Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping
These Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping are my absolute favorite. They have a soft, tender bite, with a crunchy streusel crumb topping and tons of blueberries inside. They taste AND smell incredible!
To me, these are the best of the best.
The inside is properly loaded with lots of blueberries, held together with a muffin batter that bakes up soft and cakey, with a wonderful hint of citrus taste and aroma, and finished off with a sweet and crunchy streusel topping.
In some sense, there’s a lot going on with this muffin. That’s part of its greatness, is there are multiple textures, flavors, and aromas.
But they’re actually not fussy or difficult to make.
It’s a bakery-quality muffin, with no mixer or fancy equipment required. It’s simply made by stirring together the ingredients by hand in a standard bowl.
Another thing that’s nice about these muffins is I find they taste best a couple hours after they’re baked.
This means that they’re fantastic for making ahead of time, whether you’re baking them ahead for hosting at home or if you’re bringing them elsewhere. They’re one of my go-to’s for brunch, along with these moist buttermilk Chocolate Muffins.
I find myself gifting these quite a bit to friends, family, and neighbors. I put them in these cute paper boxes that I buy online (affiliate) and they look so beautiful!
How to Make Them:
Start with the Streusel Crumb Topping:
The crumb topping takes less than 5 minutes to make and really takes the muffins up a notch. Don’t skip it!
In a small bowl, combine all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, and ground cinnamon:
Whisk that all to combine, then pour in some melted butter:
Stir together with a fork until large crumbs form:
Place that in the refrigerator to chill and harden while you prepare the muffin batter.
Make the Batter:
In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and both orange and lemon zest:
When I can find them, I like to use solely Meyer lemon zest here. The day I shot these pictures, the store actually had some but they didn’t look fresh.
When I can’t get Meyer lemons, I do a combination of equal parts orange and lemon zest.
In another bowl, combine one egg, melted butter, and buttermilk:
Please, oh please, use true buttermilk here. Not milk mixed with vinegar. I have used the latter in a pinch but the real stuff is definitely better.
Buttermilk tends to come in a quart size container, which is more than you need for this recipe, but it’s a good excuse to also try this incredible Lemon Buttermilk Pie.
Or make Buttermilk Pancakes, this amazing Cornbread Recipe, or this legendary Fried Chicken Recipe. My friend Lindsay also has a post on How to Freeze Buttermilk, though I haven’t tried it myself. I just make a point to use it all up!
Whisk the wet ingredients until combined, and don’t worry if it looks curdled and lumpy:
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and you’ll end up with a very thick dough:
Add blueberries, either fresh or frozen (I almost always do frozen), and stir them in just enough to distribute them somewhat evenly. If you stir too much you’ll make the whole batter purple.
Use a large 3-tbsp cookie scoop (affiliate) to portion the batter into muffin liners. I find that a generous scoop with this size is the right amount for each well.
Get the streusel crumb from the fridge, and break it up with your fingers a bit. Crumble it over the tops of the muffin batter:
Bake the muffins for about a half hour, until the crumb topping is golden.
If you have a toothpick handy, you can check that no wet batter comes out when you insert it into the center of the muffin. Though I honestly find it easier to just press my fingertip gently onto the top center of the muffin. If it springs back, it’s done.
These blueberry muffins are nice enjoyed warm out of the oven, but I personally believe they are best after they’ve cooled for a couple hours.
Cinnamon Rolls, Orange Coffee Cake, and English Style Scones are a few of my other favorite brunchy baked treats. Enjoy!
Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping
Ingredients
For the Streusel Crumb Topping:
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (72g)
- 1/2 cup sugar (112g)
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup butter melted (salted or unsalted both work)
For the Blueberry Muffins:
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour (212g)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- Zest of 2 meyer lemons (or do zest of 1 orange plus zest of 1 lemon)
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter melted (about 5.33 tbsp)
- 1 large egg
- 2/3 cup buttermilk
- 2 cups blueberries (I use frozen)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
- Start with the streusel crumb topping. In a small bowl, whisk to combine the flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Pour in the melted butter and mix with a fork until crumbs form. Chill in the refrigerator while you continue with the recipe.
- For the muffin batter, in a large bowl, whisk to combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and citrus zest.
- In another large bowl, whisk to combine the melted butter, egg, and buttermilk. It's fine if it looks curdled or lumpy.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir just enough to bring the batter together. It will be thick and lumpy, and that's fine. Take care not to overstir, which can make your muffins tough.
