A little carton of buttermilk in the fridge goes a long way. Not wanting to see it go to waste, that single carton inspired me to make those Old Fashioned Glazed Buttermilk donuts that you all went crazy for, a batch of my Best Ever Buttermilk Waffles for dinner, and these Best Ever Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins!
Why does buttermilk make baked goods so delicious? According to Fine Cooking, buttermilk is used in baking because it creates a “slightly acidic batter helps keep baked goods moist and tender by breaking down long, tough strands of gluten.”
I definitely notice that my baked goods with buttermilk rise up to be lighter and fluffier, and the texture of the crumb is absolute perfection!
So along with buttermilk, another reason these are the Best Ever Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins is the height of that muffin top. I like to fill my muffin wells to the very top and even dome them a little.
I love when the batter hangs over the top and creates that crisp edge!
And one of my favorite toppings is coarse sparkling sugar. It gives these muffins the best crunchy sweet topping. I’ll link it here, but you can probably find it in the sprinkle section in the baking aisle of your grocery store.
And oh man, those big juicy blueberries that can’t take the heat one more second and just burst that purple goodness all over the inside of the muffin. Perfection!
I think you’ll be surprised how quickly these come together too. I mix up all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, and then I mix and measure the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in my 4 cup glass measuring cup.
Just use a wooden spoon to mix everything together. The more gently you handle the batter, the more tender your muffin will be!
What a treat these Best Ever Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins are! Add buttermilk, blueberries, and sparkling sugar to your grocery list (you probably have everything else) and make these this weekend. You’ll be glad you did!
PrintBest Ever Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins
These Best Ever Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins have it all! Sweet juicy blueberries, a sparkling sugar topping, and the most delicious tender crumb!
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 26 mins
- Total Time: 46 mins
- Yield: 12 large muffins 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup oil (canola, vegetable, or avocado)
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
- 3–4 teaspoons coarse sparkling sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard size muffin tin with parchment paper liners and spray each one with nonstick spray for baking.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Gradually mix the buttermilk into the flour mixture, stirring gently and being careful not to overmix.
- Gently fold the blueberries into the batter.
- Use a large scoop to divide the batter evenly into each muffin well. They will be filled to the very top. Sprinkle generously with sparkling sugar!
- Bake at 400 degrees for 22-26 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Muffin
- Calories: 261
- Sugar: 17g
- Sodium: 209mg
- Fat: 10g
- Saturated Fat: 1.1g
- Unsaturated Fat: 9g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 38g
- Fiber: 1.1g
- Protein: 4.5g
- Cholesterol: 32mg
I saw this recipe and ran out to get the ingredients the same day. So easy and delicious! I will never go back to prepackaged muffin mix again!!
Brianna, I’m so happy to hear you made them already and loved them too! You just made my day!
Hello, I made these blueberry muffins and they came out absolutely delicious. This will be one of my go recipes! Love them lots 💗!
Oh yay, so happy to hear that you enjoyed them. Thank you!
Hey, I made this recipe, but I substituted the 1/2 cup vegetable oil for 1/2 cup of melted whipped butter. They turned out pretty dry and crispy on the outside and sorta doughy inside, is this why? I’m new to baking and finding that I’m not so good at improvising!
Yes, I think you are right about the reason they may be too dry. I’m sorry they didn’t turn out as you’d hoped! Keep baking!
Generally, you can substitute butter for oil anytime. I think your mistake here might be that you measured your whipped butter before melting. Whipped butter has air in it. So to make the substitution, you need both items to be in the same state: liquid. Melt your whipped butter and then measure out 1/2 cup. If you use real stick butter, there’s no need to melt before measuring, but since your butter contained all that air, there is.
Butter adds richness to the recipe but for moisture you want to use oil, I use light olive oil so it’s a bit healthier than using veg oil or canola/corn oil. To make these even more delicious you can put a little pat of butter on top of each one before baking them, also if you don’t have buttermilk you can use acv in milk to make it buttermilk.
Hi there… I have a bag of frozen cherries , can I use that instead of blueberries?
I think they would taste delicious with cherries but since they are larger than blueberries, maybe you could cut the cherries in half? Let me know how it goes!
Tried n tested this blueberry muffins recipe and my family loves it! Is it possible to replace blueberry 1 for 1 ratio with banana & walnuts while the remaining ingredients remain the same?
