This recipe for Healthy Blueberry Muffins comes out SUPER moist, made with olive oil, Greek yogurt, and whole wheat flour, and with very little sugar. You can use frozen or fresh blueberries, and they freeze well for mornings on-the-go! They’re perfect for busy families with kids, or if you want to stock your freezer with a healthy breakfast option.
If you’re looking for a toddler or kid-friendly snack, or looking to stock your freezer with a healthy breakfast option, you’ve got to try this blueberry muffin recipe. If they last long enough to put in the freezer, that is.
The olive oil makes them super moist, and stay super moist at room temperature for days, not to mention adds a healthy dose of good fats. The Greek yogurt adds a punch of protein to help fill you up. And the whole wheat flour adds fiber and nutrients!
These muffins aren’t too sweet- there’s only 1/3 cup of brown sugar in the whole batch. The super sweet frozen blueberries help add natural sweetness (you can use fresh, too).
But don’t let all this healthiness fool you. These muffins are absolutely delicious.
OH. AND. You only need one bowl and a few minutes of prep for these. You can literally have muffins in front of you in a half an hour with this recipe.
How to make healthy blueberry muffins
- First, mix together everything except the flour and blueberries in a bowl. That’s right- no mixing dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another! Everything in one bowl. You’re welcome. Olive oil, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, Greek yogurt, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. You can use an electric mixer or whisk for this.
- Then, add a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour to the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Don’t over-mix, or the muffins may not be very fluffy.
- Gently fold in the blueberries with a wooden spoon.
- Divide batter into a muffin pan, sprinkle with some turbinado sugar if you want, and bake!
Bonus points if you get your kids to help you make these muffins. They’re a fun project to do with littles. Mine got a bit messy eating the Greek yogurt off the spoon, as you can see.
Why use part whole wheat and part white flour?
I love healthy foods but I also take great pleasure in eating delicious food. I’ve found that using 100% whole grains when baking doesn’t yield a result that’s as pleasurable to eat.
That’s why I usually use part whole grain and part white flour when I bake! It adds more nutrients without taking all the fun away.
OK that was a bit dramatic – you can certainly make a delicious 100% whole grain muffin, like with these blueberry banana oat muffins, but I love compromising on this by meeting in the middle :-) These muffins still have a light, fluffy, airy crumb that slices neatly and doesn’t crumble all over the place, which I love.
Baking with olive oil
If you haven’t tried it, YOU MUST. Baking with olive oil is life changing, and these blueberry muffins are no exception. The earthy, nutty flavor of the olive oil is not overpowering, so you don’t have to worry about the flavor being weird. It adds healthy fats to your baked goods, and keeps things SUPER moist for longer than using butter.
Other baked goods with olive oil:
Tips and tricks
- Use a nonstick muffin pan for easy cleanup. I like this USA pan muffin pan.
- Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the biggest muffin- if it comes out clean, it’s done! This will help you not overcook them.
- Use a large cookie/ice cream scoop to evenly (and neatly) divide the batter into each muffin cup in your pan.
- Line your muffin pan with liners to save time on clean-up (you can use oil or butter to grease the cups too, if you prefer).
- Let the muffins cool for 5-10 minutes before eating them. They’ll hold up better and you won’t burn yourself on a piping hot blueberry.
- Make the muffins pretty with whole blueberries on top of each by saving some blueberries to place manually on top of the batter in each cup before you bake them. Sprinkle turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw) for some sparkly, crunchy deliciousness on top.
Ingredient Substitutions
- White sugar, honey, or maple syrup may be used in place of the brown sugar. White sugar may also be used to sprinkle tops of muffins in place of turbinado sugar.
- Use any kind of berry you want, frozen or fresh, in place of or along with the blueberries. If using strawberries, slice or chop them first.
- You can use 100% all-purpose flour if you want- just sub 3/4 cup for the 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. You can also use more whole wheat flour– try 1.25 cups whole wheat flour with 1/2 cup white flour for a higher whole grain count. If you want to use 100% whole wheat flour, I recommend 1 3/4 cups total, and I recommend white or pastry whole wheat flour (which is a bit lighter in texture).
