Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins
Who knew that blueberry muffins would be a million times better with cream cheese? These simple blueberry cream cheese muffins are spectacular.
What a wild, wild weekend.
Our little corner of Idaho has been slammed with some crazy winter weather the last week (hello, four school snow days in a row), but this weekend was insane. Snow, ice, rain – even church was canceled, which is relatively unheard of.
Our local grocery store was packed with people panicking to get water and toilet paper and food and dark chocolate (wait, that was just me).
We knew there was a chance of power outages, so our family prepared as best we could – filling up the bathtubs each night in case the power went out the next day (our well pump is powered by electricity that unfortunately our generator can’t hook into…yet).
And we also made sure we had wood for our fireplace and propane for our independent Big Buddy heaters, if needed (sidenote: this is totally unsponsored, but I just have to say, those heaters are amazing; if you don’t have one, they are worth the investment as they are safe to use indoors and are a very effective source of heat in an emergency – or even when working in a cold garage or something like that).
And then we just hunkered down and hoped for the best.
And by we, I mean me and the kids. Brian spent much of the weekend with his 4-wheeler + plow making sure everyone in a 5-mile radius could get out of their driveways.
Not that anyone was driving anywhere. But if they needed to, they could! For about six minutes before it filled in again with inches of snow (and now rain and ice).
Anyway, all is well so far, and thankfully it wasn’t as bad as it could have been (although the constant moisture, now rain, has been pretty awful for our already leaky ceiling).
It was definitely a good chance to take stock of how prepared we are for an emergency, especially since I’m kind of an emergency preparedness junkie.
Now on to more exciting things!
Like blueberry muffins.
And not just any blueberry muffins. Blueberry cream cheese muffins.
I wasn’t actually planning on posting this recipe quite yet, because I have the most amazing vanilla bean pudding cake to share with you.
But figured maybe these muffins might be a better choice until January’s over, since some of you crazy cats aren’t eating sweets this month, and I’m trying to patiently honor that decision).
Plus, when I showed you a teaser of these muffins on Instagram, you went crazy.
So. Here you go.
I love blueberry muffins any which way, but I’d have a hard time saying these blueberry cream cheese muffins are not my current favorite.
First of all: cream cheese in the batter.
Not swirled in, not dolloped on the top, it’s mixed right into the batter with the butter and sugar.
The cream cheese lends a creamy flavor to the muffins, but it also gives the blueberry cream cheese muffins a slightly more dense and deliciously soft texture that is irresistible (as in, try to eat only one – I dare you).
Second of all: buttermilk, baby.
I happen to believe in buttermilk. I love buttermilk. And I think buttermilk makes almost any baked good better. I always keep it on hand or rely on my handy-dandy homemade buttermilk substitutions.
And in the case of these muffins, it makes the crumb extra tender and flavorful.
While these muffins may look like any ordinary blueberry muffin, I promise they are special and just unique enough to warrant an immediate drop-whatever-you-are-doing-and-make-them moment.
Because it’s the middle of January, and I’m not willing to sell one of my children (most days) to buy sub-par blueberries at the grocery store, I immediately reached for my stash of freeze-dried blueberries for this recipe.
Best decision ever.
Of course fresh berries will work, too, but I was thrilled that the freeze-dried berries worked out so well, and I can’t wait to experiment with other berries, like raspberries or blackberries, both of which I also have in my food storage in freeze-dried form.
A versatile muffin is a very good muffin indeed.
A big thanks to my virtual friend, Heather, who emailed me the recipe for these blueberry cream cheese muffins last week and insisted I make them. We were currently on snow day #2 at that point, so these divine blueberry muffins happened almost immediately.
They happened to be a sanity-saver that day. A snow day diversion. A total pick-me-up. And additionally, they are one of the tastiest blueberry muffins to cross my blueberry muffin loving lips (and hips).
One Year Ago: Cheesy Black Bean Lasagna
Two Years Ago: 60-Second Chocolate Chip Mug Cookie
Three Years Ago: Spinach Salad with Sweet-Spicy Nuts, Apples, Feta and Bacon
Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
- 8 ounces (227 g) cream cheese, softened
- 4 tablespoons (57 g) butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups (318 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (284 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 2 cups blueberries (see note)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper/parchment liners. Set aside.
