When you want a blueberry muffin for breakfast but don't need several dozen sitting on the counter, here's a great small batch recipe for you to try! This small batch blueberry muffins recipe makes 6 muffins for just pennies each.
Recipe: $2.59 | Per Serving: $0.43 | Yield: 6 muffins
Blueberry muffins are life. They are my absolute favorite. Especially Cake Mix Blueberry Muffins or these Red White and Blueberry Muffins. I could eat them every day and never be bored.
This recipe was made from an adaption to my Old Fashioned Blueberry Muffins Recipe. While we don't use buttermilk, we do use a lot less ingredients and still get incredible results.
These muffins are perfect for a simple breakfast or snack. With my kids not being a fan of blueberries, I usually eat most of the muffins when we have them.
This recipe has been saving me from "needing" to eat 12+ muffins in just a few days, haha. While I could just make Blueberry Muffin in a Mug, it just isn't the same.
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🍯 Why This Recipe Works
- Simple ingredients. We only need some basic and frugal pantry staple ingredients to pull this recipe together like flour, sugar, and baking powder. We also only need to use 1 egg.
- Easy to come together. This recipe comes together easily with a whisk and a mixing bowl. No fancy equipment is needed. Perfect for beginner bakers, kid helpers, and a simplified routine.
- Smaller batch. Making a smaller amount of muffins means you don't have to store the uneaten extras. It means you can use a smaller amount of flour, sugar, and ingredients than traditionally, and it means you can have all the muffins cooked at once for a quick bake time (instead of cycling muffin pans in the oven).
🥘 Ingredients
Ingredient Notes:
Vegetable oil- You will need to give the muffins some oils for "added fats." This is what makes the muffins moist. You can use vegetable oil, canola oil, coconut oil, or even melted butter, but note that melted butter will make the muffins dense.
Egg- This is a binding agent and one that helps with the leavening as well, but if you don't have any eggs available, you can try my Eggless Blueberry Muffins instead.
Milk- For added moisture, use some milk. Regular dairy milk, almond milk, or even buttermilk will all work well here.
For specific ingredients and measurements, please see the recipe card below.
🧾 Substitutions
Blueberries. You can use fresh or frozen blueberries for this recipe and if using frozen, you do not need to thaw them first. Be careful when mixing the berries into the batter as they can cause blue or purple streaks in the batter if mixed too much.
If you have a lot of blueberries left over, you can make some Blueberry Bagel Bread Pudding or Blueberry Cream Cheese Scones.
📖 Variations
You could swap out some or all of the blueberries for chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or other berries like cranberries, raspberries, or diced strawberries.
🔪 Instructions for Small Batch Blueberry Muffins
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Step 2: Line a muffin pan with paper liners and then set it aside.
Step 3: Add your vegetable oil, sugar, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl (Image 1).
Step 4: Whisk together to combine (Image 2).
Step 5: Add in the egg (Image 3).
Step 6: Whisk together until fully incorporated (Image 4).
Step 7: Add the milk (Image 5).
Step 8: Whisk again until smooth (Image 6).
Step 9: Add in the baking powder and salt (Image 7).
Step 10: Mix to combine (Image 8).
Step 11: Whisk in the flour until no white streaks remain (Image 9). Be careful not to overwork the batter as you go.
Step 12: Add in the blueberries (Image 10). Gently fold them together until well distributed. Overmixing may cause blue streaks in the batter.
Step 13: Use a medium-sized cookie scoop or an ice cream scooper to fill each muffin cup ⅔rd of the way full. Top with some additional blueberries., if desired (Image 11).
Step 14: Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean (Image 12).
Step 15: Remove the blueberry muffins from the pan and let them cool on a wire rack.
Serve and enjoy!
🍴 Recipe Tips
- More blueberries? If desired, you can add in another ½ cup of blueberries. I like to place these extra berries on top for appearance's sake.
- Why we need two baking temps. Cooking our muffins at a higher temp is what gives us the nice domed look so that they don't turn out flat.
- Do not overwork the batter. Be gentle and just mix until moistened and combined. Overworking the batter will result in developing the gluten, which makes the muffins gummy and rubbery.
👩🏻🍳 Storage
Room Temp. These muffins will keep for up to a day or two in an airtight container at room temp. They taste best when fresh and warm from the oven.
Freezing. You can freeze your cooled muffins for up to 3 months in an airtight container. Just thaw before serving.
💭 Recipe FAQs
This recipe is calculated to cost less than $3 for 6 muffins which is far cheaper than the same amount of muffins from any grocery store. Not only is making your own muffins cheaper, but it's nicer too as you can control what goes into the batter and how much to add. You can even keep them as plain Vanilla Muffins.
Adding in too many blueberries can cause the muffins to fall apart. If there are so many blueberries that there is hardly any batter between them when baked, there won't be much "muffin" to hold the berries together, causing a (delicious) mess.
While melted butter can cause a more delicious muffin, oil actually helps to make them fluffier. Butter can cause your muffin to turn out more densely, and as a result, vegetable oil is often my go-to.
❤️ More Delicious Blueberry Recipes
If you tried these small batch blueberry muffins, please leave a ⭐️ star rating and share your feedback in the 📝 comments section below. I would truly appreciate it!
📖 Recipe
Small Batch Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil ($0.08)
- ½ cup granulated sugar ($0.18)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract ($0.01)
- 1 large egg ($0.15)
- 5 Tablespoons milk ($0.06)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder ($0.05)
- 1 pinch salt ($0.01)
- ¾ cups all purpose flour ($0.09)
- ½ cup blueberries, fresh or frozen ($1.96)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
- Line a muffin pan with paper liners and then set it aside.
- Add your vegetable oil, sugar, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl. Whisk together to combine.
- Add in the egg. Whisk together until fully incorporated.
- Add the milk. Whisk again until smooth.
- Add in the baking powder and salt. Mix to combine.
- Whisk in the flour until no white streaks remain. Be careful not to overwork the batter as you go.
- Add in the blueberries. Gently fold them together until well distributed. Overmixing may cause blue streaks in the batter.
- Use a medium-sized cookie scoop or an ice cream scooper to fill each muffin cup ⅔rd of the way full. Top with some additional blueberries., if desired
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean.
- Remove the blueberry muffins from the pan and let them cool on a wire rack.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Cooking our muffins at a higher temp is what gives us the nice domed look so that they don't turn out flat.
- Do not overwork the batter. Be gentle and just mix until moistened and combined. Overworking the batter will result in developing the glutens which makes the muffins gummy and rubbery.
- You can use fresh or frozen blueberries. If using frozen, do not thaw.
- Freezing. You can freeze your cooled muffins for up to 3 months in an airtight container. Just thaw before serving.
- Storage. These muffins will keep for up to a day or two in an airtight container at room temp. they taste best when fresh and warm from the oven.
Nicole says
Does anyone have any guidance on how long to cook if I want to add Greek yogurt for added protein? Would I sub that for the oil or half and half? Thanks in advance!