Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins

At a glance

What stands out: Chock full of blueberries and a tangy cream cheese filling, from-scratch blueberry cream cheese muffins are a delightful addition to your breakfast or brunch. Once you begin making from-scratch muffins, you’ll never go back to bakery muffins. They are straightforward to mix and taste so much better.

How long it takes: 33 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: muffin tins, mixing bowls
Servings: 12 muffins

These blueberry muffins are memorable. They will definitely be added to the regular rotation here in our household. They have all the great taste of blueberry pancakes, but you don’t need a fork to eat these gems.

From-scratch Blueberry Muffins

A hidden surprise. There is a little pearl of cream cheese filling waiting for you in the middle of each muffin. It’s the icing on the cake, er, rather the filling in the cake. The cream cheese filling is flavorful and also makes the muffins slightly more filling. Cream cheese adds a bit of lighter protein.

Hearty but still tender and fluffy. These muffins are made with two types of flour: all-purpose white flour and whole wheat flour. Whole wheat makes a grainier muffin that is more nutritious but can be a little heavy and dense. Mixing it with all-purpose flour lightens the muffins up, making them fluffier and more like a rich buttermilk pancake. If you love whole grain products, make the muffins with 100% whole wheat flour, or try these blueberry bran muffins with whole wheat flour and wheat bran.

What goes in

• Whole Wheat Flour and All-Purpose Flour: If you prefer, just use one or the other. We often use a combination of both flours when we bake to add a bit more heartiness to the flavor and texture. Try our whole wheat banana bread and whole wheat chocolate chip cookies.
• Sugar: Granulated white sugar is added to the batter and to the filling.
• Baking Powder, Salt: Normal muffin ingredients, the baking powder causes the muffins to rise and salt keeps them from tasting flat.
• Eggs: Just a couple of treasures from the hen keeps the muffins moist and flavorful.
• Buttermilk: Buttermilk has a nice tangy flavor that goes well in the muffins. Think of buttermilk pancakes. Lowfat buttermilk is fine.
• Canola or Vegetable Oil: Any mild tasting oil you happen to have is fine. Using oil instead of butter helps keep your muffins soft and fluffy.
• Blueberries (Fresh or Frozen): Both fresh blueberries and frozen blueberries work well. Don’t thaw frozen blueberries because the juice tends to make the muffin batter turn purple.
• Cream Cheese: Use either full fat or reduced fat cream cheese. Make sure it is at room temperature so it’s soft enough to blend.
• Vanilla: Pure vanilla extract is added to both the batter and the filling.

How it comes together

Get ready. Turn your oven on to preheat and prepare the muffin tins. This recipe makes 12 muffins. You can either spray the tins lightly with nonstick spray, grease them with shortening, or use paper mufffin liners.

Make the cream cheese filling. It’s important to have the filling ready before you make the muffin batter. Once you mix the batter, you want to get the muffins in the oven as soon as you can because the baking powder instantly reacts with the liquid and starts producing those little bubbles which make the muffins rise.

Blend the softened cream cheese with a fourth cup sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. The cream cheese mixture should be smooth and creamy. If it seems a bit lumpy, beat it with your electric mixer a minute.

Mix wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the two eggs. Add the oil, buttermilk, and vanilla extract, and then stir in the sugar.

Add dry ingredients. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt, lightly blending the dry ingredients together before stirring them into the egg mixture.

Don’t over mix the batter. It may be a little lumpy but that’s okay.

Fold in blueberries. Use a gentle hand, so you don’t smoosh the berries.

Fill muffin cups. Spoon batter into each muffin cup (about ⅓ full). Next, drop a spoonful of the filling in the center of each muffin; then fill the muffin cups up with remaining batter.

Bake. Bake the muffins until they are golden brown and firm to the touch. Let muffins cool in the tins for 5 to 10 minutes before removing them. Cool on a wire rack until ready to serve.

Helpful Tips

Don’t overmix the muffin batter. Very gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture just until combined. If you stir the batter too much, the baking powder will bubble up too quickly, before the muffins are baked rather than during the baking process, which will result in flat or hard muffins.

Keep the blueberries from sinking. Because blueberries are heavy, they tend to sink. However, we did notice that the cream cheese filling in this recipe seems to prevent the blueberries from sinking! Some cooks recommend tossing the blueberries with a bit of flour before adding them to the batter but we haven’t found that technique to be particularly helpful. If you’re concerned, try filling the tins one third full with plain batter, then mixing the blueberries into the remaining batter.

Ways to change it

• Substitute a different berry. Chopped strawberries, blackberries or raspberries, or cherries are good choices.
• Lemon cream cheese filled muffins. For a straightforward variation, fill the muffins with a lemon cream cheese filling. The instructions are on the recipe card below.
• Muffins with no filling. If you don’t care for cream cheese, or don’t want to hassle with a filling, simply omit the filling and bake as directed.
• Add a streusel. Like muffins with crumb topping? For a good streusel recipe, use the same streusel featured in these whole wheat banana muffins with streusel.
• Not a fan of berries? Try carrot cake muffins with cream cheese filling.

Keeping leftovers

Blueberry cream cheese muffins can be stored at room temperature for a day but refrigerate for longer storage. They can be frozen for up to three months. Thaw them before serving.

• Yield: 12
• Prep: 15 minutes
• Cook: 18 minutes
• Total: 33 minutes

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Filling

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Muffin Batter

• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (can use all-purpose flour instead)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (unthawed)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a small bowl, blend together softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Stir in sugar.
4. Add whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir lightly just to mix dry ingredients and then stir the dry ingredients into the egg mixture just until combined. Do not overmix.
5. Gently fold in blueberries.
6. Fill muffin tins about ⅓ full with muffin batter. Using a small spoon, drop a small amount (rounded tablespoon) of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin cup on top of the batter. Top each muffin with remaining muffin batter.
7. Bake for 18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes in muffin tins before removing.

Notes

Yield: The number of muffins may vary depending on the size of your muffin tins (or if you happen to throw in a few extra blueberries!).

Storage: Muffins can be kept at room temperature for a day but for longer storage, store in an airtight container in the fridge. Muffins can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Lemon cream cheese filling: Substitute 1 teaspoon lemon juice for the vanilla extract and stir in 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest.