These honey sweetened lemon blueberry muffins are gluten-free, grain-free and dairy-free but still have a great texture and are deliciously summery!
If you’re interested in almond flour but haven’t baked with it, I’d recommend these lemon blueberry muffins. They don’t exactly taste like normal muffins but they are delicious (as are these Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins!).
I gave one to Mr. Texanerin, the whole grain baked goods hater, and he said that these were way better than that “stuff you normally make.” Hmm. I don’t agree. I think I prefer a nice whole grain chocolate muffin, but these are nice too.
These are definitely my favorite grain-free muffin so far (May 2013 update: Now these grain-free lemons muffins are my favorite :)) and I think these are a pretty nice sub for traditional muffins.
They’re not at all cardboardy, have a decent texture, and the lemon is really nice. If you’ve missed it, I really dislike almonds and I think that for me to like these, which are made out of ground up almonds, means something. They’re not super sweet but they have some sweetness to them and is enough to hit the spot. At least for me.
The first time I made these lemon blueberry muffins, which is when I took the pictures, I forgot the blueberries until they were in the oven. Not only that, but it was the second time in a row that I had done that with my blueberry muffins. I guess I’m a little forgetful. So I took them out, shoved the blueberries to the bottom of each liner, and that is why the blueberries aren’t well distributed. Don’t forget the blueberries and yours won’t turn out that way!
It’s much easier to just weigh the ingredients for this recipe. And please please please weigh the almond flour! The 2 1/2 cups is just there to give you an idea. Each brand is different and the way people measure is different. Weigh it out and you can’t go wrong. And if you’re worried about using so much almond flour on something you’re not sure you’ll like, halve it! This recipe halves quite nicely.
Lemon Blueberry Muffins (grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 12 muffins
Ingredients
- 225 grams (~2 1/4 cups) blanched almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 6 tablespoons (120 grams) honey
- 65 grams coconut oil, melted (~4 1/2 tbsp)
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract
- zest of 3 lemons
- 170 grams (1 1/4 cup) fresh blueberries1
- sliced almonds, optional
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with muffin liners.
- Combine the almond flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
- In another medium bowl, combine the eggs, honey, melted coconut oil, lemon extract and zest.
- Stir the almond flour mixture into the wet mixture and stir until well combined. Fold in the blueberries.
- Fill each of the 12 liners about halfway. If you like, sprinkle some sliced almonds over the top.
- Bake for 20 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean and they should be golden brown. Immediately turn out onto a wire rack to cool. They tend to get greasy if you let them sit in the pan.
Notes
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76 comments on “Lemon Blueberry Muffins (grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free)” — Add one!
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Your recipe is amazing I made it today and I’m pleasantly surprised of how good they came out. I also would like to know if I can use avocado oil instead of coconut oil?
I’m so glad that you enjoyed them! If you enjoy the taste of avocado oil in baked goods, then it should work fine. :) I personally don’t so I haven’t tried it.
I have plenty of almond meal in the freezer but had never bought almond flour before. As it happened, WF had the 2 lb bag of Bob’s Red Mill on sale for barely more than the 1 lb bag: still a lot of $$ for flour but I grabbed the 2 lb and am so glad I did! I had promised to make GF muffins for a choir breakfast, never guessing I’d be developing a new addiction as I did so:). I made a couple of small alterations to this glorious recipe: 1/2 tsp almond extract and a bit of lemon juice instead of the lemon extract. These muffins are SCRUMPTIOUS, and the lovely texture and moistness were still fully present on Day 2: that’s a muffin miracle right there. (No info available re Day 3; no muffins left for testing!)
Yesterday I prepared it in the loaf pan as a lemon almond loaf with the following changes
Reduced salt to 1/8 tsp. Reduced soda to 1/2 tsp. Instead of it, I Separated eggs and added well-beated egg whites in the final batter. Replaced half of the oil with pureed avocado. Added 1/2 Tbsp coconut powder since the batter was thin.
I didn’t have blueberries, so I just baked it about 30 minutes as a lemon almond loaf. It was perfect and so delicious with the crunchy nuts on the top.
Thank you so much for your recipe!
You’re welcome for the recipe! And thank you for sharing your loaf version. :) It’s great to know that it works out well like that!
Thank you so much for the healthy n yummy recipe. Can I prepare it as a cake in 8 inch round pan?
