There is nothing more quintessentially breakfast than blueberry muffins. This recipe is easy to make and creates perfect, moist muffins packed with blueberries.
For me a blueberry muffin has to be chock full of contrasts. It should have enough sweetness to feel decadent, but balanced by the tartness of the blueberries and lemon zest. A perfect muffin also has a top that has a thin crust of spiced streusel and under it is the tender muffin, stuffed with fruit.
I tried to put as many blueberries in this muffin as it could possibly hold without losing its structure. Blueberries alone have a subtle flavor, so they are there to add some flavor, but even more moisture to the muffin.
Muffins are super easy to make, but to have a tender crumb, that doesn’t become tough, you need to mix it just enough to incorporate everything evenly, but stop before you develop too much gluten. I baked the BIG blueberry muffins in 7 tulip muffin papers and used individual, straight sided, molds, but they are just as good in regular muffin cups* baked in traditional muffin pans.
Blueberry Muffins Video Tutorial
Blueberry Muffins Ingredients
- Blueberries: Can’t have the muffins without the berries! Fresh blueberries are unbeatable, but frozen or store-bought berries work too.
- Streusel Topping: Flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter give these muffins the beautiful, crunchy topping.
- Lemon Zest and Buttermilk: These add a little zest to the muffins themselves.
Find there rest of the ingredients and full recipe below!
Frequently Asked Questions: Blueberry Muffins
Question: Can I use gluten-free flour in these blueberry muffins?
Answer: Yes. You can use any “cup for cup” gluten-free flour mix, such as King Arthur Flour gluten-free flour, Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour or cup4cup gluten-free flour.
Question: What can I use instead of buttermilk or sour cream?
Answer: You can use any kind of yogurt or crème fraîche for this recipe.
Question: Can I use sourdough discard in this recipe?
Answer: I have not tried it myself, but I don’t see why you couldn’t use it for your leavening. It will require that there is some time for the sourdough to do its work to make things rise, which means it won’t be a quick bread. If you try this, please let me know how it goes in the comments below!
Question: Do I need to use lemon zest in my blueberry muffins?
Answer: If you aren’t crazy about lemon flavor, just use a small amount of lemon zest—maybe 1/2-1 teaspoon. If you omit it completely the flavor will be a little flat. You can also use orange zest.
Question: Can I use frozen blueberries instead of fresh?
Answer: Yes. Just keep them frozen until the absolute last moment before you stir them in to the batter. If you use frozen berries, the bake time will need to be adjusted. Tip: Toss your frozen berries in a little flour before stirring into the batter and it will help them suspend in the muffin mix.
Question: I don’t have a muffin pan, what else can I bake these in?
Answer: You can make them in mini soufflé pans (like the copper molds in my photos above). You can also make them in ceramic ramekins. Use parchment paper inside both. The bake time does change based on the size of the container you’re baking in.
Question: Can I use any other fruit?
Answer: Yes. You can use any berries. I’ve also made them with peaches and rhubarb. You can use any fruit you want!
Question: Can I freeze these muffins?
Answer: Absolutely. Thaw them out and then pop them in the oven for about 10 minutes to warm them up.
You can see me make these muffins on the Breakfast Basics episode on Season 2 of Zoë Bakes on Magnolia Network!
Fun Fact: the blueberry muffin is the Minnesota State Muffin, read more about the history of how that came to be: here!
The Ultimate Blueberry Muffins Recipes
Video
Ingredients
Topping
- 1/2 cup (60g) all-purpose flour bleached or unbleached will work
- 2/3 cup (125g) brown sugar well packed
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
- 4 tbsp (57g) unsalted butter room temperature
Muffins
- 2 cups spoon and sweep (240g) all-purpose flour (bleached or unbleached)*
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 + 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 6 tbsp (86g) unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) sugar
- 2 tbsp (30g) brown sugar
- 1 lemon zested
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 whole egg room temperature
- 1 yolk room temperature
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp (135g) sour cream or buttermilk crème fraîche or yogurt work too!
- 1 1/2 cups (175g) fresh or frozen blueberries**
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare the topping by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl until it turns into uniform clumps. Refrigerate until ready to sprinkle on muffins.
