Easy Blueberry Muffins {Moist and Fluffy}

Light, fluffy and extra moist blueberry muffins with a delicious streusel topping that’s guaranteed to give you a boost to your day. Fresh or frozen blueberries can be used to make this a breakfast you can enjoy whatever the time of day or season.

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I have had this easy blueberry muffin recipe for years and love it to this day. These blueberry muffins are not too sweet, bake up extra moist, and are so very good ’cause I get lots of requests for the recipe.

So I decided that it was high time to refresh my best blueberry muffin post with easy-to-follow steps, detailed pics and added tips so anyone can make these gorgeous muffins without a hitch.

It goes without saying that these blueberry muffins are absolutely scrumptious plain but if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I absolutely love a crumble topping on almost everything. I say almost, ’cause well… we can’t exactly have crumble topping on pulled pork now … or can we??😜

But what definitely deserves a shout is this sweet, crunchy cinnamon streusel topping – it never fails to elevate any muffin. It easily turns these good old-fashioned blueberry muffins into the best blueberry crumble muffins you will ever taste, in a snap.

this recipe

So here it is, I’m going to walk you through my tried and tested recipe for light and fluffy, bakery-style blueberry muffins (and blueberry crumble muffins if you’re like me and can’t resist a delicious crumble topping either!)

Why this is my favourite easy blueberry muffin recipe

• Made with 100% butter. I often make muffin recipes which use 100% oil (moist banana sponge cake muffins) or a butter-oil mix (double chocolate banana muffins) to make my muffins extra moist. But I’ll have you know that muffins made with 100% butter can be just as moist too and even more flavourful.
• Rich buttery taste. There’s nothing quite like the taste of rich and creamy buttery muffins! I don’t know about you but some oil-based muffin recipes can leave a greasy after-taste on the tastebuds – not pleasant.
• Light tender crumb. These muffins are closer in texture to cake than quickbread. So if you enjoy your muffins moist and a bit fluffy, this is the recipe to make.
• Quick and easy. This muffin batter starts with a creamed butter and sugar mixture which takes only 3 minutes to do. It’s easy and effortless if you have handheld beaters or a stand mixer to do the work. We’re using a creamed butter mixture, and not melted butter, because that’ll give us a lighter, airier and fluffier muffin crumb.

Ingredients to make blueberry muffins and streusel topping

This is my favourite easy blueberry muffin recipe because there’s no need to get baking supplies like sour cream, buttermilk, yogurt, or heavy cream. I guarantee you, these muffins will bake up moist without them.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• sugar. The amount of sugar in the recipe batter is just perfect and not too sweet. Please don’t be tempted to reduce the quantity because sugar is key to the moistness of these muffins.
• lemon zest. Adds a wonderful lemony flavour and aroma to fresh-baked muffins.
• unsalted butter. I like to use good quality butter for all-butter muffins to get that rich, buttery flavour. Danish and European-style butters are my favourite for baking buttery treats like cakes, pastries and cookies because the higher butterfat content enhances the flavour. Here’s a great article titled The 12 Best Butter Brands for Every Use, which I found really helpful when shopping for my butter. If using salted butter, omit the additional salt called for in the recipe.
• eggs. Use large eggs, each weighing 60 – 63 grams (2 – 2.25 ounces) in their shells.
• vanilla extract. For best flavour, use pure unsweetened vanilla extract. Vanilla essence is an artificial flavouring and isn’t as strong as the natural extract, so double the amount specified for the extract.
• plain flour. I use plain flour as it gives these muffins a firm crumb without being overly crumbly. You can substitute with the same amount of self-raising flour but omit the salt and baking powder. 
• baking powder. Leavens the batter so these muffins get a good rise in a hot oven.
• salt. Improves the overall flavour and balances the sweetness. If using salted butter, do not add the additional salt.
• milk. I use whole milk. If you’re baking in a high altitude or low humidity environment, the flours have different absorption properties and you may need to use more liquid to get the ideal batter consistency. Add an additional tablespoon of milk if your batter is too stiff.
• blueberries. I prefer to use fresh blueberries whenever I can because they bake up sweeter and juicier. Frozen blueberries work equally well but tend to stain the batter so you have to exercise some care when folding frozen blueberries into the muffin batter. Add frozen blueberries immediately out of the freezer bag without thawing.
• cinnamon powder. Makes a delicious cinnamon streusel topping with flour, butter and sugar.

Useful tools to make muffins

• 12-cup muffin pan (recipe makes 12 regular size muffins)
• paper liners or cupcake liners
• silicone spatula
• whisk or wooden spoon
• mixing bowls

How to make my easy blueberry muffins: Step-by-step

Note: The detailed recipe card including the ingredient amounts and full instructions can be found at the bottom of this post – if you want to skip to the recipe card, scroll down to the bottom or click the ‘Jump to Recipe’ button at the top of this post.

Muffins are super easy to make from scratch, but to make sure you get perfect muffins every time out of every muffin recipe, read these top 10 tips for making the perfect muffin before you start.

