These are the easiest vanilla muffins! These soft and fluffy vanilla muffins are made without a mixer and just 12 simple ingredients. Plus I have a secret ingredient I use to make these vanilla muffins extra special.
These are the perfect muffins to bake when you want to whip up a big batch of muffins for a brunch or family breakfast since it makes 18 muffins! You can also use this as a base recipe to add chocolate chips, fruit or nuts, or keep them plain vanilla if you prefer!
I used vanilla bean extract in these muffins to make these muffins extra vanilla-y. This really is the perfect vanilla muffin recipe for vanilla lovers!
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Why you’ll love this recipe!
- These fluffy vanilla muffins are made in 2 bowls but you don’t need a mixer!
- Since this recipe uses melted butter you don’t have to worry about creaming butter.
- These easy vanilla muffins are super moist and buttery thanks to a combination of melted butter and oil.
- I let the muffin batter rest for 1 hour before baking, this helps activate the baking powder and baking soda giving you much taller muffins!
Ingredients Needed
Flour: I have only tested this recipe with all purpose flour.
Sour Cream: this will make our muffins super moist! You can substitute it for full fat yogurt or Greek yogurt.
Oil: use a neutral oil like canola oil or vegetable oil.
Baking Powder & Baking Soda: make sure to use leaveners that haven’t expired! Otherwise the muffins won’t rise properly.
Vanilla: you can use either vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. Vanilla bean paste will give a much more pronounced vanilla flavor, and I like the little flecks of vanilla bean!
Dry Milk Powder: this is totally optional, but adding dried milk powder is a secret ingredient! It will make your muffins chewier, milkier, and just boost the flavor. Make sure you use nonfat milk powder.
Step by Step Process
Step 1: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and milk powder (if using). Set aside.
Step 2: Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl then let cool. Once cooled, whisk the melted butter with the oil, eggs and sugar. Add the sour cream, buttermilk and vanilla bean paste, whisking the combine.
Step 3: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, using a rubber spatula to fold everything together until there are no more streaks of flour. 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°Fahrenheit/218°Celsius and line a muffin pan with muffin liners. Gently scoop out the muffin batter using an ice cream scoop so each liner is three quarters of the way full. This makes 17-18 muffins so you’ll need to bake the muffins in two batches. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, then without opening the oven door, lower the temperature to 350°Fahrenheit/175°Celsius and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
Baking Tips & Tricks
- Let the melted butter cool – make sure the melted butter isn’t hot or too warm before you add the eggs, otherwise it might start cooking the eggs when you whisk everything together!
- Weighing Ingredients – I highly recommend weighing your ingredients instead of using cup measurements as it is the most accurate way to bake.
- Sparkling Sugar – if you want the muffin tops to sparkle, sprinkle over some granulated sugar or sparkling sugar over each muffin before baking!
- Milk Powder – I love adding milk powder to these muffins but they taste really good without it, so don’t worry if you don’t have any!
Frequently Asked Questions
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 really 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.
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Have you made this recipe? Please rate the recipe below! Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @alpineella and Pinterest!
Recipe
Vanilla Muffins
Equipment
- 1x Muffin pan
Ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup neutral oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup sour cream room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon dried milk powder optional
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl. Once melted, set aside and let cool. If it's too hot it might cook the eggs!
- Once the melted butter is cool, whisk with the oil, sugar and eggs until smooth.
- Pour in the sour cream, buttermilk and vanilla bean paste. Whisk until combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and milk powder (if using).
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold with a rubber spatula until there are no more streaks of flour.
- 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 patter, preheat the oven to 425°Fahrenheit/218°Celsius. Line a muffin pan with muffin liners. Note that this recipe makes 17-18 muffins, so you will either need 2 muffin pans or do this in 2 batches.
- After an hour, gently scoop out the muffin batter into the liners so they're ¾ of the way full.
- Bake the muffins for 5 minutes, then without opening the oven, turn the heat down to 350°Fahrenheit/175°Celsius and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
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