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.
I noticed the flour quantity for the flour is 2 cups on your website, but on the Magnolia website it says 1 3/4 cups flour? Is 2 cups the correct quantitiy?
Hi Monica! You should use the measurements in this recipe. Lots of people have made this one with success, so it’s tried and true! Publishers sometimes use different measurements based on their own style guides, but we know this recipe works well. Enjoy!
Love this recipe. Fortunately, the first time I made them I measured the blueberries by volume 1 1/2 cups which was fine. Second time I weighed the blueberries and since 175 grams did not look like the same amount of blueberries I used the first time, I looked up the weight of 1 1/2 cup of blueberries which should be 222 grams. You may want to correct the recipe for future users
Loved this recipe! I cut up parchment squares and the muffins rose up. I had no idea that’s how the big ones were made! Thank you.
I made these delicious muffins last year to bring on vacation for a quick yummy breakfast treat. Everyone loved them.
I was wondering if this recipe can be baked as one or two Blueberry coffee cakes?
If so wha size pan would you recommend?
Thank you,
Mary A
Hi Mary, Zoë has not tried it, but she doesn’t see why it wouldn’t work! Try a tube pan and test it with the same timing and temperature as the large muffins. Let us know how it goes!
Perfect blueberry muffins. Used the larger liners in the regular muffin/cupcake pan. The best muffins I ever made. Beautiful and delicious, too. Directions are clear and meticulous. I am going to preorder Zoe’s cookie book now since I love this recipe so much.
Fantastic!!!!
Baked them directly in the muffin pan. Used KA flour, because that was all I had. ♀️
Sadly, did not have quite 1 1/2 cups of blueberries, so just went with what I had, just over a cup. Used fresh Jersey blueberries, by the way.
Didn’t have fresh nutmeg so, use a smidgen of ground. The crumb top, amazing!!!!! The taste and the crunch were perfect!!! Thank you Zoe! This is a keeper!!!!
Do you use dark brown or light brown sugar? Thank you…
Hi Kaki,
Either work in the recipe and I grab whichever one I have on hand. The darker brown sugar has more molasses so gives a slightly richer flavor.
Enjoy! Zoë
While visiting my daughter at in Edina I thought what better time to make another Minnesota gals recipe. Blueberries were great at Target…big and juicy and perfect for my fins. Recipe turned out great and everyone loved them. Definitely a “keeper”. Thanks Zoe❣️
The best muffin recipe you’ll ever find!
I made it GF, but no one noticed the difference.
Super moist, soft and amazing crumble on top
Zoe, I just recently came across your baking show and made the blueberry muffins according to all of your directions. They are absolutely delicious and I love the lemon zest in them! I love watching your baking show and I love your home!
These are absolutely delicious! The lemon zest add a little extra flavor that makes these muffins stand out! A new favorite for sure!
Amazing recipe! Soft and moist muffins filled with blueberries. Run out of sour cream so did it with homemade buttercream and turned out perfect!
This recipe makes the BEST blueberry muffins ever eaten. Super packed with blueberries in the lightest, perfectly flavored muffin. Used creme fraiche. Recommend using tulip papers (DIY from parchment paper) so your muffin batter doesn’t escape, you will want to enjoy every bit.
This is the perfect blueberry muffin and a great way to start the day off!
I made these twice..once with sour cream and once with buttermilk. Recommend the sour cream. It makes the batter a little thicker which helps suspend the blueberries in the muffin a lot better. Everyone I gave them to raved about them.
We LOVED this recipe! We baked it in our outdoor Fontana Forni wood fired oven because I didn’t want to heat up the house in summer haha! They turned out perfect! My 11 year old daughter helped me make them and we had the best time cooking together. Thanks so much for this tasty recipe Zoe!
Yay! We are SO glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thank you for taking the time to review! How fun to bake them in your wood fired oven!
So, so good! I made mini muffins and jumbo ones in ramekins, both which turned out wonderful. The topping is a must now on all muffins!
Excellent and very easy to do. Biggest thing is don’t over mix and they will come out perfect every time! I makes these to ship to friends and they hold up perfectly. Tastes just like fancy bakery muffins!
This recipe is absolute perfection and super easy to make. My two boys constantly ask me to bake these and put in their lunch boxes for school. They refuse to eat store bought muffins now. Now they are asking me to make more batches because their friends want more at the lunch table.
These are the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever had. It’s a great recipe and has come out perfectly for me twice now.
I admit I was concerned in the beginning, since this recipe has the most sugar of any blueberry muffin I’ve used, but it really didn’t taste overly sweet. (Of course, most is in the crumble, and try as I might I did end up with a lot of crumble left over.) I couldn’t resist turning half the batter into blueberry cookies (inspired by the delicious ones served at Mattina in San Francisco)…they worked like a charm! I used 1.5 ounce scoops on parchment-lined sheets, baking for roughly a minute or two less than regular-sized muffins. (Interestingly, the lemon zest was far more pronounced in the muffins than the cookies, though it’s the same batter.) Thanks so much for the recipe!
These are my new go-to muffins! Perfect texture and flavor and the crumble topping really makes them special. Delicious!
This blueberry muffin is so good! My family thought they were the best they ever ate!
I made the blueberry muffins this morning so delicious. I will add more lemon zest next time. I ordered the tulip liners from Amazon. Love your recipes.
I made these in both larger tulip and standard muffin liners both turned out great. I added a few more blueberries. Close to 2 cups. The KA flour tip was good. They turned out fluffy. Yum! Best I’ve ever made.
These muffins are delicious – made the recipe exactly as written. The crumble topping really makes these great!
I have made these several times and every time I make them I get these are the best blueberry muffins I have ever had