So happy you like it! I haven’t tried it so I’m really not sure. Sometimes muffin recipes, especially grain-free ones, don’t convert well to cake pans. Sorry I can’t give you a better answer!
Its ok. Thanks for your reply. I don’t have coconut oil, so thinking of putting avocado instead, just wondering will it work
I have replaced half of the coconut oil with same quantity fresh pureed avacado and honey with raw sugar. Baked in 24 muffin pan. I can’t wait until it cools down.
It has come out very well. Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe!
You’re welcome! And thanks a bunch for sharing your version. Sounds really great! Thanks again. :)
The absolute best blueberry muffins! Made them for the second time his week, they’re amazing. Thanks so very much for recipe. Want to make as a bread loaf, as well. Any advice on how to convert? Thanks again!
I’m so happy that you liked them! :) I haven’t made these in ages and have a new favorite paleo blueberry muffin recipe in case you’re interested in a different version. I’ve had the worst experience with converting grain-free muffin recipes to loaf recipes so I can’t really recommend it, though I haven’t tried it with this recipe. Thanks for your comment!
I just started my paleo eating this week. Just made blueberry lemon muffins. They came out beautifully. Taste yummy too. Thank you for the recipe.
I’m so happy you liked them! I hope your week has gone well. :) Thanks a bunch for your comment and sorry for my slow reply!
Absolutely the best grain free, dairy free, gluten free muffins ever!
Halved the recipe and made 6. Didn’t have any lemon extract so used juice of half a lemon.
I used frozen wild blueberries and they were just fine. I will be putting this in my recipe box. Thank you for the recipe
Really?! I was super happy to read your comment because I haven’t made these muffins in several years and was thinking that they probably weren’t very good compared to the muffin recipes I’ve been making lately. I’ll have to give these another try! Thanks a bunch for your nice comment. :)
I made another batch this morning. I love them. So moist, so tasty. I made enough to freeze and eat all week. I have a hard time finding gluten free, dairy free and grain free options that taste good. I am going to try this recipe next with poppy seeds. thanks again Erin.
You’re welcome! I’m very happy that you liked them enough to make again. I hope they freeze well! Thanks again for your comments. :)
I have Bob’s Red Mill Almond meal/flour…is that the same thing as just flour or is it meal?? Kinda confuses me! It says made from blanched whole almonds…will this work more like a flour? Just want to make sure before I make and ruin this recipe!
That’s perfect for this recipe! Usually, almond meal is made from unblanched almonds and a little coarser than flour and almond flour is normally blanched and finer. I hope you’ll enjoy the muffins! :)
I finally made these but sadly could not try them because I can’t have eggs right now. But I wanted to tell you that they smell and look amazing… and my family LOVES them! Thanks for the recipe and I’m looking forward to the day I can try them. :-)
Aww. I’m sorry you couldn’t try them! I am happy that your family enjoyed them, though. :) I hope you’ll be able to eat eggs soon! Thanks so much for the feedback. :)
I don’t have enough honey and really want to make these for breakfast. Is maple syrup going to change the taste?
I wouldn’t be worried about the taste but the texture. I’ve seen people recommend the two interchangeably but maple syrup is so much more runny than honey. Maybe add a teaspoon or two more almond flour? (I’m just guessing here!) I hope they come out well or you. :)
Erin… These look amazing! Do you know if I could sub lemon essential oil for the extract? (And if so, how much?). Just have that on hand. If not I’ll go buy the extract… Bc I have to make these!
Hey again! I’ve never used essential oils but this says to use a fourth of the extract amount called for. So instead of 2 teaspoons extract, use 1/2 teaspoon essential oil. I hope you’ll enjoy them! :)
Awesome…thanks for the quick reply!
No problem! :)
I could only find almond meal/flour at Whole Foods. What other brands do you recommend besides Bob’s Red Mill?
Copying and pasting my comment from the other post so others can see it, too. :)
Almond flour is made from blanched almonds. Sometimes they refer to it as meal / flour so the whole thing is pretty confusing. Just make sure it’s blanched (no skin) and you’ll be fine! :) I live in Germany where it’s a common thing but from everything I’ve read, Honeyville almond flour is the best in the US. Only problem is that it’s super expensive.
