Sourdough Blueberry Yogurt Muffins

My aim in crafting these Sourdough Blueberry Muffins was to achieve an exceptionally moist, bakery-quality treat utilizing sourdough discard and yogurt, packed with bursts of juicy blueberries!

These sourdough discard blueberry muffins have beautifully domed tops and stay fluffy and moist for days. What’s more, they offer an overnight option, allowing you to prepare the batter the night before and bake them fresh in the morning.

In the recipe guide below, you’ll find a wealth of tips, accompanied by photos and detailed instructions, ensuring you master these breakfast muffins. Plus, I’ve included suggestions for substitutions and variations to suit your preferences in the ingredients needed section.

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Uses a full pint of fresh blueberries.
• Can mix the batter the night before and bake in the morning.
• No stand mixer required.
• Have domed muffin tops like bakery-style muffins.
• They stay moist for days and store well.

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🔍 Tips for Making Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

• Use fresh blueberries for less bursting and streaking
  • Fresh blueberries don’t release as much liquid or burst as easily in the oven as frozen blueberries.
• Don’t overmix the batter
  • For the most tender muffins, mix the batter just until the flour is hydrated and no more. Just like making pancakes or other quick breads like Sourdough Banana Bread, overmixing leads to more gluten development, which can make tougher and chewier baked goods.
• For domed tops, rest the batter for at least an hour in the refrigerator and up to overnight.
• Bake at a high temperature for taller, fluffier muffins.
  • Bake the muffins at 400ºF (204ºC) so they rise tall in the oven.
• Dot the tops with blueberries
  • Reserve about ⅓ of the blueberries to dot the tops before baking. The blueberries burst and make the muffins look extra juicy and attractive.

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🛠 Tools Needed:

See below for my tool recommendations and substitutions.

• Baking scale
  • Ingredients like flour and sourdough starter weigh differently from person to person when measured by volume. For the best results, I recommend using a baking scale.
• Muffin Pan
  • I use a standard muffin pan to make 12 muffins. My favorite pan is this USA Muffin Pan because it’s non-stick, easy to clean, and bakes evenly.
  • If you want to make jumbo muffins, you can use a jumbo muffin pan to make about eight jumbo muffins!
• Whisk
  • For mixing the wet and dry ingredients.
• Spatula
  • To mix the muffin batter and fold in the blueberries.
• Large cookie or ice cream scoop (optional)
  • Helps portion the muffin batter easily in the muffin tins.

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🛒 Ingredients Needed:

See below for my ingredient recommendations, substitutions, and favorite blueberry muffin variations.

• All-purpose flour
  • AP flour has enough protein and gluten to help the muffins rise tall, but still remain light and tender.
  • To make healthy sourdough whole wheat blueberry muffins, substitute all or some of all-purpose flour with whole wheat, spelt, or einkorn flour. I’d start with about ½ cup of each of any of these flours (60 grams). The muffins will be denser, but have a nice chew and flavor!
• Baking powder
  • I don’t use baking soda in this recipe as it reacts immediately when mixed with acid (the yogurt and starter in this recipe).
  • Double-acting baking powder reacts when heated. That way, you can have the overnight option for the muffins and they’ll still rise tall the next morning.
• Salt
• Lemon zest (optional)
  • Lemon zest enhances the flavor of the blueberries. It makes them taste sweeter and adds a bit of acidity.
• Granulated sugar
  • Sprinkle the tops with more sugar for a slight crunch and sparkle.
• Light brown sugar
  • The small amount adds even more moisture and a deeper flavor.
• Vanilla extract
• Greek yogurt, plain whole-milk
  • Yogurt is key for the most tender and moist muffins. Whole milk yogurt has a higher fat content, which contributes more flavor and richness than low-fat yogurt (which is fine to use too if you don’t have whole milk yogurt).
  • Substitute with an equal amount of sour cream.
• Sourdough discard (or active starter)
  • Sourdough discard is unfed sourdough starter that you can use in sourdough discard recipes. When I feed my starter, I store the discard in the refrigerator so there’s no waste. Learn how to make sourdough starter from scratch and my top sourdough starter tips.
• Unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • For the best and richest flavor, I generally prefer using butter in my recipes over vegetable oils just like in my sourdough pumpkin bread recipe.
• Fresh blueberries
  • Like my sourdough strawberry scones and sourdough blueberry scones, I prefer using fresh blueberries over frozen berries because they don’t burst or streak the batter as much. Frozen berries can also add extra moisture to the batter, resulting in a purplish batter.
  • If your fresh berries are extremely ripe or juicy, you can freeze the pint an hour or two before mixing them into your batter.
  • To use frozen berries, quickly fold the frozen berries (no need to thaw) into the batter. There will be inevitable bleeding, but they’ll still taste great!

