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
Delicious. Rivals ANY fresh bakery goods and 10x better than grocery store products. I’ve been asked to make some with reduced sugar to suit personal tastes.
Me and my kids LOVED this recipe. We skipped the toppings and they were delicious. So soft and moist. Is there something I can substitute the white sugar with? I try to limit my kids sugar intake
Hi Anna! Sugar is used for moisture and texture in baked goods as well as taste. You can certainly try reducing the sugar, but the resulting texture will be different than intended. We haven’t tested this recipe with other substitutes.
I recently made for my kid with 50g brown sugar and 65g maple syrup to lessen the refined sugar (and no streusel topping) and 120g white flour/100g whole wheat, with plain yogurt, and they turned out great! I’ve made with both frozen wild blueberries and frozen raspberries, both good.
The flavor and moistness is so good, BUT… the batter was way too runny and I ended up with flat tops. I think next time I will either nix the milk or add more flour to thicken it.
I’ve had the same problem with them not rising much, the battery was quite wet.
Fabulous recipe. I have used your site for my favorite scone recipe and tried these muffins. Oh my gosh. They are incredible. I rarely make muffins but our store had great blueberries this week and we had quite a few. Looking out at snow I decided to try them. They were so easy to whip together. I could not find my muffin pan though. I think my daughter has it so I had to use my mini loaf pan. No papers so I used my bakers joy so they would not stick. Also used pecans as that’s what I had for the streusel. My husband took one bite and said WOW. They really are that great. So tender they were a little hard to remove from the pans, not being in papers. Melt in your mouth deliciousness. Thank you for this recipe. I took a photo but not sure where to add it.
I love this recipe, it has been my go to muffins for quite awhile. My family loves them.
My granddaughter was recently diagnosed with gluten intolerance and can no longer eat these . Do you know if they can be made with Bob Mills Gluten Free flour
Hi Rachel, We haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flours, but many readers have reported success using 1:1 flour substitutes (like the one you mentioned). If you try it, let us know how it goes!
I am not on Sallys team. But I have converted many of Sallys recipes to Gluten Free. I use King Arthurs Measure
For Measue Gluten Free flour. I bake using gram wt. The grm wt for 1 C King Arthurs Measure For Measure is 113 gr
per 1 Cup. Bobs Red Mill is still 1 C…but the gram wt is higher. If you just use Cup measurements, be sure to fluff the flour
with a spoon or fork, THEN GENTLY spoon/ sprinkle the flour into the cup and level off with the straight side of a knife. Everything else is the same. Bake time MIGHT varie just a bit.
No need to give up on a fave recipe to achieve great GF muffins….OH yeah, there is no taste difference either.
I love this recipe a lot, it’s not too sweet like store bought muffins, they’re perfect. I’ve also started adding a cheesecake filling that I found in another recipe. This muffin mix is the best for it.
Thank you for sharing this delicious creation The whole family loved! Gratitude and kudos for rocking at what you do! ✌
Sally’s Baking Addiction never steers me wrong. These were so delicious and easy to make!
Seriously unbelievable light, fluffy, best blueberry muffins ever! I love baking, with cookies as my specialty, but wanted a change. Bought some delicious large blueberries and thought about making muffins. After searching through quite a few recipes, I made this one and OMG, so happy I did. I have to say that by these are by far, the best muffins I have ever made and tasted. Thank you!!!
A new favorite! My daughter said “so moist and fluffy and the topping! Yum!”
OMG ! I just finished baking these muffins and they are truly light and fluffy. I was a little skeptical about the 450• oven temp and then reducing it, but the muffins are sooo tasty. The topping was simple and delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It’s definitely going to be my go to for quick, delicious muffins.
These were awesome! I had blueberries I needed to get rid of and I found this recipe. The muffins tasted so good that my dogs cleaned the plate before my family could try one! (At least I got one!)
This truly is my favorite blueberry muffin recipe. You just can’t go wrong with it. Everyone loves the streusel topping.
My husband has a sweet tooth and loves this recipe.
I have been searching for a great blueberry muffin recipe and FINALLY found it! I wasn’t sure if I’d like the sour cream, but it gave the muffins just a teensy bit of tang that was delicious. I used just a few more blueberries because I wanted to use them up, but it didn’t ruin the recipe. This is definitely a keeper. I also loved the tip on warming up refrigerated butter. Thanks!
These are the best blueberry muffins! I’ve made them several times to give as Christmas gifts to friends and neighbors.
Can I substitute the nuts on the topping for something else? I want to make these for my son’s classroom holiday party and I don’t know if there are nut allergies. Thanks!
Hi Mikaila, you can skip the nuts so it’s just a little brown sugar/cinnamon on top of each muffin. Or skip the topping entirely.
The best!Easy and perfect everytime. Won’t make any others.My husband and I are lucky we get 4 out of the batch.Our friends take them all.I don’t mind they enjoy them so much.
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.
These muffins were delicious! I ended up making only 12 muffins because I only had 1 muffin tray. The muffins didn’t overflow, but I did add a few extra minutes of cooking time until they were fully baked. They were moist and full of blueberries. The topping was also very tasty and paired perfectly with the muffins. Blueberries and brown sugar is a match made in heaven! I will definitely make these again!
excellent muffins. Followed recipe to a T. Moist, tasty and easy to make. However my DH bought these blueberries that were huge, which caused the muffins to be sticky and the juice from the blueberries drains out of them. Next time I will use regular sized blueberries to avoid the mess.
I filled to top as stated in recipe and against my better judgement, went over! Tasty
Hi Bschnidt, Did you bake the muffins for 5 minutes at an initial high temperature before lowering it? This initial high oven temperature should quickly lift up the muffin top instead of having it spread outward.
These came out perfect! I used whole milk vanilla yogurt because it is what I had and served warm with butter!
Can I add some bananas with this recipe?
Hi Doreen, Adding banana is a great idea. We would leave out the yogurt and sub in 2 small mashed bananas.
GUYS, YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS- BEST RECIPE EVER!
Lovely recipe, i used frozen blueberries and the batter turned purple XD! I’m gonna bake it now!
The blueberry muffins tasted great, but were much too crumbly. How can I fix that? Thanks.
This recipe went over fabulously at work. I have a question about using yogurt to keep things moist. I actually used low-fat vanilla yogurt and it was great. Would full fat yogurt be any better? Can I use it?
Hi Cindy, yes, you can use either type of yogurt. You won’t really notice a huge difference.
I made them again this morning, but all I had was buttermilk. Hope they turn out acceptable. It’s a favorite of mine.
Sorry for commenting again But I can’t quit making these . My Grandkids expect them every four days !! Thanks again for great recipes
These were so light and fluffy. Great recipe!