My Basic Buttermilk Muffins start with a fluffy and delicious muffin recipe. You can then add fruit, nuts, whatever you like, to make a moist muffin that is uniquely yours. The possibilities are endless!
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I created the perfect Basic Buttermilk Muffin for one reason: to reshape my children's childhood memories. When they were little, whenever we would go to the grocery store, we would drop by the bakery department where they would pick out their own (cold, dense) muffins for the next morning's breakfast.
Sometimes The Boy would grab a day old at the counter - you know, the ones they wrapped tightly in plastic wrap with the big orange 50% OFF sticker? Those are the muffin memories that I have successfully erased with this recipe. Fluffy muffins magic is real.
Let me tell you guys something. As I write this, I am eating a plain, basic buttermilk muffin and saying some really salty words because they are just that good, all on their own, with nothing added. Just muffin batter with a little coarse sugar sprinkled on top. I'm losing my mind, they're so good. #$%& yeah!
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Why you need a good basic muffin recipe
If there is one thing I've learned over the years, it's that, unless you have a teenager with a new license who's itching to drive, no one wants to go to the store when you've forgotten an ingredient. Having a good set of basic recipes at your disposal keeps you from being locked into a specific set of ingredients.
With this Basic Buttermilk Muffin recipe, you can open your fridge or pantry and use whatever you have to make a muffin that's guaranteed to be delicious. See some blueberries in the fridge that are on their last legs? Toss them in the batter! Got blackberries? Make my almond scented blackberry muffins! As long as you have the basic muffin ingredients, you can have not so basic muffins!
Just want the best part of the muffin? Try my Strawberry Muffin Tops with crackly crunchy tops and all the juicy strawberries you can handle.
Ingredients
See full recipe card below for exact measurements.
Buttermilk substitutions
Buttermilk - I get that not everyone has buttermilk in their refrigerator, although with its long shelf life, you really should. But, if you don't have access to buttermilk, you can replace it with either plain or Greek yogurt. Because of the thickness of Greek yogurt, you'll need to thin it a bit with regular milk or water. You can also use kefir, sour cream, crème fraîche, or buttermilk powder that has been hydrated according to label instructions
In a pinch, you can make your own own buttermilk substitute, although it won’t give the same amount of lift or flavor as buttermilk or my preferred substitutes. To make homemade buttermilk, for every 1 cup of milk, stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes. You can scale the formula up or down depending on how much buttermilk the recipe requires.
How to make a basic streusel topping
Can go on any muffin variety
Ingredients
- ¼ cup granulated sugar or brown sugar (50 g)
- ⅓ cup (40 g) all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons (43 g) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into tiny pieces.
In a medium bowl combine the granulated sugar, flour, and butter. With your fingers, work in the butter pieces until the mixture is very crumbly and resembles a coarse meal. Add toasted nuts if you’re feeling crazy. The crumbs should be pea-sized, with some larger clumps. Refrigerate until ready to top muffin. Top each muffin with about a tablespoon of streusel topping. Bake as directed.
Instructions
I have updated my original recipe to turn it into a one bowl recipe. If you weigh your ingredients (I always include weight measurements) you will have very little clean up, and I'm always down for that!
- If using, place muffin liners in the wells of your muffin pan and spray them lightly with nonstick spray. This will ensure that you can easily remove the paper liners from your baked muffins.
Step 1: Add vegetable oil to melted butter to bring it all down to room temperature.
Step 2: In a large bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, ¾ cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add vanilla or other extracts, if using.
Step 3: Whisk together until sugar dissolves.
Step 4: Whisk in the butter and oil combo.
Step 5: Fold in the flour just until the last of it disappears. If adding any mix-ins, do so at the point shown in this picture, when some flour is still visible. This avoids over-mixing and helps ensure tender muffins
Let the muffin batter rest for at least 15 minutes, up to overnight, to allow the flour to be fully hydrated and give you a taller muffin. Take this time to preheat your oven to 425°F.
