Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: The muffins themselves are sweet, but not too sweet, and surprisingly flavorful thanks to the buttermilk and butter. Of course, they’ll take on the flavor of whatever you add to them!
Texture: Soft, tender, and moist. Perfect!
Ease: These babies are so easy, anyone could make them. Whatever you do, just don’t overmix the batter.
Appearance: A plate of these on your breakfast table is bound to make anyone a morning person, at least for a few minutes.
Pros: This is the master basic ultimate muffin recipe that you can turn to time and time again and customize with whatever you have on hand, or whatever you’re craving!
Cons: None!
Would I make this again? Oh yes. Over and over.
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A few years ago I posted my Ultimate Guide to Muffins where I made eight (!) experimental batches of muffins. I did it to figure out what exactly makes them moist, crumbly, tall, flat, tender, or tough.
Like I’ve done with my Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie and Ultimate Brownie recipes, I knew I had to take the experimenting insights to create the Ultimate Muffin recipe!
So, here it is! This is my version of the *ultimate* muffin. They’re tender, moist, and fluffy.
Otherwise, just relish in the fact that you’ve found an easy homemade muffin recipe you can turn to over and over and know it’ll work. I love this base muffin recipe because you can literally add WHATEVER you want to it. The flavor and add-in options are endless. Lots of ideas below and more are included in that free cheatsheet!
I really hope you enjoy these muffins as much as I do. I know I just love having the ultimate version of any beloved recipe treat – it makes baking that much more fun when you know you’ll be successful in the kitchen. When you have tested and trusted recipes in your repertoire!
If you’re interested in learning more about the science of baking and getting all of my best baking secrets in one place, I think you’ll love my online class, The Magic of Baking.
How to Make
ULTIMATE Muffins
The BEST Muffin Ingredients:
- All-purpose flour – measured correctly
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar – for a little extra moisture and flavor
- Salt
- Baking powder – a hefty dose for tall fluffy muffins
- Buttermilk – no substitutes!
- Butter – more flavorful than oil.
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Add-ins and flavorings of your choice – get as creative as you want!
How to Make Muffins from Scratch:
- Whisk together your dry ingredients.
- In a liquid measuring cup, beat together your wet ingredients. Pour into the dry ingredients. Don’t overmix or you’ll have rubbery muffins.
- Add your toppings or flavor variations.
- Divide among muffin tin, bake, and enjoy!
How to Bake TALL Muffins:
I recently experimented with the science of muffins and how to achieve beautiful, TALL muffins that look like they belong on the shelf of a fancy bakery. Check out my 3 tips for baking tall muffins here!
Hint: Chilling your muffin batter overnight makes for the BEST ever muffins!!
How to Prevent Blueberries from Sinking in Muffins:
When fruit sinks to the bottom it gets soggy and can stick to the paper liner. The old trick of tossing your berries with flour to prevent them from sinking doesn’t always work all that well. Not to mention it can disturb the ratio of wet to dry in the recipe.
There’s an easy way to prevent that from happening in three steps. I learned this tip from Stella Parks for Serious Eats.
- Hold off on adding your fruit or mix-ins to your muffin batter.
- Take your plain batter and scoop a tablespoon into the bottom of each muffin cavity to fill just the very bottom.
- Gently fold in your mix-ins to the remaining batter. Scoop the batter over the plain muffin batter, dividing evenly between all the cavities. Bake as directed by the recipe!
How to Store Muffins:
Muffins are best served the day they’re baked. If you have leftovers, store them for up to 1 day in an airtight container at room temperature. Refresh in a 300°F oven for 5 minutes or reheat in the microwave for 10 seconds.
For best results, freeze leftover muffins in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight at room temperature or reheat in the microwave for about 1 minute.
Ultimate Muffin Customization Options:
Muffin Size Directions
Jumbo muffins: Bake at 450°F for 5 minutes, then reduce to 400°F and continue baking for about 16 minutes. Makes about 6 jumbo muffins.
Mini muffins: Bake at 350°F for about 12 minutes. Makes about 24 to 28 mini muffins.
Muffin Flavor Variations
Mix-ins: Add about 1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, dried fruit, candy, etc. to the batter. Be careful not to overmix.
Flavorings: For flavorings add anywhere from 1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons depending on your desired intensity of flavor. Flavorings include extracts, fresh citrus zest, or espresso powder.
FRUIT MUFFINS
Add: 1 1/2 cups fruit (such as berries, apples, etc.), finely chopped and well drained
Directions: To prevent your fruit from sinking to the bottom, spoon a little bit of plain batter (before adding in the fruit) to the bottom of each muffin cavity. Then, mix in the fruit to the batter and spoon it into each cavity.
