Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins

A simple recipe for sour cream blueberry muffins that are tender, rich, slightly sweet & bursting with fresh blueberries. Extra sour cream & oil helps to keep the muffins moist, while cinnamon, vanilla & lemon zest adds a wonderful fragrance & flavor. You'll have a hard time waiting for these to cool before devouring several! (Gluten-Free Option)

I've been on a baking frenzy the past several days, recipe testing regular and gluten-free versions of these sour cream blueberry muffins (adapted from my peaches & cream muffins), along with some yummy strawberry banana bread muffins and double chocolate banana muffins (heavenly). 

I made at least 6-7 batches of the blueberry muffins, tweaking each version a little to get the ratio of ingredients just right. More oil here, more vanilla extract there, add a bit of cinnamon powder and lemon zest to bump up the flavors. 

One tiny change requires a whole fresh batch. If there's one thing you need for baking, it's patience.

One Thing That Will Improve Your Muffins & Baked Goods

Digital scales also help A LOT. I can't stress that enough. I bought a little inexpensive digital scale last year for making pour-over coffee and decided to use it this time to measure a few ingredients. 

Turns out it makes a BIG difference because I measured my flour the same exact way for two different batches of muffins (spooned into a measuring cup until overly full then leveled the top with a knife) and got different weights. What??!

I also realized my gluten-free flour blend (the first brand I used) was heavier than my all-purpose flour. Which explained why it turned out dry the first round. It needed more oil/fat to keep the muffin moist.

If you're the type of cook/baker who likes to measure by hand or switch up ingredients on the fly (that's pretty much all of us, right?) puh-lease get yourself a cheap digital scale. Something that goes up to 11 lbs and measures in ounces and grams. Nothing fancy required. It helps keep the ratios/balance of ingredients consistent without a lot of work on your part.

Testing a Gluten-Free Version of These Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins

What also helps is knowing your ingredients. I'm pretty new to the gluten-free baking scene. You might be the same. I'm not gluten-free myself (big fan of einkorn wheat flour here which has less gluten), but I have friends and readers who ARE and so I'm recipe testing versions for them. I mean, everybody deserves a moist blueberry muffin every once in a while, right?

So, in order to save myself $$$ and time not wasting pricey GF ingredients, I reached out to some of my gluten-free food blogger friends to ask for help on flours.

My friend Emily of Recipes to Nourish recommended two specific brands to me (this gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour & this gluten-free perfect flour blend) and also emphasized how important liquid and FAT is to gluten-free baking.

The same goes for regular wheat flour. It's what keeps everything moist.

Sour Cream & Avocado Oil (a.k.a. Fat) Are Key To Keeping These Muffins Moist

PSA: If you take a peek at the ingredients list for this muffin recipe and start feeling guilty at the amount of cooking oil called for...STOP.

The food & health industry vilified fats - specifically saturated fats - for YEARS (remember the 90s & 2000's?!) and sold us overly processed foods stripped of their natural fats, then filled those "foods" with tons of sugar and additives to make them taste better.

All based on flimsy studies (most likely paid for by the sugar industry). They're just now, in the past few years, admitting they were wrong. :/ 

Real Talk: Eating low fat & high sugar in adolescence is one of my biggest regrets. (I talk about this on my About Me page). They gave me daily energy crashes & swings. Years of sleep troubles and weight issues all because my blood sugar (& probably adrenals, too) was going out of whack. 

If only I knew back then that healthy fats (like avocado oil, grass-fed butter & coconut oil) help your brain and hormones, make you feel satiated, and make food taste better. 

Ahem. Eat the fat and feel good about. That's all I'm saying!

Also...I made a few batches of these blueberry sour cream muffins with 1/2 cup of avocado oil and thought I was satisfied until I used 2/3 cup of oil in the gluten-free version. 

Holy yum! They were SO buttery & moist on the inside. Hands down the best gluten-free muffin I've ever had texture-wise. One of my beau's co-workers agreed (he & his lady were the lucky recipients of several test batches). 

So, when I made the next batch using regular flour, I bumped up the oil to 2/3 cup and they were just as good!

NOTE: If you break open the muffins within 2-3 minutes of pulling them out of the oven, they'll feel a bit oily on the inside, but trust me...let them sit for 15-20 minutes and the oil will get absorbed. That's a good thing - especially if you plan on keeping the muffins around for a few days on the counter so they stay moist longer.  

Flours & Sugars For Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins 

FLOURS

I also did a couple of batches with all-purpose einkorn wheat flour (my favorite flour for pretty much all recipes), unbleached all-purpose wheat flour, coconut sugar (this is my favorite brand), and organic cane sugar.

I was trying to use ingredients I normally like and what I thought y'all would reach for if you wanted to make this recipe right MEOW.

