Bakery-Style Blueberry Crumble Muffins
Yield: 12 large muffins
Prep: 20 minutes
Resting: 10–20 minutes
Bake: about 20–25 minutes
Oven: 425°F → 350°F
Ingredients
Muffins
2½ cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
¼ cup (60 ml) neutral oil — vegetable, canola, or avocado oil
¾ cup (180 ml) buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1½–2 cups (225–300 g) blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 tablespoon flour, for coating the blueberries
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, optional
Buttery Crumble Topping
¾ cup (95 g) all-purpose flour
⅓ cup (65 g) granulated sugar
¼ cup (50 g) light brown sugar, packed
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons (70 g) unsalted butter, melted
Optional bakery finish
1–2 tablespoons coarse sugar
Powdered sugar, for dusting after baking
👩🍳 Full Step-by-Step Recipe
1. Prepare the pan
Line a 12-cup muffin pan with tall paper tulip-style liners, like those in your photograph.
If you don’t have tulip liners, ordinary muffin liners work perfectly.
Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
For especially tall muffins, place the muffin pan on the center oven rack.
2. Make the crumble
In a medium bowl combine:
¾ cup flour
⅓ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Pour in the melted butter.
Mix with a fork until you have irregular crumbs ranging from pea-size to about ½-inch pieces.
Don’t overmix it into a smooth paste.
Place the crumble in the refrigerator while you make the batter.
This type of “toss rather than over-stir” technique helps maintain distinct crumb pieces after baking.
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Food Network
3. Prepare the blueberries
Put the blueberries in a small bowl.
Sprinkle them with 1 tablespoon flour and gently toss.
This isn’t absolutely necessary, but it can help distribute the berries through the thick batter.
If using frozen blueberries
Do not thaw them first.
Add them while still frozen. Frozen berries can bleed some color into the batter, but they work very well in muffins.
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4. Mix the dry ingredients
In a large bowl whisk together:
2½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
Whisk for about 20 seconds so the leavening is evenly distributed.
5. Mix the wet ingredients
In another bowl whisk together:
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
melted butter
oil
buttermilk
vanilla
lemon zest, if using
Whisk until smooth.
The combination of butter and oil gives you both buttery flavor and a soft, moist crumb.
6. Combine wet and dry
Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients.
Using a rubber spatula, gently fold until about 80–90% combined.
There should still be a few streaks of flour.
Now gently fold in the blueberries.
⚠️ Don’t overmix
This is one of the most important steps.
Stop mixing as soon as the flour disappears.
Overmixing develops gluten and can make muffins dense, chewy, or tough rather than soft and tender.
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7. Rest the batter
Let the batter sit for 10–20 minutes.
This gives the flour time to hydrate and makes the batter thicker.
A thicker batter helps produce those tall bakery-style tops.
8. Fill the muffin liners
For the large muffins shown in your photo, divide the batter between 12 liners.
Fill each approximately ¾ full, or slightly higher if you’re using tall tulip liners.
For an especially dramatic bakery top, you can fill them close to the top of the liner.
Don’t flatten the batter.
9. Add the crumble
Generously cover each muffin with the refrigerated crumble.
Use approximately 2–3 tablespoons per muffin.
Don’t be afraid to use plenty — the photo has a substantial crumb topping.
Gently press a few crumbs into the batter so they don’t fall off after baking.
You can add a small sprinkle of coarse sugar on top if you want an extra crunchy bakery finish.
🔥 10. Bake
Put the pan into the 425°F oven.
Bake for 5 minutes.
Then, without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to:
350°F (175°C)
Continue baking for approximately 15–20 minutes.
Total baking time will usually be around 20–25 minutes, depending on muffin size and your oven.
The initial high temperature encourages rapid expansion and a tall muffin top; several established blueberry-muffin recipes use this high-then-lower-temperature technique.
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🧁 11. Check for doneness
Insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin.
It should come out with:
moist crumbs, or
a little blueberry juice
but not wet raw batter.
The tops should be golden brown and the muffin should spring back lightly when touched.
12. Cool
Leave the muffins in the pan for 5–10 minutes.
Then transfer them to a wire rack.
For the best texture, let them cool for at least another 10 minutes before eating.
They’re particularly good while still slightly warm.
⭐ How to Get the Muffins in Your Photo
For that big, rustic bakery appearance, these details matter:
Use tulip liners
The tall brown paper liners allow the batter to rise upward rather than spreading sideways.
Don’t skimp on blueberries
Use about 2 cups if you want the berry-heavy appearance shown.
Use large crumbs
Don’t rub the streusel into fine sand. Leave some large chunks.
Start hot
425°F for the first 5 minutes helps create a tall crown.
Don’t overmix
The batter should look thick and somewhat lumpy.
Fill generously
For giant muffins, use approximately 90–100 g batter per liner, depending on the liner size.
Don’t overbake
Overbaking is one of the easiest ways to lose the soft, moist center.
🌰 Nut Information
Is this recipe nut-free?
Yes — the ingredients themselves contain no peanuts or tree nuts.
There are:
❌ No almonds
❌ No walnuts
❌ No pecans
❌ No pistachios
❌ No cashews
❌ No hazelnuts
❌ No peanuts
The crumble is made simply with flour, sugar, brown sugar, butter, salt and cinnamon.
Important allergy warning
If you’re preparing these for someone with a serious nut allergy, ingredient selection alone isn’t enough.
