Is there anything better than a perfect blueberry muffin? If I could only bake one thing for the rest of my life, it would be a moist, fluffy muffin loaded with bright juicy blueberries. It’s a recipe worth perfecting.
what makes a blueberry muffin perfect?
The perfect muffin recipe has to have great flavor and texture, first and foremost. Then it has to be quick and easy to make (no fussy creaming of butter, etc.) It has to be moist, and it has to rise well. A perfect blueberry muffin should be delicious but not too sweet, because it’s not a cupcake. It should be bursting with berries (no blueberry deserts in these muffins.) Speaking of which, we make blueberry muffins all year round, but we make perfect blueberry muffins in summer, when berries are at their best and brightest.
what you’ll need
- BLUEBERRIES ~ fresh or frozen will work. If you use frozen, do not defrost them first or their juice will bleed into your batter. Large cultivated blueberries will yield extra juicy muffins, but I adore wild Maine blueberries when I can find them. If you rinse your berries, be sure to dry them completely before folding into your batter.
- FLOUR ~ I use all purpose. If you’d like to go whole grain, I recommend white whole wheat, which is a good choice for muffins and cakes. You could also experiment with part oat flour for a different flavor.
- SUGAR ~ granulated sugar for the batter and I use a coarse sugar for the tops. If you like the flavor of brown sugar in the batter you can use that. If you want to use regular sugar for the tops, that’s fine.
- EGGS ~ large, at room temperature. See my post on how to get cold ingredients to room temperature super quickly.
- OIL ~ use a mild vegetable oil. You can easily substitute melted butter for the oil, both work well.
- BUTTERMILK ~ cultured buttermilk makes tender muffins. You have other choices here, including sour cream, yogurt, regular milk, or non dairy milks. Each choice will yield slightly different results.
- VANILLA and ALMOND EXTRACT ~ a teaspoon of each. If you don’t love almond, use more vanilla.
- BAKING POWDER, BAKING SODA, AND SALT
How to make old fashioned blueberry muffins, step by step
Time needed:Â 45 minutes.
- Combine wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl
Whisk together oil or melted butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk and extracts.
- Combine dry ingredients
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl.
- Fold dry ingredients into wet.
Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, until no dry flour streaks remain.
- Add in the blueberries
Gently fold in the blueberries, being careful not to crush them.
- Fill muffin cups
Fill each muffin cup almost to the top with batter.
- Bake
Bake for about 30 minutes (for large muffins) or until risen, golden, and a toothpick comes out clean.
blueberry-licious!
So there you have it, a blueberry muffin worthy of your time and effort. It’s light yet substantial enough that you won’t need two to satisfy you. They’re super fruity, and pretty enough for entertaining (and gifting!)
blueberry muffins tips and faqs
I use jumbo muffin paper liners in my standard muffin pan. The liners will extend above the cups and provide support. Fill them almost full and you’ll get big fat muffins worthy of your favorite coffee shop.
I use parchment paper muffin liners because they’re non-stick, so none of your precious muffin gets stuck to the paper.
Whether your berries sink or swim depends on several factors, including how thick your batter is, and how big your blueberries are. This batter is thick so I don’t have that problem, but for thinner batters, many like to toss the berries in a little flour before folding in.
Make sure your baking powder is fresh. Make sure your oven is preheated. Fill your muffin cups to the top or almost to the top. Let your muffin batter sit at room temperature for anywhere up to an hour for higher rising muffins. This is a little known secret, but it works!
If I’m just doing one or two, I love to zap them briefly, like 15-20 seconds, in the microwave. If I’m warming more, I loosely wrap the lot in foil and heat at 325F until warmed, usually about 10 minutes.
Double wrap the completely cooled muffins first in foil, then in plastic. Use within 3 months.
a perfect muffin is sheer heaven
- Perfect Rhubarb Muffins
- Perfect Lemon Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Muffins
- Double Chocolate Muffins
- Fresh Cranberry Muffins
- Triple Berry Muffins
Perfect Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mild vegetable oil (you can substitute unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled)
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk (substitute regular milk, alternative milks, yogurt, or thinned down sour cream.)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract (substitute more vanilla if you prefer)
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 cups blueberries , I use heaping cups for extra juicy muffins.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F and line a muffin pan with paper liners. Note: for big bakery style muffins I like to use jumbo muffin liners in my standard pan.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the oil (or melted butter,) sugar, buttermilk, eggs, and extracts.
- In a seperate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing until well combined, but don't over mix.
- Gently fold in the berries.
- Fill muffin cups to the top and bake for about 30 minutes, or until risen, golden, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Enjoy the muffins warm from the oven, or remove them to a rack to cool.
Notes
Nutrition
Delicious! Perfect muffins.
My aesthetician gave me a box of blueberries, assuming, I’m sure, that I’d be throwing them into smoothies. Ha! I used regular-size muffin liners, vanilla extract only (since my seldom-used almond extract had evaporated); and after letting the batter rest for half an hour, ended up with 17 generous-sized muffins. It’s been several years since I’ve made muffins and I’d forgotten how easily they come together. Thank you for this delicious recipe!
The beauty smoothies can wait, these muffins were a much better choice 🙂
These were stinkin’ delicious!! I used soured milk (milk with lemon juice), and added a sprinkle of sugar on top. Spot on!! Thank you for providing recipes I know will be great, and are often out of my comfort zone so provide something new.
Very good muffins! Great base for any flavor. Thanks!
I made these a few days ago and they didn’t last very long at ALL! My household is cheering right now as they see me making another batch. This time I was hoping for a slightly denser muffin that reminded me less of white cake. I’m using 2 cups AP flour and a half cup of a nut-blend flour that I happened to have on hands. I couldn’t find my almond flour/meal, but that might be an option next time. Maybe the split of the two flours should be more like half and half. I also wondered if subbing some of the flour for cornmeal would give me the results I’m looking for. Now, mind you, I’m certainly NOT complaining about your original recipe. I’m totally happy to repeat this recipe as MANY times as it takes, and there will never be any wasted muffins in this house! I should consider it my duty to keep trying, don’t you think?
Absolutely ~ I hope everybody plays around with these recipes, for sure. You might try a bit of oat flour, I love that texture.
These are terrific! I substituted for a gluten free attempt. I used 1 Cup almond flour the rest gluten free all purpose flour, coconut sugar and some chopped pecans. Everyone here is raving about them. Thanks Sue!
Great to know they work so well gluten free, thanks Patty!
These are delicious muffins! I made them this morning and topped with sparkling sugar. I did spray the jumbo liners with Pam with Flour so the liners came off easily. Yummy!
Hello, I would like to try using brown sugar in the muffins. Should I substitute the entire amount of granulated sugar with brown sugar, or should I use half of each? Thank you for sharing your recipes. They always taste wonderful.
You can usually substitute brown sugar for white sugar in recipes without much of an issue. I would start with half of each, though, to see how you like it.