Step 6: Use a medium scoop, or a couple spoons, to distribute the muffin batter into each of the prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle the top of the muffins with turbinado sugar, sparkling sugar, or streusel if desired.
Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then drop the temperature to 350°F, without opening the oven. Bake for another 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean or with just a few crumbs.
Hint: Let cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan and then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes longer. Although you have removed them from the oven, they will continue to cook from their own residual heat for a few minutes. Open one up to soon and they will crumble. Give them a minute to get it together 😮💨
Muffin Variations
I want you to embrace this muffin recipe with the confidence to make it your own. To get you started, I’m sharing some of my favorite muffin variations, all of which my family lovingly taste-tested for you, some of which are so good they went on to have their own recipes (each is linked)
Coffee Cake Muffins Add ½ teaspoon cinnamon to streusel topping above. Whisk together all filling ingredients. Place 2 tablespoons batter in each muffin liner. Top with 1 teaspoon streusel and top with remaining 2 tablespoons muffin batter. Top with streusel. Bake as directed.
For Jammy Swirl Muffins Add ½ cup jam of choice to the top of the unbaked muffin and swirl into the batter with a toothpick or skewer.
Fruit Muffins, such as blueberry buttermilk muffins Toss 1 ½ cups whole or chopped fruit with a tablespoon of your flour. Fold into the finished batter. Top with streusel or coarse sugar and bake as directed.
Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Muffins Toss 1 ½ cups chocolate chips with 2 tablespoons of your dry ingredients. Fold into the finished batter. Top scooped muffins with more chips.
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins Rub lemon zest into sugar with your fingers. Add 2 tablespoons poppy seeds to wet ingredients. Add one teaspoon lemon extract, if desired. Top with streusel or a lemon glaze made of 1 cup confectioners sugar and 1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice to drizzle or dip. Bake as directed.
Double Chocolate Muffin Replace all-purpose flour with 1 ½ cups (180 g) all purpose flour and ½ cup (44 g) of cocoa powder. Add 1 cup of chocolate chips. Put some more chips on top before baking. Bake as directed.
Banana Muffins Replace ½ of your buttermilk with 2 mashed bananas. and mix into wet ingredients. Toss in ½ cup of toasted walnuts or pecans, if you like, and top with streusel. Bake as directed.
Apple Cinnamon Crunch Muffins Add 1½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon to dry ingredients. Fold in ¾ cup to 1 cup of diced apples that have been sautéed for 3-4 minutes in two tablespoons of butter. Scoop into muffin tin and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake as directed.
Try my Small Batch Raspberry Banana Muffins for a best of all worlds variation! Replace half of your buttermilk with 2 mashed bananas and fold in 2 cups of raspberries (frozen for 15 to 30 minutes so they won't break apart). Sprinkle with coarse sugar and bake as directed.
4 Tips to taller muffins
- Thicker batter: Using a good thick liquid like buttermilk, kefir, or even yogurt to make your muffin batter more thick is a great way to make sure they grow up and not spread out. Using a thicker liquid, instead of more flour, makes ensures that they are rich and moist, not dry and dense.
- Rest your batter: Allowing your batter to rest gives the flour time to fully hydrate, and for the baking powder and baking soda to start working, further thickening the batter for tall tops. Rest the batter for at least 15 minutes, up to overnight.
- Fill to the top: It just makes sense that starting with more batter that already wants to rise upwards will give you big, tall muffins.
- Start at high heat: I have you start your muffins at 425°F so that when the high heat and baking powder react you get a nice dome on the top of your muffins. After 5 minutes, drop the heat to 350° and finish baking. This initial high temp sets the outside of the muffin, leaving it nowhere to go but up.
If you are concerned that you might forget to turn the temperature down (I may have done that a few times in testing), feel free to bake for 20-25 minutes at 375°. They may not dome quite as much, but they will be equally delicious.
