Blueberry Apple Muffins Recipe

These blueberry apple muffins are the perfect way to start your day. Made with sour cream instead of milk, these homemade muffins are moist, tender, delicious muffins packed with juicy blueberries and tons of tasty apples! Made with sour cream instead of milk, they’re soft, moist, and NOT crumbly. But you can add a delicious crumble topping! 

Why I Love These Blueberry Apple Muffins

I’ve often expressed my love for blueberry muffins here. But this is no ordinary blueberry muffin recipe. These blueberry apple muffins may just be my new favorite! It’s the perfect combination of flavors in perfectly moist and fluffy muffins.

They’re great for breakfast on their own or as part of a larger meal. Here are just a few of the many other reasons I love these muffins, and think you will too!

• Blueberries make all baked goods better.
• It’s a great way to use an abundance of apples or blueberries.
• These are the best muffins EVER. So moist and packed with flavor.
• Easily feeds a crowd at a potluck brunch or good for a family breakfast.
• Show-stoppers - they’re so pretty! They're perfect for an afternoon tea. Especially if you go the extra step with the crumble topping!

Ingredients for Blueberry and Apple Muffins

Butter - Salted or unsalted butter will both work for this recipe. If you are using salted butter, you might opt to skip adding the extra salt from the recipe.

Sugar - Replace a portion with honey, agave, or light brown sugar if desired.

Egg - Room temperature eggs yield the best results when baking.

Sour cream - Use equal amounts yogurt or buttermilk if desired.

All-purpose flour - Use a gluten-free flour blend like the one from Bob’s Red Mill for delicious gluten-free blueberry muffins.

Baking powder and baking soda - Make sure they’re fresh/in date for best results or the muffins won’t rise as much.

Salt - Any variety will work (sea salt, kosher, etc).

Blueberries - Feel free to replace fresh blueberries with frozen, but if you do this reduce the amount used by 1/2 cup.

Apples - Peel, core and chop one large apple. If they begin to brown, squirt with fresh lemon juice or soak them in a bowl of lemon water. Pat dry with a paper towel before adding them to the mixing bowl to avoid excess moisture getting in the batter.

Turbinado sugar - For topping the muffins. Replace the turbinado sugar with granulated sugar or coconut sugar if desired. You can also make a crumb topping using the instructions below.

How to Make Blueberry Apple Muffins

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a muffin tin with paper liners (or spray the muffin pan cups generously with cooking spray). 

Step 2

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer), combine the butter and sugar and beat until combined. Add the eggs and sour cream and beat on medium-low speed until creamy.

Step 3

In a separate large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on medium-low speed until just combined. Gently fold in the blueberries and apples.

Step 4 

Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the tops. 

Step 5

Bake in the preheated oven for 25-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean and the tops are golden brown.

Recipe Notes

• Spray cupcake liners with cooking spray to avoid sticking.
• The batter will be thick. That is normal for these muffins.
• It will seem like there’s no way all the batter will fit into 12 muffin cups, but it will. It should be heaping, extending up and above the top of the muffin tray. This will help create those big, beautiful, bakery-style muffin tops.

Tips & Tricks for Moist Muffins

There’s a few things you can do to help make your muffins moist. Here are a few tried and true tips:

• Chill the batter in the refrigerator overnight. This is a similar concept to refrigerating cookie dough before baking. The flour has the opportunity to absorb more moisture from the wet ingredients which is transferred to the texture of the muffin.
• Use sour cream or yogurt instead of milk. These two offer more fat than even whole milk which makes for more tender muffins.
• Sub at least half of the white sugar for light brown sugar in equal parts. The molasses added to the brown sugar will make the muffins even moister than using white sugar alone.
• Let them finish resting on a wire cooling rack instead of in the hot muffin tin.

Best Apples For Baking

Any type of fresh apple will work in these muffins, but some apples will definitely work better than others. Choose crisp apples and stay away from the kind with a soft, mealy texture to them.

Here are some good varieties to choose from: 

• Honeycrisp 
• Golden Delicious
• Granny Smith
• Crispin
• Fuji
• Pink Lady 
• Braeburn

NOTES: 

1. Gala, Macintosh, and Red Delicious will work for this recipe. But note that softer apples like these don’t stand up to heat as well and the result could be a mushier muffin.
2. Tart apples like Granny Smith tend to have a more distinguished flavor in baked goods.

Best Substitutes for Blueberries

There are a plethora of fruits and berries you can use in place of blueberries for a wonderful unique flavor combination. There are over 400 kinds of berries alone! So needless to say I won’t mention all of them here. Some of my favorite alternatives for apple berry muffins include

• Huckleberries
• Lingonberries
• Loganberries
• Black or Red Raspberries
• Wineberries
• Tayberries
• Boysenberries
• Black or Red Currants
• Strawberries

How To Create a Crumble Topping

A simple but delicious crumble topping can replace the coarse sugar on top of the muffins to make these extra decadent. Here’s how to make it:

1. Combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour and 3 tablespoons of melted butter in a small bowl.
2. Stir until crumbly.
3. Place an even amount of the mix on top of the muffins before baking.
4. Baking time will remain the same.

How to Make This a Dairy-Free Muffin Recipe

To make completely dairy-free muffins, sub the butter and sour cream for vegan butter and sour cream alternatives. Many are available at your local grocery store.

To make vegan muffins, you need to sub the egg as well with a vegan egg replacer like flax eggs or unsweetened apple sauce

How to Make This a Gluten-Free Muffin Recipe

You can easily make this a gluten free muffin recipe by switching out the all-purpose white flour with your favorite GF flour or oat flour.

A Tip for Baking with Frozen Fruit

If you are using frozen blueberries, you want to reduce the amount of berries suggested by 1/2 cup. Frozen berries release more liquid than fresh berries and can result in a gooey, tacky texture to your muffins if you use too much.

The muffins usually won’t rise properly either if they’re too wet and you won't get a fluffy muffin

How to Serve Apple Blueberry Muffins

Serve these apple blueberry muffins warm with a nice schmear of butter or some blueberry or apple jam. Or all 3. 

They’re great on their own or as a part of a larger breakfast. They are also great for just having a quick snack.

How to Store Leftover Muffins

Store leftover muffins in a well-sealed, airtight container. Stored properly, the muffins will be at their best for 2-3 days at room temperature.

You can also freeze extra or leftover muffins for up to 3 months when stored properly in an airtight freezer bag. I also like to remove the muffin liners before freezing them.

How to Reheat Leftover Blueberry Muffins

You can give day-old or slightly stale muffins a quick 15-20 second blast in the microwave to soften them up a bit.

From frozen: Allow frozen muffins to thaw at room temperature. Finish warming in the oven or the microwave.

Best Apple Recipes

If you love apples, be sure to check out some of these other great recipes.

• Easy Apple Topping (for pancakes and waffles and more)
• 3-Ingredient Apple Muffins
• Caramel Apple Pancakes
• Banana Applesauce Pancakes (a dairy free and vegan recipe)
• Apple Snickerdoodles 
• Salted Caramel Apple Cupcakes