Outrageous Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins
Perfectly tender and incredibly addicting! These gluten-free blueberry muffins have a sparkly sugar crust on top and are moist on the inside, just bursting with fresh blueberries!
Not a dry crumb in sight!
These gluten-free blueberry muffins are now a go-to recipe around here. I’ve made these more times than I can count on one hand and, AND, AND I’ve made them with regular all-purpose flour too. Just to be sure that this recipe works for those of us that may not necessarily be on a gluten-free diet.
With our trip to Italy right around the corner, it seems like it’s getting harder and harder to fit everything we need to get done before leaving. Lately, I’ve had super packed days where I’m rushing from the time my alarm clock goes off in the morning to the time I rest my head back down on the pillow at night. For all the crazy mornings, I’m starting to put together things like these gluten-free blueberry muffins and my breakfast croissant boats that make breakfast a grab-and-go affair.
Husband calls these blueberry muffins his breakfast dessert. I call myself lucky if I can get something in my system before lunchtime.
The BEST homemade gluten-free blueberry muffins:
In the past, I’ve shared a variety of muffin recipes with you guys like my healthy carrot cake muffin. But to be honest, this is the first time I’ve dabbled in a gluten-free blueberry muffin recipe. Of course, you can easily swap out the blueberries for raspberries or even blackberries if you prefer those more. This recipe works well with a simple swap.
As a child, my favorite thing to pick out when we made a trip to Sam’s Club were those freakishly huge muffins from the bakery section. Have you ever had them? They’re so good! They came in a sampler pack with banana nut, blueberry, and chocolate with chocolate chip. Though I haven’t had them since I was a teenager, I distinctly remember always gravitating towards the chocolate variety. It wasn’t until the chocolate muffins ran out that I’d make my way over to the fruit kind.
Funny how things work out. It’s quite the opposite now. I’ll take a blueberry muffin over chocolate chip any day!
The baking mix we use in our gluten-free blueberry muffins
First off, you’ll need gluten-free flour. Sometimes it’s sold as a gluten-free all-purpose baking mix. For those that aren’t too familiar with this type of baking mix, it’s usually a combination of brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, and white rice flour. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll contain all these ingredients, but most gluten-free baking mixes contain some or all of these ingredients in various proportions. The bag or box will also list it as a ‘1 to 1 baking mix.’ That means that you can directly replace the all-purpose flour with the gluten-free mix and achieve similar results. You can also find it online in case your grocery store doesn’t carry it.
Everything else you need to make gluten-free blueberry muffins:
- leavening agent
- softened butter
- sugar
- ground cinnamon/nutmeg
- vanilla/almond extract
- eggs
- buttermilk
- blueberries
Though this recipe is pretty similar to most gluten-free blueberry muffin recipes out there, I feel it has one thing that takes the muffins over the top. Almond extract is an ingredient I often use when making blueberry muffins. Up until recently, I wasn’t a fan of the stuff. To tell you the truth, I still reserve it to use in a few, select muffin recipes. But there’s just something about blueberry muffins, and almond extract works well together. It elevates the flavor and makes it more of a bakery-style muffin. If you aren’t a huge fan, I urge you to still give it a try as you may change your mind, it’s only a ¼ teaspoon!
One more thing I wanted to talk about, buttermilk. Buttermilk gives these gluten-free blueberry muffins the most distinctive, slightly tangy flavor. It tends to work well in recipes that contain berries. The acid in buttermilk also helps these muffins rise nice and high.
How to make the best gluten-free blueberry muffins:
The method is pretty simple. We’ll combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and set that aside. Then, cream the butter and the sugar together and add the eggs one at a time before adding in the extracts and finally alternate the buttermilk and the flour until everything is combined. Just be sure not overmix the batter.
One thing I like to do before folding the blueberries into the batter is wash them, and toss them in a tablespoon of flour. This helps keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffin.
TIP: If you want your muffins to be more visually appealing, save a few of the blueberries and top the batter with them once you’ve portioned them out into a paper-lined muffin pan. They burst, and the juices run down the side, and the muffins are gaw-geous.
Then just sprinkle the remaining two tablespoons of sugar on your muffins and let them bake. Trying not to eat them while they’re hot out of the oven is the hardest thing! The sugar on top gives these muffins the most distinct crunch. These muffins are addicting!