More muffin pan magic: For an easy but impressive breakfast, try my Muffin Tin Popovers. They are lightly sweet, supremely airy, and ready for you to top with sweetened yogurt and fruit!
Buttermilk muffin FAQs
Store muffins up to 3 days at room temperature loosely covered in a container with paper towels to absorb excess moisture.
Flash freeze muffins by placing on a baking tray in the freezer until solid, about 2 hours. Individually wrap each muffin in plastic wrap and store in a large freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
With a nice thick batter, the chances of your fruit sinking to the bottom of the muffins is greatly reduced, but adding a tablespoon of your flour to the fruit is great extra insurance.
More great morning bakes
Did you try this recipe?
Leave a comment with a ⭐️ rating below to tell me all about it, and don't forget to tag me on Instagram!
I appreciate you!
-Cynthia
📖 Recipe
Basic Buttermilk Muffins with Variations
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon (56 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 4 tablespoon (56 g) neutral oil such as vegetable, avocado, or sunflower oil
- 1 cup (240 g) buttermilk room temperature
- 2 large (100 g) eggs room temperature
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon (8 g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 ¼ cups (270 g) all purpose flour
Instructions
- Melt your butter and add your vegetable oil to bring it all down to room temperature.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add vanilla or other extracts, if using. Whisk together until sugar mostly dissolves. Whisk in the butter and oil combo.
- Fold in the flour just until the last of it disappears. If adding any mix-ins, do so at the point when some flour is still visible. This avoids over-mixing which can lead to tough muffins.
- Use a medium scoop, or a couple spoons, to distribute the muffin batter into each of the prepared muffin pan wells. Top with sparkling sugar or streusel if desired.
- Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then drop the temperature to 350°F, without opening the oven. Bake for another 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean or with just a few crumbs.
- Let cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan and then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes longer. Although you have removed them from the oven, they will continue to cook from their own residual heat for a few minutes. Open one up too soon and they will crumble. Give them a minute to get it together
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Jesse-Gabriel says
Die Muffins sehen so lecker aus!
Vielen Dank für die Gramm Angaben.
Jesse-Gabriel
Cynthia says
Bitte! Ich hoffe du schaffst sie! (You’re welcome! I hope you love them!)
Karen says
Just made the apple cinnamon muffin version and yumm!
Cynthia says
I’m so glad you tried it! I hope you try more variations and even some of your own too!
Wendy E says
Made this buttermilk muffin and used strawberries! Very moist and yummy
Jolene Walters says
Sounds good. I'm going to try it. However one problem. The electric oven takes about five minutes to change temperature. Whenever I have a recipe that changes temperature I quite oftebn do not have the desired result. It's still good but not exactly right.
Cynthia says
That’s a really good point! When I was testing these, I baked them at 375°F and got a pretty good rise on the muffins. I think that would be a great solution. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
Christie Todd says
These are so good! I doubled the recipe, but used a jumbo muffin tin so I still had a dozen. I made the batter as written except I only used 3/4 cup sugar (for the doubled recipe). I sprinkled a little demerara sugar on top before baking. The rest I stirred some mini chocolate chips into and then topped with the demerara sugar, chopped unsweetened coconut, and a few more mini chips. The coconut toasts while baking.and it's all so yummy. Thanks for an amazing recipe. I'll be back for more!
Cynthia says
That sounds great! I love when people play with my recipes and make them their own!
Christie Todd again says
Sorry! I meant for the first six, I baked them plain with the sugar on top. Seems a bit confusing as written. Might be because it's 2 a.m.! 😴
Cynthia says
😂
B. Evenson says
My husband said these are the best muffins I ever made. I added apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg.
Cynthia says
Wow! Those sound amazing! I’m so glad you both love them!
Pier S says
Found by searching for 'buttermilk muffins' 'cause I have buttermilk I needed to use. Appreciate the lower amount of sugar and the practical alternative ingredients section. I added mini chocolate chips and coconut flake with a bit of coconut flavoring (again - on hand and need to use). Starting at 425 and lowering gives muffins a nice peak. These are good muffins and I will use the recipe again.