- You can omit the vanilla extract and cinnamon if you want.
- Canola oil or melted coconut oil can be used in place of olive oil.
How to store/freeze muffins
You can store these healthy blueberry muffins in an airtight container or bag at room temperature for 2-3 days. Or, put them in the fridge for about a week.
Any longer than that and you’ll need to freeze them. I usually just put them in a gallon sized zip-top bag, try to smush out as much air as possible without crushing the muffins, and keep them for 2-3 months, taking one out and popping it in the microwave when I need one.
Grill the muffins with butter!
Here’s the best way to serve these healthy blueberry muffins.
I love cutting a muffin in half, slathering it with salted butter, and grilling it cut-side down in a cast iron or nonstick skillet. It helps caramelize the cut side of the muffin, and infuses the butter into every delicious, warm bite. Give it a try! It only takes a few minutes.
Other healthy breakfast recipes with whole grains:
- Breakfast cookies
- Healthy pumpkin pancakes
- Cherry almond overnight oats
- Fluffy berry oat pancakes
- Apple cinnamon oatmeal
- Honey cornmeal pancakes with blackberry syrup
Browse all brunch and breakfast recipes here.
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Healthy Blueberry Muffins
Equipment
- Muffin Pan
- Electric Hand Mixer
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups blueberries fresh or frozen
- turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top, optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and line a 12-cup muffin pan with liners (or grease with oil or butter).
- In a large bowl, add the olive oil (1/3 cup), brown sugar (1/3 cup), two eggs, Greek yogurt (1 cup), vanilla extract (1/2 tablespoon), cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon), kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon), baking powder (1 teaspoon), and baking soda (1 teaspoon). Mix together with a whisk or electric mixer for a minute or two, until everything is very well combined.
- Add the whole wheat flour (1/2 cup) and all-purpose flour (1.5 cups) to the bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until just combined (do not overmix).
- Fold in the blueberries (1.5 cups).
- Add batter to prepared muffin pan. I like to use a large cookie/ice cream scoop for this so they're even.
- Sprinkle tops of muffins with turbinado sugar, if desired.
- Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, checking to see if they are done by inserting a toothpick in the center of a muffin (if it comes out clean, they're done).
- Allow muffins to cool for at least 5 minutes before eating.
Notes
- To make muffins "pretty" with whole, visible blueberries on top, save 1/2 cup of blueberries to add on top of muffins after you've scooped the batter into the pan. Then, sprinkle with turbinado sugar and bake!
- Ingredient substitutions: White sugar, honey, or maple syrup can be used in place of the brown sugar; white sugar can be used in place of turbinado sugar; regular plain yogurt can be used in place of Greek yogurt; 3/4 cup all-purpose flour can be used in place of the whole wheat flour; melted coconut oil or canola oil can be used in place of olive oil; other berries may be substituted for blueberries.
- Storage: muffins may be kept in an airtight container or bag at room temperature for 2-3 days, in the fridge for about a week, or in the freezer for 2-3 months.
- Serving suggestion: I love cutting a muffin half, slathering it with salted butter, and grilling it cut-side-down in a cast iron skillet for a minute or so until it gets toasted. Yum!
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Jane
I loved this for being a one bowl recipe. Mine however were NOT moist. They rose perfectly. I took them out at 20 minutes. I did cut the recipe in half and my flour was 3/4 cup King Arthur all-purpose and 1/4 cup bread flour that I wanted to use up. I did not overmix. Possibly light on the blueberries. I didn’t measure them. Any suggestions on the cause or solution?
I see others had this issue. I like recipes that give the flour in grams instead of cups but i do use the “spoon and level” method if no grams suggested. Willing to try again.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Good questions! Bread flour tends to absorb more liquid than all-purpose flour, so that may have contributed to the problem. However, the same thing happens with whole wheat flour, so I’m not sure that it made that much of a difference. I agree about having the flour in grams, and I’ve been slowly working my way through my older recipes to add that information. I went ahead and edited the recipe card to have a metric option – you should see it pop up under the ingredients list and you can click “metric” to view it. Hope that helps!
