This kitchen tested muffin batter creates extra large bakery-style muffins with big muffin tops and dense, moist centers. Create plenty of flavors using this as the base—1 muffin batter with endless options.
I love light, fluffy, cupcake-style muffins and you can find my base recipe for cakey muffins in this master muffin recipe post. But I (and maybe you!) also enjoy big muffins with a tight crumb, moist and dense center, and a tall crunchy muffin top. I call these “bakery style” and that’s what you’ll find today, my master bakery style muffin recipe.
These Bakery Style Muffins Are:
- Jumbo in size, but you can easily bake in a standard or mini muffin pan
- Sky-high with big muffin tops
- Moist and dense inside
- Topped with crunchy coarse sugar
- Adaptable to many different flavors
And I know you’ll appreciate this as much as I do: there’s no mixer required and the batter comes together in less than 10 minutes.
Behind the Recipe
Feel free to jump to the full written recipe and instructions below. If you’re interested in how and why this recipe works, let me explain. I’ve made a few notable changes from when I first published these bakery style muffins. The recipe, as originally written, produced wonderful muffins but they dried out quickly and tasted overly dense. In the past few years, I’ve worked to improve it by replacing some of the oil with melted butter, some baking powder with baking soda, and adding sour cream for moisture and lightness. (If you’d like the original recipe, see my recipe note.)
A look at the ingredients:
- Flour: We use a lot of flour to keep the batter thick and sturdy, as well as to keep the add-ins (chocolate chips, berries, nuts, etc) elevated.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: Significant rise requires a lot of leavener. I used to use all baking powder, but I recently began adding a touch of baking soda too. In addition to leavening, a little baking soda helps brown the exterior.
- Cinnamon: I usually use cinnamon in this master muffin mix, but leave it out if it doesn’t fit well with the other flavors. For example, I use it when I make banana or apple muffins but skip it when I make berry muffins. It’s an optional ingredient.
- Vanilla Extract & Salt: Use both for flavor.
- Eggs: Eggs add moisture and bind everything together.
- Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt: Sour cream helps keep the muffins extra moist. If needed, you can use plain yogurt instead.
- Sugar: Use granulated sugar to sweeten these muffins. I used to use some brown sugar and some white granulated sugar, but brown sugar weighed the muffins down. If desired, though, you can always use 1/2 cup (100g) white granulated sugar and 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar.
- Oil & Butter: Oil produces a moist, tender muffin. Combine with melted butter for extra fat, moisture, and a little flavor.
- Milk: Milk adds plenty of moisture and lightens up the crumb. I usually use whole milk or buttermilk.
- Coarse Sprinkling Sugar: I recommend a sprinkle of coarse sugar for crunchy, sparkly muffin tops. I like Sugar in the Raw or you can use white sparkling sugar sprinkles, usually found with the sprinkles in the baking aisle.
Several Bakery Style Muffin Recipes in 1
Let’s talk flavor options. Add-ins and flavors are totally up to you! Pictured above are banana nut muffins and mixed berry muffins. I also use this bakery style muffin recipe for my raspberry chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip muffins, and jumbo blueberry muffins.
- Banana Nut Muffins (pictured above) – Follow the master recipe below. Increase cinnamon to 1 and 1/2 teaspoons, leave out the melted butter and replace with 1 cup of mashed banana (about 2 large bananas, mashed), increase oil to 1/2 cup (120ml), and use 1 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts as the add-in. In addition to coarse sugar, I like to add a few thin slices of bananas on top of each muffin before baking. *The banana nut muffins become pretty dense after a couple days, but warming in the microwave for 10-15 seconds lightens them up again.
- Mixed Berry Muffins (pictured above) – Follow the master recipe below. Leave out the cinnamon and use 2 cups of mixed berries as the add-in such as any combination of blackberries, raspberries, chopped strawberries, and/or blueberries.
- Jumbo Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins (muffin batter pictured above)
- Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Jumbo Blueberry Muffins (pictured below)
- Apple Cinnamon Muffins – Follow the master recipe below. Add 1 extra teaspoon of cinnamon and use 2 cups of diced, peeled apple as the add-in.
Or use any combination of berry, fruit, nut, chocolate chips, etc. As long as the total amount of add-ins is between 1-2 cups, you’re golden! You can also add vanilla icing to the warm muffins right before serving, or replace the coarse sugar with the same crumb topping I use for these apple cinnamon muffins.