- With an electric handheld mixer (or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), cream together the cream cheese, butter, and sugar until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.
- Add the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk, and mix again until well-combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the muffin batter and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula once or twice. There will be a lot of dry steaks remaining. Add the blueberries. Mix until JUST combined. Don’t overmix. It’s ok if it’s slightly lumpy.
- Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake for 14-17 minutes until the tops spring back lightly to the touch. Don’t overbake (the exact time will depend on the variance of temperature in your oven so if you have to add time, that’s ok).
- Remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in a covered container at room temp or in the refrigerator for several days. The tops of the muffin will soften as they are stored; they reheat beautifully for 10-15 seconds in the microwave and taste fresh as can be even days later.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from this recipe after my friend, Heather, emailed me saying I should make them soon
138 Comments on “Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins”
These were wonderful! I used fresh blueberries and found that they needed a bit longer to cook due to all the moisture from the berries. I also added lemon zest (from 1 lemon) to the batter and sprinkled some lemon sugar (1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp lemon zest) on the tops. These also freeze really well! Thanks for the recipe and suggestion of using lemon!
So good, even with one cup of sugar they were plenty sweet for us. I sprinkled some of the lemon zest sugar from The Best Blueberry muffin recipe on top and it gave a really nice crunch on top. I used frozen blueberries. My son, who has trouble with low appetite and is underweight, said the only thing wrong with them was they weren’t big enough so he had to eat three:) Cream cheese for the win! The batter tasted like cream cheese icing, I was licking the bowl out with a rubber spatula.
With ALABAMA temps plummeting, snow and ice and rain for the past few days, and now Covid in my house, we NEEDED something good and I found this recipe. How have I missed this for so long? Super yummy Mel! Thank you thank you! I used frozen blubs, and while they are a bit too large for ideal, they worked just fine. I think smaller ones would be better tho! Thank you!!!!
Loved this recipe! It turned out so delicious with a perfect soft texture.
I used 2.5 cups frozen blueberries to use all mine up, came out perfect. However some of the muffins were a little small, if I did it again with the same batch I probably would’ve made a few less to bulk up the rest.
I wanted to leave this here in case anyone had the same question as me. Didn’t have any muffin liners- I greased and floured my tins well, and then when they were done baking- to avoid having the muffins fall apart, would definitely recommend using a knife around the edges and then use a small rubber spatula to scoop each one out. That worked well for me so that they did not break apart at all. So it can be done! 🙂
Thanks for this awesome recipe Mel!!!
Can these be frozen?
Yes, they freeze well.
I tried these a few months ago and have been making them regularly since. Wowza. So good. Definitely a sweet muffin, and we all love them. I typically use frozen blueberries and they need a little more cook time.
Today I mixed it up with some fresh raspberries and white chocolate chips. The raspberries gave it a little tang. Definitely a winner. Thanks mel!
The fluffiest, tastiest blueberry muffins I’ve ever had! The cream cheese really makes a difference.
I used 30% less sugar and milk instead of buttermilk, as well as added a light streusel sugar topping. They came out so good and moist! My new favorite muffin recipe.
Try ‘em with peaches!
Just made these for the second time and made some slight adjustments – used frozen blueberries (because that’s all I have), filled the cups a little fuller (so made a few less muffins), and added a little brown sugar/cinnamon streusel on top. Also always make my own buttermilk with greek yogurt, for what it’s worth. OH MY GOODNESS. Amazing!!! They needed a little longer to bake, assuming because of the fuller cups and frozen blueberries, but MAN. I will for SURE be making these regularly. SO GOOD.
This recipe is so easy and delicious! This was a great one to teach my kids with.
Holy Moly ! These babies are AWESOME!! Just made them and they will for sure be in my breakfast rotation. Delicious!!!!
LOVE this recipe! I needed a recipe to use up some summer berries and stumbled across this one. I added lemon zest to the batter and topped the muffins with a lemon glaze. (I add a tiny pinch of salt and about 1 tsp of salted butter to my lemon glaze to cut the sugar shock.) The presentation and taste were such winners that I made more as neighbor gifts. Thank you!
