Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins – Deliciously Fluffy Muffins Made with Buttermilk, Blueberries and a Crunchy Sugar Topping.
I can’t remember exactly when my family’s obsession with blueberry muffins started, but it’s deeply ingrained in our collective family subconscious. Case in point, my stepdaughter named our two cats Blueberry and Muffin. Here they are. That’s Blueberry in the foreground, and pretty princess Muffin in the background.
Blueberry’s not supposed to be on top of the kitchen table, but I had to take a picture before shooing him off. Isn’t he gorgeous?
Considering the names of our pets, I guess it’s only natural that we love blueberry muffins! The buttermilk really enhances the flavor of these wonderful muffins, giving them a richness and a slight tang that perfectly suits the sweet blueberries. I like to sprinkle the muffins with turbinado sugar on top, so they have a light candy-like shell with a soft and fluffy inside, bursting with berry goodness.
A few quick tips–
1) If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make your own by mixing 1/2 cup of milk and 1 1/2 tsp of lemon juice or cider vinegar. Mix well, and let the milk stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes until it begins to curdle slightly.
2) Don’t overmix the muffin batter! These muffins have a wonderful light texture that can become dense if you mix the batter too much.
3) If you want to make these muffins pareve (dairy free), you can substitute almond, rice, or soy milk for the buttermilk… they’ll still be yummy, but I recommend using buttermilk if you can. It adds a delicious flavor.
4) If you only have access to frozen blueberries, go ahead and use them. Keep them frozen and toss them lightly in a little flour before mixing gently into the batter. Frozen berries can be a bit delicate and may break apart a bit in the batter, turning it a bluish color, but the flavor will still be great. Baking time may be slightly longer due to the frozen berries, so check accordingly.
These muffins are so tasty. They’re just teeming with luscious, juicy berries. We like them for breakfast or brunch with a side of scrambled eggs. Enjoy!
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Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh ripe blueberries (or sub frozen - see note) (12 oz)
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- Turbinado or coarse sugar for dusting
NOTES
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Pick through the blueberries and discard any over-ripe, very soft or mushy berries. Rinse the blueberries in a colander and drain well. Pat dry with a paper towel. Reserve.
- In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla.
- Mix wet ingredients into dry using as few stirs as possible; you want slightly lumpy batter, a few streaks of flour are fine. Do not over-mix.
- Fold blueberries gently into the batter using as few strokes as possible.
- Line a standard size muffin tin (12 muffins) with muffin/cupcake liners, or lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Fill each cup all the way to the top with batter. I find the easiest way to do this is by using an ice cream scoop. One generous scoop of batter will fill each muffin cup.
- When the pan is filled with batter, sprinkle the top of each muffin lightly with turbinado or coarse sugar. This will add some sweet sparkle and texture to the top of each muffin.
- Bake muffins for 10 minutes. Turn the muffin tin around (180 degrees) and continue to bake for 5-10 minutes more, or until the muffin tops are golden and springy to the touch. Start testing after 5 minutes, and take them out as soon as they turn springy... don't overcook them, or they'll become dry.
- Let muffins cool for 15 minutes, then gently remove from the tin. Serve. Note: If you only have access to frozen blueberries, go ahead and use them. Just keep them frozen and toss them lightly in a little flour before mixing gently into the batter. Baking time may be longer, so test for springiness to ensure doneness.
Nutrition
My batter was super thick and hard to fold in the blueberries. But the recipe still came out good. I measured the flour by sifting it first then leveling it with a spatula. I did use unbleached flour. When i scooped the batter with ice cream scooper, it held its shape and I had to flatten it with a spatula. Im wondering if the unbleached flour is the cause of this very thick batter.
Great recipe. I haven’t made the muffins in a few months, but now I see the metric conversion is gone. Please put it back. I’m in Europe and that was very convenient! Thanks
Hi Lisa! I had to remove it because the function was buggy and causing issues for some recipes – it wasn’t always 100% accurate. There are many metric converters online, though, where you can plug in the full recipe and get a conversion. I’ll definitely put it back if we can get it working better!
I just made these and they came out wonderfuol! Very good texture and taste-printed up and now in my recipe book..I wish I could show a pic!!
Muito boa, ficamos fãs obrigada
😊
Such a simple and delicious recipe. I added 1/2 teaspoon cardamom and sprinkled swedish pearl sugar on top of the muffins before baking (instead of raw sugar.) They came out moist, sweet, and generously fruity.
I can’t wait to try this. I have been using an old blueberry muffin recipe but they don’t rise. I am using a silicone muffin tin and fill each one to the top. Before I make this recipe, just wondering…is there a trick to getting them to rise even a little bit?
Hi Susan, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. There are a few things that can contribute to muffins not rising properly. It’s important that they only go into the oven when it has reached the desired temperature, not before. It’s also possible that your leavening agents have gone bad and aren’t doing what they should. Overmixing or undermixing your batter can also keep muffins from rising. It’s hard to know for sure, but hopefully these suggestions help!
Lovely recipe!!
Hi Tori,
I have abundant mulberry from my tree and thinking of using it instead of blueberry.
Thoughts?
Hi Alfred, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. I think mulberries would be great! Most berries would substitute well in this recipe.
FRESH Raspberries work great with this recipe
Very delicious blueberry muffin. Easy to make and simple ingredients. I love the turbinado sugar on top as it adds sweetness and a crunch.
I am rating 5, though mine I would rate a 4 because I only had 1 cup fresh blueberries. Only change I made otherwise was to add 3 TBSP Chia seeds. One muffin had lots of blue berries which is needed to give that zest! Do not skimp on blueberries, and the chia seeds gave an added health benefit and texture. Thanks for sharing this recipe! Will make again with ample fresh blueberries!
This is a fantastic recipe. I’m using Australian-made buttermilk in Singapore and it worked out beautifully. Very moist and soft. The only caution is that I used less sugar than the recipe called for as I wanted to be “healthy”, but the muffins turned out not sweet enough (duh). I’d follow the sugar requirements to a T next time.
Use finally grated apple or finely diced apple instead of half the sugar. Same with banana.