- How to add the crumb topping: Fill the muffin cups only about 3/4 full and gently press the topping down into the batter so it sticks. You’ll have enough batter for more muffins since you’re only filling the cups 3/4 full.
4 Success Tips for Jumbo Muffins
- Thick muffin batter: Thick batter helps ensure the muffins lift UP rather than spread OUT. It also creates a denser muffin instead of a light and cake-y cupcake style muffin.
- Use a jumbo muffin pan: I can’t find a link to the exact jumbo muffin pan I use (it’s about 12 years old), but I swear by USA Pan for other bakeware. A jumbo muffin pan holds 8 ounces of batter. These are big muffins!
- Fill the muffin pans to the very top: Since we’re using an initially high oven temperature trick (explained next), it’s imperative to fill the muffin cups to the very top. You can make this recipe as 6 large muffins (shown), 14-15 standard size muffins, or about 40 mini muffins.
- Bake at an initially high oven temperature: Bake the muffins for 5 minutes in a very hot oven. Then, keeping the muffins in the oven, lower the oven temperature. This initial high oven temperature quickly lifts up the muffin top. Once the temperature is lowered, the centers of the muffins bake. I do this in all my muffin recipes.
Description
This kitchen tested muffin batter creates extra large bakery style muffins with big muffin tops and dense, moist centers. Create plenty of flavors using this as the base– 1 muffin batter with endless options.
Ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1/3 cup (5 Tbsp; 71g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1/3 cup (80ml) vegetable oil*
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup (80g) sour cream or yogurt, at room temperature*
- 1 cup (240ml) milk, at room temperature*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1–2 cups add-ins (see blog post above for suggestions)
- optional: coarse sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Generously grease a 6-count jumbo muffin pan with butter or nonstick spray (nonstick spray recommended) or line with muffin liners. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon (if using) together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk the melted butter, oil, sugar, and eggs together until combined. Then whisk in the sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract. Mixture will be pale yellow. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold together with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until completely combined. Use a whisk to rid any large lumps of flour, if needed. Avoid overmixing. The batter will be thick. Fold in the add-in(s).
- Divide batter between each muffin cup, filling all the way to the top. Sprinkle with coarse sugar (for added crunch, recommended!). Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C) and continue to bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are lightly golden brown and centers are set. Stick a toothpick in the center of a muffin to test for doneness. If it comes out clean, the muffins are done.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan before serving.
- Cover leftover muffins and store at room temperature for 5 days or in the refrigerator for 1 week. Muffins freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or on the counter.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 6-count Jumbo Muffin Pan | Jumbo Muffin Liners | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Coarse Sugar
- Oil: Vegetable oil, canola oil, or melted coconut oil work best in this recipe.
- Sour Cream/Yogurt: I recommend full fat sour cream or full fat or low fat plain yogurt. I don’t recommend fat-free for either.
- Milk: I like to use buttermilk or whole milk in this recipe because either add wonderful moisture and flavor. You can use any milk, dairy or nondairy, but the lower fat milk you use, the less flavorful and moist your muffins will taste.
- Can I Make These into a Loaf? Definitely! You’ll have too much batter for 1 loaf, so I recommend 2 9×5 inch or 8×4 inch loaves. I’m unsure of the best bake time, but use a toothpick to check for doneness. Bake at 350°F (177°C) the whole time.
- Standard Size Muffins or Mini Muffins: For standard size muffins baked in a 12-count muffin pan, reduce baking time to about 20 total minutes: 5 initial minutes at 425°F and 15 minutes at 350°F. Yields 14-15 standard size muffins. For about 40 mini muffins, bake for 11-13 minutes at 350°F the entire time.
- Why is everything at room temperature? All refrigerated items should be at room temperature so the batter mixes together easily and evenly. Read here for more information on why room temperature ingredients are important.
- Original Recipe: This recipe was updated in 2020 since its original publish date in 2014. The muffins are now moister and softer. If you’d like the original recipe, follow above but make these changes to the ingredient list: increase baking powder to 4 teaspoons, leave out the baking soda, leave out the butter, increase oil to 1/2 cup (120ml), and leave out the sour cream.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Could I large batch prep the dry ingredients in a container and pull out when I want to make muffins?
Hi Beret, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Hello Sally thanks for the recipe! I just have one question: whenever I am baking muffins and fill the batter up to the top, they are overflowing while baking making a huge mess and dry and weird looking muffins. I am baking them in silicon molds filled with paper liners.
Thank you so much.
Hi Miriam! Are you using the initial high burst of heat as mentioned in the recipe? With this method, you shouldn’t have overflow but will still get the nice tall tops. You could try just filling them slightly less as well.
