This post contains affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
I spent years tweaking my favorite blueberry muffin recipe to produce perfect light and fluffy muffins – and you can use fresh, frozen, or even dehydrated berries to make this perfect bakery-style treat. We love to make big batches of these muffins and freeze some so we always have them on hand – my kids love them for breakfast with some butter and eggs on the side.
Don’t want all the extras in a recipe post? We provide a skip to recipe button in the top left corner, as well as a clickable table of contents, just below, to help make this page easier to navigate.
At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe – my goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
I want each reader to walk away with a solid knowledge of each recipe, with all of the tips I’ve gathered from extensive testing of each recipe. I also answer questions my friends and family have asked about my recipes, to help everyone better understand the processes we use – and why!
Table of contents
Best Easy Blueberry Muffins
One of the reasons I truly love this recipe is it isn’t too fussy – while you will cream together wet ingredients in a large bowl, and then sift in dry ingredients, you don’t have to be nearly as precise, and I’ve been known to dump everything in a bowl while in a hurry and have it come out just fine.
This recipe is the best for jumbo muffins – they stay nice and moist and don’t dry out.
If you need a great jumbo muffin pan, click here.
If you love blueberries, be sure to visit my easy blueberry peach cobbler and blueberry dutch baby (oven pancakes) recipes as well!
Moist Blueberry Muffins Ingredients
- Butter – unsalted softened butter adds a richness to these muffins you can’t match with oil or anything else. You can use margarine if you prefer.
- Sugar – granulated white sugar sweetens the muffins.
- Eggs – eggs give these muffins a lift and an extra protein content for a rich batter.
- Vanilla extract – vanilla extract gives a strong floral taste to the batter.
- Lemon juice – lemon juice gives these muffins a sharp kick that compliments the blueberries, add the zest of the lemon before juicing for extra kick.
- Buttermilk – you can use milk if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, but we love the flavor buttermilk provides to this recipe. Make your own buttermilk by adding a few drops of vinegar to whole milk and letting it sit about 5 minutes.
- All-purpose flour – flour gives the muffins structure and a great texture.
- Salt – salt is important for seasoning the muffin batter, use a fine grain sea salt.
- Baking powder – this great leavener will make your muffins bubbly in the oven and light after baking.
- Blueberries – I often use dehydrated blueberries since they don’t sink when mixing, as pictured in this post. See FAQs for more information about what type of blueberries to use.
- Sanding sugar – this large grain sugar gives a nice finish to the muffins just before baking.
- Butter – melted butter helps the sanding sugar stick, use salted butter.
How to make Jumbo Blueberry Muffins
Once you have assembled the ingredients, use the following method:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cream together the butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar until it becomes light and fluffy, preferably in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer.
- Add in the eggs, one by one, making sure you beat well after each addition.
- Stir in vanilla, lemon juice, and buttermilk and mix well to combine.
- Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder into to the sugar, buttermilk, butter, and eggs. Using a sifter will help to reduce clumping and prevent you from overworking muffins.
- In a small bowl, lightly mash/smush about half of the blueberries with the back of a spoon (sort of like muddling mint in a drink) and then stir into the batter.
- Fold in the remaining blueberries. We also like to save a couple to drop right on the tops of the muffins.
- Line a 6 cup jumbo muffin tin or 12 cup standard muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Fill with batter – leave 1/3 muffin tin/liner for muffins to rise above.
- Sprinkle the 3 teaspoons sanding sugar over the tops of the muffins, reduce oven heat to 375, and bake at 375 degrees for about 30-35 minutes.
- Optional: Reserve sanding sugar until end of cooking. In final 10 minutes of baking, brush tops of muffin with melted butter. Top with sanding sugar. Continue baking until cooked until toothpick inserted comes out completely clean.
- Remove muffins from tin and cool at least 30 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Tips for making the Best Blueberry Muffins
Preheat the oven hotter – I prefer to preheat my oven to 400 degrees before putting my muffins in, so it is piping hot to help the muffins rise. When it’s time to put the muffins in the oven, reduce the heat to 375 degrees, and bake until golden brown on the sides and top.
Grease your muffin tins well – even when you line with muffin liners you want to make sure you, they don’t stick.
Skip the muffin cups – for extra crunchy sides, use a nonstick pan and skip the muffin baking cups.
Add extra fruit flavor – we love the addition of lemon juice to muffin batter, but you can also add a little orange, some almond extract, raspberry, whatever flavor you really love!
Sprinkle with sugar – try sprinkling a little brown sugar on top of the muffins instead of sanding sugar for a bit of extra caramel sweetness.
What to serve with the Best Blueberry Muffins
Coffee: The robust flavor of coffee complements the sweetness of blueberry muffins, creating a balanced taste experience. A hot cup of coffee can also enhance the muffins’ buttery texture.
Tea: For a more soothing pairing, tea—be it black, green, or herbal—can offer a gentle contrast to the muffins’ richness. Earl Grey, with its hints of bergamot, pairs particularly well.
Fresh Berries: Serving blueberry muffins with a side of fresh berries, such as strawberries, raspberries, or more blueberries, can intensify the fruity flavor and add a refreshing note.
Yogurt: A dollop of Greek yogurt on the side or on top of a muffin can add a creamy texture and a tangy flavor, which contrasts nicely with the muffin’s sweetness.
Nut Butters: Spreading almond or peanut butter on a warm blueberry muffin can add a nutty flavor and a creamy texture, enhancing the overall taste and making it more satiating.
Honey or Maple Syrup: Drizzling a little honey or maple syrup over a blueberry muffin can add a natural sweetness and moisture, accentuating the blueberries’ flavor.
