I've given my favorite part of the muffin a starring role with my Blueberry Muffin Tops. Fluffy and moist, bursting with blueberries, with a crispy sugared top and a lemon drizzle, these are your new favorite breakfast or afternoon treat!
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You know that saying "if I had a dollar for every..."? Seriously, I could be rich off of all of the blueberry muffins I've made in my professional career when all I really wanted for myself was a crispy and fluffy Blueberry Muffin Top.
In developing my dream muffin top, I was aiming a rich and thick batter that would rise up into individual muffin tops without the need for a special pan. By using Greek yogurt, I achieved exactly that. The batter is super thick due to the consistency of the yogurt, and it spreads very little during baking. Let's check out the perfect muffin top!
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Ingredients & Substitutions
This is a pretty standard setup of muffin ingredients, but I have a few substitutions you can easily make if you are missing anything, because you need these muffin tops in your life.
- All-purpose flour - If you have lots of self rising flour, from making my 2-ingredient biscuits, my 3-ingredient pancakes, or my Easy English muffins, you can use that here! Just skip the baking powder and the salt when gathering your ingredients, as self rising flour contains those.
- Plain Greek yogurt - You need the thickness of Greek yogurt to make these muffin tops rise up rather than spread out. If you don't have Greek yogurt, sour cream will do the job!
- Salt - I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt in all of my recipes, both sweet and savory, so I always know how salty things will be. If you have a favorite salt, feel free to use it, but if using regular table salt, you might want to reduce the amount as it actually has a saltier flavor than kosher salt.
- Sugar - I use regular granulated sugar, or table sugar, in the muffin batter, but you can use brown sugar if you want a richer muffin top. I also use coarse sparkling sugar, the larger crystals, that you can find in the grocery store by the cookie decorations or online. If you can't find it, you can tear open some raw sugar packets or even just sprinkle more granulated sugar on top of the muffin tops.
I didn't include a picture of the ingredients for the optional glaze, but they are powdered sugar, a tiny bit of milk, or lemon juice, and a splash of vanilla extract. Keeping it simple.
See recipe card below for quantities.
Have extra blueberries? You've got to try my Sour Cream Coffee Cake! With any combination of berries folded into a tender coffee cake, and topped with a crumbly streusel, it's perfect at any time of day!
Variations
- Strawberry - Replace the blueberries with an equal amount of diced strawberries to make my strawberry muffin tops.
- Cinnamon streusel - Skip the berries altogether and add ½ teaspoon cinnamon to your dry ingredients. Make a streusel by mixing ¼ cup granulated sugar or brown sugar and ⅓ cup all-purpose flour. Use a fork, or your fingers, to cut in 3 tablespoons unsalted butter. Flatten each muffin mound just a bit and sprinkle crumb topping on top before baking.
- Banana - Reduce the yogurt to ¼ cup and add one mashed banana to your wet ingredients. Follow the recipe as written.
Go big blue! Grab some extra blueberries because you need to try this creamy and refreshing Blueberry Yogurt Smoothie to sip alongside your blueberry muffin top!
Instructions
Making muffin tops is quick with this easy recipe. Mix the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients separately and then stir them together. This is a thicker batter, so that your muffin tops will rise up, rather than spread out. Then you just need to scoop and bake.
As always, I encourage you to read all the instructions, look at the pretty pictures I took, and then bake yourself something delicious. Let's get into it!
- Start by freezing your fresh blueberries overnight, or for at least one hour before starting. This will help keep your blueberries from bursting while you mix them in, which can lead to that blue-grey color we all hate in muffins.
- Next heat your oven to 400°F and line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil (spray foil with nonstick spray). Then melt your butter and allow it to come to room temperature while you get started on the batter.
Step 1: In a small mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients. Set aside.
Step 2: In a large bowl, combine Greek yogurt, eggs, and vanilla extract. Whisk together completely.
Step 3: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, using a rubber spatula to mix halfway. It will be very dry and shaggy looking.
Step 4: Continue mixing while you drizzle in your melted and cooled butter. It will be a very thick batter.
Step 5: Gently fold in the frozen blueberries until evenly dispersed in the batter.
Step 6: Using a medium scoop, or a couple spoons, make twelve mounds of muffin dough on your prepared baking sheet.
Step 7: Top with sparkling or granulated sugar, if desired.
Step 8: Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown and risen well.
In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk or lemon juice, and vanilla. Allow muffin tops to cool for about 10 minutes, then drizzle generously with your glaze.
Hint: If your batter isn't very thick, only scoop six muffin tops per pan and bake on two sheet pans. This way you'll get actual muffin tops and not a muffin pancake. Alternatively, you can purchase a special muffin top pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
Serving suggestion
These are absolutely the blueberry muffin tops of my dreams, but they are even more dreamy if sliced in half, like a fluffy biscuit, and schmeared with a spoonful of my simple lemon curd. Try it and then drop me a comment telling me how right I am 🤗
Recipe FAQs
I prefer to use fresh blueberries that I freeze myself. I lay them in a single layer on a small sheet pan and freeze until hard, at least 1 hour, then transfer to a zip top bag to store for up to 6 months. If using store-bought frozen blueberries, do not thaw. Add them to your batter while still fully frozen to avoid staining the batter with juices.
Best eaten the same day, you can store these muffin tops in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Reheating can be a challenge due to the glaze, but can be reheated in the oven or microwave until warm. For best results, do not glaze until ready to serve.
Did you try this recipe?
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I appreciate it so much!
-Cynthia
📖 Recipe
Blueberry Muffin Tops
Equipment
- Muffin top pan optional
Ingredients
- 1 cup blueberries frozen for at least 1 hour
Dry ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Wet ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
- ½ cup Greek yogurt room temperature
- 1 large egg room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
Vanilla Glaze
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk ~or~
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place your fresh blueberries on a plate or sheet pan in the freezer overnight, or for at least an hour, before starting the rest of your batter.
- Heat oven to 400°F and line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil (spray foil with nonstick spray)
- Melt butter and allow to come to room temperature while you mix your batter.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine Greek yogurt, eggs, and vanilla extract. Whisk together completely.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, using a rubber spatula to mix halfway. It will be very dry and shaggy looking.
- Continue mixing while you drizzle in your melted and cooled butter. This is a very thick batter.
- Gently fold in the frozen blueberries until evenly dispersed in the batter.
- Using a medium scoop, or a couple spoons, make twelve mounds of muffin dough on your prepared baking sheet.
- Top with sparkling or granulated sugar, if desired.
- Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown and risen well.
- Check for doneness by inserting a skewer or toothpick into the center of a muffin top. If it comes out clean, or with just a few crumbs, it is done.
- While the muffin tops are baking, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk or lemon juice, and vanilla in a small bowl.
- Allow muffin tops to cool for about 10 minutes, then drizzle generously with your glaze.
Save This Recipe! 💌
I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later, plus you'll get great new recipes from me every week!
Rachel Macreadie says
Just made these but substituted the flour for Wholemeal a d used a raw sugar/stevia blend to reduce the sugar a bit. Turned out great!!
Cynthia Christensen says
Awesome! 🙌