Mixed Berry Muffins with Streusel

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These delicious mixed berry muffins are packed with fresh or frozen berries and topped with loads of buttery brown sugar streusel.

“AMAZING!!!! My new favorite muffin!” - Keltie

A mixed berry muffin with brown sugar and oats streusel in the center of a table covered in muffins and berries.

The things I love the most about these muffins (in no particular order):

TONS of buttery brown sugar streusel.
They can be made with fresh OR frozen berries. This means you can make them year round, not just during berry season. 👏
They are HUGE. These are generous, fill you up and keep you far away from hangry kind of muffins. (BTW - If you're looking for small, dainty muffins check out these cinnamon streusel mini muffins.)

Just like my favorite Lemon Blueberry Muffin recipe, these Mixed Berry Muffins have a soft, tender texture that's packed with berries. But, instead of the lemon glaze that's drizzled over the blueberry muffins, these berry muffins are topped with heaps of buttery brown sugar streusel.

When wrapped individually and kept in the freezer, these mixed berry muffins are a delicious grab-and-go breakfast on busy weekday mornings. But, they are also my favorite muffin to bake on a leisurely weekend morning when the most important thing I need to do is decide whether I'm going to eat another. Which, of course, I am.

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Ingredients Needed to Prepare this Recipe
Step-by-Step Photos and Instructions
Tips for Making the Best Brown Sugar Streusel
The Secret to Making Large Muffins with Lots of Streusel
FAQs and Expert Tips
More Recipes for Berry Lovers
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💬 Comments

A mixed berry muffin with streusel on a white plate with more muffins and fresh berries surrounding it.

Ingredients Needed to Prepare this Recipe

Ingredients needed to make Mixed Berry Muffins with Streusel.

Brown sugar and granulated white sugar: Brown sugar in the streusel, white sugar in the muffins.
All-purpose flour. I prefer unbleached.
Cinnamon. Just a hint of ground cinnamon in the streusel is a delicious warm complement to brown sugar and butter.
Salt. You can use kosher salt or table salt to make these muffins, just pay attention to the different amounts listed in the recipe card for each.
Old-fashioned oats. In a pinch you can use the quick cooking kind, but old-fashioned oats give the streusel a better texture.
Butter! I used salted butter but if you're sensitive to salt, use unsalted.
Baking powder. I prefer to use baking powder with no added aluminum which can give baked goods a slightly metallic taste.
Eggs.
Plain, unsweetened yogurt. Use regular or Greek yogurt, preferably full fat.
Finely grated lemon zest.
Pure vanilla extract.
Fresh OR frozen berries - any kind or combination.

Step-by-Step Photos and Instructions

Making these muffins is a super simple process that's basically dumping ingredients into a bowl and mixing it up.

Pro tip! You'll get the best rise with these muffins if you get them in the oven right after mixing up the batter. So, mix up the streusel first so it's ready and waiting to top your muffins as soon as you've mixed up the batter.

Add all the streusel ingredients except the butter to a bowl and stir to combine. Pour in the melted butter and mix until all the dry ingredients are moistened. Cover, and set aside.

All the dry ingredients for mixed berry muffins mixed together in a white bowl.

Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to a bowl and stir everything together with a wire whisk.

Using a wire whisk to mix muffin batter.

Add the melted butter, sugar, and eggs to another bowl and stir vigorously with a wire whisk for about 30 seconds. Add the yogurt, lemon zest, and vanilla extract and whisk for a few seconds more, until the batter is smooth.

Using a wooden spoon to stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients to make muffin batter.

Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stir just long enough to blend everything together.

Using a wooden spoon to mix berries into muffin batter.

Stir in the berries, mixing gently to not smash them to smithereens.

Distribute the batter between 12 tulip-paper-lined baking cups (or 18-24 if using regular paper baking cups). Top the muffins with streusel, squeezing it together as you do to create some larger chunks.

Ready to bake!

A mixed berry muffin that's been broken in half so you can see all the berries inside the muffin.

Tips for Making the Best Brown Sugar Streusel

The buttery, brown sugar streusel on these muffins is my favorite part. I love the sugary crunch it adds to each bite of soft, tender muffin. SO GOOD.

