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Deliciously simply blueberry muffins with a buttermilk muffin batter, stuffed full of blueberries with a crunchy brown sugar topping

I’m always craving a fresh fruit bake when I have a cuppa tea or a coffee in the summer months, and these beautiful blueberry muffins are perfect.

Blueberry recipes

I have several blueberry recipes on my blog already, typically combined with lemon because it’s one of my favourite flavour combinations I have ever made. It’s a fresh and fruity vibe which I am often after, however, I do just adore blueberries.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I often prefer blueberries baked because I think it draws out the flavour so much more, compared to when they are fresh out of a punnet. Maybe I have always got unlucky it comes to fresh blueberries to just eat, but it really has just increased my love for baking with blueberries instead.

My lemon and blueberry cake is definitely one of my most popular bakes because it’s quite the showstopper – along with my lemon and blueberry blondies which are sweet, zingy and fudgy all in one go. Of course, in all of these bakes, you can leave out the lemon.

Muffin recipes

I have published a fair few different muffin recipes in my years of blogging, and they are all slightly different for a reason. There are so many different ways of making muffins, and I like to have different choices depending on the different flavours that people are after in their muffin.

I adore a savoury muffin (such as with my cheese and bacon muffins) because they are so easy to throw together and have a delicious salty hit of yum, whereas my carrot cake muffins are probably one of my favourites (but I do just absolutely adore carrot cake, so…)

My lemon and blueberry muffins are different with a white sugar base, self raising flour and regular milk whereas these blueberry muffins have a plain flour, mixed sugar and buttermilk base. Both of the recipes work and are delicious, these new ones are just meant to be more bakery style.

Muffin batter

This recipe is designed to be made into a big bowl with a spoon or spatula, it really doesn’t need a mixer to make. It’s a super accessible recipe for that reason due to its simplicity, but it also packs an absolute punch that I adore from the sugar and blueberries.

Flour – I decided to use plain flour for these muffins as I wanted to use what I have in the cupboard, and a lot of countries do not have access to self raising flour
Raising agent – the addition of baking flour is required when it comes to the plain flour, but you can substitute both out and use self raising flour instead
Salt – I adore the addition of salt because it brings out the flavours of the blueberries and cuts through the sweetness of the muffin, but it is optional
Sugar – I use a mixture of white granulated sugar and light brown sugar like i do in my muffins as they bring different textures and flavour elements – using all light brown sugar is a delicious option, however.
Butter – melt down some butter (I typically use a block butter, but you can use a baking spread), and let it cool slightly and it creates the perfect level of moisture
Eggs – this recipe uses three medium eggs (as do some of my other muffin recipes) but you can use 2 large eggs instead
Buttermilk – this is super easy to make yourself by getting 250ml of full fat milk and adding 1tbsp of lemon juice, mixing in, and letting it sit before using in the recipe (if you don’t want to buy it!)
Flavours – I add a little vanilla bean extract but you can swap this for almond extract, lemon extract, or even coffee

Fresh or frozen

Obviously, the most important part of these muffins is the blueberries. I have mentioned above how I find blueberries are best when they are baked (personal opinion, anyway) and I typically use fresh blueberries. I do find it best, with all berries really, to use them when they are in season, fresh and local if you can. This means they have so much more flavour, and are wonderful to bake with.

I generally use fresh fruit in a bake, unless I have specified frozen. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t use frozen – the worries when it comes to frozen is the extra liquid that they produce in a bake, but this is usually countered by baking straight from frozen and not thawing the fruit before baking. It potentially makes the muffin more moist, but that’s not always a bad thing. You can also swap to freeze dried fruit as well.

Muffin toppings

I decided to bake these muffins directly into my muffin tray, which I haven’t done in a while – I didn’t have any cases to use on the day of filming/photographing, so I thought I would skip the middle man and just bake into my non-stick tray. However, with all trays… there is still a risk of sticking! If using muffin cases, I would recommend tulip muffin cases due to the size of the muffins – they’re a lovely size, but too big for the cupcake style sizing.

For these muffins, I wanted to do a simple brown sugar topping because it creates a lovely golden look, flavour and texture – and I adore it. In my carrot cake muffins, they have a more crumble/streusel like topping, and that is also a delicious option. You rub together 65g melted unsalted butter, with 100g of plain flour and 75g light brown soft sugar until they are combined. Chill the mix in the fridge until you have made the muffins, and then break the mix up with a fork and crumble over the blueberry muffins before baking.

Tips and Tricks

These muffins are best on the day of baking, but can last 2-3 days once made
These muffins can freeze for 3+ months
I would recommend using tulip muffin cases if you need to use cases
I use a deep muffin tray when baking straight into the tin
Please see the blog post on notes about using a crumble topping as an option – it’s delicious
Please see the blog post on details about using fresh vs frozen fruit