These are quite possibly my new favorite muffins! I made them with a combination of dried blueberries, raspberries, and fresh blueberries (I didn’t have enough of any one of those so I added all 3). Amazing!
Oh my goodness!!!! These are AMAZING. I made them a couple days ago and I think I have eaten them for breakfast and lunch everyday since then. They are sooo moist and tender. I baked them for 16 minutes and they were perfect. I had intentions of bringing half of them to a neighbor… But oops, I have been eating them all myself. I guess I’m going to have to make more. Thank you for the great recipe! I ALWAYS know I can count on your stuff, it’s the only recipes I use now.. really! No need to look anywhere else! 🙂
I knew these would be good before I made them but WOW they are my new favorite muffin! My blueberry obsessed son said they made all of his blueberry dreams come true
Can you use regular whole milk? (I don’t want to buy milk that will only be used for one recipe then waisted)
Yes
This should convert to loaf pans well with longer baking time (of course), right? Sounds perfect for to go along with the quick bread assortment I’m making for our church’s coffee hour this weekend.
Technically, yes, although I haven’t tried it myself. Good luck if you experiment!
Wonderful! I got a giant tub of cream cheese at Costco so was looking for something to use it up. This recipe is a winner with my picky six-year-old. I bake muffins all the time and he usually doesn’t like what I make but he loves these! I’ll be making them again. I used fresh berries so next time I’ll try dried.
These muffins… are perfect in all of their ways. Officially BEST. MUFFINS. EVER!!!!!!!!
The muffins were super easy and turned out great!!!
Best muffins I have ever made. I have only been baking for a short time but these are really great.
These were quite tasty. I cooked the second tray about 3 minutes longer and the tops browned up the way I like them without drying out the inside. Delicious.
They don’t rise much, though, so I learned for the second tray to fill the paper muffin liners all the way up.
I just made this recipe and they turned out awesome, can’t wait for my family to try. I will make this again.
These muffins are so good and they are everything a muffin is supposed to be. This recipe has become one I make over and over again, because the entire family loves them. I have cut the sugar down to just one cup and I haven’t noticed a changed in taste or texture. I have also made them with a mixture of frozen blueberries, raspberries and blackberries and they turned out just as delicious.
I just made these and….. OH. MY. GOODNESS!!!!!!!! So light and fluffy!
These were awesome, I added a tsp almond extract and used frozen berries……sprinkled sugar on top…..Yum,
Could any other type of berry be used? I haven’t tried yet because I wasn’t sure if others would be good. I made them regularly, though and I loved them!
Yes, I think other berries could be used. Strawberries are a little too moist, but raspberries or blackberries might be yummy?
Thank you!
I made this recipe with blueberries the first time and blackberries the second time and both were amazing
These were a winner this morning for breakfast! Used frozen blueberries from our picking this summer. Reminded me of box muffins without all the extra stuff.
I’ve made these blueberry cream cheeze muffins countless times as my family like it very much. I’ve used both frozen and fresh blueberries and the end product always turn out good.
I didn’t care that it’s been well into the 90’s lately and suffocatingly humid–I really NEEDED something deliciously blueberry, regardless, and I love cream cheese in cake-type batters, so this recipe seemed like the ideal way to go. It was not merely ideal, however, it was blueberry perfection! Thanks, Mel!
I made these with partially frozen blueberries. These muffins were amazing! Thank you
I’ve got these in the oven. I had been looking for a cream cheese muffin recipe that had it in the batter, not as a filling. I also love buttermilk! I used partially rehydrated raisins instead. Thanks for the recipe!
These are awesome!! As soon as they come out of the oven and are still warm, I brush the tops with a little melted butter and sprinkle sparkling sugar on top. It makes them
so pretty and has a nice bit of crunch on top from the sugar.
I started making my own buttermilk from scratch. You just need a start from a good quality buttermilk (I used Winder Dairy) that is just cultured milk (no xantham gum or other yucky stuff preferably) and put about a cup of it in a Mason Jar. Fill it to the top with regular milk and stir it up or shake it up and let it sit out for 24-36 hours. When you use it, just refresh it with regular milk and let it sit out, then store it in the fridge. It is so great! Making these muffins now. I can’t wait!
