These are the best moist vanilla muffins! These soft and fluffy homemade muffins have sky high muffin tops. They're made in one bowl and you don't need a mixer.
Sometimes simple is better! These classic fluffy vanilla muffins are made with simple pantry ingredients and you can make them in just one bowl. They have a crispy top and are so moist inside. Plus, this is a great basic vanilla muffin recipe where you can easily add mix-ins.
Just like my buttermilk blueberry muffins, bakery-style chocolate chip muffins, cinnamon swirl muffins and raspberry white chocolate muffins, these vanilla muffins are made in one bowl with oil. Using oil instead of butter gives you a much softer and fluffier muffin.
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Why you'll love this recipe!
- One Bowl: you can make this whole recipe in just one bowl with a whisk and rubber spatula. No extra cleanup!
- Oil-Based: after a lot of testing, I've found that using a mixture of oil and buttermilk gives you the softest and fluffiest muffins.
- Sky-High Muffin Tops: I have a bunch of tips and tricks to help you get that bakery style look!
- Easily Customized: these vanilla muffins are perfect on their own, but you can also add a vanilla glaze or mix-ins like fruit or chocolate chips.
Ingredients Needed
- Flour: I've only tested this recipe with all-purpose flour.
- Buttermilk: I don't recommend swapping it out for regular milk. Buttermilk is not only important for the texture, but it also reacts with the baking soda to give more rise to the muffin tops.
- Oil: make sure you use a neutral oil like vegetable oil, canola oil or sunflower oil.
- Vanilla Extract: because these are vanilla muffins, make sure you use a high quality vanilla extract.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Muffin Variations
- Fruit: add up to 1 ½ cups of fresh or frozen blueberries or raspberries.
- Baking Chips: add up to a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips.
- Nuts: add up to a cup of chopped pecans or walnuts.
- Jumbo: want to make jumbo muffins? Use the same recipe but bake in a jumbo muffin pan for 5 minutes at 425 ℉, then 350℉ for 25-27 minutes.
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla extract for 1 minute.
Step 2: Add in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Use a rubber spatula to mix until just combined.
Step 3: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. This will help activate the baking powder and baking soda, giving you taller muffins.
Step 4: Preheat your oven to 425°F/218°C and line a muffin pan with muffin liners, only lining every other well in the pan. I recommend greasing around the sides of the liners so the muffin tops don't stick to the pan. Gently scoop out the muffin batter using an ice cream scoop so each liner is full to the top. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, then without opening the oven door, lower the temperature to 350°F/175°C and bake for an additional 18-22 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan before removing to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Expert Tips & Tricks
- Weighing Ingredients: I highly recommend weighing your ingredients instead of using cup measurements as it is the most accurate way to bake. It's really easy to add too much flour, giving you dry muffins.
- Sparkling Sugar: if you want the muffin tops to sparkle, sprinkle over some granulated sugar or sparkling sugar over each muffin before baking!
- Filling to the Top: make sure you fill the muffin liners to the very top, this is going to give you tall muffins!
- Resting Time: I don't recommend skipping the 1 hour rest period, this is going to activate the leaveners and will give you much taller muffins.
- Lining Every Other Well: by lining every other cavity in the muffin pan, you're giving the muffins more space to grow sky-high tops.
Recipe FAQs
The first step is making sure your ingredients are at room temperature before you start baking. Then, be sure not to over-mix the muffin batter and don't over-bake the muffins! I've also found that letting the muffin batter rest for 1 hour helps making these muffins extra light and fluffy!
You can! Add chocolate chips, blueberries, nuts like walnuts or pecans, lemon zest or a swirl of jam. I don't recommend adding very wet fruit like strawberries to these muffins though.
Storage & Freezing
Store the baked and cooled muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. Freeze the muffins by placing them in an airtight container or freezer safe ziploc bag. When ready to eat, defrost in the fridge and enjoy once thawed.
Try these breakfast and brunch-related recipes next!
If you've made this recipe, make sure to leave a ⭐️ rating and review below! I love seeing when you make my recipes, so tag me on Instagram @alpineella so I can see! You can also follow along on Pinterest, Facebook and TikTok!
Recipe
Vanilla Muffins
Equipment
- 1x Muffin pan
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup neutral oil
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the oil, buttermilk, sugar, and vanilla extract.2 large eggs, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 cup buttermilk, 1 cup granulated sugar, ½ cup neutral oil
- Add in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir together until just combined with a rubber spatula.3 cups all-purpose flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. This will give the batter time to activate the leaveners, giving you taller muffins.
- While resting the batter, preheat the oven to 425°Fahrenheit/218°Celsius. Line a muffin pan with muffin liners, only lining every other well. You will need 2 muffin pans to do this or just make them 6 at a time.
- After an hour, gently scoop out the muffin batter into the liners so they're completely full. If you wish, sprinkle some sparkling sugar on top.
- Bake the muffins for 5 minutes, then without opening the oven, turn the heat down to 350°Fahrenheit/175°Celsius and bake for another 18-20 minutes.
- Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Tiffany says
These are great muffins. Really moist and fluffy. I'll definitely be making again. I cut the center out and filled them with strawberry rhubarb jam, adding the tops back on, everyone loved them on their own and filled.
Ella says
Thanks for your review! Wow, strawberry rhubarb jam in the middle sounds so good! I need to try that!