These do look delicious! I’m interested in trying this recipe being a long time lover of almond baked goods like Spanish and French tarts. That’s another way in which this recipe can be made instead of using a muffin pan – placing batter into a parchment lined springform pan and placing the fruit on top. I’ve made variations of almond fruit tarts like this for many years. But the recipes I’ve used have a little regular flour included as well….. So I’m eager to try your gluten free recipe Erin. :) But I’m confused about the grams = cups. All the convention sites I’ve searched show 225g = less than 1 cup. What am I missing here?
That sounds like a nice alternative way to make these! :) Thanks for the tip! The conversion is definitely correct (within a few grams). I just went and measured again and 1 cup of almond flour came out to 92 grams. So the 2 1/4 cups = 225 grams is fine. I’ve seen other sites listing up to 130 grams per cups but 225 grams being less than a cup?! No matter how tightly I pack it, I could never fit all that into a cup. I say… go by weight! You can’t go wrong with that. :) Good luck and thanks again for your comment!
Erin, I will definitely go by weight. Thanks for double checking that for me! <3
No problem and good luck! :)
How many sugar grams?
Sorry for the super slow reply! Hopefully you found that you can enter the recipe into a recipe analyzer like you can find on CalorieCount. :)
Blanched almond flour is made from blanched (no skins) almonds and is very fine. Almond meal has the skins on them when processed, and aren’t as fine. You can’t blanch almond meal as it’s too late to do that. Did you already make these?
Thanks for the reply, Erin. I buy raw almonds, so I was wondering if you knew how to blanch on your own. I rarely purchase almond meal/flour, I usually grind it myself.
Well that’d work! Blanch the almonds and then make your almond flour. :) http://theshiksa.com/2012/10/09/how-to-blanch-almonds/
I just made these yesterday and they have to be the best grain-free baked good I've tried. The texture is about like a corn bread muffin, which was fine by me, and the blueberries were plump and juicy. I also added a teaspoon of almond extract because I love it in basically everything. Thanks for the recipe. Also, for anyone in the US, I used Bob's Red Mill "Fine Almond flour/meal (from unblanched ground almonds)".
Yay! I'm so happy to hear that you liked them. And almond extract is a great idea. I'll have to try that! Thanks for the almond flour recommendation. :) And that thing you said about them being the best grain-free baked good you've tried… absolutely made my day. Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback! :)
hey, i make my own almond flour, is that ok with this recipe?
I'm guessing it is but I've never used it so I'm not positive. If you almond flour is as fine as the store bought stuff, I don't see why not. Good luck! :)
Jen – Ooh, a bundt cake! That sounds amazing. I'm always cautious when making things with almond flour, so I've only made small things like muffins or very small loaves. I'll be on the lookout for that recipes of yours. :) And thanks for the nice comment!
Oh my WORD! These look amazing! I just bought some fresh blueberries and can't wait to try this recipe. Thank you for sharing! I have a lemon blueberry bundt cake recipe that's grain free but I haven't put up on my blog yet. Your recipes look fantastic –
Jen
Kim B – Thanks for the tip!
For Gluten Free – i buy a mix of flour from http://www.glutenfreecreations.com/Mixes/
I use the Enriched Baking Mix will all my normal recipes. I take out 1 TBS of flour per cup to keep it from becoming to dense. Every recipe I have has worked with this flour!
Anon – Well I'm happy they still came out! Just wait till your try them with fresh blueberries. Much better when not soggy. :) Thanks for leaving feedback. I appreciate it!
I just made these (adjust a bit based on what I had) and although not perfect, they are DELISH! I misread and used frozen blueberries and it DEF made them soggy…but still so good!
Christine – Mine are also quite brown, but they don't taste brown. That brown crust is actually one of the nicer parts of the muffins. :) I hope you can order some almond flour and thank you for leaving feedback. It means a lot to me. :) I hope (and I'm sure!) that they'll come out better with the flour!
Mine tasted great……however, I did use almond meal flour (which Erin you did say not to) and they quickly went from undercooked to quite dark brown. They don't taste burned but they look it! In fact they taste great!!! I will try again once I have sourced the correct flour!!!
Nora – Yeah! Oh and I just made a gluten-free Italian lemon cake and thought of you. It uses almond flour. :)
Julie – Haha, aren't they ridiculous? But after making the almond flour lemon cake I mentioned above, it's now official. He likes things made with almond flour but not whole wheat / spelt. Very strange. Thanks for stopping by. :)
Aw, don't ya just love these husbands who don't appreciate our efforts to keep them healthy?
I could totally go for a few of these muffins right now – LOVE these! Muffins are amazing…and I love the use of almond flour…amazing stuff, right?