- Prepare regular muffin tins with 7 LARGE liners. (You can bake regular sized muffins by dividing it into 12) I used mini copper soufflé moulds, but they are just as good made in regular muffin tins.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl, set aside.
- Cream the butter, sugars and zest together on medium speed, in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add vanilla. Add the egg and yolk, one at a time, mixing on low just until combined. It may seem a bit curdled, because it is a lot of liquid to add to that amount of butter. It will all come together in the end.
- Add half the flour and half the sour cream. Mix on low until combined. Add the remaining flour and sour cream.
- Toss the blueberries with flour and if using frozen berries immediately fold them into the batter with two or three gentle stirs. If you over mix, the batter will turn purple and then gray. Scoop into the muffin liners.
- Sprinkle the topping over the muffins. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and a tester comes out with moist, but not wet, crumbs. If you are baking smaller muffins, bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool slightly and serve warm or at room temperature.
Rate and Review!
- If you've made this recipe, please leave a rating and review! I love to hear how you've adapted my recipes to your own tastes, so please share how it went for you. It helps other people find my recipes. Thank you!
Notes
**If you use frozen blueberries, keep them frozen until the last minute. These muffins can be frozen. Thaw them out and reheat in a warm oven for about 10 minutes to serve. What is spoon and sweep? If you use measuring cups instead of weighing your ingredients with a scale, you need to be sure to use the spoon and sweep method of measuring so you don’t use too much flour. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then sweep the top clean with a knife. Spooning the flour into the cup aerates it, so it isn’t so densely packed.
Hello from Germany. I baked these today, followed the recipe to the letter. These muffins are absolutely delicious and perfect. My (American) husband was sooo pleased. I really enjoy your gorgeous website and the wonderful and inspiring Zoë. Next I will try the Devil‘s Food cupcakes.
Hi Moni, thank you so much for the kind comment! We are thrilled your family enjoyed them. We so appreciate that you came back to rate/review the recipe. Please let us know how you like the Devil’s Food Cupcakes!
Hi. I made these muffins for my husband but I’ve already eaten 4. They are sooooo delicious. They are light and fluffy and the blueberries don’t sink to the bottom. The addition of the lemon zest and sour cream make a world of difference. And the topping I could just eat by itself. I will definitely make more but I might use a little less salt. Thanks for this recipe, it’s a keeper!
Hi Ellen! We are thrilled you enjoy the recipe. Thank you so much for leaving a review!
Love the muffins but was wondering if this recipe can adapt to baking in a 8 or 9 inch springform pan?? Thanks
Outstanding recipe! These blueberry muffins did not disappoint. So moist and tender, and the crunch streusel topping was the perfect touch! I’ll be making these very often for friends and family
I made these delicious muffins and they were superb. First, the batter by itself could be a snack it was so good. I know I lost at least one muffin eating batter. Second, the lemon zest gives the perfect subtle flavor without overshadowing the blueberries. Third, that topping makes this the best muffin compared to any coffee shop or bakery. We loved this recipe, but that is no surprise based on who wrote it. Thanks
Hi Kemile, what a glowing review! We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the muffins. Thanks so much for letting us know your experience.
I love the tulip cups for the muffins. My family loved the bakery style look. The muffins were absolutely delicious, and all the tips made the perfect muffin. Putting the crumble in the fridge made such a difference and the amount of lemon was perfect. My daughter is gluten free and I substituted Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour – still turned out beautifully.
Can I assemble all the ingredients but bake it the next day fresh before a party
Hi Huma, Zoë advises against completely mixing the batter up the night before because it will likely affect the leavening and can mess with the blueberries as well, especially if you use frozen. This recipe really comes together quickly, but to make it even faster you could do steps 2 and 3 the night before and then continue with the rest of the recipe in the morning. This will give you the best result. Enjoy!
If I use frozen blueberries, what are the adjustments that needs to be made?
Ileana, for frozen blueberries, just be sure to keep the berries frozen until the last minute before adding them to the batter. You may also need to increase the bake time slightly. Enjoy!
