When I was a kid, my mom’s plan was to teach me to cook so I would someday be a somewhat functional adult. I mean, we all kind of plan that, or at least think about it sometimes, right? Before she died when I was 9, I hadn’t learned a whole lot, but I had a handful of things in my repertoire: Melted Cheese on a Plate (which is exactly what it sounds like–I would put shredded cheese on a plate, melt it, and eat it with a fork like a very classy girl.) Sausage and Sauerkraut (because what 9-year-old doesn’t make that for all her friends? No wonder people thought I was weird.) Campbell’s Tomato Soup made with milk instead of water. Pancakes. And blueberry muffins.
These are not the blueberry muffins of my childhood; these are much better blueberry muffins. They have cinnamon streusel on them and lemon zest in in them and they’re easy to make with stuff you probably either have on hand or can easily get. They are perfect for breakfast or brunch or “hey, I’m feeling snacky, but I have to wear a bra to the grocery store, so it’s either blueberry muffins or melted cheese on a plate again.” Here’s a little life tip: blueberry muffins are almost always better than melted cheese on a plate (notice I didn’t say always, because hey, we all have our dark times.)
time to make the muffins
For these, you’ll need all-purpose flour, salt, orange or lemon rind, baking powder, buttermilk, eggs, oil (although you can sub apple sauce if you want to healthify these a little), blueberries, and sugar for the muffins
You’ll also need butter, flour, sugar, and cinnamon for the streusel topping.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.
Lightly spoon the flour into measuring cups and level with with a knife and combine it in a large bowl with the baking powder and salt,
sugar,
and citrus peel.
Make a well in the center of the mixture.
Place the the egg, buttermilk, and oil in a smaller bowl…
Whisk them together and add the mixture to the dry ingredients,
stirring just until moistened.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining flour and sugar and then toss the blueberries in this mixture until they are well-coated. Gently fold the blueberry mixture into the batter.
Spoon the batter into lined muffin tins, filling 2/3 full.
To make the streusel topping, combine the 1/4 cup sugar, 2 1/2 tablespoons flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two butter knives until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the batter
and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 12 muffins.
Then you should eat ’em (because they are muffins and that’s what you do).
Print
Streusel-Topped Blueberry Muffins
Description
These are the BEST streusel-topped blueberry muffins ever, but they are also quick and easy made from pantry staples!
Ingredients
Muffins
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon grated orange or lemon peel
1 large egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon sugar
STREUSEL TOPPING
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.
Lightly spoon the flour into measuring cups and level with with a knife and combine it in a large bowl with the baking powder, salt, sugar, and citrus peel. Make a well in the center of the mixture. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and oil. Add to the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining flour and sugar and then toss the blueberries in this mixture until they are well-coated. Gently fold the blueberry mixture into the batter. Spoon the batter into lined muffin tins, filling 2/3 full.
To make the streusel topping, combine the 1/4 cup sugar, 2 1/2 tablespoons flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two butter knives until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the batter and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 12 muffins.
Questions & Reviews
These are very good! I tried them this morning and my kids loved them. I was having a hard time trying to find a good recipe and this turned out to be the best that I have done with blueberries.
Does anyone know how long they will stay fresh for? I wanted to make them this weekend, but it won’t be until the next Thursday or Friday that they’ll be eaten (when my family comes home). Will they still be good or would it not be worth making? Thanks! They look delicious!
You’ll want to pop them in the freezer as soon as they’re cooled, and then they’ll be nice and fresh for your company!
Could you use frozen blueberries? I ALWAYS have those in my freezer so I wouldn’t have to get them fresh @ the store. Just a thought!
Yep, just don’t defrost them first. Toss them in frozen and they work great!
GREAT recipe! I made them without the topping (and without the shake-the-blueberries-with-flour-and-sugar tip, because of the typo in the cookbook — maybe that didn’t matter as much since I always make muffins in my mini-muffin pan, anyway). But they are still hands-down better than the other blueberry muffin recipe I had. The orange zest in it was simply delicious. I’ll be making these again soon (they are already almost gone!!)
So I am looking for clarification on this recipe vs. the one in the new cookbook (which I just recieved for my birthday!) I was reading through each recipe, because I’m weird like that, and when I got to “blueberry muffins” the third step was confusing, so I googled you guys and wondered if this recipe was on your website.
I am assuming this is the same one. The third step in the cookbook says to “combine remaining 1 cup flour and 1 tablespoon sugar…then toss on blueberries…” I’m assuming this was a misprint and, based on this recipe (and logic), that you mean one tablespoon of flour and not one CUP of flour right? Just wanted to make sure.
Thanks!
I’ve been making your blueberry muffins for quite some time and we all love them. I have one hitch in my personality and that is I can only make biscuits with all white flour, otherwise I use part whole wheat pastry flour (that I mill from soft whole wheat berries) for muffins, cookies, etc., and white wheat for all my yeast breads in addition to the white flour. I’m a registered dietitian, and thus the reason why I’m compulsive about trying to get whole grains in where and when I can. With the blueberry muffins I double the recipe and use 2c WW pastry flour and 1.5c all-purpose flour and they are great. Sooooo my question and request is what fun things have you made with WW pastry flour….I’d love some new ideas. Thanks!
