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:
So easy and soooooo delicious! I love the different ways you can switch these muffins up! I went with the streusel topping – yum.
Yay! SO glad you enjoyed.
These were fantastic 🙂
I love this guide! Muffins are one of my favorite things to bake, so having this as a reference will make it so much easier for me to experiment with different muffin varieties. Being able to make the batter ahead of time is so convenient. Today I made the chocolate version and added orange zest, chocolate chips, and crystallized ginger.
Hooray! So glad to hear this, Michelle!
My go to muffin recipe. Filled them with all sorts of toppings from berries to chocolate chips and they’re always perfect. Cant go wrong.
So glad you loved these muffins!
Awesome recipe . Everyone loved it to the core. Thank you for the ultimate muffins.
Yay! This is so great to hear!
Love the variety offered! I made these with Dutch process cocoa and dark chocolate chunks. My kids went wild (and I loved them too). I used DIY buttermilk and it worked out fine!
This is wonderful to hear!
This muffin recipe is the best I’ve ever used! I love how easy it is to customize; I made Tangelo Cranberry muffins with a cinnamon/sugar topping, and I can’t wait to experiment with other fun flavor combos.
So glad you tried this muffin recipe!
Can you substitute yogurt for the melted butter,
I’ve been wondering why oil isn’t used in most recipes for muffins. I would imagine it would keep the muffin moist more than butter will?
This is my go to recipe for blueberry muffins!! They have the perfect light and fluffy texture, and don’t get bogged down in the juice from the blueberries like some other recipes do. They’re also not *too* sweet that I feel like I’m just eating a cupcake at breakfast!
I am so happy to hear you love these muffins!
What can be an alternative to buttermilk? Thanks.
Can we make this with wheat flour and add apple