Blueberry Muffin Variations

• Blueberry Corn Muffins:
  • Substitute ½ cup (60 grams) of all-purpose flour with fine corn meal.
• Blueberry Almond Muffins:
  • Substitute ½ cup of AP flour with ½ cup (48 grams) of almond flour. Add ¼ teaspoon of almond extract and some slivered almonds to the batter. Then, top the muffins with slivered almonds.
• Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins:
  • Follow the recipe, but add a couple tablespoons of softened cream cheese mixed with powdered sugar into the middle of the muffins. To do so, scoop a couple TBS of batter into the muffin pans, add the cream cheese, and scoop the rest of the batter on top of the cream cheese.
• Vegan Sourdough Blueberry Muffins:
  • Substitute the yogurt with a plant-based yogurt, the eggs with about ½ cup of applesauce, and the melted butter with the same amount of melted plant-based butter or an equal amount of melted coconut oil.
• Gluten free Sourdough Blueberry Muffins:
  • To make gluten-free muffins, use a gluten-free sourdough starter and substitute the AP flour with cup for cup/measure for measure. You could add about ½ cup of almond flour or ½ cup of buckwheat flour (60 grams) as well.
• Add a crumb topping:
  • Make an easy streusel or crumb topping by mixing ½ cup (60 grams) of all-purpose flour, ½ tsp of cinnamon, ¼ cup of granulated sugar and ¼ cup of light brown sugar, and 4 TBS of melted butter. Sprinkle on top of the muffins and bake.

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🫐 How to Make Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

Follow this visual recipe guide as you make the sourdough muffins.

1. Mix the Dry Ingredients

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, and lemon zest.

Break apart any clumps of brown sugar and rub the lemon zest into the mixture with your hands.

2. Mix the Wet Ingredients

In another mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, yogurt, sourdough discard, and vanilla extract until thick and pale yellow.

Pour in the melted butter and whisk to combine.

3. Mix the Muffin Batter and Fold in the Blueberries

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and use a spatula to fold the batter until the batter is thick and only a few floury spots remain.

Dump in most of the fresh blueberries, leaving enough blueberries to the side to dot each muffin with about four or five blueberries.

Technically, this is about 48-60 blueberries (about ¾ cup) left to the side to dot on top but it doesn’t have to be exact unless you want to!

Gently fold in the berries until evenly distributed throughout the muffin batter.

4. Chill the Batter and Overnight Option

For taller bakery-style muffins with domed tops, cover the bowl of muffin batter and chill it for at least an hour and up to overnight.

As the batter rests, the flour will continue to hydrate and the flavors will meld even more.

Chilling muffin batter helps create taller, fluffier muffins with domed tops as it will release more steam when they bake in the hot oven.

5. Bake

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (204ºC).

Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with muffin liners. It’s optional, but to prevent sticking, I like to spray the insides of the muffin liners with non-stick baking spray or grease them slightly with oil or butter. The liners will peel easier from the muffins this way.

Fill the muffin cups almost to the brim with batter. Then, dot the tops of the muffins with four or five blueberries and sprinkle a generous amount of granulated sugar on top for a crunchy, sparkly topping.

Bake for 23-25 minutes until the tops of the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. If using frozen berries, they may need an extra minute or two.

Cool completely on a wire rack.

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How to Store

One of the beauties of these blueberry yogurt muffins is how well they keep! The yogurt and sourdough discard help keep them fresh and moist for many days.

To store, keep them in an airtight container or ziplock bag for 4-5 days. If they stale some, you can reheat them quickly in a toaster oven or microwave.

One of my favorite ways to serve slightly stale muffins is to slice them in half and toast the cut sides down with a pat of butter in a skillet until toasty!

To freeze, store the cooled muffins in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw them overnight in the refrigerator and reheat in the oven or microwave.

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❓ FAQs:

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Other Sourdough Breakfast Recipes You May Enjoy:

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