Great tip, thank you!! Does it ever go bad? We go through buttermilk pretty regularly in my house and it’s frustrating tracking it down sometimes, as my husband REFUSES to ever let me use the powder as retirement.
Ooh, thank you!! Does the buttermilk ever go bad doing it that way?
Delicious! I have been experimenting with Blueberry Muffin recipes and these are my new favorite. I will definitely try other fruits with this recipe. I used frozen blueberries and I cooked it an additional 7 minutes and they were still under-baked (luckily I like them that way!)
I used frozen blueberries today and had to bake the muffins for almost 30 minutes! But they are delicious 🙂
These are delicious! I made them gluten-free by swapping out the flour for 1/2 gluten-free flour and 1/2 almond meal. I used dried blueberries with great success and they were devoured at the Australia Day BBQ I took them too. Thank you for the yummy recipe!
Faaaaabulous! I used frozen berries and they took 26 minutes to “spring back”. I was worried they’d be dry and overdone, but they were perfect! Such an interesting texture: I would call the crumb sticky, but not dense. Just decadent and divine. 🙂 I sprinkled half of the muffin batter with some lemon sugar (whenever I get meyer lemons I grate any zest I don’t use in the recipe into a cup of sugar and keep it covered in my pantry) and those ones rose better than the other half… Coincidence? Or was one side of my oven hotter than the other? Either way, I think I’ll do it again (and again) in the future. 😉 I also think I’ll try reducing the sugar to 1 cup like someone commented so I can feel less guilty about devouring three in one sitting.
Love the lemon sugar on top – yum! Interesting that those ones rose better.
I made these last night and who knew adding cream cheese to blueberry muffins could make them so much better, and this is coming from someone to loves blueberries! Even though I didn’t let them cook quite long enough (insert tears here) they were still delicious! I’ll be making them again soon and I’m also scheming how to add cream cheese to all of my baked goods.
I’ve made these with fresh blueberries several times since you posted the recipe. Today I used frozen berries. Shell out the extra cash for the fresh berries, people. There is no comparison.
These were very delicious and I made them with yummy frozen blueberries we picked this summer. My son and I liked them better than the chocolate cupcakes I also made. I think they do need to cook a little longer with the frozen berries. I also have 3 lbs. Of cream cheese from Costco so this was perfect! Thank you!
I still can’t wait to try these, but I’m really curious what other Thrive foods you like using. My friend is a consultant and I want to start ordering some things from her.
I have tons of their food…we eat the yogurt bites for snacks/in school lunches, I use the freeze-dried broccoli, cauliflower, butternut squash, peaches, apples…it’s a long, long list of things I love! We use a lot of the freeze-dried fruits for snacking, on our morning oatmeal, in smoothies.
These were delicious! I used frozen berries and had to cook them for 5 min longer and they were still under-baked (luckily I like them that way – haha).
Love your blog and recipes! We made this with 1 cup sugar & they were perfect!
I just made these with fresh berries and they are DELICIOUS. I’m going to have to put them in the freezer so I don’t eat them all myself. One of the best muffins I’ve ever made, and I’ve made A LOT of muffins.
Can you freeze these? And if so, how would you do that exactly? I have never frozen anything to eat later, but I am having a baby in a couple weeks and these look like amazing little treats. Also how would you heat them up after freezing them when you were ready to eat one?
Hi Kathryn – I bake them, let them cool and then place them in a freezer ziploc bag (gallon size), pressing out as much air as possible before sealing. We usually pop them in the microwave for 10-15 seconds after they’ve thawed.
Thanks so much!
We made these the day we saw them posted! Everyone loved them! They were all gone except one I hid for lunches (which is mostly why I made them). We’ll be making these again and again. My picky eaters don’t always like berries in muffins so I took about 1 cup of the cream mixture and blended it in a vitamix with the berries then swirled it in the rest of the batter. My husband especially loves blueberry muffins and was blown away by how good these were!
