Blueberry Mini Muffins (Little Bites Copycat!)

Craving the nostalgic taste of Little Bites blueberry mini muffins? Try making this copycat recipe at home! These easy healthier treats are perfect for a quick and tasty snack, made with gluten-free and vegan ingredients so everyone will love them. Kid-approved and easy to freeze, so feel free to double the batch!

There were many many Entenmann’s Little Bites muffins in my childhood, but the memory they evoke most is cruising around Kroger in the seat of the shopping cart, popping open that white box, ripping into a pouch, and munching my toddler way through all 5 of those gloriously soft little muffins with their tiny nubs of sugary blueberry as my mom pushed me around the store. It always felt like I was doing something a little bit bad too, breaking the normal grocery store order of buy then eat. Little did I know she was just trying to keep me occupied while she worked through her list, but for me the rebel-nature just added to the deliciousness of the whole experience. It was almost always the blueberry variety, never chocolate chip, very occasionally fudge brownie, and none of the wild flavors they have today like banana or crumb cake.

Creating a recipe inspired by that memory has been on my list for some time now, and I finally got around to making the yummiest little copycat muffins. They have the same almost under-baked moistness, super soft fluffy interior, small not overly juicy blueberry morsels, and the perfectly poppable size of course. But with a very different ingredient list that’s vegan friendly, gluten-free, and doesn’t begin with sugar – woo!

How To Make the Perfect Little Bites Copycat Muffins At Home

I kept this recipe as easy as possible with busy meal preps and mamas of little ones in mind. Because they are the perfect prep ahead healthy-ish snack (that freezes really well if you want to double the batch!) and very kid-friendly too. So it’s a one-bowl recipe that only requires 15 minutes of prep and bakes in less than 30. You’ll be muffin munching in no time.

Gluten-Free Blueberry Mini Muffin Ingredients

This recipe is easily gluten-free and vegan friendly with a flax egg or egg egg option (flax egg version pictured). You will need:

• Avocado oil. Or another natural flavored oil, melted coconut oil or melted butter would be fine as well.
• Coconut sugar. Or swap in brown sugar. I don’t recommend cane sugar here, not enough moisture you will end up with drier muffins.
• Flax egg. Or use a regular egg if vegan muffins are not your goal, both are fluffy and delicious.
• Milk. I used almond milk, any dairy or non-dairy milk is fine.
• Vanilla extract.
• Gluten-free flour. Just a pre-mixed blend, like I said we are keeping it easy.
• Coconut flour. This is optional-ish. You can just use more gluten-free flour, but I slightly prefer the crumb with a little bit of coconut flour in the mix. My husband preferred the non-coconut flour ones…so up to you!
• Baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
• Blueberries. I prefer to use frozen wild blueberries because they are the smallest and most proportionally appropriate for mini muffins, and the sweetest. And keep reading for a trick to make sure they don’t turn your batter purple…

How To Prevent Frozen Blueberries From Turning Your Muffins Purple

You could use fresh blueberries, those are much easier to gently fold in without dying the entire bowl of batter. Or you could use dried or freeze-dried berries even, both are small and sweet and would pop in these mini muffins. I considered all of these options, but I really wanted to find a way to use frozen since a) I always have them on hand b) they’re cheaper and c) you can use the smaller wild ones which are much more Little Bites copycat sized. I knew there had to be a way, and here it is:

1. Defrost the berries. One to one and a half minutes in the microwave on high is usually perfect. Make sure you measure before defrosting, they will lose quite a bit of volume.
2. Drain and rinse the berries in a colander to get rid of all that beautiful purple juice (makes a great natural food coloring!)
3. Dry the berries really well between two paper towels. Leave them for at least 10 minutes to really absorb all the extra juice. They will have a shriveled almost dried look, but this is perfect for folding into the muffin batter.

Substitutes and Variations

I already mentioned the flax egg for a chicken egg substitute, and gluten-free flour for all purpose if you’re not gluten-free is an easy swap too. You could also change up the type of berries with raspberries or cherries or strawberry pieces. Add in some extra flavorings like almond extract or ground ginger. Or mix up the mix-in with mini chocolate chips or funfetti sprinkles. Have fun with the mini muffin making!

More Blueberry Muffin Recipes You’ll Love

• Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Muffins
• No-Bake Blueberry Muffin Bites
• Grain-Free Blueberry Muffins
• Chocolate Blueberry Muffins
• And an honorable mini muffin mention: Secretly Healthy Chocolate Mini Muffins!

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