Cynthia Christensen says
This is great to hear! I use my own recipe at least two times a week with different ingredients almost every time!
Debra says
I was wondering where your list of add ins was. I love to make them. Thank you
Cynthia Christensen says
If you scroll through the blog post above the recipe card you’ll see that I have 10 to 12 different variations on how you can change up your muffins!
Delane says
I added a little sugar for extra sweetness. Great texture and taste! I made apple cinnamon with streusel. Delicious.
Cynthia Christensen says
Sounds amazing! I’m glad you like them!
Erin says
Hi Cynthia! You mention swapping half the butter for oil in the post, but I don’t see oil in the recipe. Am I missing it somewhere? Thank you in advance!!
Cynthia Christensen says
Oh my gosh you’re right! There were 4 tablespoons of oil in the recipe, and I don’t know where they went? I’m gonna go fix it right now!
Debbie says
Would love to try these with coconut coconut extract and raspberry jam since I'm out if fruit...would just swirl thru batter bowl? Or drop and swirl in each muffin cup ?
Cynthia Christensen says
I would drop and swirl into each muffin cup. If you put it directly into the batter it would incorporate too much and a weird color. It would still be delicious, but maybe a weird weird color.
Barb M says
This is a fabulous recipe. I had 1/2 cup of buttermilk that I didn't want to waste. I made 6 muffins per instructions (I used smallest of my large eggs ilo of weighing half.) I made it basic with just turbinado sugar on top. Husband loved it. Fabulous. I plan to put in the keeper list. I'll try the variations, but really, the basic can stand on its own.
Cynthia Christensen says
That’s awesome! Thanks for letting me know! I hope you’ll try more recipes from the blog ❤️
Anonymous says
My kids LOVE these! Their favorite variations are chocolate chip and strawberry jam.
Cynthia Christensen says
I’m so glad they love them so much 🙏
jenna says
i had to rest these overnight due to an emergency where i couldn't bake them straight away. when i do end up baking them, should i take the batter out of the fridge for any amount of time prior to baking? and should i still go for the high heat/change heat method? i have made these before exactly as written and love them, so i made a double batch of lemon poppy seed and raspberry/chocolate. i don't want to ruin 24 muffins! thanks.
Cynthia Christensen says
Just bake them straight from the fridge. No need to bring to room temperature before scooping into your muffin pan and baking and all the baking temps stay the same! Glad you love the recipe!
Rosalind Hampton says
I love the versatility of this recipe. They rose brilliantly. Thanks for the recipe.
Cynthia Christensen says
I’m so glad they worked so well for you and I hope you try a bunch of other variations!
Pala says
Could I use this recipe to make morning glory muffins? Would love to add all those goodies. Can’t wait to try the recipe.
Cynthia Christensen says
I haven't tried it myself, but as long as none of the mix-ins add a lot of moisture, you should be fine. Just don't add more then 1 1/2 cups of mix-ins or they might fall apart due to not enough batter to hold everything together.
Linda says
This is the best recipe for muffins I have ever had. I now make them for instead of my previous recipe. I love the streusel topping
Cynthia Christensen says
Thank you so much!
M.Coates says
Thank you so much for sending recipe to me in Scotland
look forward to receiving more recipes Marie
Cynthia Christensen says
I'm so glad you like them and I hope that you try more of my recipes and that you will love them too!
Daniela says
Grazie per la fantastica ricetta e per tutti i consigli.....ho provato tante ricette ma sono state tutte una delusione ... questi invece sono venuti sofficissimi e buonissimi
Cynthia Christensen says
Google translates this as "Thanks for the fantastic recipe and for all the advice.....I have tried many recipes but they have all been a disappointment... these instead came out very soft and delicious"
Thank you so much!!
Daniela says
Very very good recipe,thank you