1. Make the cinnamon streusel topping. I like doing this as the first step because it allows the streusel time to firm up in the chiller while I’m making the muffin batter. A cold streusel mixture is also easier to break into larger or smaller bits, or to whatever crumb size you like for your muffin tops.
2. Mix lemon zest and sugar. Rub grated lemon zest into the sugar with your finger tips until the zest releases its aroma. This will give your baked muffins a wonderful lemony aroma!
3. Coat the blueberries. Toss the blueberries with some flour until evenly coated. This helps prevent the blueberries from sinking and settling at the bottom of the batter. If you’re using frozen blueberries, toss them in flour just before adding into the batter in the last step.
4. Mix the dry ingredients. In a mixing bowl, stir together two (2) cups plain flour, baking powder, and salt with a whisk until well mixed.

5. Beat butter and sugar. Beat butter and zested sugar at medium speed until the mixture turns pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl once or twice to make sure you get all the butter off the sides of the bowl.
6. Add eggs. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
7. Add vanilla extract. Next, beat in the vanilla extract until well combined, about 15 seconds.
8. Fold in flour and milk. Reduce mixer speed to low. Beat in the flour mixture and milk alternately in 2-3 additions, starting and ending with the flour. Do not over mix – just enough to get the batter smooth. 

9. Add blueberries. Gently fold in the blueberries by hand with a spatula or wooden spoon until well distributed throughout the batter.
10. Fill the muffin pan. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tray, using a heaped ¼-cup for each or a heaped ice cream scoop. Top with 2-3 extra blueberries if desired, and sprinkle over with streusel topping.

How to get bakery-style domed muffin tops

Chill the muffin batter

Chilling the batter for at least an hour allows the flour to absorb the moisture in the batter and thicken.

When you’re ready to bake, scoop the chilled batter into the muffin pan following the recipe instructions, and add on an extra 2-3 minutes of baking time.

Note: This will work only for muffin recipes that don’t primarily rely on baking soda for leavening because baking soda is activated once moistened and will lose its potency if the batter is left to sit for too long.

Bake at a high temperature

An initial high oven temperature of 190°-204°C (375°-400°F) helps the moisture in the batter convert to steam quickly, giving the muffins a rapid rise in the first few minutes of baking.

The edges and sides of the muffin also bake quicker, allowing the outside crust to set faster. This means that the uncooked tops and centers can only expand in one direction as they bake, and that’s upwards, creating domed tops.

Ditch the 3/4-full rule

I’ve always been cautious with filling my muffin cups and made sure to stick with the 1/2 – 3/4 full guideline.

But I’ve completely ditched that caution because I’ve found that when I fill my muffin moulds all the way up with muffin batter (but not so much as to overflow), my muffins almost always bake up with nice rounded muffin tops almost every instance.

I say almost, because it depends on the muffin recipe. Not every muffin must, nor should they, necessarily bake up tall with sky high domes.

Muffin recipes have different batter consistencies, and in my experience, thick or stiff muffin batters dome more than runny or thin muffin batters.

This is a fairly thick blueberry muffin batter, so do not expect the batter to settle in the muffin tray or liners. But that’s okay because once heated, the batter will spread as it bakes to fill the gaps and spaces.

Substitutions

While this is a tried and tested, easy blueberry muffin recipe, I totally understand if you want to switch things out because some of the ingredients aren’t suitable. Here are common ingredient substitutions you can use:

• Butter. Replace butter with the same amount (1/2 cup/113 grams) of margarine, ghee, shortening, or a neutral-tasting vegetable oil like canola, sunflower, safflower or corn. In terms of flavour, butter, margarine and ghee are more flavourful than oil. When it comes to shortening, you can use Crisco’s butter-flavoured shortening over regular shortening for a nicer flavour.

• Eggs. Yogurt and buttermilk work especially well as egg substitutes for muffin recipes. Replace 1 egg with ¼-cup (60 grams) of yogurt or buttermilk. Because eggs have some fat, using plain or Greek yogurt instead of low-fat will make moister muffins. If you prefer non-dairy options, use ¼-cup (60 grams) of soft/silky tofu, mashed bananas or applesauce to replace 1 egg. Do be aware that mashed fruit or purees do change the flavour as well as texture, somewhat, of these blueberry muffins.

• Milk. Here, plain yogurt, buttermilk, or heavy cream mixed with some water to get the consistency of whole milk will also work nicely. Both buttermilk and yogurt add a bit of tang, which complement these blueberry muffins really nicely. For non-dairy options, oat milk, unsweetened soy milk, almond milk and even coconut milk (if you don’t mind its inherent flavour coming through in your muffins) are good substitutes as well.

• Plain flour. Cake flour or pastry flour can be used in place of plain flour 1:1 but the texture will bake up more tender like cake. You can also substitute self-raising flour for plain flour 1:1 but omit the salt and baking powder called for in the recipe.

Frequently asked questions

Toppings

• plain – boost the blueberry flavour by adding extra blueberries on the tops of each muffin batter just before it goes into the oven to bake.
• turbinado sugar – sprinkle turbinado sugar in place of streusel topping over the tops.
• lemon glaze – make this 5-minute simple lemon glaze and drizzle over cooled blueberry muffins for an extra tangy zing.