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These classic gluten free blueberry muffins are crisp on the outside, soft and tender inside. So easy to make, and they taste just like they came from your favorite bakery!
More than just a “regular” muffin with blueberries added, this special muffin recipe has a perfect moist but stable crumb that's just right for as many with sweet, slightly tart blueberries as possible. Accept no less!
My take
Nicole's Recipe Notes
These buttery gluten-free blueberry muffins are light and fluffy, with tons of moisture and flavor from the blueberries. The fresh taste of the sweet-tart blueberries combines with a touch of lemon juice and buttermilk to create an extra tender muffin crumb.
The batter is thick enough that the berries don't sink to the bottom, and the craggy, uneven top creates lots of browned edges for flavor and texture.
Each muffin is topped with coarse crunchy sugar so each bite has that extra sweetness and crunch—plus just enough blueberries for tons of flavor in every bite. But not so much that the muffins fall apart when you bite them.
what's in it
Recipe ingredients
- Buttermilk: For tanginess and tenderness, you need buttermilk here, but you can always substitute half plain yogurt/half milk for buttermilk whenever you run out
- Butter: Butter adds richness and tenderness; it's melted to make it easier to mix the muffin batter
- Lemon juice: Adds a bit more tang and some brightness; lemon flavor goes so well with blueberries
- Eggs: Act as a binder and help the muffins rise
- Gluten free flours: The recipe calls for an all purpose gluten free flour blend plus some cornstarch to lighten it up. But if your flour blend is Cup4Cup, instead of adding cornstarch, add another 1/4 cup of Cup4Cup
- Baking powder & baking soda: Make sure they're fresh, because these chemical leaveners are responsible for your muffins rising in the oven
- Salt: Balances other flavors
- Sugar: For sweetness, but also for a tender crumb.
- Blueberries: The main event, you can use fresh or frozen blueberries. If you use frozen, don't deforst them first or they'll turn your muffins blue!
substitutions
Ingredient substitution suggestions
Dairy free
For a dairy-free buttermilk substitute, mix together half plain dairy free yogurt and half of your favorite unflavored, unsweetened nondairy milk (I like almond milk).
To replace the butter in the recipe, try Melt or Miyoko's Creamery brand vegan butter.
Egg free
In place of each of the 2 eggs, try using 2 “chia eggs” (mix 1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds with 1 tablespoon lukewarm water in a small bowl and allow it to sit until it thickens and forms a gel-like consistency).
Corn free
This recipe calls for cornstarch added to an all purpose gluten free flour blend. If you can't have corn, try using arrowroot or potato starch.
If you're using a high-starch all purpose gluten free flour blend like Cup4Cup, use an extra 36 grams Cup4Cup in place of cornstarch.
Blueberries
Try replacing the blueberries with raspberries, either fresh or frozen just as you would blueberries. For strawberries, I'd recommend using our gluten free strawberry muffins recipe instead of replacing the berries here.
My Pro Tip
Expert tips
This recipe for gluten free muffins is simple. Even if you're a total newbie to gluten free recipes. But these tips will help you get perfect, delicious blueberry muffins every time.
Begin baking at 400°F
Baking your muffins for a few minutes of their baking time at a higher temperature activates the baking powder quickly, and helps your muffins rise into a high dome. Be sure to lower the oven temperature after the first few minutes, or they'll burn on the bottom, though.
Don't defrost frozen blueberries
Adding frozen blueberries to muffin batter is much better than defrosting them first. The cold berries help keep the muffins from becoming over-mixed, which can lead to a dense and gummy texture. Frozen blueberries also retain their natural juices, which helps keep the muffins moist and light.
Plus, your batter will be beautifully flecked with specks of blueberry color. Just add the frozen berries straight from the freezer to the muffin batter when the recipe calls for it for perfectly delicious gluten free blueberry muffins!
Keep frozen berries from bleeding
Keep them in the freezer until right before you're ready to add them to the muffins. Working quickly, toss the still-frozen berries in some of the dry ingredients and add them to the prepared batter as directed.
Finally, fold the frozen berries into the soft gf blueberry muffin batter. Treat them like you would whipped cream or egg whites that get folded in to batter like we do in our gluten free angel food cake.
How to make gluten free blueberry muffins
Combine wet, then dry ingredients
- Whisk together melted & cooled butter, buttermilk, lemon juice, and eggs.
- Whisk the gf flours, baking powder & soda, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl.
- Toss the blueberries in some flour, then add the wet ingredients to the dry.
Mix the batter, add the berries, and bake
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients, fold in the berries, and fill the prepared wells of a muffin tin all the way full.
- Brush with melted butter, sprinkle some extra sugar, and bake at 400°F for 10 minutes, then 350°F until done.
Let cool, and enjoy!
- Let your blueberry muffins cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes or less.
- Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy them warm!
Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
For the muffin batter
- ¾ cup (6 fluid ounces) buttermilk, at room temperature
- 10 tablespoons (140 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 tablespoons (1 fluid ounce) freshly-squeezed lemon juice
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature
- 2 ½ cups (350 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (See Recipe Notes) (click thru for complete info)
- 1 ¼ teaspoons xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- ¼ cup (36 g) cornstarch, See Recipe Notes
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cups (250 g) fresh or frozen blueberries, (See Recipe Notes)
For the optional topping
- 1 tablespoon (14 g) unsalted butter, melted
- Coarse sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
Make the muffin batter
- Preheat your oven to 400°F. Grease or line a standard 12-cup muffin tin that is light in color, and set it aside.
- In a medium-size bowl or measuring cup, place buttermilk, melted butter, lemon juice, and eggs, and whisk to combine well. Set the mixture aside.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar, and whisk to combine well.
