• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Seasonal guides
  • Garden
  • About
  • Subscribe
  •  

Ask the Food Geek logo

menu icon
go to homepage
  • Seasonal guides
  • Garden
  • About
  • Subscribe
  •  
search icon
Homepage link
  • Seasonal guides
  • Garden
  • About
  • Subscribe
  •  
×
Home » Recipes » Blueberry swirl muffins

Published: May 1, 2020 · Modified: Jul 1, 2023 by Veronica T

Blueberry swirl muffins

Jump to Recipe Pin Recipe
blueberries and muffins
A picture of blueberry muffins in the tin

After testing numerous recipes and techniques across dozens and dozens of muffins, I have settled on the best recipe.

It's actually a combination of two recipes, taking the best from each one: the famous Department Store recipe and the one from Cook's Illustrated.

The "Jordan Marsh department store" recipe published on King Arthur Flour has the best batter, resulting in the fluffiest muffins. The recipe creams butter with sugar instead of using melted butter or oil like other recipes.

The recipe by Cook's Illustrated packs in extra flavor by cooking 1 cup of blueberries down into a syrup and swirling that into the muffins. They also top it with lemon-sugar, adding a nice brightness to every bite.

Lastly, I also used a reliable method to keep blueberries off the bottom of the muffins as mentioned in "Blueberry muffins, what could go wrong?" The trick is to fill the tins ¼ full with plain batter first. Unfortunately, tossing them in flour doesn't actually stop them from sinking.

This recipe is optimized for mobile screens by including ingredient measurements in the instructions so you don't have to continuously scroll up to the ingredient list to check quantities.

Recipe

A picture of blueberry muffins in the tin

The best blueberry muffins

Veronica T
Print Pin it
Calories260
Servings12 muffins
Prevent your screen from going dark

Equipment

  • muffin tin
  • stand mixer or hand mixer

Ingredients
 
US Customary - Metric
 

Muffins

  • 8 tablespoon butter room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour 241 grams
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1.5 cups fresh blueberries 1 ¼ cup if using frozen

Blueberry syrup swirl

  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar

Sugar topping

  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest from 1 lemon

Instructions

Prepare

  • Preheat oven to 375°F.
  • Lightly grease your muffin tins. If using paper cups, lightly grease those as well.

Make the blueberry syrup & lemon sugar

  • In a small saucepan, add 1 cup of blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar. Cook over medium heat until reduced to about ¼ of a cup. This should take 5-10 minutes.
  • While the syrup simmers, zest the lemon and mix with ¼ cup sugar, stirring until the zest is evenly distributed.

Muffin batter

  • In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat 8 tablespoon butter and 1 cup sugar until combined. (If not using a stand mixer, a hand mixer works too).
  • Add 2 eggs, one at a time and beat until well incorporated.
  • Add 2 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to the bowl and beat well.
  • Gently mix in the flour and milk (over beating at this point will make a denser muffin): Mix in half of the flour (1 cup), then add the milk (½ cup) and stir. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to incorporate any stuff not mixed in. Then add remaining flour (1 cup) and mix until just combined.
  • Do not add blueberries yet!
  • Line the bottom of the muffin tins with a little of the blueberry-less batter, about 1 Tbsp. This layer keeps blueberries off the bottom of the muffins and doesn't have to be exact.

Finish assembling the muffins

  • Once the bottom of the tins are lined with the 'plain' batter, gently fold 1½ cups of blueberries into the batter. No need to toss berries with flour *1 (see note). Fill the muffins tins to about ¾ full (just under ¼ cup of batter).
  • Swirl in 1 teaspoon of blueberry syrup into the top of each muffin using a chopstick or straw. Using more than 1 teaspoon might create a mess.
  • Lastly, top each muffin with 1 teaspoon of lemon sugar.

Bake

  • Bake in your 375°F oven for about 30 minutes. Check after 25 minutes since every oven is very different. The top should be golden brown.
  • When removing from the oven, losen the edges of the muffins from the tin, as the sugar topping can make them stick. Doing this while warm makes it easy, but don't touch any caramelized areas with bare hands, it will burn. Let the muffins cool for 5-10 minutes before removing them entirely from the tins.

Notes

1 - If using frozen blueberries, toss them in flour to prevent their juice from dying the batter blue. It does nothing to stop them from sinking, however.

Nutrition

Serving: 1muffin | Calories: 260kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 48mg | Sodium: 250mg | Potassium: 70mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 25g | Vitamin A: 306IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 61mg | Iron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Common problems with muffins

I not only tested various recipes, I also put different techniques to the test and addressed common problems.

Blueberry muffins, what could go wrong?
From sinking berries to died batter, I put solutions to the test.
Check it out
Batter dyed purple from blueberries

The article linked above addresses all of these problems:

  • Sinking blueberries
  • Using fresh vs frozen berries
  • Blueberries that turn red or green-blue
  • Frozen blueberries dying the batter
  • Cultivated vs wild blueberries
  • Muffins that don't rise well
  • Sugar toppings that caramelize

Buying fresh blueberries

Blueberries are in season from about May until August. They grow well in all climates across the US so you should be able to find great-tasting ones at a farmers market near you.

As mentioned in the seasonal blueberry guide, you should store them in your refrigerator, spread out on a plate or tray lined with a paper towel. The paper towel helps absorb moisture and also lets you see any berries that go bad. Berries that start to go bad will ooze juice that is clearly visible on the paper towel, allowing you to easily find them for removal.