How long will these last?
My experience with gluten-free muffins in the summer is that they don’t really hold up more than two days. Especially not in the Texas heat! So usually, I’ll bake a batch and send some to family or friends and keep a few for us. Or I’ll do option number two below.
Can you freeze gluten-free blueberry muffins?
The answer is, yes, you can! You can bake these muffins off, allow them to come to room temperature, then pop them into a zip-top bag and freeze them for up to 2 months. Just let them defrost in the refrigerator overnight, and they’re ready to go in the morning.
Smear them with a little butter while they’re still warm and eat them over the sink. It’s so much more satisfying this way. I hope these gluten-free blueberry muffins become a Sunday morning staple at your place too!
Outrageous Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins
Perfectly tender and incredibly addicting! These gluten-free blueberry muffins have a sparkly sugar crust on top and are moist on the inside, just bursting with fresh blueberries!
Ingredients
- 2 cups gluten-free baking mix or all-purpose flour (plus more)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon EACH: almond extract (optional) AND ground nutmeg (optional)
- ½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened
- 1 cup and 4 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1 heaping cup blueberries
Instructions
- PREP: Preheat the oven to 425F; line muffin pan with paper baking liners and set aside.
- DRY INGREDIENTS: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg; set aside. In another bowl, toss the washed berries with 1 tablespoon of flour.
- MAKE: In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter for 1 minute. Then, add 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar and cream together for roughly 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stop and scrape down the sides. With the mixer on the stir setting, add the eggs one at a time and waiting until each is mixed in well before adding the next. Add the vanilla and almond extract. Add half of the prepared flour mixture, followed by all the buttermilk, and then finally the remaining flour until it is well blended, but make sure you don’t overmix. Fold the floured berries into the batter until *just combined* Overmixing will result is a blue/green muffin once they’re baked.
- BAKE: Divide the batter into the prepared muffin pan. Sprinkle the muffins with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the muffin pan in the oven and immediately drop the oven temperature to 375ºF. Bake the muffins for 26-32 minutes or until the muffins are cooked through. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- If you have unsalted butter, just up the salt to ½ teaspoon total.
- Leftover muffins can be stored in an airtight container for 2 days and kept at room temperature. You can also pop these into a zip top bag and freeze them for later.
Great recipe! Even my picky kid loved it. We used our own fresh off the bush blueberries. Thanks
I have made this recipe several times and it is consistently delicious. I use kefir instead of buttermilk, and both almond extract and lemon extract in addition to the vanilla.
I too used lemon extract and loved it.
Love this recipe! The first time I made these, I followed the recipe as written with regular AP flour. This time I decided to experiment a little. I used a gluten free 1:1 baking mix, chia seeds in water to substitute the eggs and coconut milk with lemon juice to substitute the buttermilk. Everything else the same. Success! A bit crumbly, but still moist and tender.
Mine were gooey, so I don’t know what I did wrong. Although, no access to a beater, so I hand beat the butter, etc… They still tasted great! How do you get them to be so airy?
Mary
I made this yummy recipe with the following alterations to also make the muffins dairy free. I used unrefined coconut oil instead of butter and unsweetened almond milk instead of buttermilk/cream. These were used in the same measurements as the other ingredients were recommended. I also omitted the nutmeg and did not sprinkle the tops with additional sugar.
They came out delicious. My only change next time will be to add more blueberries and cut down the amount of sugar just a bit.
Excellent recipe! I followed directions as given and my flour choice was Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1.
Very easy to put together and the crumb/texture was the best I’ve ever had in a gf cake/muffin anything. Was it the buttermilk that did that?
I agree on the almond extract…it definitely adds an extra dimension to the taste.
I searched your site for a gg cake recipe but couldn’t find one. Do you have one and I’m just not looking in the right place? Could I use this recipe as a cake recipe minus the seasonings and almond?
Thank you for sharing?
Just made these for kids who don’t like blueberry muffins and they are half gone.
I thought my cinnamon container had a shaker on it, and it didn’t, so I put probably 1/4 cup of cinnamon and it was still good.
Really delicious recipe.
Sorry I also forgot to say I used oatmilk as is instead of buttermilk with zero issues.