While making streusel couldn't be easier, there are a few tips that will ensure that crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth texture we're after:

When measuring brown sugar, make sure you pack it into the measuring cup. Scoop some brown sugar into a measuring cup and then use a spoon or your fingers to really press it in there.
If you're not a fan of cinnamon, just leave it out. Other delicious options are cardamom, ginger and nutmeg. Just be careful how much you use. With spices like ginger and nutmeg, a little goes a long way. Start with a little, taste, and add more if you like.
Make sure the butter is soft, but not melted. The best way to achieve room temperature butter is to leave it out at room temperature for an hour or two. Obviously. If you're anything like me and never remember to do this, here's how to bring butter to room temperature quickly.
Use your fingers. I mean, you could use a spoon. But it's so much easier to just smoosh everything around with your fingers until all the dry ingredient are moistened with the butter.

The Secret to Making Large Muffins with Lots of Streusel

Tulip paper liners are one of my favorite things. Here's why:

Their pointy tops hold in all that yummy streusel as the muffins rise in the oven. This means you can top your muffins with a LOT of streusel. The more streusel the better, in my book.
They fit inside a regular size muffin tin but rise up above the top. This means you can add more batter to each cup and bake up large, tall muffins without having to use a jumbo size muffin pan.
Tulip liners make it super easy to remove muffins from the pan as soon as they are finished baking. Just grab hold of those tulip tops and lift them right out of the pan onto a wire rack to cool.
They unfurl into a nice little paper plate on those mornings when you grab a muffin before rushing out the door.

Someone using their fingers to break off a piece of berry muffin.

FAQs and Expert Tips

Can I make these muffins without the streusel?

The streusel on these muffins is 100% optional, although it pains me to write that. 😊

As super-duper-awesome as streusel topped muffins are, leaving it out will certainly cut down on the amount of sugar and calories in each muffin and they will still be delicious.

Can I use regular muffin liners for these muffins?

Yes, absolutely. Because regular-size muffin liners don't hold as much batter as tulip paper liners, this recipe will make 18-24 muffins if you use regular paper liners. Bake these slightly smaller muffins for 18-23 minutes.

I don't have any yogurt. What can I use instead?

You can easily swap out the yogurt in these muffins for sour cream. In a pinch, you can also use buttermilk or regular milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar stirred in. Use the same amount of sour cream as yogurt. If you use buttermilk or regular milk, only use 1 cup.

Can I reduce the amount of sugar in these muffins?

I often swap out ½ cup of the granulated sugar in the muffin batter for stevia to lower the amount of sugar slightly. You can experiment with substituting an even higher percentage of sugar for stevia if you like.

But, I've found the greatest success in terms of taste and consistency from replacing no more than 50% of sugar for stevia in baked goods.

What kind of berries are best in these muffins?

Use any kind of berries you like in these muffins, fresh or frozen. Mix them up, or use all one kind. It's up to you. When berries are in season, I like to make these muffins with fresh berries. The rest of the year, I use frozen berries.

Honestly, frozen berries are one of my favorite modern conveniences. While these somehow feel like the kind of thing I want to eat on spring and summer mornings, whipping up a batch in the dead of winter is a good antidote (albeit temporary) to the winter blues.

More Recipes for Berry Lovers

These strawberry muffins are filled with cream cheese, topped with streusel, can be made with fresh or frozen strawberries, and even come with vegan and dairy-free options.

This berry cobbler with a sugar cookie topping is my top choice for a ridiculously easy dessert that's pure comfort in the form of saucy fruit and a gooey topping.

Triple Berry Plum Pie and this classic no-fail Blueberry Pie are quite possibly my family's favorite desserts of the summer. I make at least one of each every single year when berries are at the peak o the season. And, honestly, I usually make one of each in the dead of winter with frozen berries just to remind us that summer is on its way.

Calling all blueberry lovers! Blueberry Corn Muffins and Sour cream Streusel Blueberry Muffins are pretty much the best way to start your day, ever. Unless, of course, you're making these extra fluffy Blueberry Pancakes or this Blueberry Crumb Cake piled impossibly high with New York-style crumbs.

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Happy baking!

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