We have only got a few of our lemons left on the tree and I was looking online recently for another lemon recipe that I could try. I came across this recipe for Sour Cream Lemon Muffins and I just had to try them. We have been using quite a bit of sour cream in our recipes lately but I had never tried adding it to muffins and I was intrigued as to how they would taste. The fact that the recipe looked really quick and easy also helped to grab my attention. I know that I have said it before but I am a complete sucker for an easy recipe!
This recipe really couldn’t be any easier; basically you just mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then bake – how much easier can it be? I found this muffin recipe on a blog called Not So Humble Pie. This blog doesn’t appear to be active now but it is still online and includes some great recipes.
I have modified the recipe slightly with the main change being that I left out the lemon extract. I didn’t have any lemon extract so I just increased the amount of lemon juice slightly. Also while the original source suggested that the recipe would make 12 standard muffins, I was able to make 14 good sized muffins. You could make 12 bigger muffins but I opted for the slightly smaller ones because they were less than 200 calories each! I also used light sour cream which helped to keep the calories down.
I wasn’t disappointed with these sour cream lemon muffins; they are deliciously sweet and have just the right amount of lemon tang. They have an almost creamy taste from the sour cream and it gives the muffins an indulgent lemon dessert like flavour.
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Sour Cream Lemon Muffins
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 50 mins
- Yield: 12 – 14
- Category: Dessert, Snack
- Cuisine: Muffin
Description
These quick and easy Sour Cream Lemon Muffins are like an indulgent lemon dessert and at less than 200 calories they are also a great low calorie snack!
Ingredients
- 2 cups (300g) of plain flour
- 1/2 cup (110g) of sugar
- 1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- pinch of salt
- zest of one large lemon (or two small lemons)
- 1 1/4 cup (250g) of sour cream (I used light sour cream)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup (75g) of melted butter
- 1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350 °F) and line medium sized muffin pans with paper cases.
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and zest in a large mixing bowl and roughly mix to combine and break up any lumps.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and then add the sour cream, eggs, butter and lemon juice.
- Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined, do not over mix – only mix until no dry flour can be seen.
- Divide batter evenly into the muffin pan wells, filling them roughly 3/4 full.
- Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Allow muffins to cool in tins for a few minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 65g
- Calories: 178
- Sugar: 8g
- Sodium: 161mg
- Fat: 7.1g
- Saturated Fat: 4.2g
- Trans Fat: 0.2g
- Carbohydrates: 25g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 4g
- Cholesterol: 44mg
Hi, I'm Kaylene, and I'm a keen gardener,budding baker and wannabe DIYer!
Not sure how much butter the lemon muffins call for. It’s says 75g. How much is this?
Hi Estelle, you can use 1/3 cup of melted butter for this recipe.
Can you freeze the lemon muffins?
Yes you can freeze these muffins Katie. I have frozen them and they are still just as good when thawed. I try to freeze them in an airtight container on the day I make them. I usually thaw and eat them within two or three weeks but I’m sure they would keep for a couple of months in the freezer.
Hi Kaylene
Just wondering, you have 2cups of plain flour as 280g would it not be 300g?
Hi Lee, yes you’re right this should be 300g of flour. This is one of my older recipes from a time when I wasn’t checking that I had measured my cups correctly. That being said most of my recipes are fairly forgiving so I don’t think that 20g (about 2 tablespoons) of flour will make too much of a difference in this case. I’ll have to update the recipe!
Thank you Kaylene.
I found these to be very bland. I used myer lemons from my tree and monkfuit instead of sugar. They are light and fluffy but no taste
Sorry to hear that your muffins were bland Beverly. While these don’t have the strongest of lemon flavor they shouldn’t be bland. Perhaps it is the use of Meyer lemons that reduced the flavor? They are sweeter and less acidic so perhaps that effected the taste.
Meyer Lemons have always been bland. In making Lemonade, you can almost forget adding water. In fact nothing is needed but lemon juice and sugar and maybe some of the zest. You have to do something to get rid of them, right?
I agree.. jokingly said they taste like corn bread..not far from wrong!
These are the first muffins I have ever made from scratch. I was pleased with the texture. Light and fluffy. Just not enough lemon flavor. I will definitely use this recipe again, just maybe add more zest for a little lemon extract.
Yes adding some more lemon zest will definitely boost the lemon flavour, thanks for the feedback Shanita!
Just made these for the first time, delicious, I zested an extra lemon, because I love the flavour, my husband is a diabetic so I make an extra batch using spenda for his.
Glad you liked them Doris! I’m a big fan of lemon desserts so adding some extra lemon zest sounds good too!
These were awful in my opinion. White bread with a slight lemon taste basically. I hate to say it but I threw them away. I feel like you should mix the wet ingredients entirely before adding them to the dry and maybe that’s what you mean by your directions but it seems like you mean to add all of the separate wet ingredients to the dry and then mix together. I think this would help with the texture and I also think there should be 1 teaspoon of vanilla added because I literally haven’t baked any recipe that doesn’t require this. Unfortunately it made no difference. These need blueberries or something. So ick.
