About These Blueberry Cornflake Muffins
Blueberry cornflake muffins are made with a super light and moist blueberry muffin and topped with a crunchy cornflake streusel topping. If you’re the kind of person who eats a muffin only for its crunchy, crispy muffin top, this recipe is for YOU.
The cornflake streusel takes the muffin tops to the next level, giving each muffin a signature crunch from the cornflakes and a slight caramel flavor from the brown sugar streusel. But don’t snooze on the blueberry muffin base either! Each blueberry muffin is generously studded with fresh blueberries, all wrapped in a soft and fluffy crumb.
Looking for more delicious and unique homemade blueberry muffin recipes? Check out Hummingbird High‘s muffin recipe collection! Popular recipes include these Small Batch Blueberry Muffins and these Copycat Levain Bakery Blueberry Muffins.
Why You Should Make The Recipe
This blueberry cornflake muffin is based on a blueberry muffin recipe from popular New York City bakery, Ovenly.
When developing recipes for Hummingbird High, I always look for inspiration in many places: real life bakeries, old cookbooks, food magazines, and of course, other food blogs like my own. This blueberry cornflake muffin is a direct result of that!
The cornflake streusel topping recipe actually comes from the Ovenly: Sweet and Salty Recipes from New York’s Most Creative Bakery cookbook. Ovenly is a very popular bakery in New York City. I frequented the bakery when I lived in New York. I especially loved their signature, unique take on classic baked goods—like this cornflake streusel on blueberry muffins!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Now that I’ve convinced you to make these blueberry cornflake muffins, here’s your shopping list for the recipe:
Shopping List for Blueberry Cornflake Muffins
- unsalted butter
- brown sugar
- unsweetened cornflakes
- all-purpose flour
- baking powder
- kosher salt
- whole milk
- pure vanilla extract
- granulated sugar
- large eggs
- fresh blueberries
And let’s talk about some of its key ingredients:
Ingredient Sources and Substitutions
- Butter. Either salted or unsalted works in this recipe! No need to adjust the recipe’s salt levels, either.
- Brown Sugar. Brown sugar is available in two varieties: light or dark. Dark brown sugar is my personal preference; because it contains more molasses, I find it to be more flavorful. However, you can use either in the cornflake streusel topping without altering its flavor too much.
- Unsweetened Cornflakes. Please use UNSWEETENED cornflakes for this recipe. If you use sweetened cornflakes, your muffins might turn out WAY too sweet!
- All-Purpose Flour. You can use a 1-1 gluten free all purpose flour replacer to make the recipe gluten free. I like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour or King Arthur Flour Gluten Free All Purpose Flour.
- Kosher Salt. Kosher salt is the best salt for baking recipes—learn more in my post! But if you don’t have any, you can use table salt. Just use half the amount listed in the recipe.
- Whole Milk. You can use skim, low-fat, or non-fat milk to make these muffins; however, whole milk yields the most flavorful muffins. You can use alternatives like almond milk, coconut milk, soy milk, and/or oat milk in this recipe, too. However, be mindful that using an alternative milk with “strong” flavors (like coconut or oat milk) will impart their flavors into the blueberry muffin, too.
- Blueberries. Feel free to use frozen blueberries instead. Just note that you’ll likely need to increase the Bake Time of the recipe. I would start by adding an additional 5 minutes to the original blueberry cornflake muffin recipe’s Bake Time.
How to Make The Recipe
Here are the basic steps to make blueberry cornflake muffins from scratch:
First, prep your ingredients.
- Prep all the ingredients for the muffins. (Prep Time: 5 minutes)
To make the best blueberry muffins, it’s important to pay attention to the temperatures of the ingredients as they are listed in the recipe. That means bringing the milk, butter, egg, and blueberries (if refrigerated) down to room temperature. Using cold ingredients will lead to muffins that won’t rise and dome as well as mine.
Next, make the cornflake streusel.
- Make the cornflake streusel. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
In a small bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar. Toss with your fingertips, rubbing the sugar into butter. Add the cornflakes and toss to combine. That’s it—easy, right? For best results, make sure to refrigerate the streusel while you make the blueberry muffin batter.
Then, make the blueberry muffins.
