Vanilla Muffins

These Vanilla Muffins are infused with the delicate vanilla flavor. They are fluffy, soft, and easy to whip up. And they feature a delicious sweet vanilla glaze on top.

This is a super easy muffin recipe, that comes together super quickly. In under one hour from when you started making them, you can have delicious vanilla bean muffins.

How to make Vanilla Muffin Recipe

To make these Vanilla Muffins, you will need the following ingredients:

• Milk (buttermilk will also work, check substitutions)
• Vanilla bean (you can also use vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste if you don’t have vanilla beans)
• Unsalted butter
• Vegetable oil
• Eggs
• Sour cream (can be replaced by greek yogurt)
• All-purpose flour
• Leavening agents: baking powder, baking soda
• Salt
• Sugar: granulated sugar for the muffin batter, coarse sugar to top the muffins before baking, and powdered sugar for the glaze

At the first bite you will be greeted with a tender crumb that melts in your mouth. And the texture is perfectly balanced, not too dense or too airy, just fluffy and perfectly tender.

Vanilla Muffins Instructions

To make the Vanilla Muffin Recipe first we will start by infusing the milk with vanilla beans. But if you don’t have vanilla beans, worry not, you can make this recipe perfectly well with just vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste.

Infusing the milk with vanilla beans will give these muffins an even more delicious and striking vanilla taste, and aroma.

To infuse the milk, split the vanilla bean in half with a knife, scrape the seeds into the milk. Turn the heat on and let the mixture come to a gentle boil. As soon as you see the first bubbles arise, remove the pan off the heat.

Let the mixture cool down to room temperature.

Once the milk is done infusing, remove the vanilla bean pod from the milk.

Making the batter

To make the batter, add all the wet ingredients to a bowl: the cooled down milk, melted butter, oil, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste.

You can substitute sour cream for yogurt. As far as the oil goes, you can use vegetable oil, or avocado oil, even olive oil will work.

And to another bowl, add the dry ingredients: granulated sugar, flour, baking powder and soda, salt. Whisk to combine.

Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir with a spatula just until the ingredients are combined.

Pour the batter in the muffin tray, lined with cupcake liners. Fill each cavity almost full, about 3/4 of the way.

Sprinkle some coarse sugar on top.

You can use turbinado sugar, or raw sugar. I like to use a vanilla sugar by Nielsen Massey, which is coarse, and has a delicious vanilla flavor, and aroma.

Baking the muffins

The best way to bake muffins so they have a tall dome on top is to bake them at a high temperature to begin, and then lower the temperature. So for these muffins, I am baking them in the pre-heated 425ºF oven for 7 minutes.

Then, lower the temperature to 350ºF and bake for another 12 to 15 minutes until golden around the edges, and a toothpick inserted in the muffin should come out clean. Remove the muffin pan from the oven. Let the muffins cool down on a wire rack before glazing.

Glaze for muffins

To glaze the muffins I made a simple vanilla glaze with powdered sugar and milk, and vanilla bean seeds. Again, you can add vanilla extract instead of the seeds if you don’t have vanilla bean pods.

If the glaze is too thin, add a bit of powdered sugar to it. And if the glaze is too thick, add a bit of milk to thin it out. And remember that a little milk will go a long way, don’t add too much or the glaze will be runny.

Once the glaze is ready, drizzle over the cooled muffins.

The muffins are best eaten fresh, on the day they are made. But they will also taste delicious after being stored in the refrigerator or in the freezer.

To refrigerate, make sure to place in an airtight container. And to freeze, also keep them in a sealed container, even better if you wrap them with plastic wrap first to offer another layer of protection.

Tips for making Vanilla Muffins

• Don’t over mix the batter when making the muffins. Over mixing the batter will make the muffins dry and tough.
• Infusing the milk is not necessary, but will give the muffins a delicious vanilla taste and aroma.
• You can substitute the milk for buttermilk if not infusing it.
• The sour cream can be substituted for yogurt.
• If you want to, you can rest the muffin batter, covered, for 30 minutes or even longer, up to a couple hours in the fridge before baking. Resting the batter will help the muffins become more plump and have a better rise.
• Bake the muffins at a high temperature for the first 7 minutes, and then turn the oven down to finish baking.

These muffins are absolutely delicious. They can be served for breakfast, brunch, as a delicious afternoon snack, served with your favorite jam, a cup of coffee, or a glass of milk. They can be brought to the bake sale, or taken to a friend’s house for dessert.