- Dump in the blueberries, and fold them in gently, just enough to distribute them somewhat evenly. Take care not to stir too much, or your batter will turn purple.
- Use a large 3-Tbsp cookie scoop and scoop slightly overfilled portions evenly into the 12 lined muffin wells.
- Remove the crumb topping from the fridge and break up the crumbs with your fingertips, sprinkling the topping onto each of the muffin batter scoops.
- Bake for 28-30 minutes, until the crumbs are golden brown. To make sure they are done inside, I gently press my fingertip in the top center of the muffin. It should spring back to the touch.
- They can be enjoyed warm out of the oven, but I personally find the flavor to be at its best after they've cooled for about 2 hours. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
Post and recipe updated in May 2020. Originally published July 2011.
122 Comments on “Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping”
Hi! I made these muffins last night and they were delicious! I had a question about measuring out the flour. I keep my flour in a big storage container so I scoop it from there into my measuring cup. Not sure if this is the fluff & scoop method but it is pretty loose. My question is when I measured the flour using my scale it was probably only 3/4 cup! I ended up using the 1.5 cup that was in parentheses and that made the batter VERY thick. It worked ok and everything turned out but I wondered if this is how your batter is? 3/4 cup of flour just didn’t seem like enough to make a dozen muffins. Thanks for your help!
Hi Brenda, Thanks for your comment. 3/4 cup measured out from 8 ounces of flour?! Hm…that seems very strange to me. The general rule of thumb is that one cup of flour (fluffed, scooped, leveled off with a knife) is 5 oz. King Arthur Flour says 1 cup is typically between 4.5 and 5.5 oz It sounds like you’ve got a scale (is it a reliable one?) in which case it’s always best to follow the weights rather than the measurements because they can vary a bit.
Hey, I was wondering if you could use frozen blueberries? Thanks
Hey Jen! You can absolutely use frozen blueberries. You don’t even need to thaw them out before baking!
How many muffins does this recipe make?
Hey Juliette, It makes 12 standard muffins.
My husband made this for me last Saturday. It was delicious! It’s keeper recipe!
YAY! I’m so glad!!! How nice that your husband made them for you =)
I’ve been looking for a good blueberry muffin recipe and with the lemon and streusel, pretty sure this one wins! Saving this one for next time I have some good blueberries! Love you blog too!
Just made these for company!! So yum and I’m not a huge Lemon fan but it definitely added a freshness to it! Just about as easy as boxed muffins and way more yum! Do you think I could use the same recipe and substitue banana nut? Thanks for sharing!
YAY I’m glad you liked them Jenn. I think doing a banana nut theme could work here, though I’ve never made banana nut muffins so I’m not sure. Do you add banana to the batter? I’m not a fan of bananas so I don’t really know. Sorry I can’t be more helpful!
Hey, I just saw this pic on food porn daily! Win.
Wow, these look delicious! I’ve always wanted to try making blueberry muffins. Thanks for the recipe!
Oh these look so delicious! One of my favorite ways to use up blueberries!
these look delish! thanks for sharing!
Deliciously delicious!
You’re so lucky to have so many blueberries. I can just imagine all the goodies you’re going to be able to bake with them. Your muffins already look gorgeous. I have a sweet treat linky party going on at my blog and I’d love it if you’d come by and link your muffins up. http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2011/06/sweets-for-saturday-21.html
I know, the blueberries are so cheap too. I really am lucky! I love popping some in a saucepan with some lemon, sugar, and cinnamon…blueberry sauce in 5 minutes! Thanks for the link invitation, sounds fun!
This looks amazing!! We love muffins at this house, so this is perfect! You could even turn it into a little cake and have this instead of coffee cake, or even dessert! So pretty.
That is such a great idea! You’re totally right…it would make a really nice coffee cake too. Thanks!
I love when a recipe actually calls for lumpy batter — then I don’t have to stress about it! These sound delicious — the tartness of blueberries and the tang of lemon is a winning combo, I’m sure.
LOL Meg, you always make me laugh! Yes, lumps are so important when doing the muffin method.
These look so good. I love the combo of lemon and blueberry…it just screams summer to me!
I love lemon and blueberry…and blueberry with cinnamon too!
Holy Moly… These look fantastic! I absolutely love lemon anything and I can’t wait to try these…! Thanks for the recipe!!
Thanks! They really are delicious. And I’m a little obsessed with Meyer Lemon!