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”
The best blueberry muffin I have baked-ever. The lemon zest uplifted and brightened this muffin and the crumble topping was chunky and mouth watering. They were perfectly balanced, just as the recipe directed.
We didn’t use cupcake liners, but instead cut out small circles to line the very bottom of the tin and used veg shortening to lightly grease the sides. This allowed the cupcake to grow to capacity and it was very easy to remove.
Hi Catherine! I am so glad you loved this recipe and couldn’t agree more regarding the lemon zest! Great idea for skipping the cupcake liners! Thanks!
Would you like a photo of the muffin?
Would love it!
These are the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever made. A beautiful recipe.
I made these muffins and they were fabulous! I added one thing that I thought made them even better- I drizzled them with a vanilla glaze. Absolutely amazing!
Thank you for this recipe. I will be making them often
Oh My Goodness! These Blueberry Muffins are the BEST I have ever made. I actually used my jumbo muffin pan with jumbo paper cupcake holders and the recipe made 6 large ones. The cooking time was maybe about 5 minutes longer and they turned out beautiful and so moist! The crumb topping was way too much for the 6 jumbo muffins, so I will cut that recipe in half next time! Thank you so much for this wonderful moist Blueberry Muffin recipe!
I made these and they were absolutely scrumptious. I did replace the white sugar in the streusel topping with brown sugar. It was awesome.
Excellent recipe!! I didn’t have a lemon or orange for the zest but did have McCormick lemon peel so added 1/2 tsp to the liquid to remoisten the dried peel . Mixed accordingly.
Maybe add a tsp of cinnamon to the batter next time 😋😋
Can I make this base without the lemon zest and add chocolate chips?
My family could not stop raving about these muffins. Do not pass on the zest it made the muffin !
These are wonderful! Definitely tastier than the last blueberry muffins I made (the crumbs make it so much better!) The topping didn’t quite reach golden-brown, but even so, it’s still really really good. Very yum. Big juicy blueberries for the win! Aaaand I doubled the recipe so I could share with my friend’s family! 12 for us and 12 for them!
These are absolutely amazing ! I baked 6 jumbo muffins at 375 for 40 minutes. Instead of 12 regular muffins. They were baked in my Breville toaster oven. I used a jumbo pan as well as jumbo baking cups. The other thing I did different was use 1/4 cup white and 1/4 cup brown sugar for the crumble topping. Other than that followed the recipe. Again these are amazing. Better than my favorite hometown Bakery. They are definitely Bakey quality muffins. This recipe is a keeper! 😋
I just made these this morning…added brown sugar to the crumb topping…these muffins are so delicious. My husband tried one and immediately said how good it was. And such an easy recipe…
Hi, can you use some brown sugar in the crumb topping?
Really tasty and nice change from cinnamon sugar topping many other recipes have. Used half lemon and half orange jest. Added a great subtle citrus flavor
I made these last night and they are delicious! I forgot to refrigerate the crumbs however, but it just made the topping crunchier which I really like. I have quite a powerful oven so I found that after cooking them for 25 minutes at 190 degrees celsius (which is what Google told me is the equivalent temp) they are a bit overdone. I think I will remake them tonight and cook them at 180 degrees C (356 F) for 20 minutes and remember to refrigerate the crumbs. I would also use less Orange zest (We don’t have Meyer lemons in the UK I don’t think?) The orange was a little overpowering. I also made a coulis with some blueberries, raspberries, sugar and water and injecting it into the cooled muffins which makes for a nice bite. Overall an easy to follow recipe and delicious.
I just have to share with you. My now grown son wanted blueberry muffins I always just grabbed a box mix at the store( please don’t judge) but I found this recipe and decided to give it a try. It was amazing and easy. He loved them. I did drizzle a lemon glaze on them and wow! Thank you for sharing. My go to from now on
My favorite!