Yield: 6 blackberry coffee cake muffins // Total Time: 40 min. // Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links. //
Blackberry swirled muffins with two layers of orange cinnamon streusel.
why you’ll love these blackberry coffee cake muffins
Blackberry coffee cake muffins is the shorthand term for this recipe – but I don’t think the name does it justice. Really they’re blackberry orange muffins with two layers of cinnamon orange streusel. Here’s why you’ll love these blackberry streusel muffins:
1. They’re light and fluffy. The muffins themselves are super light, fluffy & tender thanks to greek yogurt.
2. They’re loaded with streusel and blackberries. There’s a layer of streusel inside of the muffins, and top of them. Also, we mash up the blackberries and swirl them into the batter for blackberry goodness in every bite.
3. They come together in less than an hour. If you’re craving muffins NOW or want to bake them off in the morning, there are no worries here! These come together in about 40 minutes.
small batch blackberry muffins
This recipe makes 6 muffins. I love making small batch bakes because they are the perfect size myself and others who don’t have a lot of people to bake for in their home. Small batch helps cut down on waste and eliminates the feeling that all that excess dessert MUST be eaten. Here on my blog I like to post a mix of small batch and “regular batch” recipes from time to time. All my recipes can easily be doubled or tripled to fit your need, so long as you use grams to measure!
recipe tips
weigh your ingredients
Weighing your ingredients is important for getting the recipe perfect and getting consistent results. Not weighing your ingredients can lead to adding too much or too little of an ingredient and can easily throw off a recipe. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend purchasing a kitchen scale. This one is super cheap and worked well for me when I was starting out! If you don’t have access to a scale, here is the best way to measure flour:
- How to measure flour with cups: fluff up the flour with a fork, then use a spoon to scoop it into your measuring cup. Use a knife to level off the top of the cup, then use as directed.
mix the batter carefully
It is super important to not overmix the muffin batter. Overmixing the batter leads to more gluten development which will take your muffins from light and fluffy to tough and chewy. If you’ve ever had your muffin tops be super pointy – overmixing is also the culprit! Be sure to mix the flour gently into the batter, and stop mixing right when that last flour streak disappears.
room temperature ingredients
It is important for the ingredients to be at room temperature so that they properly incorporate with each other. Here’s how to get room temperature ingredients FAST if you’re in a time crunch or forgot to take the ingredients out (like I often do):
- Egg: place the egg in a bowl and run hot water over it for 1 continuous minute, or let it sit in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.
- Greek yogurt: microwave in 5-second intervals until it is no longer cold, but is not warm (room temp!)
get more flavor out of your zest
In baking, it’s not always possible to get enough juice into a recipe that will give you great flavor and still a great texture. The secret to getting more flavor from your citrus without adding in juice is to rub the zest into the sugar! Using your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar releases essential oils from the zest, which in turn imparts more flavor into the batter. It’s a super simple, super effective hack!
keep an eye on those muffins!
Muffins like to go from under-baked to over-baked super quickly so it is important to keep a close eye on them. Start checking at 14 minutes with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out wet, check them again in 2 minutes and so on until only a few moist crumbs stick to the toothpick.
how to get bakery style muffin tops
The trick to getting those nicely domed muffin tops is (mostly) all in your oven’s temperature! Bake the muffins at 425°F / 220°C for 5 minutes. Then, without opening the oven, reduce the temperature to 350°F / 175°C and continue baking until done. The super high heat will make the muffins rise nice and tall! You will also want to bake them lined in every other tin on the muffin pan, and fill them to the very top. This recipe makes the perfect amount of batter to fill every muffin liner straight to the top for those perfect muffin tops!
how to evenly distribute your muffin batter
My favorite way to evenly distribute muffin batter is to use cookie scoops! Works perfectly every time. So long are the days of eyeballing which muffin may need a little more batter.
ingredients and substitutions
For the cinnamon streusel:
Unsalted butter: the base of the streusel, really what makes it buttery and delicious. You can use salted in place of unsalted butter here.
Light brown sugar: sweetens and adds flavor to the streusel. In a pinch granulated sugar will work here as well.
Ground cinnamon: for flavor. This can be omitted or replaced with your favorite spice.
All purpose flour: adds structure to the streusel.
Orange: we’ll use 1 large orange for both the streusel and the muffins.
For the blackberry muffins:
All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness.
Baking powder & baking soda: for helping the muffins rise.
Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the muffins.
Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the muffins. You could also sub in your favorite non-dairy butter stick.
Granulated sugar: for sweetness and locks moisture into the muffins.
Orange: we’ll use 1 large orange for both the streusel and the muffins.
Vanilla: for flavor. I use and love this vanilla extract!
Greek yogurt: use your favorite greek yogurt! I used fage brand 0% milkfat. You could also substitute in buttermilk or kefir.
