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”
These are a hit at home and office, thank you. We’re deep into blueberry season and this is one of the best way to use them that delights all. Very easy to make. I used the zest of one naval orange. Freezing the fresh blueberries is a spot on trick.
Made this recipe today using fresh blueberries and replacing the flour-baking powder-salt with self-rising. They came out exceptionally tender (maybe a little TOO tender and crumbly). Maybe this was from using self-rising flour. The streusel topping is outstanding and the muffins are delicious.
The muffins are in the oven. I made 12, as the recipe yeilds. I used muffin pans. I am hoping they turn out. Seemed like there wasn’t enough batter.
Followed recipe as described. They were excellent. Only change I’d make next time would be to reduce blueberries to about 1 cup instead of 2.
Hello, I was wondering if the flour could be substituted for whole wheat flour?
I’ve made your blueberry muffins. They are absolutely delicious! I really enjoy all of your recipes.
Thanks so much!
Thanks Lisa, glad you enjoyed!
I DON’T HAVE ANY MUFFIN TINS DO I NEED TO MAKE ANY CHANGES TO THIS RECIPE IT I USE 9 X13 PAN?
THANKS
This is a great recipe. Everybody raved. Using milk/vinegar substitute for buttermilk didn’t seem to matter to anyone. Also used regular lemons for zest. So don’t let lack of either to prevent you from trying these out. Have already been asked for the recipe. I won’t be using any other. Thanks!
These are by far the best blueberry muffins I have ever eaten!
They were easy to make and absolutely delicious!
I just printed the Chocolate chunk muffin recipe and can’t wait to bake them.
BTW, I made the fried chicken recipe you recommended with the extra buttermilk and it was delicious, too. Thank you so much. Your recipe site is the best!
Hi Susan! So happy to hear all of this. Glad you’ve made so many delicious things lately too 🙂 Happy cooking!
I absolutely love this recipe! I made it for my mom for mother’s day and have made it 3 times since then. My mom said they were the best blueberry muffins she ever had. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Woohooo!! Glad to hear 🙂
Just baking these muffins up as I type. These are extremely easy to make! The smell just permeates the entire house. I am going to check on them again. Just can’t wait to eat them! Thank you for your dedication to making it all so easy.
Hi Martin, I hope you enjoyed them!
I made the muffins without the lemon zest. They turned out great. But I would like to try them with the lemons but do not understand what it means by zest of lemons.
Hi Deb, The zest of a lemon can be removed with a Zester. It’s a tool/rasp that takes off the very outer skin of the lemon (the colored yellow part, not the white part below it, which is called the pith and is very bitter). The yellow lemon zest is very fragrant and makes a wonderful addition to the muffins.
If im not able to find meyer lemons at any store near me, would i be able to use a regular lemon or just not use a lemon at all? thanks
Hi Josalin, You can just do regular lemon or you can even do a regular lemon plus the zest of an orange to give it a rounder citrus aroma. Enjoy the muffins!
Ive been trying to find a way to make em & now i can. thanks so much 🙂
I have made 3 batches of these delicious muffins. I do have a meyer lemon tree, but they were not ripe enough to use the first 2 times. The first time, I used regular lemon and tangerine, the second time I used regular lemon and key limes. They were all super delicious!
YAY! I bet key limes would be awesome in here. I need to try that! PS I’m jealous you have a meyer lemon tree =)
Well, those blasted meyer lemons take forever to ripen. I live in Miami, FL, so we have great citrus, I want to try grapefruit too…
Hi, Joanne-
These look wonderful! I just got a ton of fresh, beautiful berries today and have been looking up recipes and this one we can’t wait to try! I was wondering if you’ve tried freezing any of these muffins? We will certainly gobble a bunch up, but I wanted to make extra because we’re getting ready to go camping and we wanted special goodies! Thanks!
Hi J’Aime, Yes, muffins freeze well! Just like how cakes and breads freeze well. Here are some tips that I found, as a guide: http://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/content/baking-101/muffins/storage-and-freezing-muffins.aspx Have fun on your camping trip!
Joanne, these muffins were soooooooo good! Received raving compliments on how moist they turned out. Who knew lemons and blueberry would be so good together! I, too, am a new fan of your website. Thank you for your recipes and your helpful advise. I am going to try the Dark Chocolate Cake with Chestnut Buttercream Frosting next. Wish me luck!
YAY!!!!! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed them so much and they turned out so well! Hope you continue to enjoy the site and the recipes!
Joanne, These are the absolute best, most wonderful, moist, tender, light muffins I have ever baked in my entire life. Thank you for the recipe and the reason for not overbeating. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes and have saved your website as a shortcut on my computer. 😀
Deborah, What a wonderful comment! I’m so glad to hear it. No overbeating and no overbaking are the biggest secrets to great baking (along with a good recipe, of course). Hope you enjoy the other recipes too =)