These muffins are worth the wait! You need to give them a try! These will be a routine recipe in our house from here in out! My neighbors loved them as well! Thank you Zoe!
Best blueberry muffin recipe ever! I have wild blueberries from Canada so delicious! Sour cream makes it so tender! Thank you!
These are the most tender muffins I’ve ever baked. Delicious! I did have to cover them with foil to prevent the tops from burning the last 8 minutes of baking.
I forgot the baking powder and baking soda and these still turned out great!! Fantastic recipe! Thank you!
i loved this recipe! Gave it to friends and they commented on how yummy they were. I have tried several blueberry muffins, this one is by far the best. Thanks Zoe!
Hi Zoe, where could I get those individual tins? Love this recipe btw I’ve made them in regular muffin molds about 5 times and taste amazing – but wanted to find those copper tins they are so cute!
Hi Jessie! Here is a link to the copper molds. Happy baking!
A very tasty blueberry muffin. I am curious if this recipe can be as good at the same time a bit less sweet? When you combine The topping sugar and the batter sugar, its a lot of sugar.
Hi Al, you could test reducing the sugar a small amount, but be sure not to reduce it too much as sugar plays a role in the structure, so decreasing too much will effect the texture. Zoe always recommends testing a half batch to make sure you like the result!
Hands down the best muffin recipe I’ve ever made!
Wow! These were amazing! I was really concerned as I don’t have a beater and had to do it the old fashioned way, by hand. It was just so dense that I was thinking it wasn’t going to be a happy ending. Boy was I wrong! And I made them because it was National Muffin Day yesterday!!
I absolutely love these muffins. I make them using gluten-free flour and no one can tell the difference. My husband says they are the best I have ever made. Thank you Zoe for sharing your recipes.
Just ate a freshly baked muffin and it was absolutely fabulous! I love, love, LOVE, lemon and blueberries together so this recipe was right up my alley. It took my butter and sugar quite a while to get light and fluffy, but I stayed patient, kept scraping down my mixer bowl and, boy oh boy, was it worth it! I experimented with the homemade parchment paper muffin cups suggestion (to avoid having streusel topping baked onto my muffin pan) and they worked great in my 12-cup standard muffin pan. I sprayed the insides with just a touch of cooking spray before filling. They took about 30 minutes in my oven to get to a nice deep golden brown (how I like my muffins). I turned the oven up to 400 for the last few minutes to get the topping to crisp up a bit more (my streusel might have been a bit too cold since it took me so long to cream the butter and sugar!). My only ingredient deviation was to add 1 drop of lemon essential oil (along with the zest of 1 lemon) at the creaming stage. My Mom loves muffins for breakfast; I can’t wait to share these with her! Thank you for an outstanding recipe and great tips! I love watching your show and videos!
Zoe, I love all of your shows and cookbooks! These are the best blueberry muffins! I’ve made them 3 times so far with great results each time. I baked a dozen using “homemade” parchment muffin cups, baked in 2 cupcake pans – alternating placement for uniform baking. My family loves them. Thank you!
Can the batter be made the night before and refrigerated until morning and then bake them?
Hi Wendy, we don’t recommend making batter ahead of time because when everything is mixed the leavener is activated and over time it can lose its effectiveness. It’s always best to mix batter right before you will use it. I hope this helps!
Thank you for the reply. I got up extra early in the morning and made these for some friends that were coming over in the morning and they were a big hit. This recipe is a keeper!!!
My family LOVES these!
My whole family and friends love these. I’ve also made the recipe with Cranberries and Orange Zest instead of Blueberries and Lemon Zest. Delicious.
Made them this weekend for a girls brunch. Big hit! They thought I bought them they were so tasty. Recipe was easy to follow. Thanks for making me look good Zoe!
The blueberry muffins turned out perfect! I forgot to purchase lemons so I substituted orange zest instead and they were so yummy. My son said it’s the best muffin he’s ever eaten. Thank you for this delicious recipe.
Only recipe I will ever use! It is the best! I have tried many recipes but this one is top notch! I love the hint of lemon zest flavoring. Perfect-o!