Check the labels of:
flour
butter
chocolate/chips, if added
vanilla
packaged blueberries
baking powder/soda
paper liners
for allergen statements, and avoid cross-contact with utensils, mixing bowls, countertops, muffin pans and ingredients that have previously contacted nuts.
For a severe allergy, use products specifically appropriate for the person’s allergy requirements.
🫐 Fresh vs. Frozen Blueberries
Fresh:
Best if they’re firm and sweet. Pat them dry before using.
Frozen:
Excellent for this recipe. Keep them frozen and fold them in directly. Don’t thaw first.
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Wild blueberries:
Excellent if you want more blueberry flavor distributed throughout the muffin.
🍋 Lemon Version
For a brighter flavor, add:
1 teaspoon lemon zest to the batter
1 tablespoon lemon juice to the batter
You can also add ½ teaspoon lemon zest to the streusel.
Lemon and blueberry work particularly well together, and lemon zest is used in several established blueberry-streusel recipes.
J
Joy of Baking
🥛 No Buttermilk?
Make a quick substitute:
¾ cup milk + 2¼ teaspoons lemon juice or white vinegar
Stir and let stand for 5–10 minutes, then use it as the buttermilk.
Alternatively, plain yogurt thinned with a little milk works well.
🧈 Can I Use All Butter Instead of Oil?
Yes.
Replace the ¼ cup oil with another 4 tablespoons (56 g) melted butter.
However, the butter + oil combination generally gives you a softer muffin that stays moist longer.
🫐 Can I Add More Blueberries?
Yes.
You can increase the recipe to approximately 2½ cups blueberries, but the more berries you add, the wetter and more delicate the muffin becomes.
For the appearance in your picture, about 2 cups is a good target.
❄️ Can I Freeze Them?
Yes.
Cool completely, then place the muffins in an airtight freezer bag or container.
Freeze for up to approximately 3 months for best quality.
Thaw at room temperature, or microwave an individual muffin for about 20–30 seconds.
For a fresh-baked texture, warm it briefly in a 300°F oven.
📦 How to Store Them
At room temperature:
2–3 days in an airtight container.
Don’t refrigerate unless necessary. Refrigeration can make baked goods seem firmer and drier.
For longer storage, freezing is preferable. A comparable professional blueberry streusel recipe also recommends room-temperature storage for several days.
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Food Network
❓ Recipe Q&A
Why did my muffins not rise?
Usually one of these:
Old baking powder/soda
Batter was overmixed
Oven wasn’t fully preheated
Too much liquid
Muffin cups weren’t filled enough
Oven temperature was too low
Why are my blueberries sinking?
Your batter may be too thin, or the berries may be exceptionally large/heavy.
Try:
coating the berries with flour
keeping the batter thick
using frozen blueberries
folding them in very gently
Why did the blueberries turn the batter purple?
That’s especially common with frozen blueberries.
Don’t thaw them before adding them. Some color bleeding is normal.
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I Heart Eating
Why is my streusel melting?
The butter may have been too hot, or the crumbs were mixed into a paste.
After making the streusel, refrigerate it for 10–15 minutes before putting it on the muffins.
Why did my streusel disappear into the muffin?
The batter may have been too wet, or the crumbs were too small.
Make larger crumbs and chill them before baking.
Can I make jumbo muffins?
Yes.
Use a jumbo muffin pan and fill approximately ¾ full.
Expect roughly 25–35 minutes baking time, but start checking early. A published blueberry crumb recipe, for example, uses 10 jumbo muffins with a high-temperature start followed by a lower-temperature bake.
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Food Network
Can I make mini muffins?
Yes.
Use mini muffin cups and begin checking around 10–12 minutes.
Can I make them without eggs?
Yes, although the texture will change.
A commercial egg-free substitution such as a prepared egg replacer can work, or you can use a suitable egg-substitution formula. I would not simply omit the eggs because they provide structure and moisture.
Can I make them dairy-free?
Yes.
Use:
dairy-free butter
plant-based milk + lemon juice/vinegar for the buttermilk
neutral oil
Check all packaged ingredients for allergy statements if this is for someone with allergies.
Can I make them less sweet?
Yes.
Reduce the muffin sugar from ¾ cup to ⅔ cup.
I wouldn’t reduce it much further because sugar contributes not only sweetness but also moisture, tenderness and browning.
Can I add nuts?
Yes, if you’re not trying to keep the recipe nut-free.
Good choices would be:
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup chopped walnuts
⅓ cup sliced almonds
Add them to the streusel or sprinkle them over the muffins.
For the photo-style version, however, I’d leave them out. The simple blueberry + buttery crumb combination gives the clean bakery appearance you’re after.
💰 Approximate Nutrition
Because muffin size, blueberries, butter brands and exact amounts vary, nutrition is only an estimate.
For a large 12-muffin batch, expect roughly 350–400 calories per muffin, with approximately:
Carbohydrates: 50–60 g
Fat: 14–18 g
Protein: 4–6 g
Sugar: 25–35 g
Fiber: 1–3 g
Published blueberry streusel recipes fall in a similar range, although their exact formulas and serving sizes differ substantially.
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I Heart Eating
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My recommended version for your picture
If you want the closest result to the photograph, use:
2 cups blueberries + buttermilk + butter/oil combination + tulip liners + generous chilled streusel + 425°F for 5 minutes, then 350°F until done.