- Make the batter. (Work Time: 10 minutes)
Similar to the streusel, the muffin batter comes together fairly quickly. Simply cream together the butter, sugar, and egg, then add the dry ingredients in two parts, followed by the wet ingredients and the blueberries. - Divide the batter into muffins. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
One of the secrets to super tall and domed muffins is to fill up each cavity in the muffin pan with a generous amount of batter. Using the right tools—like this 1-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop—will make the job go by quicker and faster. Be sure to check out the baker’s notes for links to my favorite batter scooping tools! - Sprinkle each muffin with the cornflake streusel. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
Before baking, sprinkle at least 1 Tablespoon of cornflake streusel over every muffin. This part is what makes these muffins MAGIC. - Bake the muffins. (Bake Time: 22 to 24 minutes)
This muffin recipe bakes for 22 to 24 minutes. Why the range? Juicier, ripe blueberries need more time in the oven. And note that if you’ve replaced part of the all-purpose flour with an alternative flour or used frozen fruit, you may need to adjust Bake Time. Check out the ingredients section above for more specifics!
Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ
Help! My blueberry cornflake muffins don’t look as tall and domed as yours. What did I do wrong?
Okay, first things first. Did you see my note in the section above and in the baker’s tips below about why it’s important to use room temperature ingredients? If you used cold milk, eggs, and blueberries, your muffins won’t rise and dome as well as mine.
Next—did you follow the recipe’s instructions to fill each muffin cavity with 5 Tablespoons of batter? It’s scary, I know. It seems like there’s too much batter and that the muffins will overflow. But trust the recipe! Overfilling each muffin cavity is the secret to super tall and domed muffins.
Help! My blueberry cornflake muffins are super greasy at the bottom of the pan. What did I do wrong?
Absolutely nothing, I promise! Most streusel recipes are made with butter, sugar, and flour. During the baking process, the flour helps absorb the melted butter, preventing traditional streusel muffin recipes from getting greasy at the bottom of the pan.
However, cornflakes don’t absorb butter in the same way as flour. As a result, some of the butter from the cornflake streusel will melt and collect at the bottom of the muffin pan cavities. This is totally normal and does not negatively affect your muffin in any way!
Help! My blueberry cornflake muffins got stuck in the pan! What happened? What did I do wrong?
Don’t panic! Larger clumps of cornflake streusel, especially if sprinkled towards the edges of the muffin, can melt down and cause the muffins to get stuck in the pan. Run an offset spatula under any of these “stuck” parts, then wait for the muffins to cool completely. The muffins are easy to unstick from the pan once they’ve cooled to room temperature!
Can you freeze the baked blueberry cornflake muffins?
Yes, but with reservations. You can freeze any leftover muffins by wrapping them individually in plastic wrap and freezing for up to 3 months. To thaw, transfer to the refrigerator the night before you’re planning on eating the muffin. Rewarm in the microwave or the oven before serving.
However, in general I don’t recommend freezing the muffins. Once frozen and thawed, the muffins will no longer have their crispy cornflake tops.
Best Recipe Tips
Ingredient Tip
- Pay attention to the temperatures of the ingredients as they are listed in the recipe (please don’t miss this—they’re even written bold). The secret to super tall and domed muffin tops starts with your ingredients. If any of them are colder than room temperature, your muffins won’t rise and dome as well as mine did.
Equipment Tip
- For this blueberry cornflake muffin recipe, I recommend a 1-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop to divide the batter into muffins. The cookie dough scoops are for filling each cavity with muffin batter. Because to get tall domes, you’ll need to fill each one with 5 tablespoons of batter. It will seem like a lot, but the batter is fairly thick. I promise that it will hold its shape before and during baking, resulting in sky-high domes.
Head’s Up
- Don’t panic if, when turning out your muffins, you see some butter at bottom of each muffin cavity. This is normal! Most streusel recipes are made with butter, sugar, and flour. During the baking process, the flour helps absorb the butter as it melts. However, cornflakes don’t absorb butter in the same way as flour. As a result, some of the butter will melt and collect at the bottom of the pan. This is totally normal and does not negatively affect your muffin in any way!