Loved these muffins! I made 18 of them and sprinkled the tops with my favorite sparkling sugar from KAF to add a little crunch. The bottoms of mine got a little browner than I would have liked. I don’t think they were over baked, but maybe? But they were delicious and it was my first time using freeze dried fruit. I hope they freeze well because I wrapped up each leftover one individually in foil/bag and tossed them in the freezer. Yum!!!
My husband begged me to make these this morning, but I was skeptical of essentially baking a few cups of cream cheese frosting into my kids’ breakfast. I made these and the healthy oatmeal applesauce ones for good measure, but I am happy to admit these are absolutely delicious. I already ate two. They would be perfect for a brunch or to serve at a baby shower or something.
Oh, yes! This will be tomorrow’s breakfast (or I could bake them right now and they’d be tonight’s dessert). Absolutely love your blog. I am looking forward to the croissants recipe. Hope the weather eases up for you.
Pam
I have 3 lbs of cream cheese (thank you, Costco) I am working through. I made pumpkin cream cheese muffins the day you posted this recipe. We just had to make these, but the blueberries were frozen and still worked great. We also made jalapeno poppers, cheesecake squares, and who knows what else. There are worse problems than too much cream cheese – especially after searching through your blog! Maybe I should go buy 3 more pounds!! Or not…
Here in Oklahoma, schools were canceled due to an expected ice storm. We woke up and found out my husband’s work was closing the office and since he typically works late and we haven’t seen a lot of him lately, making these muffins seemed appropriate. Plus, I had some cream cheese and buttermilk that needed to be used. Instead of muffin tins, I poured it into a round cake pan (super lazy). Also, I used frozen berries. SO GOOD! My husband even gave me an unsolicited complement on the “cake.” We served with bacon. The four of us are half the cake for breakfast. Anyway, thanks for the recipe, Mel!
Would dried blueberries work in this ? Is there a difference in freeze dried and just dried??
Yes, there is a difference between dried and freeze-dried (dried are chewy, like a raisin or other types of dried fruit, whereas freeze-dried are almost crunchy). I haven’t tried them with dried blueberries, but I think they would probably work!
I made them with dried blueberries and they worked well 🙂
So, Mel…funny story. (at least I’m trying to laugh…) I made your coconut homemade yogurt in my instant pot last night, and decided to use your method of straining. Well, after being at a funeral all day…I kind of forgot about it, and this evening I have yogurt cheese! It’s thick like cream cheese! Have you ever done this? Well, there was a gallon of milk to begin with, so now I have about 6 cups of yogurt cheese and a big bowl full of whey. The first thing I thought is that I should try using it in these muffins…so I hope I can scrape up enough blueberries and make these in the morning 🙂 Hope it works! If you have any other suggestions to use sweet coco-nutty yogurt cheese, I’m all ears!
Oh boy! Sounds like a kitchen experiment you didn’t actually mean to do! I actually think it would stand a good chance in these cookies too: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/egg-free-double-chocolate-cookies/
Yes, well, now I know! Ha! Awesome, thanks!
These turned out great with my homemade yogurt cheese! If you ever over-strain your yogurt…this is the recipe to try! Also, I used half whole wheat pastry flour and they were really good!
Yay! Happy to hear an update on that, Aubri!
Just took these out of the oven. AMAZING!!! The best blueberry muffins we have ever had and I only used one cup of sugar and they were plenty sweet. My kids loved them! Used half fresh blueberries and half freeze dried. They have a tangy deliciousness!
Thanks for another great recipe Mel 🙂
Looks good. I live here in Idaho too crazy winter, haven’t seen it like this sense we lived here, our area don’t give many snow days so we have only had 2 the kids school outside is flooded to go to building to building they come home soak.
These turned out absolutely AMAZING! I substituted the blueberries for frozen strawberries since we still had some from summer and sprinkled shredded coconut on top. I did have to adjust the bake time, but I just followed your rule till the “spring back.” Husbands only complaint is that I made to little of them!
My husband and I are serving a mission in the Philippines and your recipes-highly modified to use available ingredients and no oven, slow cooker, pressure cooker, etc.- are touches of home. I am very sympathetic to having pumped water. We have frequent brown outs and black outs and often get to bathe with a ladle and a bucket with water we store in a barrel. After our last typhoon we had no power for a week. Other areas in our mission are still without power and are expected to be so for at least three months. I do not like relying on an electric pump for water!