Note: If chilling your batter overnight, add fruit to the mixture just before baking. The juice of your fruit will more than likely bleed into your muffin if you put it in too early.
CHOCOLATE MUFFINS
Add: 1/3 cup (28 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
Directions: Add the cocoa in with the other dry ingredients. Increase buttermilk to 1 1/2 cups.
BANANA MUFFINS
Add: 3/4 cup mashed overripe banana (from about 2 small bananas)
Directions: Add in with the wet ingredients.
LEMON POPPY SEED MUFFINS
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon zest
Directions: Add the poppy seeds with the dry ingredients and the lemon zest with the wet ingredients.
Toppings, Icings, & Fillings:
STREUSEL TOPPING
- 1/2 cup (64 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 5 tablespoons (71 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Directions: In a small bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut the butter into the mixture using the back of a fork until it is coarse and crumbly. Sprinkle over each muffin, gently pressing into the batter, before baking as directed.
CINNAMON SUGAR TOPPING
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
Directions: Combine all ingredients until mixture looks like wet sand. Sprinkle over every muffin before baking.
MUFFIN GLAZE
- 1/3 cup (42 grams) powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon milk
Directions: In a small bowl whisk together ingredients until a thick but pourable icing forms. Add more milk to thin, or more sugar to thicken, if needed. Use fresh citrus juice in place of milk, if desired. You may also added in fresh citrus zest to taste.
I share LOTS more muffin flavor customization ideas in my *free* Ultimate Muffin Cheatsheet. Get yours here!
More Muffin Recipes:
- Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
- Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins
- Chocolate Coffee Toffee Crunch Muffins
- Double Chocolate Muffins
- Pumpkin Muffins
Ultimate Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups (286 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (if desired)
- Add-ins and flavorings of your choice
- Coarse or turbinado sugar, for sprinkling (if desired)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Position an oven rack to the upper third of the oven. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
- In a liquid measuring cup beat together the buttermilk, butter, egg, and vanilla. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until a few streaks of flour remain. Stir in any desired add-ins, such as fruit or chips.
- If time permits, cover the muffin batter and allow it to rest in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight. This will produce more moist, tender, and tall muffins.
- Divide evenly among the muffin tin cups. Sprinkle each with coarse sugar, if desired.
- Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 16 to 18 minutes.
This post was originally published in 2014 and updated in 2021 with new photos by Ashley McLaughlin, a new video, and a new PDF guide.
March Baking Challenge
This recipe was the selection for the March 2021 monthly baking challenge! Every month you can join the challenge by baking the recipe and snapping a photo for a chance to win prizes! Learn more about my monthly baking challenges here. Check out everyone’s muffins:
I need to add to the comment that I just posted. I did prepare the batter the evening before, with storing the covered batter in the refrigerator overnight. The next afternoon, I added the Frozen Berries to the Batter, scooped the batter into the Muffin tin cups, then topped with the Streusel Topping. I do believe that storing the Batter atleast overnight, made a positive difference. Thank You, Tessa,, for all of Your Tips.
I recently used this Recipe for making Triple Berry Muffins. I used Frozen Berries, and the Streusel Topping that Tessa gives in this Recipe. The Muffins were Great 👍 They rose up huge. Really, I so much batter that baked out of each cup, that it looked like a cake. I cut the baked batter between the cups to release them out of the pan. Huge, tender Muffins ✅️ 😊
So I tried the recipe twice. Both times was not a success. I followed everything in the recipe. The first time I chilled the batter for around an hour and the second overnight. In both cases when I took the batter out of the refrigerator I noticed it was nice, bubbly and airy. When I started scooping it into the muffin tins it started to deflate and by the time I was done filling them up, it turned into liquid-like consistency. The end result was very dense muffins in both cases. Also the second time when I left it overnight, they took much longer to bake, so they browned a lot as well. What could be wrong?
Hi Jonathan! I’m sorry to hear that you had trouble with these muffins. Without having baked alongside you, it’s tricky to say exactly what the issue was here, but here are a couple of things that may have happened:
– How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Check out Tessa’s article here, where she talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time.
– How old are your leavening agents? If your baking soda/powder are not fresh, they won’t do their jobs and your baked goods can not rise properly, fall after baking, and much more. From what you described, it sounds like your baking powder may be close to expired, as it sounds like it’s losing its strength by the time you measure out your batter. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here!
I hope something here helps, and I hope you give these (or one of Tessa’s other muffin recipes) a try – they really are so good!! Happy baking!
Fabulous! We’ll-named. I made cupcakes and they were scrumptious.
