Whip up cafe-worthy blueberry muffins, bursting with jammy fruit. Impromptu coffee dates at your place never tasted so good!
Generously sprinkled with coarse brown sugar, these muffins have a beautifully crisp top. The insides are lusciously fruit-packed middle. Some blueberries stay intact, while others burst, creating a delightful blueberry jam. The thick batter ensures the blueberries stay dotted all the way through the muffins. They don’t sink to the bottom. No need to pre-coat them in flour (which some other recipes suggest).
Choose between six jumbo café-style treats or a dozen mini delights. The mini ones are a perfect size for lunchboxes; they even fit into those compartmented ones.
The simplicity of this one-bowl blueberry muffin recipe ensures a hassle-free baking experience. No need to worry about creaming butter or room temperature ingredients. This recipe is ideal for surprise house guests or a 'I've-got-nothing-to-put-in-the kids'-lunchbox' dilemma. You can get these prepped in the time it takes to get the oven up to temperature – about 15 minutes.
Freshness is paramount, and these muffins deliver! Enjoy them at their best on the day of baking, even better still warm from the oven.
Use fresh blueberries only if you're lucky enough to have loads (never happened to me). Frozen blueberries, straight from the freezer are amazing. Don’t defrost the blueberries first; they’ll get soggy, messy and sad (and we haven’t got time for that!).
Get tall muffins without the bulgy muffin top by using ‘café-style’ paper cases. These are the (usually brown) creased ones with pointy tops. The batter climbs up the sides of the paper as it bakes, giving you high, fluffy muffins. It's easy to make the cases yourself using squares of baking paper pushed into your muffin tray. Find instructions in the recipe card below.
Each jumbo muffin boasts about three tablespoons of blueberries. That's half a daily serve of fruit! A healthy twist to your muffin indulgence. You can be less than an hour away from a lightbulb "I want blueberry muffins" moment to enjoying a warm, tender-in-the-middle, crunchy-on-top muffin.
🥘 Ingredients
Lemon Zest – not essential, but very nice! Use only if you happen to have a lemon or are planning to use the juice for something else. I often leave this out.
Demerara Sugar (coarse raw sugar) – a teaspoon sprinkled on top of the muffins might seem excessive, but it’s not! The sweetness of these muffins comes mostly from the blueberries. The demerara sugar adds great textural contrast. Use half a teaspoon if making the mini ones.
Baking Powder & Baking Soda – we use these raising agent powders together to create great lift.
Blueberries – fresh or frozen. If frozen, don’t defrost first.
🔪 Instructions
In this section, there are step-by-step photos with notes to guide you through making blueberry muffins. Detailed instructions and ingredient quantities are in the recipe card below (which you can also print). If you’ve made this recipe before, feel free to skip this section. Or use the ‘Jump to Recipe’ button under the first photo at the beginning of this post.
You don’t have to line the muffin tray with paper cases if you’re making mini ones – just rub/spray a little veg oil or butter instead (and make sure your muffin tray is non-stick!). The paper cases are handy when we want tall muffins without a muffin top. The batter can climb up the higher sides offered by the paper over the height of the holes in the tray.
You can make your own paper muffin cases by cutting 16cm squares of baking paper. Centre these over a muffin hole and pressing down with the fingers of a clawed hand. They'll want to spring out, but will be weighted down once you put the batter in.
1. Cut butter into rough cubes (easier to melt than a large block). Put in a microwavable bowl big enough to take all the ingredients.
2. Melt in the microwave in short bursts. Safer to stop just short of it completely melting and let it finish melting in the residual heat. Nothing worse than a microwave butter explosion! Make sure the butter’s not too hot before adding the rest of the ingredients.
3. Add the yoghurt, sugar, lemon zest (if using) and egg.
4. Whisk together.
5. Sprinkle over the baking powder and soda and whisk in.
6. Tip in the flour (no need to sift) and the blueberries.
7 & 8. Fold together until there are no dry bits of flour left. Lumpy batter is fine. Don’t overwork.
Share the batter amongst 6 muffin cases (or 12 muffin holes if making mini ones). Sprinkle some demerara sugar over the tops. Bake for 25-30 minutes (around 20 minutes for the smaller ones), until golden brown and crisp on top. Test using a cake tester or skewer. When they’re done, it might come out with some blueberry juice clinging to it, but not clumps of wet batter.
This recipe is (slightly) adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s ‘Perfect Blueberry Muffins’
📖 Recipe
Equipment
- 12-hole muffin tray
Ingredients
- 70 g unsalted butter
- 100 g granulated sugar
- finely grated zest from a lemon
- 175 g plain unsweetened yoghurt
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 200 g plain flour
- 220 g blueberries (fresh or frozen - no need to defrost)
- demerara sugar/coarse raw (for sprinkling - about 30g)
Instructions
- Preheat Oven – to 180°C
- Prep Tray – insert paper liners or lightly grease the holes with veg oil or butter.
- Melt Butter – cut the butter into pieces (for easier melting). Microwave to melt in a large non-metallic bowl, big enough to take all the ingredients. Allow to cool slightly.70 g unsalted butter
- Sugar & Wet Ingredients – add the granulated sugar, lemon zest (if using), yoghurt and egg. Whisk together to combine using a hand whisk.100 g granulated sugarfinely grated zest from a lemon175 g plain unsweetened yoghurt2 eggs
- Dry Ingredients – sprinkle over baking powder, baking soda & salt and whisk in thoroughly.1 ½ teaspoons baking powder¼ teaspoon baking soda¼ teaspoon salt
- Flour & Blueberries – add the flour (no need to sift) & all the blueberries. Gently fold these into the batter with a flexible spatula, until there are no more bits of dry flour visible. Lumps are fine. The batter will be very stiff.200 g plain flour220 g blueberries
- Portion - divide the batter between the prepared muffin tray holes using a couple of tablespoons. No need to level or flatten the batter.
- Crunchy Topping - sprinkle each muffin top with around a teaspoon of demerara sugar (jumbo muffins) or ½ teaspoon for the smaller ones.demerara sugar/coarse raw
- Bake - for 25-30 minutes (jumbo muffins) or around 20 minutes for the smaller ones, until the tops are golden and crispy. Test through the centre of one with a cake tester. Some molten blueberry is to be expected, but there should be no liquid batter.
- Cool - let the muffins cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then remove from the muffin tray and eat/cool all the way on a cooling rack to freeze.
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