Perfect Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins (so moist & easy!)

By Amanda Paa – Updated May 28, 2023
5 from 5 votes
These are the best gluten-free blueberry muffins you'll ever eat. With a sugar crusted lid, soft and moist crumb, and jammy blueberries in each bite. Each muffin rises tall and lofty! They come together in 20 minutes with just a bowl and a whisk, and are perfect in every way. You can use fresh or frozen blueberries, both yield fabulous results. The original recipe comes from Sarah Kieffer's cookbook, 100 Morning Treats.
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gluten-free Blueberry muffins on wire cooling rack
gluten-free blueberry muffin on white surface

My Search for the Perfect Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffin is over.

And I think yours will be too.

Each one of these crunchy, sugar topped Blueberry Muffins is bursting with just the right amount of fruit, is sweet and moist, brightened with lemon zest. Their tall and lofty texture is everything you’ve dreamed of, with the crystals of sugar creating a lid for the soft, tender cake below. The blueberries turn jammy, and their tartness mellows. All around, the very best blueberry muffin I’ve ever eaten.

I take zero credit, as the incredibly talented Sarah Kieffer is the genius behind this recipe, which I’m excited to share a gluten-free version with you today in celebration of her new cookbook, 100 Morning Treats. I’ve loved Sarah’s work for over 10 years, and am humbled to call her a friend as well. Her 100 Cookies cookbook is my go-to for all things cookies and has a permanent spot in my kitchen, stained and tattered from so much use. And I have no doubt 100 Morning Treats will be the same! She worked on perfecting this blueberry muffin recipe for years, and after one bite, you’ll know she perfected it.

Sarah reminds me of a musical artist who puts out hit after hit. Her recipes are never a miss, the ones I can count on working in my kitchen and having unique, but familiar flavor combinations that inspire me to bake. Other recipes from the book that I’m excited to make include Creamy Jammy Coffee Cakes, Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Bread, Rhubarb Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins, and Apricot White Chocolate Overnight Scones.

How I Made This Recipe Gluten-Free

I only made a few changes to Sarah’s recipe in order to make these muffins gluten-free.

  • Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten-Free Flour never lets me down when using in place of regular all-purpose flour so that is the base I used. One of the thing that sets it apart from other gluten-free mixes is that a main ingredient is sweet rice flour, which is a champion in gluten-free baking. It helps bind the ingredients together, and is milled very fine so there is zero grittiness compared to something like rice flour. Sweet rice flour helps create a bouncy, light texture, and prevents baked goods from crumbling. It also has a neutral flavor, so doesn’t impart off-putting notes compared to something like chickpea or millet flour.
  • Because gluten-free grains naturally have a little sweetness to them, I decreased the sugar in the recipe by 15 grams. It was perfect at this amount. Don’t decrease by any more or they won’t have the same delicious flavor, or texture.
  • Sarah calls for buttermilk in the recipe, which I don’t usually have on hand. Lemon juice is also an ingredient, so to make a faux buttermilk I simply mixed whole milk and the lemon juice together.
  • The original recipe calls for sour cream, but I have used both sour cream and whole milk greek yogurt with the same success.
gluten-free blueberry muffins on a wire cooling rack

Main Ingredients for Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins:

  • Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Gluten-Free Flour: (It’s in the blue bag. I prefer this blend for gluten-free baking, it produces a texture nearly identical to all-purpose flour.)
  • Almond flour: This creates an excellent, tender crumb.
  • Whole milk
  • Blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used frozen with great results.)
  • Lemon zest and juice
  • Eggs
  • Greek yogurt or sour cream
  • Oil
  • Butter
  • Granulated sugar

The Secret to Tall and Fluffy Gluten-Free Muffins:

This recipe uses a few tricks to make the muffins tall and lofty like you’d expect from a bakery!

  1. Resting the batter for 30 minutes to an hour allows the flours to absorb some of the moisture, giving the structure needed to result in tall, domed muffins. I do this for my Gluten-Free Rhubarb Muffins and Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins as well.
  2. Rather than filling each muffin tin, leaving one open muffin cup in between allows the muffins to have enough room to expand and achieve beautiful round tops, along with better air circulation for even baking.
  3. Fill the muffin cups liberally. Most people are used to making cupcakes, where you only fill the cups 2/3 full. With muffins, you want to fill the cup all the way, mounding just slightly above the lip.
gluten-free blueberry muffin batter in clear bowl
gluten-free blueberry muffins in tin
gluten-free blueberry muffin batter in tin

Why I use weight measurements instead of cups for gluten-free baking

When it comes to baking, weighing your ingredients is much more accurate than using volume measurements like cups. If you’ve ever had a cake turn out too dense, too wet, or anything other than expected, it could because of how you measured your flour. Not everyone uses a measuring cup the same way, and not every flour weighs the same amount.