All-purpose (AP) einkorn wheat is very similar to unbleached all-purpose flour, except it's the teensiest bit thirstier (i.e. it absorbs a bit more liquid) but I usually keep the wet to dry ratios the same when I use it instead of regular AP flour.

However, if you decide to use something like 100% whole wheat flour (which I haven't recipe tested yet) know that you'll likely need to bump up the liquid OR reduce the amount of flour. Whole wheat is for sure denser than AP flour. Maybe try reducing the amount of flour by 1/4 cup and go from there.

SUGARS + SWEETENERS

As you look through these photos, you'll notice some of the muffins are a darker color while some are lighter. That's because I used two different types of sugars.

The darker ones had coconut sugar (which is almost like brown sugar but is lower on the glycemic scale) inside the batter and sprinkled on top. The paler muffins used organic cane sugar in the batter and turbinado on top (coarse raw sugar that's also lighter in color).

What you use is totally up to you! The cane sugar version is definitely prettier since you can see the lemon zest pop through, but I like the light molasses-y flavor that coconut sugar imparts.

You could also use brown sugar instead of coconut sugar OR a mix of 1/2 brown sugar (or coconut sugar) and 1/2 cane sugar. Lots of options!

NOTE: I use maple syrup and raw honey A LOT for sweetening recipes, but I haven't recipe tested these muffins with them yet. If you want to try either of those ingredients, swap them 1 to 1 for any of the granular sweeteners (or even use a bit less), but keep in mind that they are liquid ingredients so this may affect how much the muffins rise.  

Sooooo, a bazillion dirty dishes and almost 100 muffins later, I'm super proud of where I ended up and can't wait for you to try them.

More Blueberry Recipes To Try:

• Watermelon, Blueberry, Cucumber & Jicama Salad with Coconut Lime Dressing
• Healthy Pink Lemonade with Blueberries & Honey
• How to Make Blueberry Infused Vodka

sour cream muffins, moist, lemon, how to make blueberry muffins

baked goods

American

Yield: 12 muffins

Author: Elaina Newton - The Rising Spoon

Blueberry Muffins with Sour Cream

prep time: 10 Mcook time: 17 Mtotal time: 27 M

A simple recipe for sour cream blueberry muffins that are tender, rich, slightly sweet & bursting with fresh blueberries. Extra sour cream & oil helps to keep the muffins moist, while cinnamon, vanilla & lemon zest adds a wonderful fragrance & flavor. You'll have a hard time waiting for these to cool before devouring several!

ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 2/3 cup of avocado oil
• 1 cup of coconut sugar, organic cane sugar, or homemade vanilla-infused sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (or homemade vanilla extract) 
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 cups (9.59 oz) of all-purpose einkorn wheat flour, unbleached all-purpose flour OR this gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour
• 1 teaspoon of aluminum-free baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder (I use Ceylon cinnamon powder a.k.a. "true" cinnamon)
• 1 cup (5-ish ounces) of fresh organic blueberries 

Topping (Optional)

• 1/3 cup of fresh organic blueberries
• 1 heaping teaspoon of lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons of sugar (coarse or regular - like turbinado, vanilla-infused sugar, coconut sugar, maple sugar, etc.)

instructions:

How to cook Blueberry Muffins with Sour Cream

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard 12-count muffin tin with parchment paper liners or grease the tin with cooking spray or butter (I use liners + spray for good measure).
2. In a medium bowl, add eggs and sour cream. Stir until the sour cream is smooth. Add the avocado oil, sugar, vanilla extract, 3 tablespoons of lemon zest (reserve any extra for the tops if desired) & lemon juice, then stir until everything's mixed together. 
3. In a separate large bowl, measure in the flour (regular or gluten-free), baking powder, baking soda,  salt, and cinnamon powder. Stir everything lightly with a fork then pour in the 1 cup of blueberries. Toss lightly in the flour just until they're coated (this helps them not sink as much in the batter). 
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and gently fold the two together just until everything is mixed together and there are no floury clumps left clinging to the blueberries. Overworking the batter will make the muffins dense.
5. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins until they're all full and/or the batter is used up (depending on the size of your tin).
6. Optional: Mix an additional heaping teaspoon of lemon zest with two teaspoons of sugar and sprinkle evenly over the tops of the muffins, followed by 2-3 more blueberries pressed on top (about 1/3 cup total).
7. Bake for 15-18 minutes (all my batches took 17 minutes), or until a toothpick stuck into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. 
8. Let the muffins cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack or plate to cool completely. Once cool, store on the counter or in the fridge in an airtight container for a few days. For the freshest flavor, freeze them immediately and thaw each one before eating (they keep 1-2 months in the freezer). 

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