Perfect homemade blueberry muffins topped with a crunchy lemon streusel topping! Or check out my easy muffins recipe for basic muffins with more ideas for flavor variations. Have you been a victim of sad, soggy blueberry muffins? Well, not anymore! Here’s the recipe to make PERFECT blueberry muffins, right in the comfort of your home, with all my tips and tricks to guarantee deliciously buttery, blueberry-packed results!
What are muffins?
Muffins are a type of quick bread. They are easy to put together and quick to make too. Other quick bread type baked good are zucchini bread, banana breads (like this classic banana bread and whole wheat banana bread), scones (like classic cream scones, blueberry scones, pumpkin scones, date scones etc), and biscuits (like these breakfast biscuits, cheddar corn biscuits etc). You can read more about muffins in my basic muffins recipe post, and check out my archive of muffins and scones for lots more ideas! Blueberry muffins are probably my second favorite type of sweet muffin (right on the heels of chocolate chip muffins). My husband would gladly choose these blueberry muffins over chocolate chip muffins any day though. You can have these blueberry muffins as is – but to kick them up another notch, I added a delicious crumb topping (streusel topping) that is lightly infused with lemon flavor. This blueberry muffins recipe has been adapted from my basic muffin recipe with the addition of blueberries. There are a few ways you can amp up the flavor of these muffins even more, all of which I will share with you in this post.
Ingredients to make blueberry muffins
This recipe could not be any easier. We will be using the melting method (explained in my easy muffins post) to make this, since I’m only making one flavor, and just one batch. If you do want to make a double batch or more, then I would recommend following the Stella Parks method of making muffins that I shared in that same post above.
Dry ingredients
Dry ingredients include,
All purpose flour Baking powder Salt
It also includes additions like,
Blueberries (frozen blueberries or fresh blueberries – I prefer using wild blueberries) Lemon zest (optional, but recommended)
Wet ingredients
Wet ingredients include,
Sugar (white sugar or brown sugar or even a mix of the two) Butter Eggs Dairy (I use sour cream here) Vanilla extract
Ingredients for streusel topping
If you’re making the streusel topping as well, then you will also need,
Butter Sugar (you can use all brown sugar, or half and half with white sugar) All purpose flour Chopped almonds (optional)
You will also need,
Standard muffin pan (each well has a capacity between 1/3 cup and 1/2 cup) Cupcake liners – to make clean up easy 1/4 cup or 1/3 cup ice cream / cookie scoop
How to make blueberry muffins
Make the streusel topping
This step is optional, but a muffin with streusel topping is just divine! Making this is as easy as combining all the ingredients and cutting the butter into the dry ingredients. Much like making a pie crust, the butter needs to be cut into (rubbed into) the flour to get small clumps of butter coated in flour. The sugar will caramelize as it bakes and create a buttery, crunchy crumble topping! This streusel topping can be made days ahead and stored in an air tight container in the fridge.
Make the muffin batter
In a small bowl or jug, heat the butter until just melted. If the butter is really hot, let it cool down slightly. Add the sugar, and whisk with the butter. This will help the butter cool down as well. Next add the eggs, and the rest of the wet ingredients, and whisk well to combine. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to mix evenly. Add the blueberries and lemon zest and toss them through the dry ingredients. If you’re using frozen blueberries, add them while frozen – DO NOT THAW! Add the egg-sugar-butter mix into the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold the ingredients gently until just combined. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to not leave any dry spots of flour. Lumps are OK, but dry spots are not! You should only need about 10 – 15 folds to have all the dry ingredients hydrated. Take care not to crush the blueberries. Let the mix sit for 5 minutes. This allows all the flour to be completely hydrated. Finally it’s time to divide the batter into the muffin pan wells. Add about 1/3 cup of batter into each well. Use a cookie scoop to evenly place the batter in the wells. You can either add the streusel topping on top, or sprinkle some raw sugar or granulated sugar on top for some crunch. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, and the muffin tops are golden brown. This can take about 15 – 20 minutes. Once baked, let them cool for about 5 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool down further. I like to eat these while still warm, but they are just as delicious at room temperature too.
Can I make these muffins vegan or dairy free?
Yes! You can substitute the butter with oil or coconut oil or vegan butter. The eggs can be replaced with 1/4 cup pureed apple per egg, or an equivalent amount of chia eggs. The sour cream/milk can be replaced with a plant based milk. The texture will change slightly, but they will still turn out great with these alterations!
More tips on how to make perfect blueberry muffins
I’ve shared plenty of tips on how to make perfect basic muffins here. But here are some of the most important ones for this blueberry muffins with streusel topping recipe.
Do NOT over-mix the batter. It’s the secret to soft, moist muffins. The more you mix the batter, the more rubbery and chewy the muffins will be. Use sour cream for best results, but I have also used yogurt (NOT non fat yogurt), cream, buttermilk or milk. Use wild blueberries if you can get your hands on them. Frozen or fresh is also fine. The simple secret to having SO MANY blueberries in my muffins is using wild blueberries. The smaller they are, the more delicious blueberries you can pack into your muffin. Lemon brings out more of the sweetness of blueberries. If you only have one muffin tin, you can keep the remaining muffin batter covered in the fridge until the first batch is baked. You can keep this in the fridge for up to 30 minutes – 1 hour, however, keep in mind that the muffins may not rise as much then. Use cupcake paper liners for your muffin tins to make clean up easy. Alternatively, you can just butter and flour the wells in your muffin tin too.
How to store blueberry muffins
These muffins are best eaten within 24 hours. They are better when warmed slightly, and served with some salted butter. However, if you do have leftover muffins OR you’d like to bake muffins for a whole week (happens quite often in our house!), that is completely do-able too. To do this, simply FREEZE the muffins if you’d like to store them for up to 1 month. Then just let the muffins thaw out for a few hours before eating them, or heat in a low heat oven to reheat the muffins.
