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
This is an amazing recipe! Used our fresh picked berries from the yard & wow!!! Everyone loved these’
These turned our amazing! Absolutely delicious with perfect level of sweetness. I couldn’t help but add white chocolate chuncks along with the blueberries and I’m glad I did! Yumm yumm yummmmm!
I have made this 2 times now, I love the taste and the healthy oats. Both times the batter was too runny. I added handfuls of flour (so can’t tell you how much) which meant that the batter was over stirred (still good). Since i like a full muffins – the batch still only had 11 muffins. Could you update this for 12 full medium muffins. Also put turbino sugar sprinkled on top.
Can Evaporated Milk be used in this recipe?
We don’t recommend evaporated milk here, Karen.
These blueberry oatmeal muffins were excellent! Delicious and wholesome. Can this recipe be made into a loaf cake? If so, what should the oven temperature be and how long should I bake it? Thanks.
Hi Sharon, you can use the batter in a 9×5-inch loaf pan instead. We’re unsure of the exact bake time, but keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
What about oven temperature? Would I start at 425 degrees and turn down to 350, as with the muffins?
Hi Sharon, no, we recommend baking loaves at 350 for the whole time.
Sharon, did you try it out as a loaf cake. Would love to hear what bake time you ended up with? Thanks!
Excellent and moist. I live at high altitude and these came out perfect without modification.
I was about to ask this question! We live in a high elevation and was wondering what I needed to do to help this!! Did you use fresh or frozen blueberries? Did you top with oats and the sugar?
Made this recipe yesterday morning and by evening they were all gone! Thank you for including the metric and Celsius in the recipe, saves me so much time.
are rolled oats okay to use?
Yes, whole rolled oats are preferred here.
Forgot to say – I also swap out the milk for any plant based milk. Preferably coconut milk or banana milk. Those work just fine for us!
Great recipe, though even with weighing everything, using fresh blueberries, and filling to the top of each muffin well: it appears to have made slightly too much batter for a 24-well mini muffin pan from USA Pan. I had enough batter left over for maybe 5-6 more mini muffins.
Really enjoyed this recipe! Very easy to make and delicious. Not too sweet. I used 1/4 cup coconut oil and 1/4 cup butter just to feel a little less guilty and it turned out great.
can I double the recipe
Hi Kathy, we always recommend making separate batches for best results.
I have made these many times without any substitutions. This time though, I used unsweetened coconut milk and vegan margarine to make this dairy-free (for a recently diagnosed child with a cow’s milk intolerance). Something is off as the dough is tasteless – they look and have a similar texture – but next time I will add more salt and sugar. This is 100% my fault as I know this recipe is amazing, but trying to adapt recipes when you have new food factors to consider is always trial and error!
My grandson eats these like candy.
This is a lovely recipe. I added 1/4 cup of ground flax seed instead of flour and 1/4 cup of hemp seed.
This is easily the best muffin recipe I have ever tried. It is super versatile, I’ve found too that any fruits work well in this recipe, even oranges. These muffins are now a weekly breakfast staple in our family, and we rotate between different fruits/combinations. I really recommend it!
Just another person who loves all of Sally’s recipes, including this one. Its delicious and easy.
Amazing recipe! They’re very easy to prepare and so delicious! Definitely I’ll be preparing them many times more.
Thanks very much for the recipe, Sally.
Hi! Any ideas why my muffins sank in the middle? I followed the recipe exactly and I’m quite trusty of my oven! They were still very yummy and disappeared! Thank you 🙂
Hi Emilia, when muffins sink, it’s typically because they were slightly under baked. A few additional minutes in the oven should help for next time!
My husband & I loved this recipe. Was thinking of adding walnuts. Why do you think?
Hi D, walnuts would be delicious! You can try swapping some of the blueberries for walnuts. Keep the total amount of add-ins to about 1 cup.
Can I use buttermilk or add lemon juice to milk / buttermilk and some lemon zest?
Hi Diane, buttermilk could work but may alter the flavor slightly. You can add 2 teaspoons of lemon zest and remove 1 Tablespoon of milk/buttermilk and use lemon juice in its place. (Do not soak the oats in the lemon juice, just add to the recipe when you add the soaked oats.)
I love this recipe. I just need it a little sweeter. Any suggestions?
Hi Amy, we’re so glad you enjoyed the muffins! Since we use honey here for sweetness, we don’t recommend increasing it since that would change the wet to dry ingredient ratio. You could always drizzle honey on them before serving or you could even use a crumble topping like we do on our regular blueberry muffins. Hope this helps!
I enjoyed these muffins very much. I followed your recipe & made with the honey, all-purpose flour & used whole milk. I did top with some oatmeal and a tiny sprinkle of brown sugar.
Second time making, put about 1/3c honey, this time put 1/2t sumac in for the citrus flavor. Gonna see if that is good, also some extra blue berries. Was really impressed the first time.
Thanks for another fantastic recipe. I used everything you recommended except I only had whole plain flour and they were still delicious, they only rose slightly but I think this was probably due the density of the flour, I also added 1 very over ripe banana and the frozen blueberries but they were very big so there wasn’t all that many but fresh are very expensive here in darwin Australia,
Fresh would have been better, they weren’t dense or heavy still light because of your fantastic base recipe.
I love your recipes and have brought both your cookbooks as you use so pantry staples and not random one off expensive or unobtainable items which is fantastic up here in Northern Australia.
Thank you so much
Will buttermilk work?
Hi Anne, buttermilk could work but may alter the flavor slightly.
I used buttermilk and brown sugar and loved them!
Can I make this with stevia.
Hi A, We’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. 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 sugar substitutes. Thank you!
I’ve been thinking of using this recipe to make oatmeal/ apple
muffins. Maybe add a little cinnamon. Do you think that would work?
Hi Mary, you certainly can, or you might enjoy this recipe for healthy apple muffins. Hope whatever you try is a hit!
I have probably made hundreds of these muffins. My husband has one pretty much every morning. Found fresh blueberries work best. Tried to use 1 cup of AP flour & 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour but went back to just AP flour. Always used honey until about a month ago. Now use cane sugar. Still works out sooo good. Thanks Sally for a great recipe!
These muffins are amazing and they freeze well.
I have made this now more than a dozen times and it’s always perfect. We use 1-1 gluten free flour instead of all purpose flour. I have even subbed the honey for date syrup and it’s equally delicious! The only thing I am still trying to figure out is subbing out the butter foe applesauce or something to cut back on the fat and calories. Yet the butter just makes it ever so delicious!
These muffins are definitely in my “can’t eat just one” category! 5 stars!!
I love this recipe! The first time I made it I did it exactly as written. This time I used dark brown sugar and whole wheat flour. I think I prefer it this way. Thanks for another great recipe Sally! 🙂