Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins (Streusel-Topped!)

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Blueberry muffins are a classic muffin staple and they make for a great breakfast or mid-day pick-me-up sweet treat that pairs perfectly with a cup of coffee.
Moist with a great crumb texture and dotted with blueberries we’re taking this humble muffin to the next level by making them gluten-free and topping them with a wonderfully spiced streusel topping. 

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🧁 Here’s why you’ll love these muffins:

• Made using almond flour, these muffins and their streusel topping are gluten-free.
• It’s made using simple, wholesome ingredients.
• They make a great breakfast or dessert option.
• They can be enjoyed fridge-cold, room temp, or warmed.
• They freeze well for later enjoyment.
• You can make them using fresh or frozen blueberries.
• They are so easy to make and take just around 35 minutes from start to finish!
• The optional streusel topping adds great texture and flavor to these muffins.

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To start we’ll make our streusel crumble topping:

What is Streusel?

Derived from the German word for sprinkle or scatter, a streusel is a crumb topping typically made of flour, butter, sugar, and a spice, that gets worked together until combined into coarse crumbs. Added to the top of baked goods before they’re placed into the oven, it adds both texture, flavor and an iconic rough crumb look to the top of your baked goods.

To make this gluten-free topping we’ll need:

• Old Fashioned Rolled Oats: If you’re not a fan or don’t enjoy it you can replace it will blanched almond flour or with chopped nuts (pecans are a great option!). I personally love the look and texture the oats add to the crumble.
• Blanched Almond Flour: Our main ingredient for both our muffins and crumble, it keeps our sweet treat gluten-free.
• Sugar: I’m using evaporated cane juice sugar.
• Butter: Salted or unsalted the choice is yours. I’m using salted.
• Cinnamon Powder: This is a wonderful warming spice that complements the blueberry muffins and makes our streusel flavor a bit more complex.

Making it as as easy as working all the ingredients together until they form a rough crumb. You can use a pastry cutter, a fork, or your fingertips like I did. Once your crumb is made, pop it into the fridge until we’re ready for it.

(Oh yeah, and as a reminder: don’t forget to preheat your oven to 425°F and prep your muffin pans by oiling or using paper liners! 😁)

Other topping options instead of the above streusel?

• These muffins are honestly great on their own without any topping.
• Or you can add a tsp or two of finely ground raw cane sugar / evaporated cane juice sugar in place of the streusel topping and then bake your muffins.
• Not a fan of oats? Make your streusel using only almond flour or
• Make your streusel using almond flour and any chopped nuts of your choosing such as pecans or walnuts.
• Top your muffins with a simple drizzle using finely blended/powdered cane sugar, milk, and few drops of an extract of choosing such as orange or vanilla. Mix into a thick paste and drizzle or pipe over your baked muffins.

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To make these muffins we’ll need 9 simple ingredients:

• Blanched Almond Flour: You can also use unblanched if preferred but I recommend unblanched for both the taste and texture of the muffins.
• Evaporated Cane Juice Sugar: or you can use finely blended raw cane sugar if preferred.
• Whole Milk: This adds both moisture and richness to our muffins.
• Eggs: US standard large eggs.
• Oil: I’m using extra light olive oil but you can use any neutral flavored clean-eating oil of your choice.
• Extracts: I’m using mainly vanilla with a small touch of orange extract
• Salt: I’m using pink Himalayan but you can also use a sea salt. Salt adds flavor and aids in amplifying all other flavors.
• Baking Powder: Our rising agent that will help our muffins have a light texture and great rise.
• Blueberries: I’m using frozen wild blueberries. I like these for the year-round convenience and for their smaller size compared to standard blueberries. Regular blueberries can be used but note that if they’re large they can either sink or cause the batter to be too wet when they pop with the heat of baking.

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Do I need to do anything to the frozen berries?

Honestly, no. But you’ll want to keep your blueberries in the freezer until the very last moment when you need to add them to the batter, portion, and bake your muffins. This will keep them from defrosting and bleeding their color too much into the batter.

I know some recipes recommend tossing them in flour or some type or starch – I don’t like to do that because it weighs the batter down or make it gummy – or they recommend defrosting and rinsing your berries until they stop running their color and then patting them dry but I don’t like to do this for two reasons: for one it’s a lot of work that isn’t really necessary, and for two, washing your berries until they don’t run any color means washing away both juice and flavor from your berries along with other antioxidants. Instead I prefer to add them at the last moment and fuss with them as little as possible to keep the color from bleeding out too much. It’s much less work and hassle.

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So, let’s get to making our muffin batter!

In one bowl combine all your dry ingredients (almond flour, sugar, salt and baking powder). In another smaller bowl combine your wet ingredients (eggs, milk, oil, and extracts). Mix both bowls until fully combined.

Then add your wet ingredients into your dry mix and using a spatula stir to combine everything together.

For the final step scatter your frozen blueberries over your batter and GENTLY fold it in 1-3 times. You absolutely want to avoid overmixing at this point.

Working quickly, scoop your batter into your prepared and waiting muffin pan. As you get to the last of the batter you’ll see the blueberries are already starting to thaw and bleed a bit, that’s okay, just try to work quickly without mixing or stirring the batter too much.

As the final touch, spoon about 1 tbsp of streusel topping over your muffins and gently pat it into the batter to ensure it sticks. This will allow them to bake into the tops instead of sitting on top and potentially falling off once baked.

Into our preheated 425°F ovens our muffins go. Now, here’s the thing, let them bake at 425°F for the first five minute ONLY. Then, without opening the door or disturbing them, drop the temperature to 375°F and bake them until they’re able to pass the toothpick test (it should take about 20-25 minutes).

Why do we start at a high temp and then lower it?

The initial high heat kicks our rising agent into overdrive and causes our muffins to rise upwards quickly giving us an iconic “muffin top”. At this point they’re in a fragile and sensitive state so it’s important that you don’t open the door or disturb them, just lower the heat to 375°F. Dropping the heat stabilizes the temperature for baking and keeps our muffins and their crumb tops from burning.

Once done, remove them from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the muffin pan and onto a cooling rack. Notice how the batter’s color isn’t really affected by the blueberries color? That’s thanks to fussing with the batter as little as possible.

All that’s left to do is devour your muffins! Moist, bursting with subtle sweetness and fruity blueberries, that are complemented by the warm spices in the streusel topping, these muffins are filling, nutritious and wholesomely clean. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

And if you like these muffins, you might also enjoy these other muffiny options:

• Double Chocolate Chip Muffins (GF)
• Orange Cranberry Mini Muffins (GF)
• Healthy Banana Nut Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins (GF)
• Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins (GF)
• Lemon Poppy Seed Mini Muffins (GF)
• Pumpkin Spice Loaf / Muffins
• Almond Flour Brownie Bites (GF)