Joanne
Moist and fluffy. Lacks taste. Wonder if sugar could be increased
Elizabeth Lindemann
You can add some more sugar if you want. As the title indicates, this recipe is supposed to be healthier/lower in sugar.
Joanne
Thank you. Will increase the sugar by a little bit. Love the texture of them. Will make again
Quisha
I followed the recipe to a T. However my batter was so dry and clumpy I had to add milk (eyeballed until loose) to loosen up to be able to distribute to muffin pan. But they turned out Great! Kid approved.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! A dry batter can happen for a few reasons, including adding too much flour (this can happen with measuring with volume instead of weight), or even brand/type of flour. Good call adding more liquid to it!
Johanne
Just made these, doubled the recipe and made some changes to some of the ingredients. Substituted for whole wheat flour as per instructed, change olive oil to apple sauce, Greek yogurt to lemon yogurt and vanilla extract to lemon extract. Turned out to be amazing and not too lemony. Will make this again.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! Thanks for sharing your substitutions!
Marjorie
These are delicious! So nice to find a healthier recipe for blueberry muffins that are perfect with a cup of coffee! Elizabeth, I love your recipes, so glad I found this site. I’m 75 and still really enjoy finding and trying new recipes. Thank you!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! Thank you so much for this lovely comment – it made my morning :-)
A
What can I sub for the yogurt? (I don’t do dairy, and would prefer something other than vegan yogurt)…
Elizabeth Lindemann
While I’ve never tried it, I think using applesauce as a sub for Greek yogurt may be your best bet!
Sally Renteria
Nice texture but not sweet at all. My kids didn’t like them.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Yes that makes sense, as these are a low-sugar, healthy blueberry muffin recipe :-) Next time I recommend that you try a more traditional recipe. Hope that helps!
JJellett
Very good muffins. Eating them right out of the oven. Made with the ingredients as listed. Only change was I mixed all dry ingredients together, all wet ingredients together. Then mixed wet to dry.
*Added: extra fine grated lemon peel. I’ll make these again! Hubby approved.
Recipe made 12 muffins.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Love the idea of adding lemon zest! So glad you liked them.
Sophia
Loved this Blueberry muffin, I made it in a loaf pan and substituted some whole wheat flour as per your suggestion and reduced sugar by half and olive oil. The boyfriend loved it. Thank you.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So great to know that this recipe works well in a loaf pan! I can’t wait to try that. Thanks, and glad you and your boyfriend liked it!
Jillian
Love this recipe! So easy and muffins had a really great texture 😋
Elizabeth Lindemann
Thanks so much! Glad you liked it :-)
Cindy F
I love this recipe. Last time I made it I substituted 1/2 cup almond flour instead of whole wheat, because that’s what I had. Still delicious!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it, and thanks for the info about almond flour- so glad that worked as a substitute for whole wheat!
galina
I wonder if I can use a loaf pan instead of a muffin pan. I dont have muffin pan and dont feel like buying one. Thank you.
Elizabeth Lindemann
I’ve never tried to bake this in a loaf pan, and I’m not sure how it would turn out. While I can’t guarantee success, I personally would give it a shot and see what happens! I recommend baking at 350 for about 45 minutes (maybe more, maybe less). If the top seems like it’s browning too much and the inside still isn’t done, try tenting it with foil. And grease the loaf pan with olive oil (like in this banana bread recipe: https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/healthy-banana-bread/). Hope that helps, and if it you try it I’d love to know how it turns out!
wanda h.
can I use gluten free flour, I don’t have much luck baking with gluten free flour though.
Thank you
Elizabeth Lindemann
I haven’t personally tried it, but I’ve heard from other cooks and bakers that Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur gluten-free mixes work with non-yeast recipes at a 1:1 ratio, so I think it would work for these!
Anna Linden-Fraser
I love your recipes and am going to try this one tomorrow… but my comment now is to say how adorable your kids are. You write about them but this is the first time I’ve seen them. What a joy! Elizabeth, I hope you and your gorgeous family stay safe, with love from Canada.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Aw, thanks so much Anna! What a nice comment. It’s been a challenge trying to do work with them around, but cooking with them is one way I’m able to multitask and enjoy their company! :-)