This easy recipe yields a dozen of the softest, fluffiest, most deliciously buttery blueberry muffins. Topped with a crunchy cinnamon brown sugar streusel, these rival any bakery muffin, but come together quickly in your own kitchen. They’re prepared with simple ingredients, so you can be biting into a fresh, warm blueberry muffin in under an hour.
I originally published this recipe in 2014 and have since added new photos and helpful success tips.
Muffins are a perennial favorite because they’re quick and easy to make and the flavors are endless (just like scones). Everyone appreciates a fresh batch of muffins and, best of all, muffins double as breakfast and snack. (Or in the case of double chocolate muffins… dessert!)
But when it comes to muffin varieties, blueberry muffins hold the crown. Nothing compares to the classic blueberry muffin, and today I’m showing you exactly how to prepare my very best version.
This is my family’s favorite blueberry muffins recipe, and going by the hundreds of 5-star reviews it’s received, it’s a family favorite for many other home bakers, too!
One reader, Jes, commented: “Best blueberry muffins I have ever had—no bakery or store or restaurant that I’ve ever visited has ever produced a blueberry muffin that could compare to this. ★★★★★“
Another reader, Sara, commented: “Best blueberry muffins I have ever had in my 80 years! ★★★★★”
And another reader, Kathy, commented: “This truly is my favorite blueberry muffin recipe. You just can’t go wrong with it. Everyone loves the streusel topping. ★★★★★“
Why Are These Our Favorite Blueberry Muffins?
They’re a texture lover’s dream with a buttery soft crumb, juicy blueberries, and a sweet crunch on top. They’re not as large and dense as my jumbo blueberry muffins and have a little more flavor from the brown sugar and butter.
These muffins stand out from the rest because they’re:
- Buttery and moist
- Soft and cakey, not dense
- Easy to prepare
- Made with EXTRA blueberries (and you can use fresh or frozen)
- Topped with an easy 3-ingredient sweet streusel
Since I first developed this blueberry muffin recipe, I’ve baked dozens of variations—swapping blueberries for apples, peaches, and other fruits. In fact, this blueberry muffin recipe quickly turned into my go-to base muffin recipe, a batter you can turn into infinite muffin flavors. I also have the recipe in my newest cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
How to Make the Best Blueberry Muffins
There are no secret ingredients or complicated steps in this blueberry muffin recipe. You only need a few bowls and a mixer… and a muffin pan, of course!
- Whisk the dry ingredients: Flour, leaveners, and salt.
- Mix the wet ingredients: Butter, sugars, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla.
- Combine wet & dry, then add milk: You can use any type of milk, dairy or nondairy, or even buttermilk (see Notes).
- Spoon into muffin pan: Fill those liners all the way to the top!
- Add streusel topping: Just brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped walnuts. See below for suggested alternatives.
- Bake!
That’s it! The sour cream is the magical ingredient because it adds so much moisture and produces the softest blueberry muffins ever. If you don’t have sour cream, you can use yogurt like we do in lemon blueberry muffins. Or you can use buttermilk to replace both the milk and the sour cream.
How to Create the Perfect Tall Muffin Tops
For tall bakery-style domed muffin tops, there are 3 directions to follow closely:
- Make sure your muffin batter is THICK. (This one is!)
- Fill your muffin tins/liners all the way to the top.
- Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at a high temperature, and then lower the temperature while keeping the oven door closed. This initial high oven temperature quickly lifts up the muffin top. Once the temperature is reduced, the centers of the muffins bake. I recommend this in nearly all of my muffin recipes. (These crumb cake muffins are an exception to the rule!)
Have I mentioned what a treat these are with a swipe of homemade honey butter, too? Cinnamon butter is also an amazing pairing with these muffins!
It depends on the recipe. My team and I wouldn’t consider these healthy blueberry muffins because they’re made with butter, flour, and sugar. However, they’re homemade and you know exactly what’s in them, vs. something store-bought. If you are looking for a healthier alternative, you’ll appreciate these blueberry banana muffins, bran muffins, or applesauce muffins.
Absolutely. You can simply omit the nuts, or swap the streusel here for the crumb topping from this recipe for peach streusel muffins. Or skip the streusel topping entirely, and just top the muffins with some coarse sparkling sugar for a sweet crunch that’s also pretty!
Yes! If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw them before adding to the batter.
You can toss the blueberries with a Tablespoon of flour before you add them to the batter, but it’s not really necessary here because the muffin batter is so thick.
How to Freeze Blueberry Muffins
You can freeze the muffins for up to 3 months. Cool completely and then place the muffins in a freezer-friendly container or bag. When ready to eat, thaw in the refrigerator (overnight) or at room temperature on the counter. To warm up, microwave the thawed muffins for about 20 seconds or bake at 300°F (149°C) for 6–10 minutes.
Blueberry Muffin Variations
- Blueberry Muffin Cookies
- Blueberry Muffin Bread
- Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Sparkling Jumbo Blueberry Muffins
- Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
- Blueberry Almond Power Muffins
- Healthy Blueberry Banana Muffins
Favorite Breakfast Recipes
- Breakfast Casserole (so easy!)
