These streusel-topped blueberry cream cheese muffins are super soft, packed with plump juicy berries, and are filled with a cream cheese surprise. Ready in under 30 minutes! My recipe includes a how-to video!
The Best Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins
Blueberry cream cheese muffins aren’t your average blueberry muffins, though they may seem that way from the outside.
Sure they’re soft, fluffy and full of fat juicy berries, but they have a rich and decadent cheesecake-esque surprise.
This recipe is one of the oldest on the blog and was one of my first popular recipes (for obvious reason). I published it 7 years ago, way back when Zach and I were in the midst of planning our wedding, and it was in dire need of a refresh. Some small (very small) tweaks were in order, a photo re-shoot was desperately needed, and a how-to video has been added to the recipe card. Let’s get to it!
What You Need
Let’s go over just a few of the ingredients:
- Oil & Butter. If you’ve made my vanilla cake or chocolate chip muffins, you already know why I like to use a blend of oil and butter in many of my recipes. The butter adds flavor, oil adds moisture. You get the best of both worlds by using both. For the oil, I use canola but any neutral cooking oil (like vegetable oil) would be fine.
- Eggs. You’ll use one whole egg and one egg white. The extra white helps to make the muffins fluffier and adds a bit of lift to them.
- Buttermilk. This helps to make the muffins tender, moist, soft, and adds a subtle tangy flavor that plays nicely with the blueberries. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make your own buttermilk substitute (see the recipe card and follow the link in the ingredients). You may notice there’s no baking soda in this recipe and typically baking soda and buttermilk are used together. It’s not an accident that I left it out of this recipe and it’s not needed.
- Corn Starch. One of my favorite “secret” ingredients in so many baked goods. This helps to make the muffins soft and tender.
- Blueberries. I use fresh blueberries, but frozen would work. You do not need to thaw, but keep in mind frozen blueberries often leave purple streaks through your muffin batter. This isn’t a problem for taste, just something to be aware of!
- Cream Cheese. This is for the cheesecake filling. Use full-fat/brick-style cream cheese for best results.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
Making The Muffins & Filling
- Whisk together wet ingredients in a large bowl. I always start by whisking the oil and melted butter, first, just in case the butter is hot. Mixing it with the room temperature oil will help cool it down, bring things to a uniform temperature, and make sure none of your other ingredients are affected by the heat.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the dry ingredients and then add them to the wet ingredients. Gently fold the ingredients together with a spatula (you never want to over-mix muffins or they’ll be dense, so take care). Once you have the ingredients mostly (but not completely) combined….
- Add the blueberries and stir until just combined. Be careful not to overdo it!
- Once your muffin batter is prepared, make your cream cheese filling by stirring together softened cream cheese, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract.
You’re almost done, but these muffins wouldn’t be complete without a light sprinkling of crumbly, buttery streusel.
How to Make Streusel
I have a super simple way of making streusel and will be sharing this in its own post soon. While many recipes require you to use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into your mixture, I start with melted butter. It’s so much simpler and yields a more tasty topping!
To make it:
- Stir flour, sugar and salt together.
- Drizzle melted butter over top and toss everything together with a fork. Don’t stir with a spoon or over-stir or the mixture could become pasty, you want to just toss the butter into the mixture so all of the dry ingredients are moistened and clumpy (clumpy streusel is the best!).
Assembling The Muffins
- Fill 15 muffin cups ⅔ of the way full with the muffin batter.
- Use a spoon the make a crater in the center of each muffin and fill this with 2 teaspoons of cream cheese mixture.
- Top with a heaping spoonful of batter and use a knife to swirl together the cream cheese and muffin batter with a knife. You may not completely cover the cream cheese; that’s OK!
- Top each muffin with a sprinkling of streusel and then bake!
Frequently Asked Questions
This most likely is a result of the muffin batter being over-mixed. While the ingredients should be completely combined, they should be just combined and you should always mix by hand.
Over-baking is another culprit, make sure your oven isn’t running hot!
These muffins are filled with a rich, heavy cream cheese filling. This will naturally weigh down the airy muffins, so while they will appear puffy when they first come out of the oven they will naturally deflate and sink as they cool. Totally normal (think of black bottom cupcakes, same idea!)
