Big beautiful tender muffins loaded with fresh raspberries and blueberries with hints of cinnamon and topped with a lemon zest pecan crispy golden streusel. The perfect breakfast or afternoon treat!

I’m a huge berry fan! I love them…always have, always will! My favorite? Has to be raspberries!

Pile of Streusel Pecan topped berry muffins on a table with a wire whisk and polka dot vase with a plant in the background

I wouldn’t turn down a blackberry, boysenberry, or a plump juicy ripe strawberry! Huckleberries are my friends too! (Are ya seeing a trend here!)

Berries take me on a walk down memory lane! Honestly at my age…there’s a lot of walking down memory lane. I’m just grateful the memory is still working!

When I was a young girl, a friend and I would walk home in the spring, from school, down an old dirt lane. Along the path, in the backyard of an Elder Lady, that my friend knew, was a HUGE bush with thousands of big plump purple boysenberries.

On our journey home, we would climb over the split wood rail fence and pick those delicious gems. We’d eat sun ripened, warm boysenberries, till our fingers were purple, and our bellies were full! In a word…it was glorious and better yet… my love for berries was born!

Overhead shot of pile of streusel topped mixed berry muffins on a white board.

It only stands to reason, with this deep love of all things berries, that when I had a stockpile in my refrigerator recently, I decided to make a combined berry muffin recipe from Baker By Nature that I had stumbled upon on Pinterest. I made a few minor tweaks here and there, switching out walnut for pecans and adding a little more lemon zest.

If you’re a berry lover like I am, I have no doubt you’ll love these scrumptious muffins!

How To Make Mixed Berry Muffins with Streusel Topping

Prep work is everything! If you preheat the oven, prepare your muffin tins, and make the pecan lemon streusel topping before beginning the muffins, this recipe comes together quickly. Making it the perfect breakfast treat.

Begin by preheating your oven to 400°.

Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners, or silicone muffin liners. (I’m curious if there is a “non-standard” muffin tin? Why do we say that?)

12 cup standard muffin tin lined with paper liners ready for the muffin mix.

Zest one large lemon. You’ll need 2 teaspoons full for the streusel topping and 1 Tablespoon (plus a little extra if you like lemon zest like I do) for the actual berry muffins. So get your zesting game on and grate away!

Zest of lemon on a paper plate with the zested lemon in the background.

In a small bowl combine 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, 2 Tablespoons softened butter, 2 Tablespoon sugar, 2 Tablespoons finely chopped pecans or walnuts.

Like I mentioned previously, the original recipe calls for walnuts. I prefer the subtle taste of pecans with these muffins. Walnuts are a bit hearty and tend to steal the limelight (No citrus puns intended!) from the lemon and berries, rather than enhancing them.

small bowl with sugar, flour, softened butter, and chopped pecans, waiting to be blended

Lastly add in that beautiful lemon zest! There is something so refreshing and invigorating about the smell of lemon zest! The recipe calls for 1 teaspoon full… I openly admit I used about two teaspoons. I love the hint of lemon with berries!

Lemon zest being added to topping ingredients in small bowl, ready to mix.

Mix the crumb topping ingredients together with a fork, or your fingers, until crumbly. Set mixture aside.

TIP: To produce the perfect crumb, begin blending butter into streusel mixture with a fork, then switch and use your fingertips to create a beautiful pea sized fine crumb. Plus it’s just fun to play with food.

Pecan Streusel Crumb mixture all combined in a medium bowl and set aside for use later in recipe.

To make the muffins, in a medium size bowl whisk together, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2/3 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Love the hint of cinnamon in this recipe.

Whisking together dry muffin ingredients in a white bowl.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, or in a separate larger bowl, beat 2 large eggs with 1 stick, (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted.

TIP: If melting the butter in your microwave, cut the butter into smaller squares first. It will help the butter melt more evenly with less splattering. Nothing worse than the microwave splatter! I like to use a large measuring cup to melt my butter in.

Butter cut into small cubes in a microwave safe bowl ready to melt in the microwave.

Beat the eggs and melted butter together.

