This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Made with lemon and buttermilk, these small batch blueberry muffins are the lightest and fluffiest ones around! This easy recipe makes just 4 muffins, but you can double or triple the recipe, as needed.
Small batch Blueberry Muffins Recipe
My mom tests my recipes for me, isn’t that sweet of her? So, when my Mom requested a recipe to make small batch blueberry muffins from scratch, I knew I had to oblige. Plus, these moist lemon blueberry muffins are so good, why wouldn’t I want to make them 5 times to make sure they’re perfect?
Over the 10 years I have been running this small batch recipe site, I have developed recipes using a propane oven, a convection cooktop, a standard coil cooktop, and now a gas range. All of these things can cause slight recipe variations, so I appreciate my Mom testing my recipes. Especially testing my no bake blueberry cheesecake recipe lately!
If you’re new to baking, small batch recipes are the best way to start. If you have a recipe failure (which you totally won’t with my recipes!), you’ll waste far less ingredients. Often, people email me and ask about recipe substitutions that will cause a recipe to fail. Since I can’t reply immediately to everyone, I know that confusing baking soda for baking powder or using more egg than called for in a recipe is going to make it fail. My hope is that you start fresh with a small batch recipe to ensure success. Once you’ve mastered that, feel free to double or triple this recipe, similar to my blueberry cobbler for two.
Tips for making Fresh Blueberry Muffins
- Sometimes, homemade blueberry muffins made with fresh blueberries have sunken berry syndrome. Have you ever bit into a fruit muffin when all the fruit was at the bottom? If you lightly coat the fresh fruit with flour before stirring it into the batter, it will prevent this.
- Since we’re making small batch blueberry muffins, I’m using a small muffin pan with only 6 cups. A regular muffin pan will work, but a 6-cup one is more compact and easier to use. Often, toaster ovens come with a small muffin pan that is perfect for this. (Speaking of, have you seen my toaster oven cookbook for two?)
- We’re making realgar sized muffins today, not jumbo or mini muffins, ok? If you scoop this lemon blueberry muffin batter into mini muffins, please, let us all know in the comment section below how they turned out :)
Best Blueberry Muffin Recipe variations
Buttermilk substitutions:
This recipe for small batch blueberry muffins calls for 1/4 cup of low-fat buttermilk. Buttermilk is acidic, which reacts with the baking powder in this recipe to make the muffins rise to their fluffy, moist glory.
However, if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make it with regular milk! Just take the amount of milk called for in any recipe and scoop out 1/2 a teaspoon to discard. Then, replace that 1/2 teaspoon with lemon juice or vinegar. Stir the mixture together, and let it rest for 5 minutes before using it in a recipe that calls for buttermilk.
You can use apple cider vinegar or white vinegar. I promise these blueberry muffins won’t taste like vinegar.
Please note that if your recipe calls for 1 cup of buttermilk or more (like my rye bread), I suggest increasing the amount of lemon juice or vinegar to 1 teaspoon per cup.
Can you use frozen blueberries?
If you’re going to use frozen blueberries for this recipe, I recommend the tiny wild blueberries instead of the large ones, or especially instead of ones you frozen yourself at home. This is because frozen fruit releases the excess water as it bakes. If the berries are smaller, they will release less water.
If you’re going to use frozen, thaw the berries, and drain off the excess liquid. Then, coat the berries in flour and proceed with the recipe as written.
Ingredients
- Flour. Regular, all-purpose flour, one-quarter cup plus one-third cup for the batter. We also need an extra teaspoon for coating the blueberries so that they don’t sink to the bottom.
- Baking Powder. Heaping one-half teaspoon of baking powder.
- Nutmeg. One-eighth teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg. This is entirely optional, but the combination of lemon zest and nutmeg make these blueberry muffins really stand out.
- Salt. One pinch of salt to balance the sweetness. I use fine sea salt.
- Butter. Four tablespoons (1/2 a stick) of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature.
- Sugar. One-third cup granulated white sugar.
- Lemon Zest. Use a microplane to great about 1/4 teaspoon of fresh lemon zest from a washed lemon. You can use a Meyer lemon, if you have it.
- Egg White. Just the egg white from one large egg. Save the egg yolk for another recipe.
- Buttermilk. One-quarter cup low-fat buttermilk. If you don’t have this or can’t find it, use the same amount of regular milk, but add 1/4 teaspoon of vinegar to it.
- Blueberries. One-third cup of fresh blueberries.
