Blueberry Muffin Bread

My favorite blueberry muffin recipe turned into a loaf of blueberry muffin bread! It’s moist, stuffed with juicy blueberries and topped with some sparkling sugar for a light, sweet crunch. Try my blueberry oatmeal bars next.

Let’s talk about blueberries for a second, shall we?

They’re so inconspicuous. Little blue, matte, inconspicuous spheres. They look a little like tiny Death Stars, right down to the vulnerable opening – do a Google search of the two side by side, I’m telling you.

To this day, I’m always amazed that when baked they can explode into little purple pieces of art.

The color gets me every time, like I’ve forgotten what it looks like. It’s what gave the whipped cream in my meringue nests such a beautiful shade of purple. I think that’s part of why I like making blueberry muffins – the color contrast is just so pretty!

Last weekend I wanted blueberry muffins, but at the same time I wanted bread… and I kinda felt like eating blueberry muffins and bread was going to be carb and starch overkill.

I’d never made bread out of my favorite blueberry muffin recipe, so why not now?

Ingredients for blueberry muffin bread

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ cup canola oil, or vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, (1 pint)
• Zest of one lemon
• Sparkling sugar, for garnish

How to make blueberry muffin bread

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray a 9×5 loaf pan (aff link) with non-stick spray. If desired, also dust with a light coating of all purpose flour to help prevent sticking – set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar – don’t overmix! Whisk until just combined.
4. Add buttermilk, oil, and vanilla and whisk until just combined.
5. Add egg mixture to flour mixture. You don’t want to overmix, but just stir long enough that all the flour has been incorporated.
6. Gently fold in blueberries and lemon zest until just combined.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan. Optional: Add a little sparkling sugar to the top.
8. Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Let cool in pan, then invert to gently remove it from the pan. Slice, serve with a pat of butter, and enjoy!

How blueberry muffin bread is different from my muffin recipe

• I made a couple changes to the temperature and cooking time
• I’ve adjusted ingredient quantities to accommodate being in loaf form versus smaller individual muffins
• I swapped in buttermilk instead of regular milk, and added a bit of lemon zest

Temperature & Time

For my muffins, I have you start at 425° F and then turn it down to 375° F to get them the big and fluffy.

For this bread, you want to turn the temperature down to 350° F because you’re baking it for more than twice as long (60 minutes, as opposed to ~28 minutes for the muffins).

This will keep the inside nice and moist, but the top will have a nice crunch and might develop big, beautiful crevasses of blueberry-y muffin-y goodness.

It will be a bit more dense than the muffins, but not in a way that makes you feel like you’re eating something heavy. I almost prefer it to the muffins because there’s more surface area to accommodate slabs of butter.

Oh, warm, melty butter – how I love you so ❤️

Consider waking up before everyone else in the house and make this one on Saturday morning and let the smell waft into their bedrooms and lure them awake ❤️

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Originally published in 2015 and republished in August 2021 with revised photos and instructions.