Blueberry Muffins Dressed up for Fall!
Soft, warm, tender muffins studded with fresh juicy blueberries and topped with a tender crisp cinnamon streusel and drizzled with a sweet maple glaze… these muffins form a wonderful overhanging muffin top that gets a little crunchy and absolutely scrumptious! I took my Lemon Kissed Blueberry Muffin recipe and dressed them up for fall! I omitted the lemon, added cinnamon and topped with a cinnamon streusel and maple glaze! They are scrumptious and a joy to make!
Why Use a Stand Mixer to Mix Muffins?
Mostly you hear to mix muffins by hand – gently combining the wet and dry ingredients. And you can do this when using an oil or melted butter based muffin recipe. (Although in my experience, a stand mixer on the lowest speed can mix or fold just as gently as doing so by hand.)
For this recipe, however, we’re using room temperature butter and we’re creaming it with the sugar. Creaming is a process where you beat air pockets into the butter through the process or the mixing and with the granular nature of the sugar. This creates a fluffy texture that is easily able to accept the other ingredients in the recipe and also contributes to the overall texture of the baked muffin.
I start making my Blueberry Muffins with Cinnamon Streusel and Maple Glaze by creaming the butter and sugar with my KitchenAid Stand Mixer with flex edge beater or flat beater. Then I add the eggs and vanilla. Next, I add half of the flour mixture, then the buttermilk (or milk) and finish with the rest of the flour mixture. Mixing each addition for about 5 seconds. (this method helps mix more evenly without overmixing – which would develop gluten and make the muffins tough.) Lastly I fold in the blueberries.
Why Toss the Blueberries with Flour?
Tossing the blueberries with some of the flour from the recipe, coats the outside of the blueberry and can help to prevent too much blueberry juice from bleeding into the muffin. Some say it also helps with keeping the blueberries better suspended in the muffin – although others debunk this – For me, I figure it can’t hurt and I’m happy with my muffin results!
Forms a Delicious Crisp Overhanging Muffin Top!
(Make sure to spray or grease the top of your muffin pan.) The streusel weighs down the muffin top a bit, so it doesn’t dome as much, but instead creates an overhanging muffin top that crisps up giving an delightful opposing texture to the fluffy soft inside of the muffin.
Crumbly Cinnamon Streusel and Creamy Sweet Maple Glaze!
A few shots to help you see what the various textures of the batter, streusel and glaze will look like.
Love Muffins? Here are a Few More Recipes:
- Cottage Cheese Savory Breakfast Muffins
- Our Favorite Cinnamon Chip Muffins
- Lemon Kissed Blueberry Muffins
- Beet, Oat and Chocolate Muffins
- Easy Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins (uses cornbread mix)
- Pumpkin Muffins/Pumpkin Bread (from scratch recipe)
Blueberry Muffins with Cinnamon Streusel and Maple Glaze
Equipment
- 1 stand (or hand) mixer I use my KitchenAid stand mixer with flat or flex edge beater.
Ingredients
Muffins:
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- 2 cups (241 g) flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup butter, room temp.
- 1 1/4 cups (260 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup buttermilk see note
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Streusel Topping:
- 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (55 g) brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup (120 g) flour
- 1/3 cup butter melted
- 1 pinch salt
Maple Glaze:
- 1 cup (115 g) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk or cream
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup* or 2 tsp maple flavoring
Instructions
Muffins:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Arrange rack to center position.
- Spray muffin pan with nonstick spray or use paper liners* – make sure to spray the top of the pan as the muffin tops will form an overhanging muffin top.
- In a small bowl toss the blueberries with 2 tablespoons flour (from your 2 cups flour.) The flour helps keep the blueberries from "bleeding" too much into the muffins.
- In small bowl whisk together the remaining flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.
- In large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar for several minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time.
- Mix in about 1/2 the flour mixture.
- Mix in the buttermilk and vanilla.
- Mix in the remaining flour, being careful not to overmix.
- Add the blueberries you tossed with the flour (and any residual flour) to the mixture and gently fold the blueberries into the mixture.
- Scoop evenly into the prepared muffin pan.
Streusel Crumb Topping: (I usually let muffin batter rest a few minutes while I stir this together.)
- In small bowl, stir together dry ingredients, then add melted butter. Use a fork to mix until combined. Should be a crumb/clumpy texture.
- Then add crumb topping, generously, onto each portion of batter, gently pressing in as needed to help it stick.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out only with a few moist crumbs.
Make Glaze (While muffins are baking)
- Whisk together all the glaze ingredients until smooth. (Sometimes I use my chopper or hand mixer to do the whisking for really smooth glaze.) Add more milk or powdered sugar to get the desired consistency, should be a nice thick glaze.
- Cool in pan for 5 minutes.*
- Drizzle warm muffins with glaze.
My tasters and myself all loved these muffins – Cinnamon Streusel for the Win!!!