Blackberries: you will need 1 small pack of fresh blackberries for these muffins.
how to make blackberry coffee cake muffins
This is just a little picture step-by-step of making the muffins. The full recipe can be found at the end of the blog post!
blackberry coffee cake muffins q&a
can I double this recipe?
Of course! Obviously it won’t be a small batch anymore but small batch isn’t always what we need! Simply double all of the ingredients in the recipe to make 12 delicious muffins. I even more strongly recommend measuring by weight if you are going to double the recipe for the best results.
can I use frozen blackberries?
You can but note that your muffins will be *very* purple. Let the blackberries come to room temperature, then give them a nice rinse to get rid of some of the extra juice. Then you can mash them up and use them in the recipe!
will these work with a different fruit?
Yep! You could easily sub in rasbperries or blueberries. I also have a blueberry coffee cake muffin recipe.
can I make the muffin batter ahead of time?
Yes! Simply make the muffin batter and cover it tightly with plastic wrap. Leave it in the fridge overnight to assemble the muffins in the morning. I’d recommend waiting to make the streusel until the morning of.
how to store these muffins
Like most baked goods, these muffins will definitely taste the best on the day that they are baked. They will last for up to 3 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
why do you measure in grams?
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale.
a note on oven temperature
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature and aren’t always at the temperature they claim to be. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
tools and ingredients
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
did you make these blackberry coffee cake muffins?
If you made these blackberry coffee cake muffins I would love to see them and know your thoughts! Please leave a comment and review down below, and tag me on Instagram @freshbeanbakery. If you have any questions about the recipe I will gladly do my best to answer them in the comments below!
Blackberry Coffee Cake Muffins
Ingredients
Cinnamon Orange Streusel
- 56 g unsalted butter (4 tbsp.)
- 75 g light brown sugar (¼ c. + 2 tbsp.)
- 90 g all purpose flour (¾ c.)
- ¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
- zest of ¼ orange
Blackberry Muffins
- 100 g granulated sugar (½ c.)
- zest of ¾ orange
- 56 g unsalted butter (4 tbsp.)
- 1 egg room temperature
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- 120 g greek yogurt room temperature (½ c. + 1 tbsp.)
- 130 g all purpose flour (1 c. + 1 tbsp.)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 100 g blackberries* (¾ c.)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F / 220°C. Line a muffin pan with 6 parchment liners.
Cinnamon Orange Streusel
- In a small bowl, melt the butter. Add in the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and orange zest. Use a fork to mix the ingredients together, then set aside. The streusel will seem super buttery & become a cohesive dough, but will be able to be crumbled by the time we add it to the muffins.
Blackberry Muffins
- Mash the blackberries and set them aside.
- Add the sugar to a medium sized mixing bowl, then zest the orange into the sugar. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar.
- Melt the butter, then mix it into the sugar. Then, whisk in the egg, vanilla, and greek yogurt.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Use a rubber spatula to fold the mixture together just until the last streak of flour dissapears. If the batter is a little bit lumpy that's okay.
- Add in the mashed blackberries, and fold the mixture a few times just to get some swirls of blackbery throughout the batter.
- Now it's time to layer the muffins. Start by pouring ~2 tbsp. of muffin batter into the bottom of each muffin liner, then top each muffin with 1 tbsp. of streusel.
- Distribute the remaining muffin batter evenly (~3 tbsp. / muffin), followed by the remaining streusel.
- Bake the muffins at 425°F for 5 minutes. Without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 350°F / 175°C.
- Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
- Serve and enjoy!
Kathi says
I rarely comment on recipes and I was so excited to try this and happened to have everything I needed. I put my ingredients out that needed to be room temperature. Couple issues I came across, the size of the muffin pan, I used a regular size and really had to heap the second batter and streusel, after baking surprisingly they baked nice with dome tops, I had a lot of streusel in the extra holes of the muffin pan. After they were in the oven I noticed that I did not put the butter in my batter, I have not tried them yet and I’m hoping they are not too dry. I think I would prefer to make this as a coffee cake, have you tried making it in a square baking pan or loaf pan? They look really good so thanks for the recipe and I will for sure have to try them again.
Erin says
Hello, thank you so much for making my recipe! I also use a regular sized muffin pan and they are meant to really be packed to the top, that’s the secret in getting nice domes on muffins! They will most likely be a tad bit dry and less tender without the butter, since that does play an essential part in the muffins. I haven’t tried making these in a different pan, but given the amount of batter, I would recommend not making them in anything larger than an 8″ circle or square pan unless you doubled the recipe as it’s going to be a thin muffin cake. I hope this helps!
Kathi says
Thank you for your reply. I just tried one and though still warm from the oven I thought it was delicious and seemed moist. Next time I will not forget the butter. lol