Lemon Curd: The tartness of lemon curd can provide a bright contrast to the sweet and tender muffin, highlighting the blueberry flavor.
Cheese: Surprisingly, cheese, especially a mild creamy one like ricotta or cream cheese, can be a great companion to blueberry muffins, offering a savory contrast to the sweet and fruity flavors.
Iced Beverages: On a hot day, iced coffee or iced tea can provide a refreshing complement to the sweet and soft texture of blueberry muffins.
Smoothies: A fruit smoothie, particularly one with complementary flavors like banana, vanilla, or additional berries, can round out a nutritious and satisfying breakfast or snack along with your muffin.
How to store Moist Blueberry Muffins
To keep blueberry muffins moist, let them cool completely before storing them in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. If storing longer, you can refrigerate them, though this may cause some drying. For extended storage, wrap muffins individually and freeze them for up to 3 months. Thaw or warm them up before enjoying to restore their fresh-baked texture.
Jumbo Blueberry Muffins FAQs
This recipe was formulated to work with frozen, dehydrated, and fresh blueberries.
For evenly spaced blueberries that don’t sink to the bottom and look professional, go for the dehydrated blueberries, soaked in syrup before baking.
For fresh flavor and blueberries that pop with juicy flavor, pick fresh. For easy to work with berries that are extra sweet and don’t sink to the bottom, opt for frozen.
Berries, especially fresh blueberries, sink quickly to the bottom of muffins.
If you are using fresh berries, add to the batter in muffin cups to keep them evenly spaced and from sinking.
Berries that are dehydrated or frozen won’t sink as easily, so that’s why we use them in our muffins often.
You can see in our pictures we made two sets – we used some with dehydrated berries and some with fresh berries.
Save a couple of berries to add to the tops of muffins once in the pan.
Muffins with fruit can be tricky to tell when they are done, since the fruit juice can come off on a toothpick when checking for doneness and make it look “wet” when the batter is cooked.
Look for browned edges, a lightly browned top, and firm muffin dough when pressed to know your muffins are cooked through.
A fully cooked muffin should be light and springy to the touch, but NEVER jiggly like jello!
For a great rise and lift, with a moist, delicious crumb, we suggest baking muffins at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
I find it is always best to bake muffins in a fully preheated oven.
If using fresh or thawed from frozen blueberries, I lightly mash half of the berries, stir in with wet ingredients, and add the rest in to batter just before baking, saving a few to place right on top.
If using dehydrated berries, they need to be rehydrated in a sugar water mixture before baking for the best texture.
We find butter to give the best flavor and texture for muffins – it contains both milk and the fat we need, giving it a rich, savory taste we all expect in a muffin. Butter’s fat content will help keep your muffins moist and delicious!
Try these other recipes:
If you love this delicious easy blueberry muffin recipe as much as I do, please give it five stars (click the stars in the recipe below!) and help me share on facebook and pinterest.
Only have 30 minutes to get dinner on the table? Sign up for my 30 minute dinner plans direct to your inbox!
Find and shop my favorite products in my Amazon storefront here!
More like this from Sweet C’s Designs
The Best Easy Jumbo Blueberry Muffins Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice*
- ½ cup buttermilk**
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 cups fresh blueberries***
- 3 teaspoons sanding sugar
- optional: 2 tbsp melted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cream together the butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar until it becomes light and fluffy, preferably in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer.
- Add in the eggs, one by one, making sure you beat well after each addition.
- Stir in vanilla, lemon juice, and buttermilk and mix well to combine.
- Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder into to the sugar, buttermilk, butter, and eggs. Using a sifter will help to reduce clumping and prevent you from overworking muffins.
- In a small bowl, lightly mash/smush about half of the blueberries with the back of a spoon (sort of like muddling mint in a drink) and then stir into the batter.
- Fold in the remaining blueberries. We also like to save a couple to drop right on the tops of the muffins.
- Line a 6 cup jumbo muffin tin or 12 cup standard muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Fill with batter – leave 1/3 muffin tin/liner for muffins to rise above.
- Sprinkle the 3 teaspoons sanding sugar over the tops of the muffins, reduce oven heat to 375, and bake at 375 degrees for about 30-35 minutes.
- Optional: Reserve sanding sugar until end of cooking. In final 10 minutes of baking, brush tops of muffin with melted butter. Top with sanding sugar. Continue baking until cooked until toothpick inserted comes out completely clean.
- Remove muffins from tin and cool at least 30 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These were beautiful and perfect! Keeper for sure!
Thank you!
Can you make this into a bread?
I imagine you could try cooking it in two loaf pans. It will take longer to cook though and would likely be denser. Hope this helps, let us know how it turns out.
I used freshly chopped strawberries and it worked like a dream. Also reduced sugar and salt. This feels more like a cupcake than a muffin. Delish!
Glad you enjoyed them!
Excellent overall, but I should’ve trusted my instincts and stuck with a little less salt since it did overtake the flavours somewhat. Still incredibly yummy , though, and there is nothing like a big puffy bloob muffin with coffee on a Sunday morn. I did add the zest of a large lemon (and just for the heck of it, the contents of a bag of earl grey tea) and I’ll probably make another batch tonight – w/ a little less saltiness – since it really is a fab muffin recipe! 🙂
Oooo I will have to try the lemon zest and tea next time! Everything you want in the morning 🙂 Glad you enjoyed them, thank you for the comment!
Do you have any recommendations for making this gluten free? Almond flour or cassava flour?
I like to use King Arthur Gluten Free flour for best gluten free results.
These were wonderful!! My family loved them!
So glad to hear it!