However, they shouldn’t be completely deflated or sunken. If they are, they may be under-baked or your baking powder could be old or expired.
This often happens if you leave your muffins in the muffin tins for too long after they’ve baked. After the muffins have baked and cooled in the tin for 5-10 minutes, remove them from the muffin tin to a cooling rack. The easiest way to do this is to use a knife to gently pry them out of the tin (careful, they’ll still be hot!).
More Recipes You Might Like
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Make sure to check out the how-to VIDEO in the recipe card!
Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- ¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil you may substitute canola oil or other neutral cooking oil
- 4 Tablespoons (57 g) unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg white room temperature preferred
- ½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cup (220 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups (210 g) blueberries (see note)
Filling
- 8 oz (226 g) cream cheese (brick) softened
- ⅓ cup (67 g) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Streusel Topping
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (50 g) brown sugar firmly packed
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons butter (melted but not too hot)
Recommended Equipment
- Paper Muffin Liners
Instructions
Muffins
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and line a muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, stir together oil and butter.¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil, 4 Tablespoons (57 g) unsalted butter
- Add sugar, egg, and egg white and whisk very well until combined.1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar, 1 large egg + 1 large egg white
- Add buttermilk and vanilla extract and whisk to combine.½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized, bowl whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.1 ¾ cup (220 g) all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt
- Add all of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and use a spatula to gently fold ingredients together until mostly combined.
- Add blueberries and stir until batter is just combined and blueberries are well incorporated. Set aside while you prepare the filling and topping.1 ½ cups (210 g) blueberries
Filling
- Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract and stir until smooth and well-combined. Set aside.8 oz (226 g) cream cheese (brick), ⅓ cup (67 g) granulated sugar, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Streusel
- Whisk together flour, brown sugar, and salt.¼ cup all-purpose flour, ¼ cup (50 g) brown sugar, ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Drizzle in melted butter and use a fork to toss ingredients together until combined, no flour/sugar remains unmoistened by the butter, and mixture is clumpy. Don’t over-mix or the streusel will become like a paste, you want it to be clumpy.2 Tablespoons butter
Assembly
- Divide batter into 15 muffin cups, filling each liner ⅔ of the way full.
- Use a spoon to make a crater in the center of each muffin and portion about 2 teaspoons of your cream cheese mixture in the center.
- Top with a heaping spoonful of remaining muffin batter and use a knife to gently swirl together the cream cheese mixture and muffin batter.
- Sprinkle muffins evenly with streusel.
- Transfer to 375F (190C) oven and bake for 25 minutes or muffins are baked through.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so before digging in (the cream cheese filling will be very hot!). Muffins will puff up in the oven, but due to the cream cheese filling they will deflate and maybe even cave in a bit (like a black bottom) as they cool. This is normal!
Notes
Blueberries
You can use frozen (do not thaw) blueberries, but often they leave purple streaks through your batter. Nothing wrong with that, just be aware.Baking In Two Muffin Tins
This recipe makes 15 muffins. Since most muffins tin hold enough batter for only 12 muffins, you can either discard the excess or bake the remaining 3 muffins after the first 12 bake. The second batch will take less time, start checking at 17 minutes. I don’t recommend over-filling the muffin liners, as the batter tends to spread out and flatten on the top, which makes for unattractive muffins.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 48 hours or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
This recipe was originally published July 21st 2014. I’ve updated the post to slightly alter and improve the recipe (it was already pretty good as is so only small changes!) and have updated the photos and added a step-by-step video as well.