Sorry to hear that you didn’t like them.
These are terrible and have absolutely zero taste. I even went back to the recipe to make sure I didn’t use the wrong amount of sugar. Nope. They are just bad.
Sorry to hear that you didn’t like them Tory.
I’m wondering if it is people from the US that find these not sweet enough and bland? Every American sweet recipe that I use, I first of all halve the sugar before I even begin and even then they are sometimes too sweet. I think that the American palate expect that overly sugary taste now.
It can be confusing to read that one person really likes my recipe while another finds it bland. So perhaps you’re right Tarsha, there could be a bit of regional variation in taste. Even the terms used to describe some food vary from country to country. I am often told that my scone recipes are actually “biscuits” and readers are surprised to hear that “biscuits” here in Australia are like cookies!
I have to say that Australians (including my own nephew) referring to biscuits as ‘cookies’ drives me crazy! I won that one though because he asked to eat some of the gingerbread ‘cookies’ that I had made. I told him that I’m Australian so I only cook biscuits. If he wanted a cookie he was out of luck. He came around to my way of thinking very quickly!
I remember as a child visiting America. I had my own hard earned pocket money to spend and on our first trip to the shops, I chose a big carton of lemonade. You can imagine my disappointment when it was some kind of sugary lemon cordial rather than cool drink or ‘soda’ as I’ve heard American friends and relatives call it.
Oh yes, the lemonade confusion is another one I get here because I have a couple of lemonade scone recipes!
On the subject of lemonade……. On my US trip(I’m an Aussie), I ordered a shandy at a bar. Naturally I received a blank look, so I explained it was a drink of part beer and part lemonade. So the waitress shook her head and soon returned with a dreadful concoction of part beer and part lemon squash or what we sometimes call Solo. Yikes! I then learned I should have asked for 7Up, not lemonade. What a laugh.
Oh that does sound dreadful. It’s so funny though how one word can mean something totally different to two people!
These turned out great! It is our lemon tree season here in Arizona, US; and we have soooo many, this was a great, simple, yummy way to use a few of our lemons!! Not too sweet, but good lemon flavor. I followed the recipe and will make again!
Glad to hear you enjoyed them Stephanie!
Delicious
Light and fluffy
I will put more lemon in them next time , but they were delicious
I make muffins all the time
Always looking for new receipes
Thanks for the feedback Teresa, I’m glad that you enjoyed them!
Every thing about this muffin is great except not enough lemon I even added lemon extract was better but next time add less sour cream and more juice
Thanks for the feedback Darlene! 🙂
Love these! Was going to follow the recipe pretty closely…but sh*t happens. Didn’t have enough sour cream, so in what (luckily) turned out to be a genius move I replaced half with mascarpone cheese. Added extra Equal sweetener after reading other reviews and being well aware my American tastebuds prefer a sweeter taste. Also added the zest of one smallish lime. Served with jam. Next time I think I’ll try grapefruit. This one’s a keeper!
Thanks for the feedback Carol, great to hear that you had success with a sour cream / mascarpone cheese mix! I love a recipe that can be adapted to what you have on hand.
I have cooked this muffins three times and I really love them
Thanks for the feedback Elisa, great to hear that you enjoyed them!
Loved the texture and softness of these muffins. I used bottled lemon juice. I didn’t think they were lemony enough so I made a lemon glaze using lemon juice and powdered sugar. Stepped it up immensely! Very good recipe! Loved it!
Glad you liked them Kelli! And that’s a great idea to add some lemon glaze for those who want a stronger lemon kick!
Have these in a recipe book about thirty years old. Our family loves them. If you put the lemon rind in the milk and leave it stand for a few minutes, it will give a stronger lemon flavour. These are our family’s fVourite
I made these and used the zest and jucie of key limes and at the end poured about 2 cups of blueberries. My family absolutely loves them them and this is definitely my new go to muffin recipe
Thanks for the variation idea Christie. I love the idea of using limes and blueberries, I’ll have to give it a try!
On so many counts this lemon muffin was the worst muffin I have ever baked or eaten, and I have done a lot of both.
I followed the recipe exactly. And I definitely did not over mix the batter. The texture was sponge-like almost gummy, and not at all tender. The flavor was very bland with only the slightest hint of lemon. If I did not know I put lemon in it I would probably not have identified lemon in it at all. Lastly, there was not enough sweetness, which further added to the blandness.
I am definitely deleting this recipe and chock as a waste of time and ingredients.
For some reason some people love these muffins and others hate them! Sorry to hear that you fell into the latter category Elaine!
Recipe states: plain flour. Don’t believe I’ve heard of plain flour. Heard of and use All-purpose flour and cake flower. Please advise plain flour. Thank you!
Hi Mary, all-purpose flour and plain flour are the same thing, so you can just use that. I’m in Australia and we call it plain flour, sorry for the confusion!