Amazone recipe! They aren’t too sweet or not enough. I put half fresh blueberries and the other half frozen ones. very easy to make and I am definitely making these again!
I made these & they were wonderful. I will be making more as soon as I get more berries.
Best Blueberry Muffins I ever made! So so yummy and good! Buttermilk makes the recipe! Thank You Julie! I made them tonight………………..Yes at 12:30 am, but well worth it!!!!
Sometimes you just gotta bake! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Can I use confectioners sugar or does it have to be granulated?
You can’t sub confectioners sugar for granulated sugar. That said – if you are thinking about only the sugar on top – you could bake the muffins without the sugar on top, let them cool and dust with sugar before serving. You don’t get the crunch but you do get the fun sweet powder.
Not used to using cup measures but am converted, added lemon zest to my second bake and everybody loves the results. Will be my go to recipe for muffins. Am going to try different flavours with the basic batter. Thank you Brianna
Can I use frozen blueberries
Yes, you may, the batter may just be a little more purple from the blueberry juice.
Hi Julie. I haven’t tried making these yet, but I’m a bit confused. In the paragraph where you describe mixing the dry and then the wet ingredients together, you mention butter. I don’t see any butter further down in the actual recipe or the directions. Can you please clarify (no pun intended)? Merrit
Thank you so much for kindly pointing out my error! It should read “oil” rather than “butter”. I had tested these with butter, and found that oil kept them from being a little dry and I didn’t miss the flavor of the butter at all. I hope you enjoy these muffins, Merrit! Have a wonderful Saturday.
I can’t wait to make these! I bake a lot with buttermilk and blueberries are my go to fruit for muffins, pies, scones, etc. These muffins look beautiful and I love how domed they are. Happy Mother’s Day!!
Thank you so much Julie! Hope you enjoy them!
Wow, I just made them and they’re so good! I used frozen blueberries and coated them in a little flour to absorb excess water. Will make these again.
Just made this delicious muffins ,they’re not to seeet but very good !
Thank you, Bee. So glad you like them!
Can you use frozen blueberries?
Yum, yum, yum! Totally making this!
I hope you love them too!
These look and sound delicious. Going to make them for game day. Can you use frozen blueberries and also do you sprinkle the sugar before baking?
Hi Doriss, I haven’t tried this recipe with frozen blueberries, but I think they would be just fine. You could thaw them and strain the juice out to avoid adding extra liquid to the batter. I do find that frozen berries tend to bleed their pretty blue color into the whole muffin, which is fine with me! Let me know how it goes if you try them!
I make them with frozen blueberries if I don’t have fresh ones. I put them in frozen and mix very lightly. They bleed a little but the muffins are delicious nonetheless. Just bake a tad longer.
Hi Doris’s, how did using frozen blueberries turn out? these look delicious and want to try them.
Tried it with frozen blueberries. Didn’t thaw them. Lightly coated them with flour before stirring them in. Baked for 21 minutes and came out perfect. I do live at 4,900 feet which could have affected the baking time.
Julie, like you I love blueberries and have tried numerous muffins in search of my favourite go to recipe. I do not have buttermilk, but wonder if I can substitute by making my own with the combination of vinegar and milk? I so want to make these today.
Yes, I’ve had good results with that method in other recipes. I don’t think it gets quite as thick as actual buttermilk so maybe add an extra 2-3 tablespoons of flour so your batter isn’t too thin. It should be a scoopable batter. Enjoy!
I was looking for a way to use some buttermilk after I bought some to make a beet cake. Wow am I ever glad you posted this muffin recipe, they are both easy and delicious! A keeper for sure. I did keep 1/2 the berries back and put them on top before baking, so pretty as well!
Thank you so much Anne! I’m glad you enjoyed these as much as we did. Always nice to use up extra buttermilk!
Nice and fluffy, not real sweet. Made 12 very large muffins. I used demerara sugar on top but it would be prettier with the sparkling white sugar. Made them for 4th of July.
I have tried a lot of blueberry muffin recipes to find the perfect one and this one is it! Blueberry muffin perfection! I followed the recipe except added some lemon zest.
Just made your blueberry muffins. Delicious!! Best muffin recipe i have tried. Thanks For the recipe.
Thanks so much Kathy Lee!
