There’s been a theme lately with my recipes and it’s basically nostalgia from my own childhood. Blueberry muffins were one of my favorite things to smell baking on a weekend morning. Fluffy, moist, and sweet with a crumbly topping, what’s not to love about blueberry muffins?

While I grew up on boxed blueberry muffins (hey, nothing wrong with a pre-made mix every now and then), I want to recreate the same blueberry muffin nostalgia for my family with a recipe that is kid-friendly (read also: lower in added sugar) and with a little added nutritional value. They also have a hemp seed streusel topping for a sweet crunch and a little boost of fat and protein! 

I also opted to make this recipe into bite size mini muffins so they’re perfect for little hands. You can eat them for breakfast, pack them as snacks, or stick them in a school lunchbox. And while I’m calling them kid-friendly muffins, you can rest assured that they’re also adult-friendly! We devoured them in about 24 hours in my house! 

So grab your apron and a mini-sous-chef and let’s get baking this kid-friendly mini blueberry muffin recipe. 

Your Kids’ New Favorite Mini Blueberry Muffins Recipe

It’s true, sometimes muffins are sugar bombs. And starting the morning off with a high added sugar item can strap kids onto the blood sugar rollercoaster. You know me, I’m not anti-sweet-food, but when we’re talking about a breakfast item, I want to keep an eye on sugar! We’re ideally going for a mix of macronutrients to keep our kids feeling energized and full, without the blood sugar spike and crash!

Are Blueberry Muffins Healthy For Kids?

Yes, these muffins are healthy for kids! They are low in added sugar, and surprisingly high in protein (thanks to one magic ingredient). They also call for whole wheat flour, which is a great source of fiber. Fiber helps with digestion and regularity, as well as that feeling of satisfaction and fullness. Overall, these muffins do a great job at checking a lot of nutritional boxes I have for meals and snacks. Let’s take a look! 

How To Make Mini Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• scant 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup avocado oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup cottage cheese, blended (I used 2% fat)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen blueberries; but I like frozen wild blueberries for these mini muffins because of their smaller size)

Hemp seed streusel: 

• 1/3 cup hemp seeds
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 4 tbsp melted butter
• sprinkle of cinnamon (or cardamom)

Instructions 

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 375 F and grease or line your mini muffin tin.

I use a silicone mini muffin tin that works great and doesn’t require extra greasing or paper liners. 

Step 2: In a medium bowl, mix together your dry ingredients: (1 ¾ cup) whole wheat flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.

The other portion of whole wheat flour (½ cup) is for the streusel topping. 

Step 3: In a large bowl, mix together your wet ingredients: maple syrup, avocado oil, eggs, blended cottage cheese, and vanilla extract.

Step 4: Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

You want to make sure you don’t over mix and create a tough batter. I like to fold the ingredients into one another until they are just incorporated.

Step 5: Stir in your blueberries gently.

Step 6: Fill 36 mini muffin tins as batter allows. DO NOT fill them as high as I did in the picture below. What I learned after baking that batch was that the muffins got huge and all connected to each other on top. Whoops!

Step 7: Make your hemp seed streusel topping by combining the melted butter, brown sugar, (½ cup) whole wheat flour, and hemp seeds. Mix until it is slightly clumpy and held together with butter. Sprinkle evenly on top of the mini muffins.

I found it helpful to press the streusel topping gently into the mini muffins so it stayed put on top of the muffins while baking.

Step 8: Bake for 10-13 min at 375 F, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature before enjoying.

These muffins will stay well in the refrigerator for about 2 days and can also be frozen in a freezer bag or Tupperware for up to 3 months. We didn’t have many left over, but we did refrigerate a couple and reheat them in the oven on day 2- worked great!

Expert Tip

One time I didn’t have enough blueberries on hand to make these muffins, so I made them with a combination of blueberries and raspberries. They came out great, so you can use whatever combination of berries you have on hand!  

I also made them in a regular sized muffin tin and they were fabulous! They just took a bit longer to cook — about 20-25 minutes. The nutrition information will be different for full sized muffins, but they’ll work just the same.

You can make these muffins gluten free by using a 1 to 1 gluten free flour blend. You can also swap the whole wheat flour for regular all purpose flour. 

Picky Eater Tips

Let’s be honest, my biggest tip/trick for this muffin is the use of blended cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is my little nutritional powerhouse secret (although it’s not much of a secret anymore, and for good reason!). It ups the protein content of these muffins and makes them such a well-rounded meal component/snack. Plus, you can’t taste it. Your picky eater (even if they want nothing to do with cottage cheese) will never detect it. It blends up so smoothly and gives these muffins such a great texture. 

If you’re looking for a way to up the nutrition of these even more, I’d recommend serving them with some nut butter slathered on top! Between the whole wheat flour, the blended cottage cheese, and the hemp seed topping, these muffins have a ton going on for picky eaters! 

I’ve got a few other muffin recipes that also check the boxes nutritionally, and they’re picky eater approved! These chocolate zucchini muffins are a great way to add in some veggies to a food your child already likes. And these healthy toddler muffins are a win in my house, too! Have a strawberry lover? Try these healthy strawberry muffins, too! 

Kid-Friendly Mini Blueberry Muffins 

Whether you’re looking for a batch of breakfast muffins or want to stick these muffins in your kid’s lunchbox this week, this is a recipe that will do it all.

I always love when the stars align and I come up with a recipe that has tons of nutritional value and that my kids devour.

If you have a picky eater, finding nutritious options for their lunchbox is tough. These posts will help!

How to Pack Lunch for a Picky Eater

Healthy Meal Plan for Picky Eaters

How to Prevent Picky Eating