Variations for this recipe

This is a basic vanilla muffin recipe, you can add other elements and ingredients to it to spruce up the flavor. Here are some ideas:

• Add chocolate chips to the batter, up to 1/2 cup. You can use white chocolate, milk, or dark. Alternatively, add chopped chocolate instead.
• Add chopped up Oreos.
• Swirl some Nutella or Biscoff in the batter before baking.
• Add blueberries, raspberries, or chopped strawberries to the batter.

If you like this recipe, here are some other recipes you might like:

• Nutella Muffins
• Tall Blueberry Muffins
• Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins
• Double Chocolate Muffins
• Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
• Coconut Cranberry Muffins with Maple Glaze

I hope you enjoyed this recipe. Leave a comment below or tag me on instagram, I love to see your creations.

Vanilla Muffins

Camila Hurst

These Vanilla Muffins are infused with the delicate flavor of vanilla. They are fluffy, soft, and easy to whip up. And they feature a delicious sweet vanilla glaze on top.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 18 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 3 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 16 servings

Calories 230 kcal

Ingredients

  

Vanilla Muffin Recipe

• 1 cup milk 240 ml
• 1 vanilla bean (optional, can be substituted for vanilla extract)
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter melted (84 grams)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil 60 ml
• 2 large eggs room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream 60 grams
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 318 grams
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar 200 grams

Topping

• 1/3 cup coarse sugar

Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1/2 vanilla bean or 1/4 tsp vanilla

Instructions

 

Vanilla Muffin Recipe

• Pre-heat the oven to 425ºF.
• Grease or line 16 muffin tins with baking paper liners.

Infusing the milk

• To make these muffins, we will infuse the milk with vanilla beans. If you don’t want to use vanilla beans, that’s fine, simply skip this step and add the milk normally to the recipe as it’s explained below.
• You can just add the vanilla extract if you don’t have vanilla beans, or don’t want to add them.
• Pour the milk in a small saucepan. Split the vanilla bean in half. Scrape the seeds into the milk. Also add the pod in there.
• Bring the milk and vanilla beans to a boil. Turn the heat off when you see the first bubbles. Set the pan aside until the milk comes to room temperature. Once the milk cools down, remove the vanilla pod.

Making the batter

• Add the cooled down milk, melted butter, vegetable oil, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract to a bowl. Whisk until completely incorporated.
• In another large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar together.
• Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix with a rubber spatula until the batter comes together. Don’t over mix or the muffins can turn out dry or dense.
• As soon as you see no more dry ingredients stop mixing immediately.
• Divide the batter between the muffin tins lined with cupcake papers. You want to fill each one up until almost full, about 3/4 full.
• Sprinkle about 1 tsp of coarse sugar over each muffin. You can use turbinado, or raw sugar, there’s a delicious vanilla sugar by Nielsen Massey, that is coarse, delicious and has vanilla aroma and taste.

Baking

• Bake in the pre-heated 425ºF oven for 7 minutes.
• Lower the temperature to 350ºF and bake for another 12 to 15 minutes until golden around the edges, and a toothpick inserted in the muffin should come out clean.
• Let the muffins cool down before serving.

Glaze

• Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl.
• Add the milk, and the vanilla bean seeds, or 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract.
• Whisk until incorporated. If the glaze is too thick, add a bit more milk. And if the glaze is too thin, add more powdered sugar to make it thicker.
• Pour the glaze over each cooled down muffin.

Serving and storage

• The muffins will be the freshest the day they are made. But they can be stored in the fridge, or freezer.
• To store the muffins in the fridge, place them in an airtight container. Keep them in the fridge for up to 2 days. Before serving, let them come to room temperature fully, or place briefly in a toaster oven before serving. The muffins stay well in the fridge for up to 4 days.
• To freeze the muffins simply place them in a freezer bag or in an air-tight container and freeze for up to 2 months.
• To thaw, let them sit at room temperature for about 1 hour, or in the fridge overnight.
• You can also wrap the muffin in paper towel and microwave for 15 second intervals to thaw.
• The other option is to wrap each muffin in foil, and bake them in a 350ºF oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, until completely thawed in the center.

Notes

Vanilla beans: You don’t have to use vanilla beans, you can use vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste in the recipe.

Infused milk: If not using vanilla beans, no need to heat up the milk. Skip that step.

Variations: Add about 1/2 cup of milk, white, or dark chocolate chips, fresh or frozen blueberries, sliced strawberries, raspberries for a flavor variation.

Sour cream: Can be substituted for greek yogurt if desired.

Milk: If not infusing the milk, you can use buttermilk instead to substitute.

Keyword muffins, vanilla