A recipe for classic sourdough blueberry muffins, topped with a cinnamon-sugar streusel topping. A sweet and delicious breakfast. Use your discarded sourdough starter to make something everyone in the family will love.
Table of contents
❤️ Why you’ll love this recipe
If you’re a dedicated sourdough baker, you’re familiar with the idea of sourdough discard recipes. You probably a collection of favorites already and it’s time to add a new one!
These blueberry muffins are a great way to use that discard starter! They are moist, not too sweet, and topped with the best crumb topping: a sweet, cinnamon-sugar crunch blend.
Vegetable oil (or melted butter) makes this recipe moist and easy to make. There’s no need to lug out the stand mixer for this recipe, a hand mixer will work perfectly, or even a whisk.
And if you love streusel toppings as we do, be sure to check out sourdough coffee cake too!
Muffin Batter
- granulated sugar
- vegetable oil or melted butter
- egg
- baking power
- salt
- all-purpose flour
- milk
- ½ cup starter (discard or unfed starter is perfect!)
- blueberries (fresh or frozen blueberries are fine)
Crumb Topping
- all-purpose flour
- butter
- sugar
- cinnamon
🥣 EQUIPMENT
- 2 muffin tins
- large mixing bowl
- paper cupcake liners
- pastry blender or 2 forks for cutting the butter into the flour
Make the muffin batter
Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees with the rack in the center.
We going to mix up the sugar, oil, and egg in a large mixing bowl that will eventually hold all the muffin batter. A hand mixer on medium speed for just a few minutes is perfect.
Then, in a separate smaller bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.
Add half of the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, then add the milk, then the rest of the dry ingredients. Stir in the sourdough starter, and finally add the blueberries. Don’t over mix, just gently stir until everything is combined.
(The batter will be thick! This is normal and helps you bake the most tender, fluffy sourdough blueberry muffins!)
Making the topping and baking
Now we make the streusel topping! Begin with the diced butter and cut it into the flour, until you have pieces the size of peas. If you have some bigger bits in there, no big deal. Then stir in the sugar and cinnamon.
Scoop the batter into a muffin tin, filling each cup about 2/3 of the way full. Sprinkle the topping on top, and bake!
Your blueberry muffins are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. They will take anywhere from 17-23 minutes.
Take the muffins out of the muffin tin and let them cool on a wire rack. You can eat them warm or room temperature. They will stay fresh for two days just on a plate, covered with plastic wrap.
One of the best things about muffins is you can make them ahead and freeze them. Just make sure they are totally cooled and pop them in a zippered freezer bag. They’ll keep well for a few months!
🥫 Storage Tips
- These muffins will stay fresh in an airtight container for a day or two. Any longer than that and I’d recommend freezing them.
- For even longer storage, freeze them in a freezer bag. They freeze very well and defrost in an hour or so at room temperature.
🔎 faqS
Yes, absolutely. Just leave out the salt and baking powder.
Yes, and it’s a delicious swap! I’d recommend skipping the crumb topping and just sprinkling sugar on top.
Nope! The rise in these muffins comes from the baking powder, so discard starter straight from the fridge is perfect.
Substitute the egg for a flax egg and use coconut oil for the crumb topping.
Yes, but you’ll need to bake it for 40-45 minutes. Make sure you spray the loaf pan very generously.
📘 Related Recipes
- Try glazed sourdough lemon cake, which can be either a snack or breakfast!
- Pancakes made with sourdough starter are probably the easiest sourdough discard recipe.
- Make sure you try sourdough chocolate chip muffins if you love muffins.
- Blueberry and sourdough are a great combination. Try my blueberry lemon sourdough loaf, which is great for slicing up and toasting.
📖 THE RECIPE
Sourdough Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
Muffin Batter
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil can substitute melted butter
- 1 egg
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking power
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons milk
- ½ cup starter
- 1¼ cup blueberries
Crumb Topping
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup butter cubed
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees with the rack in the center. Prepare a muffin tin with paper liners.
Make the Muffin Batter
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the vegetable oil, milk, egg, and sourdough starter. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not over mix. (The batter will be thick!) Add the blueberries and gently stir until mixed in.
- Fill the muffin tin with the batter about ? of the way to the top.
Make the Streusel Topping
- Cut the butter into the flour in a medium mixing bowl, using two knives or a pastry blender, until it resembles small peas. Stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Equally distribute the topping on top of the muffin batter.
Bake
- Bake in preheated oven for 18-23 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Finished muffins will have golden tops. Remove from oven and allow them to cool on wire rack. Serve warm or room temperature. Muffins will stay fresh two days at room temperature or can be frozen up to one month.
Notes
Nutrition
Enjoy your sourdough baking!
I sure do wish I could try these muffins, plus a number of other recipes you’ve graciously shared that require something called sourdough starter. I don’t bake bread (live alone, too old, too heavy, too … lazy?), so I’ll never have that starter ingredient. So sad about that. But maybe some happy day you’ll port this lovely sounding recipe to one that doesn’t require an ingredient I’ll never have?
Thanks for all you do!
How long do you ferment the flour (how long do you proof the muffins for)?
Is it active starter or discard that’s used in this recipe?
discard 🙂
This sourdough blueberry muffins and really easy to make and turned out really delicious! Will surely have this again, super highly recommended!
These muffins are to die for!. Amazing tastes n texture. Just the best blueberry muffin! I had a very taste lemon blueberry muffin recipe. But with sourdough, it definitely takes it to a new level. Thank you!
Making the peach upside down cake next n I can’t wait!
I’m sorry the peach cake must be another site… 🤭 But I’m here again b/c I’m making these muffins again…😋
Can you make these as chocolate chip muffins?
Yes! But I. think the streusel might be too sweet. I’d just do coarse sugar! 🙂
OMG – just made a batch of these and as I did not have any blueberries, I substituted them for frozen fresh cranberries left over from Christmas. They are delicious and I love being able to use up sourdough discard. This will definitely be my go to recipe in the future. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Lyn (Wales, UK)
Lyn I am so glad you enjoyed them and thank YOU for the idea of adding cranberries to the muffins! Great idea 🙂
We made 5 times this recipe as we have an XXL family and were planning to give some away as thank yous.
Though the batter looked gorgeous, I’m going to admit that I was a little nervous when I first tasted tested the batter and thought that the muffins were going to end up tasting too sourdoughy and might be a scratch. But… I knew I had already used a metric ton of blueberries so I decided I might as well just go ahead and full send it.
They smelled A-MAZ-ING while they were baking and ended straight up, probably being the best blueberry muffins our family has ever eaten! Which says a lot for our family. Good job!
yay! this makes me so happy to hear! i get what you mean about the batter. whenever i bake with buttermilk i think the same thing but it ends up being okay.
Yep, our family has decided that we pretty much always absolutely MUST have these on hand!
I made these yesterday and they were so good! I only got 7 large muffins and they were gone before I turned around. You definitely need to line with paper cups, I didn’t and it was tricky getting them out even though I sprayed the pan. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
Sharon Ii’m so happy the muffins were a success! I will add a note to use liners for sure!
Seems like the directions in the article are different then the printed recipe…
(ie) cinnamon have no idea how much goes in the topping
a
hi liz! it’s 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, i’m adding it back in now. the directions and printed recipe should be the same, just written in a different tone.
Love this recipe… not too sweet, not too sour. The batter was very thick, but the muffins turned out moist and scrumptious! Thank you for sharing your recipe!