Requiring mostly just pantry staples and a bowl or two, these muffin recipes will start any day off right.

By

Yasmine Maggio

Associate Editor

Yasmine is an Associate Editor at Serious Eats. Her work has been featured in Women’s Health and on L’Officiel USA, and she recently graduated from New York University with a master’s in journalism. You can find her at Bleecker Street Pizza on any given weekend.

Published November 10, 2025

Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze

Muffins are the epitome of an easy and satisfying breakfast. Most recipes rely on just a few ingredients—many of them pantry staples—and can often be made in one bowl, minimizing kitchen cleanup. Plus: Muffins can be easily baked ahead of time, making them a great grab-and-go breakfast. Below, we’ve gathered our favorite muffin recipes—including classic blueberry, banana oatmeal, and raisin bran—that will guarantee a delicious start to your day.

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December 2020

Vicky Wasik

Some common problems we’ve encountered with blueberry muffins is that they’re often much too sweet and the berries tend to sink to the bottom. Our recipe offers up a solution with a thicker batter that cuts back on the sugar. While the consistency of the batter helps hold the berries in place, we also like to add a spoonful of plain dough to the bottom of each cup to further prevent the berries from sinking. For a touch of sweetness, the muffins can be topped with sparkling sugar before baking.

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

For a muffin that truly packs a punch, toss plenty of lemon zest with sugar—which helps draw out the zest’s fragrant oils—then beat the citrus-sugar mixture with room-temperature butter.

Serious Eats / Robby Lozano

Studded with sweet-tart apple pieces and topped with a cinnamon-spiked crumble, these tender muffins deliver all the flavor of an apple pie packed into a muffin. They’re equally impressive as a Sunday brunch treat for guests or as an afternoon snack served alongside a hot cup of coffee.

Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze

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Vicky Wasik

A solid breakfast should be warm and hearty. That’s where Stella’s bran muffins come in. Instead of using cereal, they get their distinct bran flavor from wheat bran, which is mixed with boiling water to help prevent it from soaking up moisture from other ingredients in the batter. Adding some Greek yogurt into the mix keeps the batter thick, helping the muffins rise into their dome-like shape. Before baking, we like to sprinkle flax seeds or bran flakes on top for a nice crunch.

Vicky Wasik

There are very few pumpkin-flavored foods I enjoy, but these pumpkin streusel muffins are a rare exception. The batter is full of spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg, offering warm notes to compliment the pumpkin purée. For added flavor and crunch, we top the muffins with sweet and nutty streusel that includes ingredients like brown sugar and green pumpkin seeds. Once baked, you’re left with tender and fragrant muffins that might just become your new favorite pumpkin treat.

Serious Eats / Jen Causey

These bakery-worthy muffins capture the very best of banana bread: They’re tender, moist, fragrant, and just sweet enough.

Serious Eats / Jen Causey

These hearty breakfast muffins are studded with pecans, dried fruit, carrots, apples, and coconut. White whole wheat flour adds an earthy, nutty flavor to the batter while keeping the muffins tender. Fresh orange zest brings a nice tanginess, and orange juice helps moisten the batter.

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Yvonne Ruperti

Cheesecake for breakfast? These muffins make that dream a reality. The center of each one is made up of a sweet and lemony cheesecake filling, and then finished with a buttery streusel. To add the cream cheese filling to the batter, grab a tablespoon of the cheese, dip it into the batter, then use another spoon to scrape the filling as deep into the batter as possible. With rich cheesecake flavor in every bite, they’re the perfect option for all you sweet breakfast lovers out there.

Carrie Vasios Mullins

With a double dose of coffee in the form of a fresh brew and instant espresso powder, these muffins are quite the pick-me-up—and they just happen to be vegan. The absence of butter and eggs creates a crumb that differs from the traditional texture of a muffin and instead is rich, fudgy, and decadent. Since the batter is on the sticky side, you’ll want to use paper liners instead of just greasing a muffin tin. For chocolate chip-topped alternative that’s made richer with eggs and milk, check out Yvonne’s espresso chocolate muffins.

Yvonne Ruperti

Like cornbread in muffin form, these muffins lean on honey for a touch of sweetness. The mix consists of some typical muffin ingredients—flour, sugar, eggs, milk—while also incorporating cornmeal for the corn flavor and butter for a tender crumb. The batter leads to earthy and golden corn muffins in just 20 minutes, which are best served with a sweet and simple honey butter on the side.

Yvonne Ruperti

Though rich with brown sugar, these muffins get a tang from yogurt, along with a fruity boost from berries. You can mix and match berries to your liking, from blackberries to blueberries to raspberries. The muffins get a sweet and buttery topping in the form of a brown sugar crumble. They’re tender, moist, and—dare we say it?—another way to sneak some fruit into your diet.

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Carrie Vasios

When it comes to Earl Grey tea, you either love it or you hate it. But if you’re a fan, then these muffins are for you. The recipe calls for three tablespoons of loose leaf Earl Grey tea—you’ll want to seek out a blend that’s strong, with pronounced notes of bergamot, so that the flavor really comes through. However, the tea itself isn’t thrown into the batter; instead, we steep it in milk and then incorporate that steeped milk in with the rest of the ingredients. The muffins get their lemon flavor from lemon zest, resulting in a breakfast that’s bright and tasty, with a distinct tea flavor all throughout.

Yvonne Ruperti

The iconic pairing of pineapple and coconut gives these muffins a tropical twist. The coconut is incorporated in two forms: coconut milk and coconut flakes, the latter of which are added in the batter and also sprinkled on top before baking. Meanwhile, pineapple cubes offer a fruity bite. The juicy, sweet, and tender muffins will surely leave you feeling like you’re on island time.