These Almond Flour Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins are filled with juicy blueberries and warm cinnamon, and feature a crisp, buttery streusel topping. The recipe makes 12 bakery style muffins, which stay soft and tender for days thanks to a blend of almond flour and cornstarch. The muffin recipe is gluten-free, similar to the batter I use for my cinnamon chocolate chip muffins, and the streusel is based on the crunchy topping for my lemon raspberry coffee cake.
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Quick Look: Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins
- ⏱ Prep Time: 20 minutes
- 👩🏻🍳 Bake Time: 20 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 40 minutes
- 🫐 Servings: 12 muffins
- ⚡ Calories: 373 calories per muffin (9 grams of protein)
- 🍽 Diet: gluten-free
- 🔥 Flavor/texture: soft and tender with warm cinnamon flavor and juicy blueberries; sweet and crunchy streusel topping.
- 👌 Difficulty: easy
- ❤️ Why you'll love: bakery style, freezer friendly, crunchy gluten-free streusel.
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Not your average almond flour blueberry muffin
I love a classic blueberry muffin, like my blueberry oatmeal muffins, which are made with oats and whole wheat flour. But, I wanted to add a gluten-free blueberry muffin to my collection of muffin recipes, so I created one with almond flour as the base. Since there are plenty of almond flour blueberry muffin recipes already out there, I took a unique approach with my recipe.
Two reasons why this is a standout recipe:
- Cornstarch for structure. Almond flour naturally holds a lot of moisture. When paired with juicy, bursting blueberries, the texture can become unpleasantly spongy. Borrowing a trick from my gluten-free lemon blueberry bread, I added cornstarch to both the batter and the berries, which absorbs excess moisture and results in a soft and tender crumb.
- Coffee cake style streusel. Inspired by my spiced eggnog muffins, these blueberry muffins are finished with a generous layer of crisp, buttery cinnamon streusel, that's also gluten-free. The contrasting textures instantly elevate these muffins from a simple snack to a café quality breakfast!
Table of Contents
Ingredient notes
- Blueberries - The star of these muffins! You'll need 1 cup (or about 150 grams). Make sure they're picked clean, washed and thoroughly dried. I usually spread them out on a paper towel to dry while I gather the other muffin ingredients and make the streusel topping.
- Almond flour - For the softer muffin texture, use fine blanched almond flour instead of almond meal, which has a coarser texture. (I always use fine blanched almond flour in muffins, like these almond flour banana muffins and almond flour zucchini muffins).
- Cornstarch - Adding cornstarch to almond flour helps produce a light and tender muffin texture as it absorbs excess oil from the almond flour.
- Sugar - The recipe calls for granulated sugar in the muffin batter and brown sugar for the streusel topping.
- Eggs - You'll need 4 large eggs to help provide structure and lift for these muffins.
- Cinnamon - For that coffee cake flavor, you'll need ground cinnamon for both the muffin batter and streusel topping.
Measuring your ingredients
For convenience, US cup measurements are included in the recipe card for this recipe. To ensure greater accuracy, however, weight and volume measurements are also provided. So, if you see grams (g), you'll want to use a kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients, and if you see milliliters (ml), you'll want to use a liquid measuring cup. Smaller quantities of ingredients are provided in teaspoons and tablespoons.
How to make blueberry coffee cake muffins with almond flour
Step 1: To make the streusel topping, whisk together the almond flour, brown sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Add the melted butter and mix together until a wet mixture forms. Place in the freezer while you prepare the muffin batter.
Step 2: Whisk together the almond flour, cornstarch (minus ½ tablespoon), baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
Step 3: In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium-high speed to beat together the eggs and granulated sugar until foamy, about 1 minute.
Step 4: Add the oil and vanilla and mix until just combined.
Step 5: Add the blueberries to a small bowl and toss with the remaining ½ tablespoon of cornstarch.
Step 6: Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until just combined.
Step 7: Gently fold in the blueberries.
Step 8: Divide the batter into 12 muffin liners. (They should be about ¾ full).
Step 9: Top with the chilled streusel topping.
Step 10: Bake at 425F for 5 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350F and bake for another 13-15 minutes.
Expert tips
- Avoid using large blueberries. I recommend using regular sized or even small blueberries. They disperse more evenly in the batter. Overly large berries can add too much moisture and create soggy spots in the muffins. (Save your large blueberries for my gluten-free blueberry crisp or blueberry breakfast bars)!
- Toss blueberries with cornstarch. This will prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins.
- Chill the streusel topping. The melted butter makes the streusel mixture soft and wet. Placing it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes helps firm it up and create crisp clusters on top of the muffins.
- Use muffin liners. I like to use liners to prevent these muffins from sticking to the pan and browning too much on the sides and bottom.
- Don't overmix the batter. Once you've mixed together the wet ingredients, put the electric mixer aside and switch to a spatula to stir in the dry ingredients and blueberries.
Blueberry coffee cake muffins FAQs
These muffins store best in a covered container at room temperature and will last for up to 3 days. Note that, once covered, the streusel topping will start to soften a bit. If you'd like to freeze these muffins, I would make them without the streusel topping.
Yes, you can bake up these muffins without the streusel.
While I normally substitute raspberries or blackberries for blueberries in muffins, I'm not sure how their larger size will impact the moisture in these almond flour muffins. If you give it a try, you might want to chop up the blackberries or raspberries into smaller pieces. Or, you can try these gluten-free raspberry lemon muffins instead!
I haven't tested this recipe with frozen blueberries as I think it will add too much moisture to the almond flour muffins. Frozen blueberries will also bleed into the muffin batter. If you give it a try, don't thaw the berries first and coat them with a little extra cornstarch.
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📖 Recipe
Almond Flour Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins
Ingredients
For the streusel topping:
- 1 cup (104 g) fine blanched almond flour
- ⅓ cup (76 g) dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup (30 g) cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅓ cup (76 g) unsalted butter, melted
For the muffin batter:
- 2 ¼ cups (234 g) fine blanched almond flour
- ⅓ cup (48 g) cornstarch, reserve ½ tablespoon
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup (110 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (150 g) fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F and line a 12-cavity muffin pan with liners.
- To make the streusel topping, whisk together the almond flour, brown sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Add the melted butter and mix together until a wet mixture forms. Place in the freezer while you prepare the muffin batter (for about 15-20 minutes).
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the almond flour, cornstarch (minus ½ tablespoon), cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium-high speed to beat together the eggs and granulated sugar until foamy, about 1 minute.
- Add the oil and vanilla and mix until just combined.
- Add the blueberries to a small bowl and toss with the reserved ½ tablespoon of cornstarch.
- Switch to a spatula and add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.
- Gently fold in the blueberries.
- Divide the batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling each cavity about ¾ full.
- Add the chilled streusel mixture to the tops of each muffin, making sure they are well covered.
- Bake at 425F for 5 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350F and bake for another 13-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out with just a few crumbs.
- Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Avoid using large blueberries. I recommend using regular sized or even small blueberries. They disperse more evenly in the batter. Overly large berries can create too much moisture and create soggy spots in the muffins.
- Toss blueberries with cornstarch. This will prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins.
- Chill the streusel topping. The melted butter makes the streusel mixture soft and wet. Placing it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes helps firm it up and create crisp clusters on top of the muffins.
- Use muffin liners. I like to use liners to prevent these muffins from sticking to the pan and browning too much on the sides and bottom.
- Don't overmix the batter. Once you've mixed together the wet ingredients, put the electric mixer aside and switch to a spatula to stir in the dry ingredients and blueberries.
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Nutrition Facts per Serving
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is an estimate only and will vary depending on the substitutions made and the brands used.
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