and raspberries taking care not to over mix or mix too hard. You want the flour to JUST mix in till there are no mare large streaks. The batter will be lumpy.
- Using an ice cream scoop for accuracy, scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin all the way to the top.
- Sprinkle the streusel on top of the muffins. Be generous! It’s ok if there’s a lot on the muffin tin.
- Bake for 7 minutes on 425, then lower the temperature to 350°F and continue to bake for another 13-15 minutes.
- Take the muffins out and let them cool for 5-10 minutes in the tin, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.
- Make the lemon glaze. Line a sheet tray or cookie sheet with parchment paper and set the wire rack of muffins on top. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled muffins.
Made these today for the first time. Wow! Tender cake and multiple flavors in each bite. These are really good!
Thank you for being the first to try and comment on these Brian! So glad you loved them as much as we do. So appreciate the 5 star rating too, thank you!