Add 1 cup buttermilk and 1 Tablespoon lemon zest. Beat until well mixed. I know some of you are asking if you HAVE to use buttermilk? YES! Buttermilk adds moisture to cakes and muffins! Ya don’t want yer muffins dry! (You interpret that any way you want!)

Butter and sugar beaten together in the bowl of a kitchenaid mixer

Add the dry ingredients to the wet. The batter will still be somewhat lumpy…kinda like me! (Grandma’s should be a little lumpy right?) Careful to be sure not to over mix.

Use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl down making sure all the ingredients are incorporated! (Ya know how that butter likes to cling onto the side of the mixing bowl like baby weight to your tummy! Gahhhhh!!!)

Muffin batter with flour mixture mixed into the egg mixture.

Add 3/4 cup fresh blueberries and 3/4 cup fresh raspberries. This recipe really doesn’t work well with frozen berries, I highly suggest you use fresh!

Adding 3/4 cup fresh raspberries, and fresh blueberries to muffin batter.

Gently, and I do mean gently, fold the fresh berries into the thick batter. The goal is to keep the berries intact, if at all possible.

Muffin berry batter mixed and ready for the muffin tin.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin. I like to use a cookie scoop. It works really well in filling the muffin lined tin.

prepared muffin tins lined with paper and filled with muffin mix.

Top each muffin by crumbling the streusel topping over the muffins. Love that crumbly pecan lemon topping. It makes the muffins!

Muffins topped with crumble streusel topping.

Bake in preheated oven until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of each muffin comes out clean. You can also gently push the center of each muffin, if it springs back they’re ready! I’m a huge fan of the “spring back”…but I get it if you don’t want to touch a hot muffin!

Bake time is about 20 minutes.

Close up photo of baked streusel topped mixed berry muffins in the muffin tin. Fresh out of the oven.

Allow the muffins to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then remove and finish cooling on a wire rack.

Should we get up close and personal with this muffin? I think we should! Look how that beautiful sugar pecan streusel just settles into the nooks and crannies of the fresh berry muffin! The tiny bits of toasty pecans. Sigh! That my friends…is a beautiful muffin!

close up photo of one of the streusel topped mixed berry muffin.

Nothing say “Good Morning” like one of these beauties! From the minute you bite into one of these muffins the juices from those fresh berries slowly burst into your mouth with their delicious warm flavors!

Streusel topped mixed berry muffins split open, on the table ready to eat.

Time to find your favorite hot beverage, sit down, take a deep breath, then inhale one, or two…or three, of these delectable cakes of happiness. Blueberries, Raspberries, hints of cinnamon and lemon. YUM!! That’s JOY in a muffin cup!

Other Favorite Muffin Recipes

I hope you make a batch of these berry-licious muffins soon. They’re sure to bring a few smiles to the faces at your Nest.

The free printable recipe is below. As always, thank you for stopping by and visiting with me today. Have a great week and…

Happy Nesting!

Yield: 12 muffins

Streusel Pecan Mixed Berry Muffins

Name: Streusel Pecan Mixed Berry Muffins
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; 2 tablespoons butter, softened; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons finely chopped pecans, or walnuts; 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 2/3 cup sugar; 2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 2 large eggs; 1 stick butter, melted; 1 cup buttermilk; 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest; 3/4 cup fresh blueberries; 3/4 cup fresh raspberries

Big beautiful tender muffins loaded with fresh raspberries and blueberries with hints of cinnamon and topped with a lemon zest pecan crispy golden streusel. The perfect breakfast or afternoon treat!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

Topping

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped pecans, or walnuts
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel

Muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
3/4 cup fresh raspberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400° degrees (F). Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.
To make the topping: In a medium bowl, mix together the topping ingredients until crumbly. Set aside.
To make the muffins: In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
In the bowl of your mixer, beat the eggs with the melted butter. Add the buttermilk and lemon zest. Mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and blend until just combined. (Batter will be somewhat lumpy; do not over mix.) Gently fold in the blueberries and raspberries so the berries don't break open.
Pour muffin batter into the prepared muffin tin. Top each muffin with the crumble streusel topping.
Bake until golden brown and center springs back when lightly touched or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
Let cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then remove and cool on wire racks.