Blueberries on a paper towel, stains show deterioration

They should last a few days to a week in the fridge.

A note on sugar reduction

These muffins each have 25 grams of sugar - 22g from granulated sugar and 3g from the blueberries. I admit, it's a lot.

I actively try to reduce sugar in my baked goods without sacrificing flavor. To do this, I test recipes with different amounts of sugar and compare, in order to find the sweet spot (pun intended).

Most muffins can reduce added sugar to about ½ a cup, which amounts to 9 grams per muffin (35 calories). This peanut butter banana nut muffin recipe is a great example of reducing sugar (it also has a breakdown of sugar and calories per ingredient).

However, when trying to reduce the sugar in blueberry muffins, I was disappointed. I believe it's because the batter itself is pretty plain - it doesn't have any spices, at all. Banana muffins have cinnamon or peanut butter mixed in, apple muffins use apple pie spices, even whole grain muffins have a lot of flavors added to the batter. But not blueberry muffins.

I don't think this is a bad thing - in fact, the opposite. The absence of other flavorings gives them their characteristic charm. Blueberries in a sweet fluffy muffin. You just have to be willing to throw your sugar goals out the window.

Here's a breakdown of sugar levels:

  • 1 cup (best option): most recipes call for 1 cup of sugar and those muffins turned out best, even with an extra ¼ cup lemon-sugar topping.
  • ¾ cup (2nd best): you can get away with reducing the sugar to ¾ cup, especially if you are using another ¼ cup with a lemon-sugar topping.
  • ½ cup (not good): The muffins I baked with ½ a cup of sugar were too bland.

You might also be tempted to skip the lemon-sugar topping, which you can do without sacrificing too much. But before you make that decision, I wanted to point out that each muffin gets 1 teaspoon of the sugar topping, which is 16 calories.

Other blueberry recipes

I encourage experimentation to find the recipe that you like best. Here's a few I recommend:

  • Jordan Marsh Department Store recipe
  • Cook's Illustrated recipe (requires membership) or reposted here.
  • Cookie + Kate's healthy version
  • Facebook

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Amal H says

    January 15, 2025 at 6:51 pm

    5 stars
    So in full disclosure I didnt make the full recipe. I needed to make purplish muffins for my daughters preschool. So I tried to make your swirl and used your technique on a kids friendly yoghurt muffin recipe and the swirl turned out so beautiful and delicious! I was skeptical but the method worked and looks so pretty! So thanks a million!

    Reply
    • Veronica T says

      January 15, 2025 at 6:57 pm

      I'm so glad the swirl helped make adorable purple muffins. Thanks for sharing 🙂

      Reply
  2. Reva says

    May 09, 2023 at 2:33 pm

    Hi there! My son likes blueberry flavor, but doesn't like "chunks" in anything. So I'm wondering if I can make a blueberry puree or blueberry syrup and replace the whole blueberries entirely -- perhaps just blending the puree or syrup right into the batter. Any thoughts or advice on that? I appreciate the help - I'm not a muffin master by any means. LOL

    Reply
    • Vee says

      June 01, 2023 at 3:27 pm

      Yes, I believe pureeing it all into a syrup and swirling it in would be great. You can also look for blueberry powder for flavor (and a fun purple color). The downside is it will likely be a bit pricey. (PS, sorry I missed your comment earlier this month, I didn't mean to keep you waiting).

      Reply
  3. Devi says

    July 04, 2022 at 11:36 am

    5 stars
    Beautiful

    Reply
  4. Shelley says

    June 09, 2021 at 7:17 pm

    5 stars
    simply delicious

    Reply
  5. Kari says

    May 05, 2020 at 9:21 pm

    5 stars
    I just made these and that swirl topping is so good!

    Reply
4.38 from 16 votes (12 ratings without comment)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

blueberries and muffins

About the Food Geek

Welcome, I'm Veronica, your resident food geek - experienced recipe developer and gardener. My goal is to help you enjoy eating at home by knowing what fruits & vegetables are currently in season and the best ways to use them. To do that, I've put together seasonal produce guides and recipes with practical advice.

More about me

Strawberries in baskets on a farm, with text May produce guide & recipes
Strawberry rhubarb bars with fresh rhubarb and strawberries in the foreground

Strawberry rhubarb oatmeal bars

A book on growing asparagus in your home garden

Get my new book, on sale during spring planting season!


Popular recipes

  • Roasted strawberries in their own sauce
    Roasted strawberries (for better flavor)
  • Eggs Benedict with asparagus, deli ham, and a fried over easy egg that was easy and quick to make. Set on a wood cutting board backdrop.
    Shortcut eggs Benedict with asparagus
  • Blueberry syrup in a jar, on top of a pile of fresh blueberries.
    Blueberry syrup recipe (with canning instructions)
  • A dinner plate filled with Chinese chicken salad, mandarin oranges, shredded cabbage, and a sesame salad dressing.
    Chinese chicken salad with fresh mandarin oranges
See more Spring recipes →

Footer

blueberries and muffins

↑ back to top

About

  • About me
  • Privacy Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up for produce guides!

Contact

  • Contact

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Rate This Recipe

Your vote:




Let us know what you thought of this recipe:

This worked exactly as written, thanks!
My family loved this!
Thank you for sharing this recipe

Or write in your own words:

A rating is required
A name is required
An email is required

Recipe Ratings without Comment

Something went wrong. Please try again.