Cream Cheese Muffins with Lemon and Blueberries

What to do with blueberries, lemons, and cream cheese that you need to use up in the middle of a pandemic? Make muffins, of course! I was having a rare craving for something a little sweet but something a little tart and, after scrolling through a gazillion recipes and pins online, I finally just mashed up my own rendition of these lemony, cream cheesy, packed with blueberries, muffins.

I’ve seen a lot of variations on these so by all means, feel free to add a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg, almond extract, and/or coconut. Food is meant to be played with, after all. 🙂

Blueberry and Lemon with Cream Cheese Muffins Recipe

• 1 1/4 cups fresh blueberries
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (reserve about 2 tablespoons aside to toss with blueberries)
• 3⁄4 cup sugar + additional for sprinkling, if desired
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1⁄4 cup butter (½ stick), softened
• Zest of one large lemon
• 3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1⁄2 cup milk
• 2 large eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°

• In a small bowl, toss blueberries with 2 tablespoons of flour and set aside
• In another bowl, add remaining flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and blend well, set aside
• In a mixing bowl (I put my stand mixer to good use here but you can use a hand mixer or cream together by hand) add softened cream cheese, softened butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla extract and cream together until no large chunks remain (there may be some small chunks still and that’s okay)
• Add milk and eggs and blend until incorporated
• Add flour mixture and blend just until everything is wet and blended together; don’t over mix
• Use a spatula to gently fold in the blueberries
• Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners and divide the mixture evenly in all
• For a crusty, sugared top, lightly sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on the top of each muffin
• Bake for approximately 20 minutes; until the edges and tops start to slightly brown
• Remove from oven, remove immediately from the pan, and let cool

That photo above isn’t a cleaned-up beauty shot; these muffins are so moist and creamy that they hardly make any crumbs at all.

My husband and I love all things lemon and these didn’t disappoint. The cream cheese almost makes them more like cupcakes than muffins but I’ll go with muffins since I just enjoyed one for breakfast. 🙂

Feel free to swap out the blueberries for a different fresh berry; I’ll be making these with raspberries next time.

Enjoy, stay safe, and stay well!