Abby
Just made these muffins, and for someone who has many *many* allergies to work around, I was absolutely SHOCKED at how good they were. 😳 I make my own gluten free flour blend (superfine rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, guar gum), use a vegan egg substitute (JUST EGGS), soy-free Earth Balance in place of butter, and of course for the main ingredient (cream cheese) I subbed an oat-based cream cheese (found it at Whole Foods and decided to make these with it). I ended up making just 12 to make sure the muffins were nice and big (cream cheese filling overflowed a bit, so next time will use foil below), but once they had cooled for 20-30 mins, it took a whole lot of self control to not just pound 6 of them. Best muffin I’ve ever had. Thank you Sam! Will freeze to try and make them last as long as possible.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wow! We’re so happy to hear they turned out just as tasty with all those modifications. Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review, Abby 🩷
Joanne Henderson
These can not be frozen I assume since you didn’t write method? Thanks for this recipe, all things a delicious muffin should be, the best.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Freezing should work just fine here! You can wrap them in plastic and store in a freezer safe container. We’d recommend enjoying within a few months 😊
Joanne Henderson
Awesome, my neighbours said best muffins ever. Thanks
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy everyone enjoyed them, Joanne! Thanks for using our recipe 😊
Libby
Could you substitute fresh cherries that have been macerated in Amaretto for the blueberries without changing anything else in the recipe?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Libby! Just make sure to drain the cherries well so you don’t introduce too much liquid. They should work fine otherwise 😊
Debi
This lloks & sounds yummy. What if I used mini-muffin tin to make bite size ones? You think that would work? Cooking time would be less too.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Debi! It could work, but it will be a little challenging with adding the filling.
Annette
This is a fantastic recipe! I used gluten free flour and you couldn’t tell at all. Absolutely yummy!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know how that substitution worked for you, Annette! Enjoy ☺️
alice
sooooo lecker!!
Andrea
This sounds so good, can’t wait to make it! What would the baking time and temp be if I baked it in a sheet pan instead?
Sam
Hi Andrea! I haven’t tried baking it in a sheet pan. I would be afraid it might sink a bit. If you do try it, I would love to know how it goes. 🙂
CS
I was thinking the same thing, 🙂
Ruth
Amazing muffins so delicious. Only thing was I had too much cream cheese filling and didn’t end up using it all. Making them again today and I’ll double the muffin recipe keep everything else the same
Laura
WOW! Our family’s five star rating is based on two “healthified” changes we made. My daughter who loves blueberries made these, but I asked her to cut the 1 c. of sugar down to 1/2 c. and substitute 3/4 c. of the white flour, for white wheat. These changes worked GREAT for us. This is an absolutely delicious recipe, now a little less guilt inducing ;). Even the non-cream cheese lover loved these! Thank you so much, Sam. Our family loves your recipes!
Laura
We also used full fat, plain yogurt in place of the buttermilk, as we never have that on hand. It too, made for a perfect substitution. We will be making these many more times!
Hanna
These are too delicious, I’m totally addicted! They have the creamiest, most fluffy texture! I slightly reduced the sugar (like 20 g less, with the cream 10 g less) and they turned out perfect and sweet enough! I also took 300 g blueberries just bc the package was as big and I have to say I enjoy the ones with less blueberries more, since the perfect cheesecreme comes out better in these ones, so the amount in the recipe would be perfekt I think. (I made 16 muffins out of it, with german muffin tins it was perfect and filled to the very top.)
Tank you so much for the great recipe!! x3 They will definitely have a comeback on my coffeetable!
Annie
These are amazing. I have made many blueberry muffins and these by far are the best. I might cut some of the sugar out next time but other than that..OMG..light and fluffy and delicious.
Deborah kesler
Can these muffins be frozen?
Sam
Hi Deborah! I haven’t personally tried freezing them, but I think you probably could. 🙂
Malina Brown
I made these muffins and let me tell you, they were so incredibly delicious I had a hard time not eating them all!!! Only thing i did different was use a large 6 muffin tin instead of the regular sized ones. I think, no I know, these were hands down the BEST MUFFINS I RVER HAD IN MY LIFE!!!! I have watched your videos for a while and tried a few cake recipes that didn’t turn out very well at all but i think it was my errors, but let me tell you these muffins were undescribably good!!! Love watching your videos Sam you rock, oh yeah and your choc chip cookie recepie… chef’s kiss 💋!!!! ❤️❤️❤️thanks for the yummy goodies!!!
Courtney Wilson
Did you bake for the same time with the jumbo muffin tin?
MC
This is an amazing recipe. I will definitely make it again
No Painter
These are really tasty and special. They are extra work and that’s why only 4 stars. I used 2 whole eggs and did not melt the butter for the crumb topping. I used the same amount but cubed it and
cut it in with my fingers. Melted butter just doesn’t behave for me.