How to Store Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins:

I have found that storing muffins in the refrigerator in a sealed container or plastic bag lined with a paper towel helps capture extra moisture that may form on the top of the muffins, while ensuring the muffins stay fresh. When you’d like to eat one, reheat an individual muffin in the microwave for 15 seconds and they’ll be just as delicious as the day you made them.

Muffins also freeze extremely well. Line the muffins on a baking sheet and let them freeze individually, then put in a freezer safe bag. When you want to eat one, take out of freezer bag and reheat for 30-45 seconds in the microwave, or until the middle is warm.

gluten-free blueberry muffins in a pan
gluten-free blueberry muffin on white parchment paper

More Gluten-Free Muffin Recipes:

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gluten-free blueberry muffins on wire rack

Easy Moist Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins

These are the best gluten-free blueberry muffins you'll ever eat. They have a sugar crusted lid, soft and moist crumb, and jammy blueberries in each bite. They come together in 20 minutes and are just perfect in every way.
5 from 5 votes
Prep Time :20 minutes
Cook Time :20 minutes
Yield: 12 muffins
Author: Amanda Paa

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 284 grams Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-1 Flour in the blue bag (you can also use the same amount of regular all-purpose flour if you are not gluten-free)
  • 50 grams finely blanched almond flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon fine salt
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 185 grams granulated sugar
  • 5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup (75 grams) sunflower or canola oil
  • 1/4 cup (60 grams) whole milk greek yogurt (or sour cream)
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 7 1/2 ounces fresh or frozen blueberries
  • extra sugar for topping

Equipment

Instructions 

  • Stir together the milk and lemon juice. Set aside to curdle (this is mimicking buttermilk).
  • Thoroughly grease top of muffin pan and cavities, or use muffin liners.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest. Make a well in the center.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, milk, melted butter, oil, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla until completely combined. Pour into the well of the dry ingredients and gently mix until almost all combined. Fold in the blueberries until just incorporated, as to not overwork the batter.
  • Fill every other muffin cup (If you have a 12 cup muffin tin you will fill 6 of them. This helps the muffins to rise tall.) to the lip, full with batter. The batter should mound slightly. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar over each muffin (don't skip this!). Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (we wait to preheat so that batter can rest).
  • When oven is ready, bake until the muffins are light golden brown and toothpick comes out with a few crumbs, rotating the pan halfway through baking, 17 to 20 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then gently remove them to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter.

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May 10, 2023

COMMENT & RATE

I look forward to your comments, reviews and questions! If you love this recipe, please rate it when you leave a comment. Star ratings help people discover my recipes. Your support means a lot; thank you for being a part of the Heartbeet Kitchen community.

Amanda

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Recipe Rating




5 from 5 votes

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17 comments

  1. Susan Haebig

    What could I substitute for the Almond flour? Excited to try this recipe!

    • Amanda Paa

      Hello! You can use the same weight of gf all-purpose flour. The crumb will be a little less tender without the almond flour, but still delicious.

      • Susan Haebig

        Yea! Thank you!

  2. Susan

    5 stars
    Great recipe! This will be a do over for sure!

  3. Renee

    5 stars
    These muffins are fantastic!!! I don’t even look for store bought anymore. I keep them in my freezer always. One question any idea how many calories per muffin?

  4. jessica

    Could I make this without the milk/sub the milk for almond milk? or coconut milk?

    thanks! :)

    • Amanda Paa

      Oat milk would be my first choice as it has a fat content closer to dairy milk, but almond milk could work too. I think coconut milk might be too thick.

      • Jessica

        Thank you!!! Im.looking forward to making this!

  5. Robin

    5 stars
    I made these yesterday, they are delicious, love the hint of lemon, reminds me of a lemon blueberry scone a local coffee shop has! Though the tops didn’t brown like yours, they turned out grea!

    • Amanda Paa

      So glad you liked them, Robin! Your oven might run a little low, so you can broil for 1 minute at the end if you’re looking for more browning.

  6. Joanne Yong

    Can I substitute regular flour instead of gluten free. How about the oils? I can use olive oils or avocado oils on this recipe?

    • Amanda Paa

      yes, you can use all purpose flour, it works great in this recipe! i’d suggest using coconut oil if you don’t want to use sunflower. avocado or olive oil will be too strong of flavor.

  7. Bestie Baking Project

    5 stars
    This recipe is a winner! I bake gluten free often, and am fairly critical of a recipe in that it should be able to be as good as a baked good made with ap flour. This one was a HIT! Followed as written, shared with people both gf and not…a winner we will keep going back to!

    • Amanda Paa

      Yay! So glad you liked them. And your photo on instagram of your bake was beautiful!

  8. Gabriela

    5 stars
    Verry yummy! Moist and fluffy. I made it vegan – without eggs, added more plant milk. Had to bake it for 30ish minutes. Thank you for perfect muffins!

    • Amanda Paa

      Great to hear! And enjoy hearing that a vegan version worked.