Blueberry Sourdough Muffins made gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and dairy-free. This delicious muffin recipe uses coconut oil and coconut sugar in place of butter and sugar. Bake up a batch using your sourdough starter!
If you’re rich in sourdough starter and are in hot pursuit of a place for it, these muffins are your ticket to a real good time!
I should know…I ate 4 immediately after shooting them.
Simply irresistible!
As you know, I follow a gluten-free diet, so I created a gluten-free sourdough starter from scratch. It’s much easier than you may think! As long as your home is nice and warm, naturally occuring bacteria and yeast do all the hard work for you.
All of this to say –
Is it possible to make gluten-free sourdough starter?
Yes! I made mine using King Arthur’s recipe for Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter but used Bob’s Red Mill’s Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour (I’m sure King Arthur flour would be amazing too!). I needed to increase the amount of water initially, but otherwise kept to a 1:1 ratio.
Not only is it possible to make gluten-free sourdough starter, but mine became crazy active (and has stayed active) in just 4 days.
Now is a great time to make a starter if you’ve been interested, as the warmer months are condusive to fermentation. My house has been between 74 and 77 which I think is contributing greatly to its success.
This recipe for sourdough muffins is entirely gluten-free, as the sourdough starter and the flour used to bake the muffins are both GF.
Ingredients Needed For This Recipe:
Sourdough Starter: use a gluten-free sourdough starter or regular sourdough starter – whatever suits your fancy.
Gluten-Free Baking Flour: Pick your favorite gluten-free flour blend! My top two recommendations are Bob’s Red Mill’s 1-to-1 and King Arthur’s Measure for Measure. If you have a brand you love, give it a shot!
Coconut Sugar: Lower on the glycemic index than cane sugar, my preference for baking is cane sugar. It can be used as a 1:1 substitute for cane sugar and adds a caramel flavored richness.
Coconut Oil: Rather than using butter, I use melted coconut oil for the muffins and softened coconut oil for the topping. The oil adds a creamy, nutty flavor and the muffins end up tasting buttery as a result even though there is no butter.
Fresh Blueberries: Fresh blueberries give these muffins beautiful color and also a lovely tangy-sweet pop of flavor. I haven’t tested the recipe yet using frozen blueberries, but I imagine it will work. I would suggest thawing them first, as frozen blueberries tend to leach water as they bake, which could throw off the texture of the muffins.
Vanilla Extract: Optional, but delicious, vanilla extract gives nice warm flavor.
Baking Soda: Our leavening agent in addition to the sourdough starter. Necessary for creating fluffy, well rounded sourdough muffins.
Sea Salt: Sea salt is MEGA in adding flavor to a baked good. It makes them taste sweeter without the need for additional sugar.
Can I Make These Sourdough Muffins Using Regular Flour?
If you aren’t gluten-intolerant and have regular sourdough starter, you can still use it to bake these muffins! You can either still use gluten-free all-purpose flour or regular all-purpose flour in combination with regular sourdough starter.
How to Make Sourdough Muffins:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 12-hole muffin pan with coconut oil (or butter/cooking oil of choice).
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the sourdough starter, egg, coconut oil and vanilla extract. Continue whisking until very well-combined and there is no more oil separation.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and sea salt.
Add the dry mixture to the mixing bowl with the wet mixture and stir until well combined. The batter will be very thick.
Place the blueberries in a small bowl and toss them gently in 1 teaspoon of flour (to avoid them sinking to the bottom of the muffins while baking). Add the blueberries and gently fold them in (so as to avoid much breakage).
Fill the muffin holes up ⅔ to ¾ of the way full with batter (batter will rise).
In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the ingredients for the topping and stir well.
Spoon topping over the muffins generously.
Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until muffins feel firm when poked.
Allow muffins to cool at least 20 minutes. Gently run a butter knife between the muffins and the muffin tray to pop them out.
Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Adaptations:
- Replace coconut oil with butter or ghee
- Use regular all-purpose flour instead of gluten-free
- Swap granulated cane sugar or brown sugar for the coconut sugar.
- Replace blueberries with strawberries or raspberries
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If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Gluten-Free Blueberry Sourdough Muffins
Ingredients
Sourdough Muffins:
- 1 cup sourdough starter see note
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup coconut oil melted and cooled
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
Crumble Topping
- 1/4 cup coconut oil softened
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 1/3 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 12-hole muffin pan with coconut oil (or butter/cooking oil of choice).
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the sourdough starter, egg, coconut oil and vanilla extract. Continue whisking until very well-combined and there is no more oil separation.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and sea salt.
- Add the dry mixture to the mixing bowl with the wet mixture and stir until well combined. The batter will be very thick. Add the blueberries and gently fold them in (so as to avoid much breakage).
- Fill the muffin holes ⅔ to ¾ of the way full with batter (batter will rise).
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the ingredients for the topping and stir well. Use your hands or a spoon to sprinkle topping generously over the blueberry muffin batter.
- Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until muffins feel firm when poked.
- Allow muffins to cool at least 20 minutes. Gently run a butter knife between the muffins and the muffin tray to pop them out.
Notes
Nutrition

Jacqualyn
Thursday 20th of April 2023
Hi! Just made these this morning- absolutely deliciously. BUT...they didn't really rise at all, they stayed pretty much the same size and dense... any ideas/tips?
Julia
Sunday 23rd of April 2023
Hi Jacqualyn! Is your sourdough starter very active (puffy with lots of bubbles)? I would think that would be the first place to start in terms of rise. Let me know and I can troubleshoot from there :)
KW
Tuesday 7th of February 2023
Not sure what happened, but these were the worst BB muffins I've ever made. They were dry and crumbly and never browned, even after I upped the temp the last 5 minutes to 400. I felt like the batter was more like cookie dough and not wet enough.
Gigi
Wednesday 1st of March 2023
@KW, mine are in the oven now… mine was like cookie dough, I thought it was suppose to be like that… I hope they come out ok.
Julia
Friday 10th of February 2023
Hi there! Thanks so much for sharing your feedback - I'm sorry the recipe didn't work out for you! What brand of gluten-free flour did you use? I've mentioned this in many of my baked recipes that varying brands of gluten-free flours have varying consistencies. In the event a batter turns out too thick, you can always add some form of liquid (such as a non-dairy milk) until it resembles the right consistency. Let me know which brand so we can troubleshoot how to make adjustments to the recipe in the future. xo
Kristie
Friday 20th of May 2022
Can u use almond flour to make the sour dough starter?
How do u make a loaf of bread with the starter?
Kristie
Julia
Saturday 21st of May 2022
Hi Kristie! I've seen others make sourdough starter using almond flour, but I would google a different recipe to be sure it turns out. I've never baked a loaf of sourdough bread but it definitely can be done :) xo
Gabriela
Sunday 23rd of January 2022
These were so good!! I can't wait to play around with the fruit additions. Mine came out a tad dry, so I may sub some of the coconut oil with applesauce next time. Definitely a recipe I will use again!
Julia
Monday 24th of January 2022
I'm so happy you enjoy them, Gabriela! I love the idea of adding some additional moisture to make them more moist. Thanks so much for the sweet note! xo
Lisa
Saturday 15th of January 2022
OMGoodness!!! These were sooooooo delicious! The texture was incredible and the taste divine!! I'm still working on my started but took my discard to make this! I used frozen TJ's very cherry berry frozen mix . I lightly dusted with some arrowroot before adding to the mixture. This recipe is a muffin gamechanger! Thank you!!
Julia
Monday 17th of January 2022
My pleasure, Lisa! Thanks so much for the sweet review! You definitely brought a smile to my face. So thrilled you love the muffins! xoxoxo :D