Hi! Can muffin batter be frozen to be baked later? Thank you!
Hi Lina! We haven’t tried freezing muffin batter, but feel free to experiment with this and let us know how it goes! Alternatively, you can bake, cool and freeze the muffins per Tessa’s instructions in the pink tip box (above the recipe): “For best results, freeze leftover muffins in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight at room temperature or reheat in the microwave for about 1 minute.” I hope that helps! Happy baking 🙂
Thank you and I’ll let you know if I try freezing the batter!
When my kids were still at home I had a small toaster oven that would fit a 6-muffin tin perfectly. None of us particularly liked frozen and re-heated muffins, so I bought every 6-muffin tin I could find when I went to the local thrift store. I would mix up a huge batch of muffin batter and fill the tins, freeze them, then seal them in the good heavy zip-lock freezer bags. In the morning I could pop a tin in that little toaster oven and in 30 minutes everyone had fresh muffins for breakfast!
Hi! Is there a mini muffin recipe to make ahead and freeze for my kids. I would love to make different flavors and keep in the freezer for breakfast.
Hi Sophia! Tessa included directions for this in the Customization options above the recipe:
Mini muffins: Bake at 350°F for about 12 minutes. Makes about 24 to 28 mini muffins.
Happy baking! 🙂
Approximately how many calories are in the banana chocolate chip version of these muffins?
Hi Jamie! We don’t have nutritional information for our recipes, as we believe that baking should be an indulgence! You should be able to find a nutritional calculator online to assist with this, if you wish! 🙂
I made the muffins, texture wise it was perfect but it tasted less sweet. Likeness there was no sweetness. Can you suggest something?
Hi Debjani! These muffins were designed to be slightly sweet, but you should definitely notice some sweetness from them. Were your sugars accidentally mis-measured, and did you include both granulated and brown sugars? It can be so easy to accidentally skip an ingredient or mis-measure, especially if you’re not using a digital scale to measure. If you enjoyed the texture and flavor, I recommend checking out Tessa’s tips (above the recipe) for customization; you can add chocolate chips or fruit, top with a streusel or even finish with an icing or a glaze, for added sweetness! I hope that helps, Debjani! Happy baking 🙂
I made the chocolate version. Added chocolate chips and more milk in it as instructed, didn’t use the topping and it turned out great anyway! Love the soft and moist texture. This recipe is so quick and easy I’m thinking of playing around with the flavours, maybe espresso. My question is, can I turn this muffin recipe into a cake?
Hi Debbie! We are so glad to hear that you’re enjoying Tessa’s muffin recipes! Adding espresso powder should be delicious 🙂 As you compare muffin and cake recipes, you’ll notice that there is a big difference in ratios of ingredients, so this recipe won’t really work as an actual cake – but muffins and quick breads are very similar, so you may be able to experiment a little and bake these as a quick bread/loaf! We haven’t tried that, so I can’t say for sure how long to bake for etc, but let us know how it goes if you give it a try – or check out Tessa’s decadent Double Chocolate Banana Bread for an amazing loaf bread recipe. Happy baking!
My muffins turned out doughy and dense:( I followed the recipe to a T, what could have caused this? I was careful about overmixing too.
Hi Hallie! Other than overmixing, there are a couple big reasons why muffins could be doughy and dense. The first big factor is mismeasuring of flour. How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Check out Tessa’s article here, where she talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time.
The second big factor is leaveners. How old are your leavening agents? If your baking soda/powder are not fresh, they won’t do their jobs and your baked goods can not rise properly, fall after baking, and much more. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here!
I hope something here helps, Hallie! Happy baking 🙂
I’ve never used buttermilk before. All the buttermilk available to me are labeled “low fat” or “99% fat free”. Is the buttermilk you use also low fat? Is all commercially made buttermilk low fat?
Hi Nat! Yes, most commercially-available buttermilks are low fat, because traditionally, buttermilk was the leftover liquid produced following the churning of cream into butter. These days, buttermilk is made by adding lactic acid producing bacteria to milk (usually low fat milk) to “culture” it. There is the occasional variety of buttermilk where lactic acid producing bacteria is added to full fat milk, but it’s not a common practice and therefore not the easiest to find. So, you can use the low fat buttermilk varieties you’re finding available in any recipe calling for buttermilk. Learn more about buttermilk, and Tessa’s substitution tests, here! I hope that helps, Nat 🙂 Happy baking!
hello, in my country buttermilk is not available, what is the best alternative to replace it?
Thank you
Hi Isabel! Check out Tessa’s article here all about buttermilk – you’ll find some good substitutes mentioned in there 🙂