Small batch blueberry muffins from scratch. Made with lemon and buttermilk for the best, moist blueberry muffin! Easy recipe that makes just 4 muffins, but can be doubled or tripled.
Small batch blueberry muffins
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 small batch 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 :)
Buttermilk substitutions:
This recipe for small batch blueberry muffins calls for ¼ 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 ½ a teaspoon to discard. Then, replace that ½ 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.
Steps:
- First, in a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, freshly grated nutmeg, and salt. Set aside. Freshly grated nutmeg is optional here--the reground stuff works here, too! Just use ⅛ teaspoon from the jar. You're going to love the flavor combination of lemon and nutmeg in these muffins!
2. Next, beat the butter, sugar and 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 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 ingredients, stir lightly and add the last half of the dry ingredients. Finally, fold in the blueberries coated lightly in flour.
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
Small Batch Blueberry Muffins
Best small batch blueberry muffins with lemon and buttermilk.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup + ⅓ cup unbleached flour
- heaping ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 egg white (from 1 large egg)
- ¼ cup low-fat buttermilk
- ⅓ 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 ⅓ 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 ½ teaspoon of milk and replace it with fresh lemon juice or vinegar. Stir, and let rest for 5 minutes.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 224Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 139mgCarbohydrates: 28gFiber: 1gSugar: 19gProtein: 3g
A Cupcake For Moose says
Oh yum! I have been craving blueberry muffins but didn't want to make a whole pan (because I would eat them all). :) Can't wait to try these out. Sounds like they have been tested by an expert! Way to go Mom!
:) Rachel
sensiblecooking says
Blueberry muffin is my favorite, specially this time of year when you can get fresh and full of flavor berries. This will be perfect Sunday breakfast.
sweetlife says
great blueberry muffins, they look awesome...so true texas has pretty heavier food than CA, lol
sweetlife
Maris (In Good Taste) says
Blueberry muffins are a perfect, sweet treat! Plus, they are so wholesome that they're practically guilt-proof! :)
Emma @CakeMistress says
Your Mum is so lovely to be your official recipe tester. What a treat with those blueberry muffins!
Natalie @ Perrys' Plate says
I love shredded cheese on pears...hahaha... my mom and her family are from Mississippi and they did that all the time. It's funny that you missed out on that, yet I ate it while growing up in Idaho.
I came by to see if you had a smaller version of cornbread muffins. Maybe I'll adjust the ingredients and use your measurements here. What do you think? You're the queen of downsizing :)
nosh says
amazing recipe, i tried these muffins and sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top before baking (omitted lemon zest and nutmeg) awesome 4 muffins ! thanks for the recipe.
Amy says
I made these today and ended up with enough batter for 5 muffins, lucky me. They are quite nice. The nutmeg and lemon zest are a lovely touch.
Jewel says
Can you use just all-purpose flour insted of unbleached flour?
Christina Lane says
Yes :)
kelley geiger says
Hi. I was thinking I would use bobs redmill whole wheat pastry flour. Do you think they’ll be good? Thanks , kelley
Linda Crossett says
I made these this morning. So very easy. I had just got an order of organic bread flour in the mail. These were delicious. Not too sweet, no artificial ingredients. Like Mary Poppins, they are absolutely perfect in every way. I made mine small in an antique cast iron popover pan. I got 10. Enough for the 3 that live in my home. Thank you.