Can I start with saying I love, love, love your muffin recipes! I make them for my husband to take to work and for me to have in the morning and they never disappoint and they freeze beautifully. I’ve tried the mixed berry, apple, peach streusel, carrot and banana all with amazing results. They are sooo moist, rise beautifully and look professionally made. I have since deleted all my other muffin recipes from other sites as I will only be using the recipes you provided. Can’t wait to try other flavors!
It’s rhubarb season! My add-in was diced rhubarb; my spice choice was mace (and vanilla). I topped with spiced crumb topping and baked in a muffin top pan to rave reviews. This base recipe works spectacularly with whatever is in season.
Great recipe!
I had some ingredients to use up, so here’s what I did:
-Chopped up my one measly apple left in the fridge. That yielded a 1/2 cup. So, sticking to the 2-cup add-in limit, I then added 1.5 cups of grated carrot to the apple.
-Used up some left over yogurt and added a couple of tablespoons of sour cream to reach the full 1/3 cup required.
-For some extra nutrition, I wanted to experiment with whole wheat flour without throwing the recipe off too much. So, I weighed out the equivalent of 1/4 of the total flour needed in whole wheat flour and then added all purpose flour until I reached the full amount of flour the recipe calls for.
-I had a little leftover pumpkin spice mix, so I used 1 tsp of that + 1 tsp of cinnamon.
-I threw in an eyeballed 1/4 cup of raisins just because.
I’m pleased to say that they turned out great! They rose nicely and the crumb is lovely. Even my picky toddler approves of them.
My one question: can I add oats to this recipe without ruining it? If so, how much? 🙂
Hi Pris, Do you mean replace some of the flour with ground oats? If so, that should work. Let me know if you try it!
I love to make this for my daughter, who goes to work VERY early in the morning. I’m vegan so I do make some changes. I use plant-based butter, milk, and yogurt. Also use applesauce instead of the oil and reduce the sugar by 1/3. I use monkfruit. I use 1/2 whole wheat bread flour and sub 1/3 protein powder (my own blend) for the rest of the white flour. I also use egg substitute (flax seed/water mix). The muffins rise substantially and have a beautiful crumb. And my daughter has a healthy breakfast that allows her to get out the door quickly. Win, win!
Dear sally,
How if I want to put some dry fruits with rum? Can I use these recipe? And do you have any suggestion? Thanks!
Hi Lily, You can certainly soak your dried fruit in rum, drain them, and then use those as the add ins. Enjoy!
Are there freezing/storage instructions for these muffins?
Hi Jordan, Check out these tips for make-ahead baking and freezing. Enjoy!
Is there a way I could incorporate a pudding mix in this recipe?
Hi Sally and Team,
I love all your recipes! Everything I have made from your site is always delicious. I recently went to NYC and had a wonderful chocolate marble muffin there and I was wondering if this recipe could be adapted for that. Maybe taking some of the batter and mixing it with cocoa powder?
Hi Melissa, We are so happy you have been enjoying the recipes! That sounds delicious and we’ve honestly never tried it. Unfortunately, cocoa powder is a unique ingredient and not a simple swap. However you could try making this batter as well as the batter for our double chocolate muffins (with or without the chocolate chips) and layering them into your muffin pans. If you try it let us know how it goes!
I added 2 teaspoons of lemon juice to the batter and it made them heavenly!…♥️
Good evening! I have tried this recipe many times, and everything turns out so yummy. Thank you . Quick question about Lemon poppyseed muffins. I have your cookbook with that recipe, plus the one on your blog. Which recipe is better? One calls for melted butter, but the other one calls for softened butter. I would like to make jumbo bakery style muffins. Thank you for all your hard work. I do appreciate you and your staff.
Hi Sarah, thank you so much for asking. I really like the lemon poppy seed muffins made with softened butter. Both versions are great, but the ones with melted butter are much denser. Sometimes it’s nice to have a lighter texture paired with lemon flavor.
Hi dear Sally❤️
Can’t wait to try this recipe
If I want to bake them as the standard muffi size,as you have written they would be more than 12 muffins,
How and where should I store the left batter when I am baking the first pan for best result? Thank you so much ❤️
Hi Sara! You can leave the muffin batter sitting at room temperature until your muffin pan is available to bake the last few muffins. Enjoy!
Hi Sally,
Can you use frozen berries to make these muffins?
Hi Ruth, You can use frozen berries. Do not thaw them first.
Hi Sally,
I’ve made the jumbo blueberry twice and people thought I bought them from a bakery the were so beautiful (and delicious)! What would the mix ins be to make jumbo pumpkin muffins? What kind of topping
would you suggest?
Thank you
Sharon
Hi Sharon, these pumpkin crumb cake muffins work wonderfully as jumbo muffins! You can follow the bake time and temperature from these jumbo blueberry muffins as a guide. Hope you love them just as much!
Hi. I would like to make your bakery style blueberry and banana chocolate muffins to add to welcome bags for a wedding. So I want to make them 3-4 wks in advance and freeze them. Any advice??
Also just wanted to let you know I love your recipes!
Hi Dee! Both kinds of muffins freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or on the counter, then package for the welcome bags. How fun!
Hello! I love adding sour cream or yogurt to baked goods as it just amps the flavor and moisture, but I was wondering if omitting it in this recipe would be okay? Due to the pandemic, the availability of these ingredients is a bit harder to come by in my country, and I’m working with what I have here at home! Any suggestions would be much appreciated, thank you!
Hi Alina, we highly recommend using full-fat sour cream or yogurt here for best taste and texture. However, if you don’t have any on hand, take a look at the original recipe in the recipe notes, which does not call for sour cream. Note that the muffins will not be as moist and soft. Hope you enjoy them!
Hi Sally, would this recipe work for savory muffins if I just omit the sugar and add 2 cups of add-ins (thinking blanched spinach, cooked bacon bits, sundried tomatoes and feta cheese)?
Hi Alexandra, we haven’t attempted a savory muffin from this recipe, but that sounds like a great place to start! Let us know if you try it. You may also love our master scones recipe with savory add-ins.
Hi Sally, I’ve been making your jumbo blueberry muffins for several years – definitely a fan favorite – thanks for the great recipe! I want to make these for family when we visit, but I think I will need to adjust for the altitude. Do you have any recommendations for tweaking the original recipe? Thanks!
Hi Eve, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Hello Sally! Big fan of your blog!! I have a quick question. ¿Can I prepare the batter one day before baking them, letting it rest in the fridge overnight? Or its not recommended?
Hi Sarah! We don’t recommend it. The leaveners are activated once mixed into the batter, so the long it sits, the less likely the batter will bake up properly. It’s best to bake them right away. Let us know if you give these muffins a try!
Hi Sally (and assistants)!!!!
I was wondering if I could modify this recipe to make a lemon poppyseed jumbo muffin.
You don’t have one yet and I love them so I was gonna try my hand at it.
I didn’t change anything other than adding three tablespoons more sugar (I like them a little sweeter than these are ) , 1/3 cup of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons poppyseeds, and 1 and a 1/2 lemon zest.
My worries are:
1. Adding mostly liquid will change up the dynamics of the batter and result in a not-as-yummy muffin.
2. Adding lemon juice, an obvious acid, and buttermilk will change up the baking soda/baking powder dynamics
Do you have any thoughts?
If not I’ll just try it out myself, but before that I just wanted to see if you had any wisdom to share .
Hi Emma! You could definitely give that a try, but it may take some trial and error. I would use the recipes from Blackberry Lemon Poppy Seed Bread or Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins instead! (you can leave out the blackberries). For either, you can follow the baking instructions from these jumbo blueberry muffins. Let us know if you give any of these options a try!
I’ve been trying out this recipe with different add-ins almost every two days and everyone is loving them. Tried using left over jars of banana jam and mango with chia seeds jam (separately of course) I had made a while ago and has been sitting in the refrigerator, and family and friends are loving it! I also tried making a batch using banana jam again plus chocolate chip and they love it. Now I know I. An make jams or preserves when the fruits are in season and cheaper so I can still make these muffines even out of season. I also got the hang of the higher temperature so I am getting the marvelous tops.
Now my next questions comes from my chocolate crazy son. Can I turn this recipe into red velvet muffins, what changes are needed in the basic recipe? I also tried your mini red velevet cheesecakes (yummy too) and was wondering if it I can turn it into this style of muffins!
Hi Abegayle, we’re thrilled you’ve been enjoying this muffin recipe! We actually haven’t tested a red velvet cupcake, and it would take a bit of tinkering to guarantee successful results. However, if your son loves chocolate, he should enjoy these double chocolate muffins!
What is the difference in consistency and taste between the Master Muffin Recipe and the Master Bakery style Muffins
Hi Abegayle, these bakery style muffins have a tight crumb, moist and dense center, and a tall crunchy muffin top. The other Master Muffins recipe produces light, fluffy, cupcake-style muffins.