Super glad to find this recipe on your website after being stumped by the recipe in your new cookbook. In the cookbook it calls for an additional 1 Cup of flour to mix the blueberries with so I double checked your site and 1 Tbsp sounded more reasonable. As a result, they turned out great, and I ate way more then I should have as I drooled over more recipes in the new cookbook!
Thanks, they turned out perfect! SO yummy!!
I received your new cookbook this week and the first recipe that caught my eye where these blueberry muffins!! Quick question though, in the cookbook, on step 3 for these muffins, it says, “add remaining 1 Cup”. Is that suppose to say 1 tbs.?? I can’t imagine adding another full cup?! But maybe I’m wrong? Thanks for your help. Have loved your recipes since 2008!!
Yeah, a few typos sneaked in there. 🙁 I’m not at home, so I can’t check for sure, but follow the twice as it’s written here and you’ll be good.
Hope that helps!
These were amazing! I made them for breakfast this morning and my husband LOVED them! This recipe will make it into the “frequent rotation.”
Thank you for posting.
I have tried this recipe twice, and it never turns out right. The batter is too runny, and the muffins don’t rise. Maybe it’s an elevation thing?
Added an egg and a little extra oil and made this in a bunt pan. It was wonderful!
Delicious! The lemon zest makes it so much better than a regular blueberry muffin and the topping is amazing too! I always worry if my food will turn out right when I make something for the first time for company, but with your recipes I don’t have to worry! Everything always turns out just right! Thank you again!
I found this recipe after looking over several others this one stood out to me. They were DELICIOUS best blueberry muffins ever!!!!! Next time I’m going to try using the orange peel.
This was my first streusel-topped muffin recipe – it was so simple to do and the muffins were fantastic!
I made these this morning with freshly ground white winter wheat and they are excellent! I’ve had issues before with crumb topping sinking into muffins/breads, so I usually put the muffins into the oven while I make the crumb topping. Then, when the topping is done (about 5 minutes later) I pull the muffins out and put the topping on them then. Since the muffin is starting to set up a bit, it helps to keep the topping on the top of the muffin. Also, with the whole wheat, I did end up adding about 3T more buttermilk because my batter was super thick. Thanks for the recipe! We loved it!
Yum! I made these with wheat flour and applesauce instead of oil. I also didn’t have any buttermilk, so I substituted with blueberry Kefir. These were delicious! Love your recipes!
I just made these and they were outstanding! They came out as beautiful as they were tasty, with a moist texture that was the perfect sweetness. Thanks for the great recipe!
These muffins are to die for! They are easy to make and came out absolutely perfect!!! The recipe does require quite a few bowls but it’s SO worth it.
This will be my go-to muffin recipe from now on 🙂
One quick note – I only have dark muffin pans so I preheated to 375 and then reduced the temp to 350 when I put the pan in the oven. They cooked for exactly 18 min and the result was perfectly cooked, not too dark muffins with a nice puffy top!
Oh my gosh! I love this recipe! I made it for the second time today and I’ve been craving it ever since the first time I made it! Hands down the best blueberry muffin from scratch recipe I’ve ever made- I can’t stop eating them!
I also love that the recipe for the streusel is just the right amount and I don’t have a ton left over. Thank you Best Bites!
EXACTLY what I’ve been looking for! Thank you so much!
Making a double batch of these right now for breakfast! Didn’t have any lemon rind so i used pure lemon extract. Thanks for the great recipes!
I just made these and they turned out perfect! I have also had issues with flat muffins, but these have such a beautiful top! The crumb topping adds to the muffin and makes these so delicious to eat.
I have been anxious to try these muffins. Finally did this morning. Like a previous poster, I had trouble with my crumble topping melting off. I guess my butter was too warm. They weren’t as sweet as other muffins I’ve had which is a plus (calorie/nutrition wise) and a minus (b/c I do have quite the sweet tooth). Loved the texture – very light and moist.
i just made these this morning without orange/lemon zest. so good! i’m sure the zest makes them even better, but they were fantastic without.
Oh wow! Even the batter looks amazing! A double batch is in the oven at this very moment and family members are gravitating toward the uber-yummy smell wafting from the kitchen! Thanks for a great Saturday morning recipe!
These look delicious! I happen to have a big box of blueberries that need using so I will be making these soon. 🙂
Just two questions for you: Can I leave the orange/lemon zest out? I don’t have either of those fruits. Also, it says 1 large egg. If I have medium eggs, should I use two or just stick with one.
Thanks!
I’ve made these twice using half whole wheat pastry flour and virgin olive oil! They are AWESOME! MY new “go-to” muffin recipe! Thank you so much for posting! I am addicted to your site! 🙂
Can I use self-rising flour and delete the baking powder?
I can’t say for sure without trying it, but I imagine you could.