Homemade Wild Blueberry Muffins
Tired of the same-old boxed yellow cake pretending to be a blueberry muffin mix? Make it real, make it right with this homemade wild blueberry muffin version you’re sure to love just as much–minus the fake colors and additives.
Need a little carb boost to get you though a busy schedule ahead? Yes I know that’s not the best way to boost your energy but still–sometimes a little treat never hurt. Unless you’re me and you have them every doggone day. Let’s solve this with a better-than-average homemade blueberry muffin.
My kids love blueberry muffins from the box. I mean–those babies are classic. I think I ate them every Sunday morning for most of my childhood. And I like them too. But I have to say, I might like these better. Usually homemade blueberry muffins aren’t very blueberryish. (That’s a word, FYI. My word.) They are either bland, dense or dry, and most don’t taste anything like a blueberry.
Enter America’s Test Kitchen’s classic blueberry muffins. I love America’s Test Kitchen food because it tastes good. The bad part? Their recipes tend to have more steps than others. But if you are making these once a month, what’s it going to hurt? Or, make a double batch and freeze them and enjoy them warm in the morning with coffee or spread on some cream cheese for the kids to have before school. They do not disappoint.
Just be aware that you need frozen WILD blueberries for the right flavor. You can find these in the freezer section of your grocery.(And I’m not going to lie–they aren’t cheap–but the bag is huge and will make several batches of muffins.) If you just buy plain old frozen blueberries and your muffins taste like drywall, it’s not my fault.
Homemade Wild Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons butter melted and cooled slightly
- 1 1/4 cups sour cream
- 1 1/2 cups frozen WILD blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside. You can also line the tin with cupcake liners for easier cleanup.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
- In a second bowl, whisk the egg and sugar until thick and combined. Just a few seconds should do it.
- Add the melted butter to the egg and sugar in two additions mixing well between.
- Add sour cream to the egg mixture in two additions, mixing well between.
- Add the blueberries (still frozen) to the flour and toss with your hands to coat.
- Add the sour cream/egg mixture to the flour and fold together with a rubber spatula.
- This batter is very thick and some of your blueberries will break as you stir. Just be as gentle as you can and try not to turn it all purple.
- Some small bits of flour may remain in the batter. Don't overmix it.
- Spoon into muffin tins, filling 3/4 full. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
- Optional: after they have cooled five minutes, melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and dip the tops in cinnamon sugar.
These a Wonderful! Both my granddaughters love them and always request them to take back to college! Of course the rest of the family loves them too.
“These were very moist and delicious. I think this is going to be the recipe for the King and Queen lol” -Hannah, age 6
Thank you for a yummy kid friendly recipe. We enjoyed making these together!
Or a recipe for a little Queen named Hannah! How sweet. I’m so glad she enjoyed them. –Rachel
Hi: I’m looking forward to trying these. I don’t see how many muffins this makes. Is it for 12 muffins? Thanks.
It made 10-11 for me Sharon, but I like mine pretty full. You can fill them 3/4 of the way or a bit less and get 12. I’ll update that in the recipe. –Rachel
Can you use apples in this recipe instead
Hi Irene, I haven’t tested this recipe with apples. You’d need to make some adjustments to the baking time to make sure they cooked through and probably add some other flavors to boost things up a bit. –Rachel
I have frozen fresh picked from Maine. Do I need to rinse?
I would have probably rinsed them and dried them well before freezing but I wouldn’t bother with it now. Frozen fruit of course leeches a lot of liquid as it thaws so I would probably thought those berries in a calendar or in a strainer and then once the juices have dripped off, I would go ahead and use them in the recipe. –Rachel
It’s soo sticky I think you should try adding 1 cup milk. Or oil
Layan
These muffins make a very thick batter–not like what you might expect, but it works out wonderfully. It’s meant to be that way and I would caution anyone about adjusting or adding anything to the recipe to change it. –Rachel
If you were to use this for blueberry bread, how would you adjust the ingredients, time and temp? I have been using Betty Crocker mixes and they are impossible to find anymore.
Hey Mike, of course these haven’t been tested in a loaf so we’d have to do some guessing but there wouldn’t be any need to adjust the ingredients. A 9×5 loaf pan, well greased will be fine and I’d just bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Heat between 350 and 375 so it doesn’t brown too quickly (tent with foil if needed) and bake maybe…eh…25 minutes? 30? You’ll just have to be the one to test it and see how it goes. –Rachel
Good ingredients but I must have done something wrong. They didn’t rise or fluff. They look like scones. Sorry but I will not be using this recipe again for muffins.
The thing that’s interesting about this is that this recipe works just fine–I make it often and there’s a YouTube video that shows them working as well. I would guess your baking powder is old. If it’s more than 6 months old it loses its ability to rise and you would in fact have hockey pucks. We also have to assume that the batter wasn’t mixed and left sitting for a long time because the baking powder would rise and fall before it had time to rise in the oven. –Rachel
Can you use fresh blueberries instead of frozen?
Hi Caitlin, yes you sure can. There are some drawbacks to fresh over frozen in this case. First is that the wild ones have tons more flavor and can only be found frozen. Traditional fresh cultivated blueberries have a very short growing season and often have almost no flavor. Not to mention that right now (late September) fresh blueberries are out of season in most places and if you buy them and put them in this recipe your muffins will have pretty much no flavor. But to answer your question, yes fresh ones can be used instead. –Rachel
Thanks Rachel. I actually work at a Farmer’s Market, so I have a line on the last fresh wild blueberries of the season. I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out in the recipe. I’m thinking I will mix everything up first and fold in the blueberries last so that they don’t get all squished.
AH! Well that is a horse of a different color then Caitlin. If you have fresh WILD ones, girl, run don’t walk to your kitchen and make those muffins.:) –Rachel
One of my most favorite breakfast ideas.
I as in Haliburton, Ontario and just got fresh wild blueberries and am using those. I’m so excited.
I hope you enjoy them Marilyn! –Rachel