Blueberry Muffin Bread

This blueberry muffin bread is tender and soft (just like muffins!) and is bursting with blueberries. Topped with an easy streusel topping, this quick bread is sure to be a breakfast and snack favorite.

There are few aromas more welcoming than blueberry muffins baking away in the oven. And while my go-to muffin recipe has to be blueberry crumb muffins, sometimes muffins in loaf form are just a better option.

"Blueberry bread" didn't quite fit the bill when naming this one. The batter bakes up with such a tender and soft texture that blueberry muffin bread was much more apt.

No matter what you call it, a quick bread brimming with blueberries and topped in a spiced up streusel topping is always a favorite around our breakfast table.

Why This Recipe Works

• Alternating adding the flour and the buttermilk helps the liquid ingredients absorb better into the batter, leading to a soft crumb and not one that's dense.
• Using both baking powder and baking soda in this blueberry muffin bread ensure a nicely rounded loaf.
• Walnuts add crunch to the warmly spiced and sweetened streusel topping, though there's also a nut-free option.

Recipe Ingredients

Batter Ingredient Notes

• Room temperature butter: You need the butter to be at room temperature to optimally cream it together with the sugar to achieve a fluffy texture. Take it out of the fridge about an hour before starting this recipe, or longer if your kitchen is on the cold side.
• Buttermilk: Buttermilk is more acidic than regular milk, and that's VERY important for this recipe. Baking soda needs an acidic ingredient to react with to result in rising. Do not substitute regular milk in its place (but do refer to the recipe card notes to make your own buttermilk from whatever milk you have on hand).
• Blueberries: Either fresh or frozen blueberries will work for blueberry muffin bread. If using frozen, do not thaw them beforehand.

Streusel Ingredient Notes

• Brown sugar: The molasses in brown sugar brings a welcome warmth to streusels. Either light or dark brown sugar works.
• Walnuts: Nuts provide excellent crunch to sweet toppings. Raw is my preference as this bread has quite a long bake time and you don't want them to get too toasty if using pre-toasted. Walnuts work great here, as do pecans. If you'd rather have a topping without nuts, one batch of crumb topping will deliciously do the trick.

How to Make This Recipe

Be sure to set aside some time before beginning to allow the butter to soften to room temperature, potentially up to sixty minutes. The butter is ready when you can press your finger into the stick fairly gently and have it leave an indentation.

1. Cream together the softened butter and sugar. This is done by mixing on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, or until it forms a cohesive, light, and fluffed up mixture.
2. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

It may seem out of place to add some of the dry ingredients at this step, but it's correct. We'll get them well-incorporated before adding the flour so we don't need to worry about overworking the batter later on.

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3. Mix well, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. The batter will look a bit heavy and liquid-y but that's okay.
4. On low speed, add half of the flour. Once it is just mixed in, add half of the buttermilk. Repeat for the second half of the flour and buttermilk, taking care not to overmix the batter.

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5. Toss blueberries with a small bit of flour to coat, then add them to the batter.
6. Using a wooden spoon or spatula (not an electric mixer), gently fold the blueberries into the batter until just evenly mixed throughout. Take big sweeping passes along the bottom of the bowl to make quicker work of this step.

You don't want to work the batter too hard after adding flour to a baking recipe. Doing so can cause the gluten to be overdeveloped, which leads to tougher, less tender baked goods.

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7. Grease only the bottom and halfway up the sides of a 9" x 5" loaf pan. Not greasing the top half of the sides gives the batter something to cling to as it rises and leads to a taller loaf.
8. Stir together streusel ingredients and sprinkle over top of the loaf in pan.

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Bake at 350°F for 65-75 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the tallest part comes out clean. Let this blueberry muffin bread cool completely before slicing, serving, and storing.

Expert Tips

• Coating the blueberries in flour helps give them buoyancy and prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf. If using frozen blueberries, toss them in flour just prior to folding them into the batter.
• Loosely tenting the loaf pan with foil partway through baking ensures the streusel topping doesn't burn before the center of the bread is done. Look to do this around the 40 minute mark (or thereabouts). Opening the oven door too early in the process can interfere with the rise.
• Wait until the bread is completely cool before removing it from the pan and slicing. If it's too warm it more easily will crumble.

Recipe FAQs

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Adapted from Food Network

If you're returning to this blueberry muffin bread recipe from a saved link or pin, you may notice the photos have been updated from the initial publish date. Additional detail has been added to the recipe card, as well as a tiny bit of baking soda to the recipe itself to help this bread rise even more.