My kids love blueberry muffins, and there is always a fight when we get them from a grocery-store bakery, Costco or anywhere else. When you look at the ingredient list, and it is so long and full of commercial ingredients that you start to wonder: when did a simple blueberry muffin end up needing so much help?

I tried countless recipes over the years in search of a proper old-fashioned blueberry muffin until I came across this one. I have made it again and again, tinkering with the baking times and eventually perfecting that proper bakery-style muffin dome.

Nothing overly complicated. No sour cream, yoghurt, crumble topping or handful of extra ingredients. Just a buttery muffin with a soft crumb, plenty of blueberries and one of those crackly sugar tops that makes you pull off the crown before eating the rest.

The starting point was the famous Jordan Marsh blueberry muffin, the much-loved recipe associated with the old Boston department store. The ingredient list is wonderfully simple: butter, sugar, eggs, flour, milk and an almost unreasonable quantity of blueberries, yet somehow, they come together into something that tastes as though it came from a very good bakery.

My first batch, back in 2023, was delicious. In fact, it was such a hit that everyone agreed it was one of the best blueberry muffins I had made. The crumb was soft and buttery, the berries were everywhere, and the sugar on top baked into a delicate little crust. No extra flavourings. No streusel. No complicated technique. Just a very good blueberry muffin.

There was only one thing missing for me though: the dome.

The muffins rose, but rather politely. I wanted that generous bakery-style crown.

So, over the next couple of batches, I experimented with starting them in a hotter oven for the first five minutes before lowering the temperature to finish baking. Such a small change, but it gave them exactly the lift I was looking for while keeping everything we had loved about the original muffin intact.

They are also ridiculously easy to make. Easy enough, in fact, that this is the sort of recipe I have happily handed over to my kids and sent them into the kitchen with. Cream some butter and sugar, crack in a couple of eggs, stir in the flour and milk, fold through an extravagant amount of blueberries and bake.

The only slightly unusual step is crushing a small handful of the berries before adding them to the batter. Do not skip it. Those crushed berries bleed into the batter as the muffins bake, leaving little purple streaks and pockets of blueberry running through the soft crumb.

And then there is the sugar on top. It seems like rather a lot when you are sprinkling it over the unbaked muffins, but it becomes that thin, crisp, sparkly crust that makes these so particularly good. Be generous.

These are not muffins pretending to be breakfast food while secretly being cupcakes. They are proper, old-fashioned blueberry muffins: buttery, tender, berry-packed and just sweet enough.

This recipe is also exceptionally flexible. The same basic batter works beautifully with other flavours. Chocolate chip is another favourite with my kids, and one of my personal favourites is banana nut-with toasted walnuts, rich vanilla and just a little warmth from Saigon cinnamon.

But the blueberry version is still the one I make most often. In summer, especially, a dozen barely lasts two days in our house.

Bakery-Style Blueberry Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

• ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (198 g) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon fine salt
• ½ cup (113 g) whole milk
• 2½ cups (about 350 g) fresh blueberries
• About ¼ cup granulated, turbinado or demerara sugar, for topping

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or lightly grease the cups.
   
   
2. Cream the softened butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
   
   
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla.
   
   
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
   
   
5. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in a few additions, alternating with the milk. Mix only until combined. The batter should be fairly thick.
   
   
6. Take about ½ cup of the blueberries and lightly crush them with a fork. You do not want a purée, just broken berries and some juice.
   
   
7. Gently fold the crushed berries into the batter, followed by the remaining whole blueberries.
   
   
8. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. The cups should be generously filled.
   
   
9. Sprinkle the tops generously with sugar.
   
   
10. Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes.
    
    
11. Without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 375°F (190°C) and continue baking for approximately 20 to 25 minutes, or until the muffins are golden and a skewer inserted into the muffin crumb comes out clean. Try not to test directly through a blueberry.
    
    
12. Allow the muffins to sit in the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.
    
    
13. They are particularly good while still slightly warm, when the sugar topping is crisp and the blueberries are soft and almost jammy.

Notes from my Kitchen:

Weigh the flour if you can: Two cups should be about 240g. Too much flour is one of the easiest ways to turn a tender muffin into a dense one.

Make sure your baking powder is fresh: Especially if you want that proper dome.

Do not overmix: Once the flour goes in, use a light hand. Mix only until you no longer see streaks of dry flour.

Crush some of the blueberries: This is one of the things that makes these muffins particularly good. You get blueberry running through the crumb rather than only whole berries here and there.

Do not skimp on the blueberries: Two and a half cups looks like a ridiculous quantity when you fold them in. Trust me- worth every bite here!

Fill the muffin cups generously: You want enough batter in each cup to build that bakery-style crown.

Start with the hotter oven: The first five minutes at 425°F give the muffins a strong initial lift. Lowering the temperature afterwards allows the centers to finish baking without over-browning the tops.

Do not open the oven when you lower the temperature: Simply turn the dial down to 375°F and let them continue baking.

Be generous with the topping sugar: Granulated sugar gives a delicate crackle but Turbinado or demerara will give it a slightly crunchier finish.

Can I Make These Eggless?

The original version above is the one I have tested repeatedly.

For an eggless variation, aquafaba is the option I would try first. Replace the 2 eggs with ½ cup (113 g) aquafaba, the liquid from a can of chickpeas. Keep the butter and milk as written.

If you do not have aquafaba, another option is ½ cup (120 g) plain full-fat yoghurt in place of the eggs. If using yoghurt, add ¼ teaspoon baking soda along with the baking powder. The yoghurt version will give a slightly softer, more tender crumb.

Can I Make Them Vegan?

For a vegan version, use:

• ½ cup (113 g) aquafaba instead of the eggs
• ½ cup vegan baking butter instead of dairy butter
• ½ cup unsweetened soy or oat milk instead of whole milk

Keep the remaining ingredients and baking method the same.

If you make these, come back and tell me how long the dozen lasted in your house.