- Homemade Bagels & Homemade English Muffins
- Perfect Homemade Quiche
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Scones Recipe
My Best Blueberry Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These blueberry muffins are buttery, soft, and moist. For that bakery-style goodness, add an easy cinnamon brown sugar topping. This thick muffin batter combined with my initial high oven temperature trick guarantees tall muffin tops. Prepared with basic ingredients and a couple mixing bowls, you’ll appreciate this easy breakfast recipe.
Ingredients
Topping
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (67g) chopped walnuts (or pecans)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Muffins
- 1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120g) sour cream or plain/vanilla yogurt, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 cups (210g) fresh or frozen blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or use muffin liners. Set aside.
- For the topping: Mix all of the topping ingredients together. Set aside.
- For the muffins: Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) On medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla extract on medium speed until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, add the dry ingredients and milk into the wet ingredients and beat until combined. Batter is thick and creamy. Fold in the blueberries.
- Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top. Spoon brown sugar topping on each, gently pressing it down into the surface so it sticks. Bake for 5 minutes at 425 then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 18–20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 23–25 minutes, give or take. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.
- Muffins stay fresh covered at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Freeze baked & cooled muffins for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature before enjoying.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Cooling Rack
- Sour Cream: Sour cream adds so much moisture. Plain yogurt is a great substitute—I recommend plain Greek yogurt, any fat content. Unsweetened applesauce or mashed banana may also be used.
- Milk: You can use any milk, dairy or nondairy. I recommend avoiding nonfat milk, however.
- Can I Use Buttermilk? Yes, you can use buttermilk in this recipe. Use it to replace BOTH the sour cream and milk. Use 3/4 cup (180ml).
- Blueberries: If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw.
- Can I Make the Streusel Without Nuts? Yes! You can simply omit the nuts, or swap the streusel here for the crumb topping from this recipe for peach streusel muffins. Or skip the streusel topping entirely, and just top the muffins with some coarse sparkling sugar for a sweet crunch that’s also pretty!
- Why the initial high oven temperature? As instructed, bake the muffins for 5 minutes at an initial high temperature, then lower it. This initial high oven temperature quickly lifts up and sets the tall muffin top. Once the temperature is lowered, the centers of the muffins bake. I do this in all my muffin recipes including zucchini muffins, lemon poppy seed muffins, and banana muffins, too.
- Jumbo & Mini Muffins: For a jumbo muffin pan: 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce to 350°F for 22–25 minutes for a total of 27–30 minutes. Makes about 6. For mini muffins: 350°F (whole time) for 12–14 minutes. Makes about 36–40.
- Quick Bread: Here is my blueberry muffin bread, which is essentially the same recipe in a loaf pan.
- Why is everything at room temperature? All refrigerated ingredients should be at room temperature so the batter mixes together easily and evenly.
Reader Comments and Reviews
These were delicious! Honestly even better the next day than they were fresh
These look beautiful and taste good. However, we found them to be a bit too sweet for our liking. If you like a muffin that is less cake-like and more hearty – this isn’t the recipe for you.
Made these a while ago but I recall just how amazing they were. I made some with blueberries in them, but also with raspberries and banana and they turned out just fine. Delicious — had to fend off my family to get some myself. Needless to say, they were a big hit.
Hi! I loved the recipe! I’m gonna baked them for the weekend. Can I replace the butter for oil? Thanks❤️
Hi Mina! We don’t recommend oil for these muffins as it’s not possible to cream oil. The creaming step is crucial to the muffin’s texture. You’ll also lose a lot of flavor. You could try solid coconut oil instead, but we fear the texture will be greasy (and, of course, lacking butter flavor).
Great recipe.
This recipe is a winner!!! So very good and my family loved them! I added some fresh strawberries as I didn’t have the full amount of blueberries needed and they still came out great!! I omitted the pecans in the streusel topping due to an allergy.
You did it again Sally!! Another fantastic recipe!! Thank You!!
Recipe’s okay, I guess.
But do not under any circumstances fill your tin to the brim. All you get are out of shape muffins that stick together and are insanely ugly. Especially after you put on your topping. The batter’s not strong enough to rise properly with it and just mush to the sides.
Bake your muffins and add the topping afterwards. Maybe even roast your walnuts in a pan with the sugar and cinnamon to get that same caramelized effect.
2/5 Stars
Can I use a cake pan? I have no muffin pans lol
Hi Luna, do you have a loaf pan? You might like our blueberry muffin bread instead — it’s essentially the same recipe but in a loaf pan.
This is the second time I’ve made these. My kids don’t eat nuts, so I left off the topping the first time. This time, I replaced the nuts in the topping with ground flax seed. It worked perfectly! These muffins are delicious with or without the topping. Thanks for the recipe!