Sally and team, I have made many of your recipes and always enjoyed them. However, the blueberry muffins that made were STELLAR. I used Greek yogurt and in lieu of cinnamon used grated lemon zest.
Thank you
Made the blueberry and banana ones.. delicious! Question do you have any nutritional breakdown? My husband counts macros – carbs, protein, fat and would love to know the numbers on these.
How can I adapt this recipe to make pumpkin bran muffins?
Hi Lorraine! That would take additional recipe testing, so sorry we can’t help more. We love bran muffins so hope to develop the perfect recipe for them sometime!
How can I adept recipe for cranberry orange muffins…..I am using dried cranberries……thank-you so much
Hi Sally and Team,
It is that time of year when bakers like us pull out the (canned) pumpkin. I have made a couple of Sally’s pumpkin muffins but I am looking for the denser texture, bakery-style muffin that is advertised with this recipe. I am wondering, could we sub in 1 cup of pumpkin in place of the 1/3 cup melted butter (like the instructions for banana nut muffins have us do to add bananas)? I am concerned that pumpkin may have more water content than banana, so would love it if you could tell me if they are more or less interchangeable.
Also, I made Sally’s crumb topped pumpkin muffins last week, and they were delicious… as were the apple crumb muffins I made today. However, when tasting either of them without the crumb topping (the bottom of these muffins, to see how we’d like it without streusel or glaze) we’ve found them less sweet than we’d like them to be in a plainer application. I understand that with both recipes, the crumb topping and glaze add to the overall sweetness, but if through trial and error I find that I prefer those recipes… when looking for a plainer, non-crumbed, or glazed muffin… I’d like to know where to begin with increasing sugar in the batter.
I understand that we can’t go crazy with increasing sugar, that sugar in fact is hygroscopic and too much will lead to a dry muffin, and also, that too much would cause muffins to overly brown, or worse, burn… not to mention, too sweet just wouldn’t taste good… but taste is subjective. I am wondering about increasing sugar from a technical standpoint. So, the question is, what is a safe increase in sugar? Increasing by 10%? 15%? 20%? Might 25% be too much and put us in danger of a dry and/or burnt muffin?
Thank you!
Hi Melissa! Thank you so much for the feedback. I’m so glad you are enjoying my muffin recipes! Now I haven’t tested this, but to turn these into denser pumpkin muffins, you could try to leave out the melted butter and add about 3/4 canned pumpkin puree. (So a little less than how much mashed banana you would use for the banana version.) Feel free to add 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, too.
To sweeten the apple crumb muffins and pumpkin crumb muffins— when leaving off the crumb topping– try a small increase in sugar such as an extra 1/4 cup of white sugar. (Extra brown sugar may weigh them down.) I don’t think that would dry out the muffins at all.
I hope all of this helps!
Hi, Sally! Does a 3 oz. 6-count muffin pan make jumbo/large or standard-sized muffins? I wanna make sure so I get the temperature and baking time right. Thanks!
Hi Margarita, a standard jumbo muffin pan usually holds about 6 ounces of batter for each muffin. The temperatures are the same no matter which size you are using though. 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C) and bake until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean. (The time varies on muffin size, so keep a close eye on them!)
Hi Sally, I made this recipe once before (apple and blueberry) and the muffins were absolutely delicious! This time I want to use 1/2 the batter for Banana Nut, and the other half for Apple Cinnamon, but I’m not sure if it will work because in the banana recipe it says to substitute the butter for mashed bananas..?
Hi Jordan! Try making 2 separate half batches with those flavors. This is an easy recipe to halve– 1 egg for each!
Oooh this looks great! Can I use the add-in recipes from your other muffin master mix for more options or are there differences in the recipes that mean this wouldn’t work? And if that’s the case, I hope you develop more options for this recipe soon!
The add-in options for the cakey & light master muffin recipe work well here, too!
I was wondering if this master recipe can be altered to make a pumpkin muffins.
Thank you,
Todd
Hi Todd! For pumpkin muffins, we recommend following either our pumpkin bread recipe (muffin directions are in the reicpe notes) or our pumpkin crumb cake muffins recipe. Enjoy!
Well done Sally, Thank you for sharing ALL of your recipes
I’ve made several of them and they’ve been all keepers!
This one and braided Pastry/cream cheese filling/fruit delish
To name a few….Appreciate the research and skill of what
You do and what not to do. Dan