We don’t either, Ann! That feeling of being reliant on something like an electric pump for water isn’t comfortable (hopefully we’ll have a solution soon), but bless you for going so long without power and bathing with ladle-fuls of water. You are amazing!
I had all the ingredients, so I couldn’t resist making these! They turned out just right!! Really, the best blueberry muffins I have ever made. Thank you for another wonderful recipe. (I organized my multiple recipe binders. I have an entire binder filled with my favorite recipes from you. You are just the best!)
Also, in case this is helpful for anyone else: I had a 12 oz bag of frozen blueberries. 16 oz would have been ideal, but I used what I had. They must have been in the freezer longer than I realized because there was a whole layer of ice on the inside of the bag covering the blueberries. I didn’t want the ice chunks to water down the batter, so I rinsed the blueberries in cold water to break off the chunks before I mixed them into the batter. I thought it might make the berries mushy, but it didn’t. It also didn’t turn the batter purple, besides a swirl here and there. I was thrilled with how these turned out.
I have some dehydrated peaches that I might try in place of blueberries next. Just to mix things up. 🙂
Thanks for checking in with your “frozen berry experience,” Rachel! I bet the peach version will be delicious!
Made these today with fresh blueberries– worked great! This muffin base is so delicious and the texture is perfect!
Made these this morning. I used frozen blueberries and I noticed that they made my batter almost frosty. It required 5 more min of bake time, and still some of the muffins were a little soft centered.
However, the second half of the batter got left on the counter when I ran kid to school and some errands– they baked up in 20 min Perfectly. (My oven tends to need a little extra time on a regular basis.)
Take that as you will. They were tasty either way. 🙂
Thanks for weighing in on using frozen berries, Katrina!
I also used frozen blueberries. I think I baked mine about 7-8 minutes more than the recipe. But, the muffins are wonderful! I made a double batch and my boys ate them up. So soft and tender.
I’ve become a buttermilk fan in the last while as well. I used to use buttermilk substitutes since it can be pricey where I live. Then I found out I could make my own by using 1 cup of real buttermilk mixed with 3 cups of regular milk. Let it sit on the counter overnight & you’ve got a litre of buttermilk at a fraction of the price of store bought!
Absolutely love your blog! It really improved all my yeast bread!
Just made these muffins, and I used frozen wild blueberries (my fave for baking). One thing that sets these muffins apart from other recipes is how tender they are. A lot of recipes lead to tough, dry muffins, but these are the exact opposite. I would suspect the fat from the cream cheese is the secret. Next time, I think I’ll try the lemon zest!
I agree, frozen wild blueberries are the best! We used to have a huge patch outside our house in Minnesota. I miss that!
Mel, do you think freeze dried strawberries would work well in this recipe? Thanks for all you do!!
I went ahead and tried the freeze dried strawberries…and I may have added some mini chocolate chips as well Yum-o!!!
Oooh, delicious!
Speaking of giving up sugar… I remember several years ago (maybe you don’t!), when one of your sons said he was going to give up treats for year. I think Disney World was involved. Well, as you told it, he didn’t last long, but when you posted his original resolution, something in my head was like, “Wait, what?! That’s even possible??? No. Way!” But I guess it struck a chord because sometime in the following year I just woke up one day and decided to be done with sweeteners. Now it’s been almost 3 years? 4? I forget. Over time it has evolved to still having some sweeteners in dinner food (i.e. sloppy joes, chicken teriyaki), but no sweet breakfasts or treats except on rare holidays if I’m even in the mood. I don’t think it’s right for everyone, but it’s helped me with moodiness and migraines, among other things.
I just thought I’d share – funny how one small semi-unrelated comment in your blog full of delicious things to make and eat had some part in influencing me to give up sweets (and I still love to bake your treats for and with my kids!).
That’s amazing, Candace! Thank you for sharing that. I admire you for your dedication!