Excellent recipe and results…Having just recently using gluten free flour I now understand the importance of the high temperature that is knocked down….it helps hold the muffin together where previously they totally crumbled apart
These muffins are wonderful!!! Most of my family is celiac and I am always searching for recipes that will replace the glutinous recipes of the past! lol These muffins are a winner!!! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
These are truly outrageously delicious! I substituted oat flour for tapioca starch, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. The muffins rose beautifully and tasted amazing! My husband, a big gf critic could not stop himself from eating 3 in one sitting. A definite keeper!
I’m wondering if you can cut the sugar in half and will it make a difference in the consistency
The muffins are great but concerned about the sugar content for my grandson
I have made the muffins and they are great
Just made these for the 2nd time in a week since we ate the first batch in a few hours. Used bobs red mill one to one baking flour, soy milk mixed with apple cider vinegar to make dairy free buttermilk, and smart balance butter. So so good!
Made this recipe this am with raspberries and walnuts. I also used vegan butter and egg substitute. Hands down the most amazing gf/vegan muffins ever! You would never know they were not regular muffins.
Excellent recipe! My oven”s cooktime was 22 minutes, the muffins were tender and delicious
These gf blueberry muffins, truly are fantastic! They’re the best I’ve ever made myself. I wanted to take a photo of them, but my family (who are NOT celiac patients like me) ate then up within an hour of making them lol! These are in my “Everybody Loves” folder for sure!! Thanks so much for sharing.
Step 3 says mix sugar and cream together. What cream???
This is the first gluten free muffin recipe that I’ve tried that actually makes big top muffins. All other recipes just claim they’ll be big tops, they were never big top muffins.
Love. This. Recipe.
I want to make these for a lady’s brunch. Has anyone made the recipe using mini muffin pans sprayed with Pam?
Do you have nutrition info for these- especially the sugar content?
I’ve made these muffins 4 times with some modifications. Each time was delicious but I think this last round came out the best. I added 1 extra egg (3 eggs total), and I reduced the sugar to 1 cup and 1Tbsp. I use Greek yogurt Fage brand 5% milk fat; I used 1 cup. I use bob mills GF 1-1 baking flour. After pouring the batter into the muffin tin, I add a few extra blueberries on top and just sprinkle sugar, I think the 2 Tbsp is too much. I also leave it out for 30 min to rest before putting it into the oven (someone mentioned that in one of the earlier comments and it was best piece of advice). I baked it around 26-28 min. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. No grittiness. Delicious!!!
These are the best gluten free blueberry muffins I’ve ever made. Thank you so much.
These are so good. Will definitely be making again!
Eh. Mine came out rather dry and the texture left something to be desired. Taste wasn’t bad. I did follow the directions thoroughly, but I know various GF flour blends behave differently, so maybe what I used required more moisture.
Hello! I excited to make these! If I double the recipe do all the ingredients double? Just making sure I don’t mess up! TIA!
Mine didn’t rise unsure what I did wrong as I followed the recipe to a tee.. is it possible I put too much batter into each muffin cup? I know this is a good recipe as it does taste good.
The oven is way too hot. Mine were almost burned. How about 375?
Hi Margo! The instructions are to preheat the oven at 425F, but reduce it to 375F immediately when you add the muffins to the oven. Hope that helps clarify!
How is this gluten free if you are using All purpose flour?
I was skeptical but these blueberry muffins are the best recipe ever. Even better than the muffins with gluten!!
One of the best GF blueberry muffin recipes I have made.King Arthur (1 for 1) flour was perfect. Almond extract should not be optional. I would add more blueberries next time. A wonderful muffin for those that crave some normalcy. My daughter shared them at work and no one could believe they were GF. Always a good sign!!
The flavor is outstanding, but the recipe has a couple of pitfalls.
The first time I made them with wheat flour they were perfection. The second attempt I burned them because I didn’t immediately turn the heat to 375 degrees—PITFALL #1. Because I am pre-diabetic I chose to use almond flour. And divided the sugar into 1/3 each if regular sugar, coconut sugar and monk fruit sweetener. Even though I promptly turned the temperature to 375, they sank and burned. I also did not use a flour to firm up the almond flour, so the second pitfall # 2 is on me.
They say 3rd time is charmed, but I’m adhering to “twice burned shame on me.”