Get the Recipe: Blueberry Cornflake Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
For the Cornflake Streusel
- 3 Tablespoons (1.5 ounces or 43 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 3 Tablespoons dark OR light brown sugar
- ¾ cup (0.75 ounces or 28 grams) unsweetened cornflakes
For the Blueberry Muffins
- 2 ½ cups (11.25 ounces or 319 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) whole milk, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (7 ounces or 198 grams) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 ½ cups (13 ounces or 369 grams) fresh blueberries, at room temperature
Instructions
For the Blueberry Cornflake Muffins
- First, make the cornflake streusel. In a small bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar. Toss with your fingertips, rubbing the sugar into butter, until the mixture is combined and crumbly with lima bean- and pea-sized clumps. Add the cornflakes and toss to combine, lightly crushing the cornflakes into the clumps. Refrigerate while you make the muffin batter.
- Prep your oven and pan. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
- Make the muffin batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a small liquid measuring cup, whisk together the milk and the vanilla.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar and butter. Beat on medium-high until light, fluffy, and doubled in volume, 2 to 3 minutes, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl as necessary. Reduce the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time, adding the next egg only after the previous one is fully incorporated, scraping down the bottom and sides of the bowl after each addition.
- With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in two equal parts, adding the second half only when the first half has been just combined. Beat until just combined, then scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl once more, then beat on low for an additional 30 seconds. Slowly pour in the milk and vanilla in a steady stream down the side of the bowl and beat until just combined, 30 to 45 seconds. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl once more, then add the blueberries all at once. Beat on low until just combined.
- Use a 1-tablespoon cookie dough scoop to fill each lined cavity with 5 Tablespoons of batter. Sprinkle the top of each muffin, aiming for the batter and avoiding the pan, with 1 Tablespoon of the cornflake streusel.
- Bake the muffins. Bake for 22 to 24 minutes, or until the muffins are domed and golden brown around the edges. A skewer inserted into the center of a muffin should come out with few crumbs attached. Cool the muffins in their muffin tin on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then use an offset spatula to run underneath the edges of any large blueberry muffin tops to prevent them from sticking in the pan. Be careful to just run the offset spatula under the edges—you don't want to accidentally cut into the muffin bottom and decapitate the muffin from its top!
- Serve and store. Serve warm or at room temperature. The muffins can be wrapped individually in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Notes
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Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
This post was last updated 8/24/2020.
These are so good and will be my go-to recipe going forward. I did end up substituting 1C of monkfruit for the 1C of sugar and was surprised how great they turned out! I’ve never baked with monkfruit before, so it really was just a trial for me. So happy with the results especially when trying to limit sugar where I can without jeopardizing the taste! Thank you for sharing this recipe. It’s a keeper!
Thank you for sharing your tip about your monkfruit substitution!!! That is such a handy thing to know! xo
Maybe my favorite muffin recipe if yours yet! The cornflake and brown sugar topping are perfection!
I made these this morning and they were delicious! I want to put the cornflake streusel on everything now.
Hmm. I’ve made your Levain Bakery muffins, and those are great. These, not so much. Basically a typical blueberry muffin but with a tragically disappointing streusel topping. (Tragic because I live for a streusel topping.) The cornflakes, subjected to the butter and sugar and baking treatment, became unpleasantly chewy, like bits of damp paper.
This was a very good recipe and the topping put a fun spin on the muffin. My daughter is allergic to cinnamon (which I love paired with blueberries) so I appreciated the twist of the topping. As always, Michelle, I appreciate the amount of detail and work you put into your recipes. I think you have some of the best and tastiest muffin recipes of any site!
This is a good recipe, though a bit too sweet and dense for me to consider them muffins. They had more of a cupcake vibe… just without the frosting. I am not sure how you got only 12 muffins out of your batter though. I used a regular muffin pan and was able to fill 18 sections (pulling out a second muffin pan) and, probably, could have filled 20 if I’d divided it more. They puffed up and out a lot, almost an inch and a half above the pan! I was OK with this as they are pretty. However, because they did this, the streusel topping and some of the blueberries fell along the top of the pan and made the muffins hard to remove from each of the sections and caused some of it to burn. They were delicious, though, and the recipe will be one I will try again – though, maybe, with only 3/4 cup sugar, no topping at all, and only 20 minutes of baking time. I did 22, the lowest of your suggestion, and mine are a tad too crispy on the outside.