These muffins look like another winner!! I share your love for buttermilk! When my kiddos were small they called it “batter milk”…yep! It makes the best pancake or waffle batter. I loved your tip to freeze it in smaller portions. Now I always have it on hand. Thanks Mel!
BTW… we love our buddy heaters too! The hubs says he will have some in stock again tomorrow. (Stone Lumber)
Oh nice! Love local sources; I didn’t realize you guys carried them. Thanks, Melissa!
They look yummy!! For some reason I’m not getting your blog posts and if I do it’s several days after you have posted the recipe. I would love it if you shared your favorite recipes of 2016.
Jen, Try a refresh on your browser and also maybe clear your browser cache … because there is a best of 2016 post also.
Mel, I’ve noticed this if I don’t refresh. I clear my cache fairly often because of work but it often takes a refresh to see most recent comments and sometimes the post. I don’t notice this other blogs, but I frequent yours most so ??? I’ve checked both Edge and Chrome and see the same. Also (more good news for first thing … sorry!) – I just received the muffin email in the wee hours this morning. Same with “My Favorite Healthy Meals” … about 48 hours after the post. The newsletter got to me late evening also vs the previous which came late afternoon.
Hey Liz, thanks for the feedback about this. The delay on the feed readers/emails going out is related to my XML feed which has had some errors this last week or so. Those should be getting cleared up today so that the emails go out on time (and the posts show up in feed readers quickly instead of delayed or not at all). The other issue is bothersome, and it happens to me, too…where the most updated post doesn’t show up in multiple browsers unless I refresh several times (or sometimes have to clear my browser history). I’m sorry it’s happening to you, too, and I gather it’s probably happening to a lot of folks. My tech guys are working on a solution to me – it’s related to how my website caches content, and it seems like a few of those pieces aren’t playing nicely with each other. I hope it’s resolved soon! I will keep you posted.
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one. Your site is the only one I seem to be having issues with, and I clear my cache regularly. I have to refresh 4 or 5 times to see if anything new has posted, or to see recent comments. Which is a small inconvenience in order to see the latest on my #1 fav food blog. 🙂 Thanks, Mel, for all of the time and love you put into this — it truly is appreciated.
I promise it’s getting resolved! Sorry for the annoyance!
Hi Jen – are you reading my posts through a feed reader or from the emails that are sent out? If so, there has been some errors on my feed (technical-wise) and they should be cleared up today and everything (feed readers, emails) should be updated and sent out more speedily. Thanks for your patience!
So tonight I was making my breakfast bread for tomorrow-your Banana Cream cheese bread a great choice…. But I opened your blog to this and well, plans change 😀 I have fresh blueberries so I am using them and I had lemons too-so I threw some lemon zest in-Ohhhh yyyeeeaaahhh!
Hi Mel, How can we send you a recipe? I have one of the most amazing comfort food recipe ever! 🙂
Life-long California girl here so excuse my naïveté but what would you have done with the bath water if you had needed it? Love your blog!
Since Mel & her family have a well, they need a pump powered by electricity to furnish water to the sinks & toilets. No electricity=no fresh water to the faucets or toilets. The water in the bathtub could aid in flushing toilets.
Yep, exactly! If power were to go out, we could use the bathtub water to flush toilets, among other things. Thankfully that didn’t happen this time!
When we lost power for a week, thanks to a freak fall snowstorm, our tub water gave us a week’s worth of flushing power. Just know that if you do ever have to use it, you have to forcefully pour in about 8 cups to get the toilet to flush. 😉 (I’m a preparedness junkie too)
I made these this morning adding some lemon zest and a lemon glaze. The flavor was good but the muffin wouldn’t hold together- kinda fell apart. I let them cool a bit but some came apart while taking out of the pan. I think the fresh blueberries were too heavy for the batter. The berries were large. I will try this again with dehydrated berries. I think it will work better.
This literally made me start to salivate! Looks like I’m making muffins after the kids go to bed.
I love that Brian is “that guy,” Mel. The one who has all the gear, and clears everyone’s driveways, asking nothing in return. I love that guy!
Shoveled snow for two hours so I can justify eating some of these 🙂 Used strawberry cream cheese as that was what I had in my fridge. YuMmy! Thanks!
Haha, I like the way you think.