- Transfer 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients to a small bowl, add the blueberries and toss to coat. Set the berries aside.
- If using frozen berries, set the tablespoon of dry ingredients aside to use after the rest of the batter has been prepared.
- Create well in center of large bowl of dry ingredients and add the wet mixture. Mix until just combined. The batter will be quite thick, but soft.
- Add the blueberries and reserved dry ingredients, and gently fold the berries into the batter just until they are evenly distributed throughout.
- If you’re using frozen berries, remove them from the freezer, rinse them quickly and toss in the reserved dry ingredients. Fold them carefully into the batter, working quickly.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 prepared muffin wells, filling the wells almost completely. Smooth the tops with wet fingers.
Add the optional topping
- Brush the tops lightly with the optional melted butter, and sprinkle the tops lightly with the optional coarse sugar.
Bake the muffins
- Place the muffin tin on the top rack of the preheated 400°F oven, and bake until the muffins are beginning to dome (8 to 10 minutes). Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F.
- Finish baking the muffins at 350°F until a toothpick inserted in the center (and not in a blueberry) comes out with no more than a few moist crumbs attached (10 to 12 minutes more).
- Remove the muffins from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
make ahead/leftovers
Storage instructions
Once they're completely cool, wrap any leftover muffins in plastic wrap or place them in a tightly-sealed container. They should stay fresh that way at room temperature for at least 2 days.
For longer storage, once the muffins have cooled completely, place them on a baking tray in the freezer until frozen and then move them to an airtight freezer-safe container or zip-top bag.
To refresh a frozen muffin, microwave it for 30 to 45 seconds at 50% power or until even the berries are defrosted. For that just-baked texture, sprinkle lightly with some tap water, and bake at 250°F in a toaster oven for 5 to 10 minutes.
FAQs
No. Real buttermilk is thicker and creamier than milk, and has less moisture. Even adding some lemon juice to milk doesn't thicken it enough. Just replace buttermilk with half sour cream or plain yogurt, half milk.
Lemon juice helps to balance the sweetness of the sugar and berries and enhance the blueberry flavor. You can replace the lemon juice with pure vanilla extract. Just use half the amount.
No, this recipe isn't made for holding its shape as a full loaf of quickbread. Instead, use our recipe for gluten free blueberry bread!
You need buttermilk to make this recipe as written, but you can replace almond milk with half plain yogurt or sour cream, half milk. That milk could be oat milk, sure.
Yes! Bake at 400°F for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and bake until done, about another 9 minutes.
You can try refrigerating the raw batter in the muffin tin and bake them the next morning. Be sure to cover the muffin tin so the batter doesn't dry out, and let the batter come close to room temperature before baking.
Nicole, I love your recipes! I have been using them for years. I am making these with your “Nicole’s Best Flour” so I read the notes at the end of the recipe carefully. I notice that in the recipe for substitutes you say that the buttermilk can be replaced with 3 ounces of milk and 3 ounces of plain yogurt. However, in the notes that show up with the printed recipe, it instructs to use 1/2 milk and 1/2 milk to substitute for the buttermilk. I read it three times to make sure I read it as it was written. I was able to write by hand the corrected substitution note on my printed recipe but I wanted to let you know as it might be confusing to a newbie making this recipe. Again, you have the very best and reliable GF recipes of all the web sites!!
Hi, Judy, 1/2 milk and 1/2 yogurt, in this particular recipe, is 3 fluid ounces milk, 3 fluid ounces yogurt. The total amount of buttermilk is 6 fluid ounces, half of which is 3. I think you may have just been overthinking it in an effort to get it just right, which I very much appreciate. I hope that’s helpful, and thank you for the kind words!
Nicole, your flour has the Milk Powder in it right? The Cup4Cup doesn’t have that anymore in it and Better Batter flour doesn’t have this anymore either right?
Just your flour has it?
I can’t add the Milk Powder to either one of these bags of Full Flour?
Thanks Jennifer
Hi, Jennifer, correct, Nicole’s Best has milk powder as an ingredient in the overall blend. If you’re trying to mimic the results you get with my flour by adding milk powder to one of those other blends, that will not work. Our blend can’t be hacked like that. The only way to get the results that you enjoy with Nicole’s Best is to buy it!
Hi Nicole, should we always be sifting GF flour in all your recipes? Even if you don’t mentioned it in the recipe?
And should the cornstarch always be sifted too, even if’s not mentioned in the recipe?
Thanks Jennifer
Hi, Jennifer, nope, you only need to sift the flour blend, or any other ingredient, if the recipe specifically directs you to do it. The vanilla cake, angel food cake, and a few other recipes. I’m very specific, and would never expect you to do something that I hadn’t explicitly stated.
I have recently bought Nicole’s Best GF Flour and tried it with a few things with great success! For this recipe do I make any changes if that’s the flour I’m going to use? Thanks
Hi, Elaine, I’m so glad you’re enjoying Nicole’s Best! There are no changes, other than being sure to add xanthan gum, since Nicole’s Best doesn’t contain any.
Fantastic, super delicious and crunchy. Made all the way in South Africa ;)
Wonderful recipe! These muffins turned out beautiful and delicious. I used your flour blend recipe with the pectin added, and it worked very well for this recipe. It works quite well for most recipes. I find it very versatile. I love the cornstarch in this recipe. It gives the muffins such a delightful texture! Thank you for another great recipe.
You’re very welcome, Marianna. Yes, the mock Better Batter will work in any of my recipes that call for an all purpose gluten free flour blend. The added cornstarch in these muffins definitely makes them softer. Thanks for sharing your experience!