How to make Blueberry Muffins from Scratch
1. First, in a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: 1/4 cup + 1/3 cup flour, heaping 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg, and pinch of salt. Set aside. Freshly grated nutmeg is optional here–the reground stuff works here, too! Just use 1/8 teaspoon from the jar. You’re going to love the flavor combination of lemon and nutmeg in these muffins!
2. Next, beat the 4 tablespoons of butter, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of lemon zest until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. The only lemon in this recipe is the lemon zest. The zest of a citrus fruit contains lemon oil, and that’s plenty of lemon flavor. If you would like to use the rest of the lemon, you could juice it and mix it with powdered sugar to make a glaze for these muffins after baking.
3. Beat in the egg white. Have the 1/4 cup of buttermilk ready on the side.
4. The last step is very particular: you’re going to add half of the buttermilk, stir, add half of the dry ingredients, and then stir again. Finally, add the last half of the buttermilk, stir lightly and add the last half of the dry ingredients.
5. Finally, fold in the 1/3 cup of blueberries coated lightly in one teaspoon of flour. This keeps the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins!
6. Divide the batter between 4 muffin cups, and bake at 400-degrees Fahrenheit for 19-22 minutes, until domed and starting to turn golden brown around the edges. Let cool in the pan for a few minutes, tip out and enjoy.
I hope you love this recipe for small batch blueberry muffins, and I hope you share it with someone you love.
Other best muffin recipes:
- Zucchini Muffins with Lemon Glaze
- Gingerbread Muffins
- Chocolate Banana Muffins (a true reader favorite!)
- Small Batch Pumpkin Muffins
Fresh Blueberry Muffins from Scratch
Best small batch blueberry muffins with lemon and buttermilk.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup + 1/3 cup unbleached flour
- heaping 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 egg white (from 1 large egg)
- 1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
- 1/3 cup fresh blueberries
- 1 teaspoon unbleached flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- In a standard muffin pan, line 4 muffin cups with liners.
- In a small bowl, stir together with a fork the ¼ cup plus 1/3 cup flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
- Now, in a medium bowl, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest. Beat this mixture very well to incorporate plenty of air into the batter, about 3-4 minutes.
- Next, add the egg white and continue beating. Then add half of the buttermilk, beating lightly before stirring in half of the flour mixture. Add the remaining half of the buttermilk followed by the remaining flour mixture. When this mixture is fully incorporated, stop mixing! Don’t overmix!
- Next, toss your clean, dry blueberries with 1 teaspoon of flour, then stir them gently into your batter. Divide the batter evenly between the muffins cups and bake for 19-22 minutes. Enjoy!
Notes
To subsitute buttermilk: substract 1/2 teaspoon of milk and replace it with fresh lemon juice or vinegar. Stir, and let rest for 5 minutes.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 224Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 139mgCarbohydrates: 28gFiber: 1gSugar: 19gProtein: 3g
I made the mini ones and they were good!
Only one jumbo blueberry on each mini muffin…
Can I have the recipe measurements in grams please? Thanks!
Can you find a converter on google to do this for you?
Can almond flour be used instead of regular flour?
I haven’t tried that, I’m sorry!
For anyone wondering (as I was) how to double the eggs in this recipe: I used two egg whites, and they turned out great. I was waffling about whether to use two whole eggs, but this way worked just fine.
You totally did it right! The recipe calls for 1 egg white, so when it’s doubled, you use 2 egg whites! This is because egg whites are 2 tablespoons of liquid and 1 egg yolk is 1 tablespoon of fat.
One of my all time favorite treats, and your recipe looks perfect. I will be making these soon!
Seriously can’t wait to make these and I know they won’t last long here!
Just made mini muffins because somehow I ran out of regular liners. Was able to get 12 minis, baked at 400 for 13 minutes and it worked perfectly. Delicious and quick for brunch today!
OH thank you, Kayla! I’m so glad to know the time and yield for mini muffins :) YUM!
I made mini muffins by doubling the recipe and it made over an entire pan! When I first started to mix the wet and the dry ingredients together, I thought it was curdled but I mixed it more and it turned out great! Hope this helps.
Loved this recipe! Had a craving for fresh blueberry muffins this morning and this small recipe was perfect for me and my husband to enjoy this morning. The lemon zest is just enough to brighten it up!
I made these this morning as I was craving blueberry muffins and wanted a way to use up some whey left from making Greek yogurt. I used Whey instead of the buttermilk in this recipe. I didn’t cream the butter and sugar together but followed all the steps. These were fantastic. Light and airy. I may reduce the sugar a little next time but the ratio of wet to dry was perfect. I made six smaller muffins as that’s what fit into my tin. Exceedingly happy, thank you!