Hi Mel! I read your note about using frozen blueberries that also says not to thaw. Do you mind to explain why we shouldn’t thaw? I made muffins recently and read a suggestion to always thaw and rinse blueberries so they wouldn’t turn the muffins completely purple. I would much rather use them straight from frozen but why is that better? Thank you for the recipe! It looks wonderful 🙂
Hi Anna – I think there is truth to the thawing and rinsing to avoid color bleeding…but with frozen berries it’s REALLY hard to get them completely dry after rinsing, and they can definitely be on the mushy/overly soft end after thawing and rinsing. So my rule of thumb is to always throw them in frozen – only stir once or twice and then plop the batter in the tins.
Thanks a bunch Mel! I made these tonight and they were FANTASTIC! I barely stirred and the muffins came out beautiful with just a little swirl of purple. Best dang blueberry muffin I have ever tasted!! ❤️
Yay!
You’ve made me a kefir fan through and through. So will my kefir work in place of the buttermilk? 🙂
In general, yes. I’ve used my kefir in place of buttermilk quite a bit…baked goods tend to be just slightly finer in texture – lighter and fluffier – with the kefir rather than the buttermilk.
I was just about to comment, asking the same thing. Thanks to you, I now make milk kefir and we enjoy a smoothie almost every day. Sometimes if we miss making a smoothie or if my kefir happens to get really strong, I prefer to bake with it. However, I have made a few things where I wondered if kefir wasn’t a great sub – bread for instance just got too flaky and kind of fell apart. It was wonderfully soft, but didn’t make great sandwiches.
So glad you liked them and made them your own! Xoxo lemon marinn pie
I just love you. If you ever get tired of blogging about food (never!), you could always blog a day-in-the-life-of-Mel and we would love it, too. You are hilarious, and I wish we lived next door!
Ha! You are nice…my life is oddly unexciting; no one need worry that I’ll ever become a daily vlogger or anything like that (the horror!).
Do you think frozen blueberries would work? I have a gigantic bag of them from Costco that are begging to be put in some muffins.
Just kidding! I just read your note about blueberries. I’ll let you know how the frozen berries work!
I was going to say to go ahead and try them, but don’t defrost them first. Let me know how it turns out!
They do work. Sorry to butt in. But I used them and they held up fine
Family in Idaho and Northern Utah were dealing with the same emergency-preparedness-testing storm. 😉 Glad to hear you all got through it!
The muffins look delish!
I have so many freeze dried berries & never knew quite what to do with them, so now I do! And you gave me an idea for a present for my husband, so this is basically the best post ever! (We had 1.7 school days last week & are off again today, I’m kind of losing it!)
You and me both, Renee! 🙂
Yay they really are so good and fast!!
The muffins look great, but I am most excited about the Big Buddy heaters! I have been looking at various options for my garage … to “defrost” my snow thrower. These look perfect and easier for me than the big “bullet” heaters. Thanks, Mel!
Those heaters are fantastic, Liz. My parents gave us one a few years ago for Christmas – we are in the market for a few more because they are so versatile and useful.
My Buddy Heater arrived yesterday from Amazon – local hardware was out … imagine that … like trying to buy a fan or A/C 2 weeks into a heat wave! Anyway, have read the manual and will be firing it up later!
AND, I received the email for the barley chili about as you posted I believe, so that issue seems resolved.
Yay to both the buddy heater AND the speedy email! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
And today, I believe the cache issue resolved. Plus the newsletter arrived to me just after 2 MDT.
Yahoo! I got word from my awesome tech team that they had resolved the caching issue – here’s to hoping it stays that way! The real test will be Monday when I post a new recipe. Thanks, Liz!
Yum! I can’t wait to try these! Do you hydrate the freeze dried berries before mixing them in the batter, or do you just throw them in? Thanks!
Nope, just toss them in. 🙂
These muffins looks delicious! I love the taste and texture that cream cheese gives to baked goods.
I’ve tried these with frozen blueberries and the only adjustment I’ve made is baking them 4-6 minutes longer than the recipe calls for. And while I usually love muffins warm from the oven, these I like better room temperature/cold. #weirdbutdelicious