Yield: 6 blueberry muffins // Total Time: 40 min. // Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links. Recipe updated w/ brown butter 07/05/23
Fast, easy, and super moist brown butter small batch blueberry muffins.
small batch brown butter blueberry muffins
These small batch blueberry muffins are ridiculously light, fluffy, and moist. They’re also loaded with toasty brown butter flavor to spruce up the flavor from a standard blueberry muffin!
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. In a small batch recipe it is especially important to get those correct measurements because there is less room for error. 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!
mix the batter carefully
It is super important to not overmix the muffin batter. Overmixing the batter leads to more gluten development which is what makes bakes tough and chewy, and is what leads to pointy muffin tops.
room temperature ingredients
It is important for the ingredients to be at room temperature so that they properly incorporate with each other. If you have ever had your batter look curdled, it is most likely due to the ingredients separating from being at different temperatures. Take out the egg and sour cream at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hr 30 min. before starting the recipe.
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 15 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!
get evenly distributed 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
All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness.
Baking powder: for helping the muffins rise.
Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the muffins.
Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. We’ll also be browning the butter to get some delicious toasty flavor into the muffins!
Granulated sugar: for sweetening and for locking in moisture.
Egg: for binding and for moisture.
Vanilla: for flavor. I use and love this vanilla extract!
Kefir: I would consider this the *secret ingredient* to these muffins, if you will. It makes these muffins super light, fluffy, and moist. I recommend plain whole milk kefir, but any flavored whole milk kefir will work as well (lemon would be delish.) You can also substitute in buttermilk here, or greek yogurt.
Blueberries: the star of the show in these small batch blueberry muffins! I have made these with both fresh and a combination of fresh and frozen wild blueberries. There are tips later in the blog post on using frozen berries!
how to make small batch blueberry muffins
small batch brown butter blueberry muffins q&a
can I use frozen blueberries?
Yes, of course! They are a little bit more finicky to work with but honestly, fresh fruit can be expensive (especially if not in-season) so frozen is always a great back-up option. If you are using frozen, make sure to keep the frozen blueberries in the freezer until the last step where you add in the blueberries. Remove them from the freezer, coat them in flour, and gently mix them into the batter. You’ll want to mix just until they are evenly distributed and no flour streaks remain. Be aware that frozen berries tend to bleed more than fresh berries (but that doesn’t make them less delicious of course!) You may need to add an extra minute or two to the baking time since the frozen blueberries bring down the temperature of the batter.
can I double this recipe?
Of course! Obviously they will not be 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 brown butter blueberries muffins. However, I even more strongly recommend measuring by weight if you are going to double the recipe for the best results.
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. For example, I always have to set my oven to 330°F if I want it to bake at 350°F. 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 brown butter blueberry muffins?
If you made these small batch brown butter blueberry muffins I would love to see it 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!
Small Batch Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 70 g unsalted butter (5 tbsp.)
- 140 g all purpose flour (1 c. + 2 ½ tbsp.)
- 1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 100 g blueberries (⅔ c.)
- 100 g granulated sugar (½ c.)
- 1 egg room temperature
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- 120 g plain whole milk kefir room temperature (½ c.)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F / 220°C. Alternate lining a muffin pan with 6 parchment liners.
- In a small saucepan set over medium heat, brown the butter. Stir the butter occasionally until it turns amber in color and develops little brown specks. Take the butter off the heat and transfer to a medium sized bowl. You should be left with at least 55g of butter, no more than 60g. If you have a little less than 55g, add in enough water to reach 55g.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the blueberries to another small bowl, and toss them with 1 tbsp. of the flour mixture.
- Whisk the sugar into the brown butter, followed by the egg, vanilla and kefir.
- Add in the flour mixture and fold until only a few flour streaks remain. Then add in the blueberries and fold just until no flour streaks remain.
- Evenly distribute the muffin batter between the six parchment liners, filling each liner to the very top. Sprinkle the muffins with turbinado sugar (optional.)
- 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 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
- Serve and enjoy!
Dani says
I can’t stretch enough how much I loooooved this recipe. I’m a pretty chaotic baker, and was definitely not precise, also, I added more blueberries and diced strawberries, they came out DELICIOUS though. So, thank you so much for making this recipe free, we owe you big time.
Erin says
Ah thank you so much, I’m so happy you loved the recipe!
Schola says
These were great, thanks so much for the awesome recipe!!