Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

Tender buttermilk muffins studded with fresh blueberries and topped with a sugar-butter topping. Perfect for brunch, breakfast or as a sweet afternoon treat!

When you live without air conditioning and, like me, lean on a system of fans to keep the inside temperatures from creeping up, the impulse to crank up the oven to bake muffins feels like a crazy one. But, these blueberry buttermilk muffins have been on my list for the last month so I got up early late last week to take advantage of an unusually cool morning, positioned the fans in the windows, and got to baking. It cost me a few extra degrees in the house, but when I pulled out the fresh-baked muffins, studded with blueberries bursting from the oven heat, it was totally worth it.

The muffins are sweet and tender and topped with an indulgent sugar-butter topping that melts into the tops of the muffins as they bake creating a lightly crunchy topping. They’re brunch-worthy or a decadent breakfast treat and a great way to put some summer blueberries to good use.

This recipe makes a big batch of muffins and, depending on your muffin pan, you will end up with 22 to 24 muffins.

Muffin Ingredients

• Buttermilk
• Brown sugar
• Vegetable or canola oil
• Eggs
• Bananas
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Cinnamon
• Blueberries

I don’t love recipes that call for a smallish amount of an ingredient you might not use up, but in this case, the buttermilk gives the muffins a bit of a tangy flavor and it also gives them a tender crumb. You only need a quarter cup, so might I suggest a Buttermilk Dutch Baby or a batch of Pancake Squares to use up the rest? I also have a crispy oven chicken recipe in my cookbook that calls for buttermilk.

Still don’t want to buy buttermilk? Well, you can make your own, although I haven’t tested this recipe with DIY buttermilk. I suspect it will work fine, so to make your own you will need 3/4 tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice and 3/4 cup whole milk.

For these muffins, the bananas add moisture, but not a lot of banana flavor. Once baked you can barely tell they are in there – it’s the blueberries that really shine.

And about the blueberries: It’s hard to resist the fresh in-season blueberries this time of year, but you can also substitute the same amount of frozen blueberries.

Topping Ingredients

• Brown sugar
• All-purpose flour
• Unsalted butter
• Cinnamon

Recipe Tips

• I like to use the “stir and spoon” method for measuring flour. First, I stir the flour in the container a few times, scoop it into the measuring cup using a spoon and level it off with a knife.
• Use two bowls to make the batter. One to combine the dry ingredients and another, larger bowl, to mix the wet ones. To combine them, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ones stirring just until combined. I know two bowls is a hassle, but it will make a big difference – your muffins will be more tender.
• I used paper liners for my muffins, but if you don’t have any just spray your muffin pan with cooking spray. Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full with the batter.
• For the topping, cut your cold butter into small cubes. Combine the butter with the other ingredients and, using a fork, stir and break up the butter a little more by pressing on the cubes with the fork. You don’t need to incorporate the butter with the dry ingredients. Instead, you want the butter to be in small pieces.
• Once you’ve topped the muffin batter with the topping, I like to drop a few more blueberries on top. This is totally optional, but I like how the muffins look with burst blueberries on top after they come out of the oven.
• These buttermilk muffins keep for a few days in an airtight container or wrap them tightly and pop them in the freezer for up to two months.

Happy summer-baking!

More Breakfast Recipes

Looking for more brunch and breakfast ideas? Here are a few favorite recipes to try…

• In the summer, when it seems zucchini might take over everything, this Banana Zucchini Bread is a great way to use it all up!
• They might look like dessert, but these Blueberry Hand Pies are really just fancy homemade pop-tarts. They’re made with store-bought dough, summer-fresh blueberries and (bonus!) they’re freezer-friendly, too.
• For even more ideas, be sure to check out my round-up of Make-Ahead Breakfast Recipes, too.

Print

Recipe, photos, and post updated from the archives. First published in April 2012.