A recipe for classic sourdough blueberry muffins, topped with a cinnamon-sugar streusel topping. A sweet and delicious breakfast.
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) make 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 like we do, be sure to check out sourdough coffee cake too!
Are you unfamiliar with the world of sourdough? Visit the beginners guide to sourdough baking, or get started with a sourdough starter of your own from scratch!
Ingredients
Ingredients
Muffin Batter
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil can substitute melted butter
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons baking power
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons milk
- ½ cup starter (discard or unfed starter is perfect!)
- 1 1/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen blueberries are fine)
Crumb Topping
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup butter cubed (keep the butter cold until you need it)
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
You’ll also want paper cupcake liners liner and a muffin tin.
Step by step sourdough blueberry muffins
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!
Looking for more breakfast recipes for your sourdough discard?
- 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.
Print the recipe here
Sourdough Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
Muffin Batter
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 1/3 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!
By
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.