Really good! I’m a big sweet tooth girl so actually wished they were a little sweeter. I’d make a few small adjustments next time but over all super solid! Thanks for sharing
Since trying this recipe (I opted for vanilla yogurt) I have nixed my 25 year blueberry muffin recipe and replaced it with this one.
The streusel topping is just what I was looking for to make my blueberry muffins better.
I made these today and made a few adjustments to make them a 1 bowl mix. I did like you said, all liquids to room temp, but I mixed all of the dry, including the sugars in one large bowl. Then I added the butter, mixing it with a pastry knife until it was in small pieces, finally I added all the wet ingredients & stirred by hand until fully mixed. Then I added 2 cups of fresh frozen blue berries that I had coated in flour.
I made jumbo muffins, they were MARVELOUS!
They came out so good! Definitely recommend
Especially for mother’s day!
These are the best blueberry muffins ever! I used plain Greek yogurt instead sour cream, maple syrup instead sugar and I left out the salt. The streusel was a perfect addition to the muffin!
After reviewing A LOT of blueberry muffin recipes this one sounds like the winner! I just have one questions, do you feel using plain greek yogurt will be an issue if thats what I have on hand?
Hi Anna, Greek yogurt works wonderfully! Enjoy!
All of your recipes are excellent! Only changes I made were that I left out the nuts in the topping and ended up adding the milk at the same time as the yogurt. Made 12 perfect muffins.
Hubby had a taste for blueberries. A search landed me with 2 recipes. I could tell from the ingredients that this was the better choice and you did not disappoint! These blueberry muffins were outstanding. Thanks all for the tip about dusting the blueberries with flour to prevent them from sinking. Will do that next time!
These were amazing! The most moist muffins ever! It was a little too salty, what can I do to fix that? I followed the recipe to the T, should I put less salt?
Hi Dana, so glad to hear you enjoyed these muffins! If they were a bit too salty, you can try reducing the salt to 1/4 teaspoon (but don’t leave it out entirely).
This is the most amazing recipe ever! All 10 muffins were consumed by 3 people in a day.
This recipe was perfect. My grandson was spending the night and requested blueberry muffins for breakfast. I chose not to use the streusel topping and they were still delicious!! I used the sour cream and dusted the blueberries w/flour to help keep them from sinking…turned out great. Highly recommend this recipe!
I made these yesterday and agree the muffins are very soft and moist and good so I will make them again. I used 2 cups of fresh blueberries and because we liked the extra berries I plan to use 3 cups next time. I also dusted blueberries with 1 tablespoon of flour before addition to prevent them from sinking. I found the Streusel topping too sweet but like the crunch so plan to only use 1/4 cup of brown sugar next time instead of 1/2 cup.
Hi!
Can these be made with cake flour instead of AP flour?
Hi Ash, You can certainly try cake flour instead of all-purpose flour. The muffins will be very light and may not hold their shape outside of the muffin wrappers though. For best results, we recommend sticking with the recipe and using all-purpose. Let us know what you try!
The cake flour worked beautifully! I increased the flour amount by about 2-3 tablespoons. Instead of the muffin wrappers (since I didn’t have any), I buttered and floured the muffin tin using the AP flour just for a bit of insurance. They were fantastic!
I’d love to know more about how best to layer the streusel!! Thank you ☻
For the streusel topping, simply spoon it evenly across all the muffin tops. Then, you can gently press it into the tops of the muffins so that it sticks and doesn’t become separated from the muffin. Hope you enjoy this muffin recipe!
Thank you! I specifically saw a comment about layering the streusel and was under the impression that people were putting streusel in the middle of their muffins. I was wondering about how best to do that ☻
These were the best blueberry muffins that I’ve made thus far, or had anywhere else for that matter. DELICIOUS. Followed the directions to the T and they came out moist and fluffy. My husband, who is not a sweets lover had 2 after they cooled. He raved about them. Thank you for a great recipe. I used the yogurt instead of sour cream.
Hi! Is it ok to make the batter ahead overnight and refrigerate then add blueberries just before baking?
Hi Barbara! We don’t recommend it. As soon as the batter is mixed together the leaveners are activated and if you wait too long to bake it the muffins won’t rise properly.
Do you think these could be baked in a jumbo muffins tin? I made the blueberry oatmeal muffins and my family loved them but complained they were too small…. They are hungry folk so wondering if any muffins can be made in the jumbo pan or just your jumbo blueberry muffins?
Hi Cheralynn, You can turn these into jumbo muffins– follow the same baking instructions as our jumbo blueberry muffins.
I made this withought the topping and put flour on the blueberry’s, it came out so good!!
I baked this recipe for brunch but instead used the streusel topping from the zucchini bread recipe since I loved it so much! Didn’t come out quite as pretty but the taste is all that matters 🙂 it was a nice refreshing muffin for the morning!
These muffins were so easy to make and absolutely delicious!
I love this recipe. I’ve made muffins 3 times over the past 4 days. Does any nutritionist out there know how roughly many calories would be in one normal sized blueberry muffin? The recipe makes me 8 normal sized muffins.
Thank you!
Hi Est, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp