These blueberry oatmeal muffins are simple, wholesome, and satisfying. Made with blueberries, oats, and zero refined sugar, you can feel good eating one or two, or three! Find the easy muffin recipe right here.
Type blueberry muffins into a search engine and within seconds, you’re gifted with millions of results, including my favorite blueberry muffins and lemon blueberry muffins! Does the world really need 1 more recipe? When the results taste this good, my answer is HECK YES! The entire batch was gone in 48 hours and it wasn’t long until I made them again. 🙂
Hearty Texture. Not Flat. Not Squishy.
These blueberry oatmeal muffins have a hearty, wholesome texture because they’re made with oatmeal. Oats in muffins and oatmeal muffins are two completely different things. Oats are a dry ingredient; oatmeal is a wet ingredient. If you want oat muffins instead of oatmeal muffins, you’ll love these applesauce muffins. Today we’re making OATMEAL muffins.
Oatmeal muffins are also different than baked oatmeal (like chocolate chip baked oatmeal cups), which are more like portable oatmeal. Still with me?
These oatmeal muffins are:
- Satisfying
- Simple to make
- Warm + buttery
- Made with oats
- Sweetened with honey
- Bursting with blueberries
Testing this recipe was massively interesting. If you look at this next photo, you can see the difference. The squat muffin on the left was wet and spongey. The tall muffin on the right was hearty, delicious, all the glorious thing I listed above. What’s fascinating is that there is only 1 small difference between the two and that difference is 20 minutes of time!
How to Make Oatmeal Muffins
There are only 2 main steps before baking the muffins.
- Soak the oats in milk for 20 minutes: By doing so, the oats will soak up a lot of the milk. This creates a thicker and creamier muffin batter. The soaked oats won’t actually be the consistency of oatmeal because we aren’t cooking the two together. Rather, the oats will rise to the top of the bowl.
- Mix the batter together: Mix the dry ingredients in 1 bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl. Mix together, then add the soaked oats & milk. That’s it, you’re done.
Then it’s time to bake the blueberry oatmeal muffins!
Ingredients for Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
Nothing but basics here! Besides oats and milk, you’ll need flour, butter, honey, egg, and a little cinnamon and vanilla extract for flavor. I encourage you to use melted butter instead of oil or a lower fat ingredient. The muffins lost a lot of flavor without butter and when I tested them with applesauce, they tasted rubbery and dry.
If you’re more of a muffins-should-have-chocolate person, go ahead and replace the berries with a cup of chocolate chips. Consider this recipe your oatmeal + honey master muffin recipe and play around with different flavors and add-ins!
Did you know? The thicker the muffin batter, the taller and puffier the muffin will be. A thick batter combined with my initial high temperature trick in the recipe below guarantees tall muffin tops.
More Muffin Recipes
- Apple Cinnamon Muffins
- Banana Muffins
- Morning Glory Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins & healthier Blueberry Banana Muffins
- Triple Chocolate Muffins
- Blackberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Pumpkin Crumb Cake Muffins or Simply Pumpkin Muffins
- Bran Muffins
- Zucchini Muffins
They couldn’t be easier and I would love to know if you try them!
Print
Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These blueberry oatmeal muffins are simple, wholesome, and satisfying. Made with blueberries, oats, and zero refined sugar, you can feel good eating one or two, or three!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240ml) milk
- 1 cup (85g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 1 and 1/4 cups (156g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1/2 cup (170g) honey
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (140g) fresh or frozen blueberries (see note if using frozen)
Instructions
- Combine milk and oats. Set aside for 20 minutes so the oats puff up and soak up some moisture. This is crucial to the recipe! (I usually melt the butter now so it has a few minutes to cool.) Don’t do this the night before as that’s too long for soaking. If you find the oats haven’t soaked up any moisture after 20 minutes, give it a stir and wait 10 more minutes.
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or use cupcake liners.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl until combined. Set aside. Whisk the melted butter, honey, egg, and vanilla extract together in a medium bowl until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stir a few times, then add the soaked oats (milk included, do not drain) and blueberries. Fold everything together gently just until combined.
- Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top. Top with oats and a light sprinkle of coconut sugar, if desired. 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 16-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 22-23 minutes, give or take. (For mini muffins, bake 11-13 minutes at 350°F (177°C).) 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, then transfer to the fridge for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: For longer storage, freeze muffins for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature or warm up in the microwave if desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | 12-count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Cooling Rack
- Milk: I tested the blueberry muffins with unsweetened almond milk, but any milk, dairy or nondairy, can work. If using frozen berries, see note below.
- Oats: I recommend whole oats. Avoid steel cut oats, quick oats, and instant oats. Steel cut oats won’t absorb the milk and quick/instant are too thin and will dissolve in the batter as it cooks.
- Flour: For best taste and texture, I recommend all-purpose flour. If you try whole wheat flour, let me know how they turn out!
- Oil: You can use canola, vegetable, or melted coconut oil instead of the butter, but the flavor will change. I strongly recommend melted butter.
- Sugar: You can use 1/2 cup maple syrup, coconut sugar, or packed light or dark brown sugar instead of honey.
- Berries: If using frozen berries, do not thaw and reduce the milk down to 3/4 cup (180ml). Frozen berries give off so much moisture and the muffins taste a little too wet. Reducing the milk helps. No other changes to the recipe ingredients or instructions.
- Why the Initial High Temperature? The hot burst of air will spring up the top of the muffin quickly, then the inside of the muffin can bake for the remainder of the time. This helps the muffins rise nice and tall.
- Nutrition: Using SparkRecipes calculator and calculated using unsweetened almond milk these muffins come out to 205 calories, 9g fat, 28g carbs, 2g fiber, and 4g protein each.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I was searching for a blueberry muffin recipe that was a little healthier than the standard versions around and made these muffins today. They were great (husband agrees)! I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 3/4 cup unbleached white flour, whole milk, honey, and fresh blueberries. Aside from using some whole wheat flour, the only other change I made was to increase the baking powder by an additional 3/4 teasp. Now, re-reading the recipe, I completely missed the baking soda! Darn, I guess I’ll have to make these again to see how that changes things ;). The rise was kind of middling and I’m betting that was the reason.
They did take a little longer to cook for me, maybe 2 minutes more than the longest time stated in the recipe. The muffin tin was lined with parchment baking cups and the recipe made 12 muffins. The muffins fall apart kind of easy – a bit delicate, but if you let them cool first (good luck with that) they stay together better. On half of the muffins I sprinkled the tops with the optional oats and a pinch of coconut sugar and like the addition of both. It adds a little flair and a nice little crunch. I appreciated the lower sugar amount in the recipe – definitely does not need more – and thought the flavor, everything, was excellent! I don’t normally bake with honey b/c I worry the flavor will be too strong or distracting, but that was not at all the case. I would not have been able to guess honey was used. Anyway, I will continue to use this recipe. Thank you Sally.
This is my third time making these muffins and while they taste delicious they always go flat as soon as I take them out of the oven!! How can I prevent this?
Hi Marie, These are extra moist muffins and can sink down as they cool. However, they could be under-baked if they’re sinking too much – a couple extra minutes in the oven won’t hurt. Trying baking for an extra 2-3 minutes next time.
Can I make this into a loaf?
Hi Julia, We haven’t tested this exact recipe in a loaf pan so we’re unsure of the bake time. You can use this Blueberry Muffin Bread recipe as a general guide, but a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf will come out clean when the bread is done.
I personally didn’t enjoy these muffins. I found the honey didn’t blend as a flavour and stood out which was unpleasant. They came out the oven as much and needed to completely cool to firm up and be edible. But then we’re not sweet enough, and tasted of honey! Maybe I did something wrong as these were a let down
You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s all personal preference. I find honey has an overpowering flavour in baking (love it in tea), but find 50/50 with maple syrup (or 50/50 with simple syrup (1/2 cup packed dry sugar and 1/4 cup water for this recipe) is much subtler. And I found these muffins needed 1/2-1tbsp sugar to make them lightly sweetened (rather than bordering on savoury). Lastly, I like a ‘drier’ muffin so I always hold back some milk and add after mixing the batter together for the ‘correct texture’ (I like a very thick batter that just falls off the spoon for reference). I keep the bake time the same, but use the lower value/- 5 minutes because I have a fan oven. I adore this recipe with my modifications so do try again! The soaked oats gives you an oat flavoured muffin with dessert muffin texture, it’s so worth trying again IMO. Hope that helps!
I enjoyed these. I want to add Ground flax to the batter; perhaps I can reduce flour to add it??? Not sure.
