Two Ways to Freeze Muffins {plus links to over 50 healthy muffins from scratch recipes}

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I was having a conversation with a friend recently and I mentioned that I like to freeze muffins before I bake them. Up until a couple of years ago I always baked muffins and then froze them. It worked great but it was time consuming to keep cooked muffins stocked in the freezer. Then I learned that there’s more than one way to freeze muffins. Who knew?

Let’s chat for just a minute about which way is the best way to freeze muffins because we all want to do things the “best” way, right? Here’s the deal, there is no best way. