Name: Strawberry Lemon Muffins with Crispy Streusel
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 45g (3 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted; 63g (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour; 65g (⅓ cup) granulated sugar; Pinch of salt; 250g (2 cups*) all-purpose flour; 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon salt; 200g (1 cup) granulated sugar; 113g (½ cup) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled; 2 large eggs; 2 Tablespoons lemon juice; 1/2 Tablespoon lemon zest; 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract; 180g (¾ cup) milk, at room temperature; 160g (1 cup) strawberries, chopped (fresh or frozen); 60g (1/2 cup) powdered sugar; 1 Tablespoon lemon juice; 1-2 teaspoons milk

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These fluffy strawberry lemon muffins are moist and flavorful with a tender texture, topped with a crispy streusel topping. They are a perfect way to celebrate strawberry season. They’re light, with a tender crumb, yet still moist and dotted with juicy strawberries.

If you want to make them at any point of the year, they work great with frozen strawberries too!

Fresh lemon juice is both in the batter and in the lemon glaze. The top of the muffins is generously sprinkled with a buttery, crispy streusel. I use the same topping in these blueberry buttermilk muffins too.

The strawberries

These muffins work well with both fresh strawberries and frozen strawberries. The chopped strawberries bake beautifully in the muffins, becoming soft and sweet but maintaining their juiciness. A generous hint of lemon enhances the strawberry flavor. This is done by adding fresh lemon to the batter, from both lemon juice and lemon zest.

The strawberries are folded into the batter at the end before it is scooped into the muffin pan. Unlike frozen blueberries in blueberry muffins, frozen strawberries won’t bleed their color into the batter when mixing them in.

The streusel crumb topping

The crispy streusel topping is one of the best parts of these muffins. It’s like bites of a shortbread cookie and this gives another element of texture. There’s quite a bit of crumb, and it might look like there is too much.

Just pile it on top of the muffins really generously and as it bakes some of the crumbs sink into the batter and some of it becomes golden and crispy. The crunchy muffin tops bring the best contrast to the juicy strawberries and soft muffin base.

The muffins are initially baked in a very hot oven for 5 minutes before it’s turned down for the rest of the bake time. This helps give an initial boost of a rising power to the batter and creates a domed muffin top.

Ingredients

Find the ingredient amounts listed in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here is a rundown of what you will need –

Strawberries – Fresh berries or frozen. If using frozen, there is no need to thaw.
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Salt
Melted butter – This can be salted or unsalted butter. You can reduce the salt slightly in the rest of the recipe if using salted butter.
Granulated white sugar
Large eggs
Vanilla extract or paste
Lemon zest
Fresh lemon juice
Milk, room temperature

The streusel topping

All-purpose flour
Granulated sugar
Melted butter

Glaze

Powdered sugar
Lemon juice
Milk

Equipment

For this recipe, you’ll need a standard 12-cup muffin tin.

Method

Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.

The streusel

In a small bowl combine melted butter, granulated sugar, and all-purpose flour. Use a fork to combine it into a coarse crumb, then set it aside.

THE MUFFINS

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt and mix together. Set these dry ingredients aside.

In a large bowl add the melted butter, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Use a whisk or a wooden spoon to beat it all together until combined.

Add half the flour mixture to the bowl of wet ingredients and fold it carefully to combine using a rubber spatula. Add in half the milk and fold, then continue with the remaining flour and milk.

a bowl of eggs, lemon zest, melted butter and sugar.

a hand pouring milk into a bowl of dough.

Fold until it has been all combined, but don’t overmix it. Fold through chopped strawberries carefully.

Divide the muffin batter evenly over the 12 muffin liners. An ice cream scoop is easy to use for this job.

a bowl of muffin batter with strawberries.

Generously sprinkle the streusel on top of each muffin. You can pile it on, it will sink into the batter once in the oven.

Bake the muffins at 425°F/220°C for 5 minutes then turn the oven down to 350°F/180°C and continue baking for another 15 minutes until the tops of the muffins are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed in the center.

Remove them from the oven and let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing the warm muffins and placing them on a wire rack to cool to room temperature.

In a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and milk for the glaze. Drizzle this over top of the cooled muffins.

Serving and storing

Enjoy these muffins as a delicious breakfast treat or afternoon snack. Leftover muffins can be stored at room temperature, covered for up to 3 days. They can also be frozen for up to 3 months.

Let them cool completely and place each muffin in a freezer-safe container or bag.

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