Also, I doubled the recipe and made 12 jumbo muffins. Definitely need to add more cooking time if you do this
If you add ground flax, you should reduce the flour by the same quantity (1:1) otherwise you’ll get a drier muffin. I find 3tbsp/25g/1/4 cup ground flax in a 12 muffin recipe is undetectable flavour and texture wise.
This has become my go-to muffin recipe – love how light and fluffy they turn out! This time, I actually used less than half the butter that was called for only because I ran out, and forgot to add my alternative add-ins (since I didn’t have blueberries) but they still turned out well! Pleasantly suprised.
I made these for the first time the other day and they were super. Kicking myself for making a small batch – not as much as the family cursing me!!! The entire lot was devoured in under 24 hours. Going to be making this again!
Loved these – really delicious!
I made this recipe with frozen blueberries, and followed it exactly EXCEPT :
– I used melted Earth Balance (60g) + olive oil (55g) equalling the 115g of butter above.
– I used Silk Soy milk instead of regular milk
I definitely needed to soak the oats for longer than 20 minutes (more like 30 – 35) for them to soften.
These came out perfect! Absolutely delicious! I will be having these for breakfast and making them again in the future.
I plan to make these with dried cranberries and pecans rather than the blueberries. Is there any other modification I need to make to get the recipe to come out right?
Hi Sue, No need to modify the recipe! If using dried cranberries, you may wish to soak them in liquid to plump them up a bit before adding to the batter. Let us know if you give them a try!
These were seriously unbelievable.. I’ve consumed a LOT of muffins (worked at a bakery for years then used to make muffins at home twice a week or so for to-go breakfasts) and these are absolutely the best muffins ever. THANKS, SALLY!!
These were lovely – thanks! They are a new family favorite!
So I went against Sally’s note regarding oats. I made the muffins with quick oats as they were the only thing I had on hand; and wanted these finished by the time my baby woke up from a nap. I soaked the quick oats in milk for 12 minutes. I made sure to have the other ingredients mixed up and ready to go so I could immediately add the blueberry mixture when the 12 minutes were up. The end result was fantastic! The oats didn’t dissolve and the muffins were delicious!!! This is the best blueberry muffin recipe I have found. Thanks Sally’s baking addiction!
I know you say not to let your oats soak overnight but is there a way you might be able to do this? We like to prepare our oats with a traditional soak but I really want to make these muffins! Thanks!
Hi Abby, we don’t recommend soaking them overnight for fear they will absorb too much liquid. If you try anything else, let us know how it goes!
This is my all-time favorite go to muffin recipe now! I make these all the time. They are so moist and delicious. I even have my neighbors addicted to them! One comment I use almond flour and I always bake half the recipe. I halve all the ingredients except the almond flour because you need twice as much of it. But the muffins are always so moist they fall apart. I started cutting the milk down to 1/3 cup but still they do not hold together. This is with fresh Blueberries. Any suggestions?
Hi Kathy, we haven’t tested these muffins with almond flour so we’re unsure of how it may be impacting the results. It might take a bit of tinkering with the amount of almond flour to get the proper texture you’re looking for. So glad you’ve been enjoying these muffins!
Hello! I am new to baking, and I was just wondering what kind of salt I should use for this recipe. I recently found out about the saltiness of different kinds of salt. I bought a box of coarse kosher salt. Is this all right to use for this recipe? Should I put more or less? Should I put it in a salt mill to make it finer? Thank you in advance!
Hi Mai, we use table salt in all of our recipes unless otherwise noted. However, you can use the salt you purchased here in a pinch. You can use the same amount, then adjust for future batches if necessary. Hope this helps!
These are FABULOUS!!!
Hard to believe there’s no refined sugar !
Hi. I want to replace the honey with sugar, how much sugar do I need to replace a cup of honey?
Hi Veronica, for this recipe, you can replace the 1/2 cup of honey with 1/2 cup maple syrup, coconut sugar, or packed light or dark brown sugar.
For the recipe as written (1/2 cup honey), you would replace with 106g/1/2 cup packed sugar and 65ml/1/4 cup water or milk. For reference, I use this sub all the time. Hope that helps!
Thank you for the helpful tips on soaking the oats, using butter for a better result, and the blast of high temp for the first 5 minutes! I made these using unsweetened almond milk flavored with vanilla and I used white whole wheat flour and they turned out moist and flavorful! Total baking time was the same, maybe out of oven one minute sooner than recipe. I can now see how it will be a fantastic basic go to muffin recipe that is honestly healthier than any store or bakery muffin.