RecipeNewZ – Thank you and thanks for letting me know about the new site! I'll check it out.
Heidi – I made almond flour donuts yesterday and these texture is even better than these! The texture in the donuts is really almost exactly like a normal wheat donut. I'll post it next week so maybe you can make those for your husband. I love these muffins, but if he's really picky, he'll probably like the donuts better!
Barbara – You really wouldn't! It's amazing what ground up almonds can do. :)
Chung-Ah – Haha, aww. Dreading to go to work sounds awful. These muffins will surely help. Or the donuts I mentioned to Heidi that are coming next week! :)
I love baking with almond flour! I have some in the fridge right now so I'll have to make these soon! They'd be the perfect pick-me-up when I'm dreading to go to work.
I haven't done much grain-free baking, but I'm sure I wouldn't miss it in these scrumptious muffins.
Oooh, these look so good. I've been wanting to try something with almond flour and I love blueberry muffins. I wonder if I could convince my hubby to try these, he loves blueberry muffins too but he's picky about texture. I'm glad you mentioned it could be halved.
These muffins look absolutely delicious, and probably taste even better than they look :-). Love the recipe and the photo! Beautiful!
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I hope you get a chance to visit and to share some of your delicious posts with our viewers. It would be a pleasure to have you on board :-)
Sarah – That sounds delicious! I've made hazelnut flour cookies, but never muffins. I'll have to look into that now. Thanks. :)
Katie – Thank you. :) Have a great Mother's Day tomorrow!
Gorgeous pics Erin!! It makes me want to reach into the screen and scarf all of them up!! Love its gluten free! Perfect!
These look so good! I've made a few recipes that used some hazelnut flour, but they always involved whole wheat flour too. I love this!
Dawn – Thanks! And I agree, they make things look way better! They'd look quite boring without the almonds. Have a great weekend. :)
these look beautiful! I'm always amazed at how much fancier things look when they have sliced almonds on them. :)
Kristi – Thank you! :) Oh, and I'm kind of awful. I haven't posted a single German recipe other than Eierlikoer. I'm just not really a fan of German food. I love pretzel rolls, Vollkornbrot and Bratkartoffeln, but other than that… nothing. Or at least nothing that I've tried so far. It could be that I just haven't discovered the yummy things yet. :)
Oh, I forgot to add, my fiance is German and I am American so I love experimenting with German recipes!
Yummy I sure wish I could bite into one with my coffee for breakfast right now :)Your blog is so cute, I'm loving the pink!!
Georgia – Thanks a bunch! And I wouldn't say fluffy either but moist, yes. :)
Amy – I hope you do! They're yummy, but remember, not like a normal muffin. :)
these sound + look just delicious! i'll definitely have to try these soon!
Wow, I can't believe these are grain-free! They look fabulous Erin – so fluffy and moist. Love your addition of sliced almonds, too. Yum!
Miryam – Really?! I love lemon extract. It's my favorite after vanilla. I put some cream cheese icing between the dog food looking cookies and now they're sitting in the fridge, waiting to be photographed. Now they're cute! Almond flour here is 3.45/lb. How much is it there? They don't sell it as almond flour, though. It's just called "ground blanched almonds." It seems to work though. :)
Cassie – Yeah, I've come across a lot of weird consistencies too. Although these aren't like normal muffins, they're way better than the other GF muffins I've had.
Becca – I know! And I consistently do it. Tomorrow I'm going to make raspberry brownies and I'm pretty sure I'll somehow forget the raspberries. And thanks. :)
MyFudo – I wouldn't say juicy, but moist! They have a bit more oil than other GF muffins I've tried, but I think it really helps with the moistness and to make them non-cardboardy. :)
Looks really moist and juicy inside. I must try this recipe…my kids will love this!
It's funny how you make blueberry muffins but forget the ingredients that makes the muffin blueberry. :P
These look delicious though. I love the flavor of almonds. :)
These look awesome, Erin! I have been experimenting with GF cooking, and eating mostly GF, except when it comes to baked goods because I haven't been able to get the consistency that I want from GF flours. I should maybe start with muffins!
OMG these look fantastic. I really would love to bake a lot more with almond flour but it is so expensive. Yum lemon extract? I have never used it before but now I am going to. By the way what happen with the dog cookies? :-) I have gotten similar results before with some cookies but we ate them all :-) I just did not post the recipe!!