These muffins were absolutely amazing and so easy! I had some left over buttermilk from a pound cake and needed something and this fit the bill. I’m considering trying a batch with strawberries or raspberries since it seems like the base recipe will lend itself well to multiple berries. Thank you! 🙂
These are the best! My family loves them. I have made these many times since first trying them several weeks ago.
Thank you Margaret, glad you enjoyed! I just made this recipe again today, but substituted the blueberries for a cinnamon crumble. I hope to share it here soon!
Thank you so much for this recipe! They turned out AMAZING!!! Super light and fluffy just what I wanted!
I also added white chocolate chips on top, they burn’t a little but still tasted good so next time I think I’ll mix them through out the mixture.
Overall I loved this recipe and I’m going to be making them A LOT! 😍😍😍
I’ve had that happen with white chocolate chips too – good idea to just mix them in. I’m glad you enjoyed them!
Super easy, by far my best muffin recipe. The family loved them. Thanks 👍
Thanks!!! So glad you all loved them as much as I do.
So my oven at 400 was way too hot!!!! They were very burnt (so burnt on the bottom that they were thrown away!)and I even had them on the top shelf. So for the second batch I turned the oven down to 355 and they came out perfect. I also didn’t care for the blandness of them. Not quite sweet enough for my family.
Good to know! I don’t usually bake at that high a temperature so i was scrolling through the comments to see if anyone mentioned the temperature before going ahead and baking them at that high temperature. Will try them at my usual 350 for baking.
Best muffin recipe I’ve ever made! I used frozen berries and replaced some of the vanilla with lemon extract. Then I topped them with raw sugar. Scrumptious!!
This is now my go to recipe. Tried these – perfect.
Thanks for the recipe.
I always keep powdered buttermilk on hand and use that. The muffins have ALWAYS come out perfect and delicious. They are big mufffins and I’m always afraid they will go over the tins, but they never do. I go blueberry picking in the spring so have loads of frozen blueberries. They reheat really well.
Turned out perfect! I did use frozen blueberries, baked to the maximum time, absolutely no problems.
Thank you so much Terri, glad you enjoyed!
I forgot to add the sugar on top (I was going to use regular old Turbinado sugar for this), but these muffins are still perfect! They rose better than I’ve ever had muffins rise, into perfect domes on top. Seriously, they rose to a huge level! And great flavor and texture. Thanks for the recipe!
Wonderful, I followed your recipe exact. I have never made muffins before, nor have I eaten them much. I got so excited when the tops rose so high, they were beautiful. I did think they needed to be sweeter but the top was plenty sweet and it was the best part! Thank you
Loved these! Made it with frozen blueberries..just baked a couple extra minutes. Turned out light, fluffy, and moist. My favorite thing though?? There’s not a TONNNN of sugar in them. So many muffin recipes seem more like cupcakes than muffins with twice as much sugar as these call for. These are PERFECT.👌🏼
So glad! Thanks Annie!
I made these this morning using frozen wild Maine blueberries, they were excellent. I have printed the recipe, its a keeper. Thanks forsharing
So glad, Marie!
Thought it could use a little more salt, but other than that…perfect! So moist! Like the idea of trying different berries. A little almond extract would probably taste yummy too. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you, Elizabeth!
I just made my muffins from your recipe on FB. I don’t know how to send a picture, but they are big. I gave some to my neighbors and I had one and they are GREAT. I’ll do this more offen. I live in a senior community and this will be great. Thank you
Thank you for letting me know how they turned out. I’m so glad you could share them with your neighbors. Happy baking!
I made your recipe today and they are great. I live in a senior community and they will love them. Thank you
These were absolutely delicious!! My toddler wanted to eat TWO right away- thank you for sharing!
I found this recipe on line, and happened to have buttermilk and frozen blueberries in the house. So I followed everything carefully, ( I thought, and then realized I forgot to put in the sugar and how I did this, I have no idea), so everything was mixed and luckily I realized it. I threw in the sugar and mixed it in the batter blueberries and all. THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. I don’t think you can ever mess up this recipe.
Thanks for a great recipe.I will make them again, and not forget the sugar. I can’t stop eating them. I need to hide them until my grandchildren arrive, so they can enjoy them.
I made these to celebrate moving into our new house. Though I didn’t have oil I melted a stick of butter and baked them for 20 minutes. I also used frozen blueberries and didn’t have any bleeding from them. These are really good, thanks for the great recipe!
So glad they worked out for you!