Do you think dairy-free butter would work for this recipe?
Hi Rachel, The same amount of melted coconut oil or a neutral oil will work in place of the butter. The flavor of the muffins will change, of course.
Delicious! Making these for the second time after just making a batch a week ago. The first time, I had actually forgotten that I’d tossed out my old muffin pan, so i used a loaf pan. Using the high heat trick mentioned for the muffins, it still turned out awesome although it did need to bake just a touch longer. Can’t wait to try today with my brand new muffin pan!
Omg, I’m so glad this recipe works as a loaf! So much easier to store as a rectangle vs a circle.
These muffins are wonderful. I make them about once a week as they are great for fiber. Can they be made without wheat/all purpose flour? My cousin has celiac disease so absolutely no gluten. I would love to share the recipe but not sure if baking soda nd powder change with change of flour.
Hi Clair! We haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour, but some readers have reported success using 1:1 flour substitutes (like Cup4Cup). If you try it, let us know how it goes!
I made the muffins with almond flour but not knowing if I should change anything, I followed the original directions. The muffins didn’t rise and actually sunk in the middle and they were more moist than the original and fell apart. Do you know what I might need to change with using the almond flour? The flavor was great.
I didn’t try the gluten free flour as we didn’t like the taste of it from a previous experience.
Hi Clair! We don’t recommend almond flour as a substitute in our recipes it has very different baking properties than all-purpose. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for almond flour (like our blueberry almond power muffins). Thank you!
Hi, can the honey be replaced with applesauce? Thanks!
Hi Elise, the best replacements for the honey would be 1/2 cup maple syrup, coconut sugar, or packed light or dark brown sugar.
I have replaced honey with applesauce (or yoghurt/mashed banana/pumpkin purée) to replace the liquid (and add flavour) but I also add back the sugar for flavour and texture too (the muffins wouldn’t set up with less sugar. For this recipe, you would use 170g/3/4 cup applesauce (same weight as honey) and 106g sugar (1/2 cup packed). Hope that helps!
These are a winner!
Making these for the second time already! Amazing recipe. I love how they aren’t too sweet. I also added about 2 tsps of pumpkin spice rather than cinnamon for the fall. Now i’m trying with the blueberries cut in halves and a batch with mini choc chips. Thank you!!
Hi! I’m trying this with half mini and half regular sized (12 mini, 6 regular). Do I still cook 5min at 425 then decr to 350 but simply remove the minis earlier? Thanks!! Making for my 2 y/o 🙂
Hi Kelly, for mini muffins, bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes total (no initial high burst of heat). Enjoy!
These are great! I like them as jumbo muffins so they serve as a quick snack/breakfast. I have lots of apples left, would they work with apples instead of blueberries? Would I need to to change the fluid amount?
You can definitely use chopped apples instead of blueberries. No other changes needed!
Hi Sally, the muffins turned out with nice high domes and were not too sweet. But when I tried them a couple of hours after they came out of the oven, they stuck in my throat and the batter was very thick. I reduced the milk to 3/4 cup as I used frozen berries as per directions. I used brown sugar instead and reduced to 1/4 cup as we’re a low sugar household. Admittedly, they didn’t stick in the throat the next day. Should I have stuck to 1 cup of milk? And does soaking time have anything to do with the texture?
Hi Eleanor, it sounds like the reduced sugar could be the culprit. Sugar plays a big role in moisture and texture as well, which could be why the batter was extra thick. For next time, you can certainly try adding more milk (slowly, just a tablespoon or two at a time) if you’re going to reduce the sugar. Thanks so much for giving these a try!
Ahh, forgot about liquid vs dry/granulated sweetener. Thanks for the tip. Will add milk by the tablespoon next time I try this.
I used wheat flour and they turned out awesome! Super hearty and filling. Going to try this recipe with spelt flour next
Did you use the same temp settings and time as mentioned in the recipe?
Just to let you know that I always make your recipe using 3 very ripe bananas and it comes out perfect. I cut the milk back to 3/4 cup, and omit the sweetener (diabetic). I also add a handful of dried cranberries and a few chopped pecans for extra flavor and texture. Thanks so much for a recipe I make at least every 2 weeks!
I made the muffins were delicious!!!
I made these before and loved them.. want to make again but I am out of honey. could I sub for maple syrup?
Jenna- I replaced the honey with maple syrup because of its health benefits plus I just love the flavor, and they turned out awesome!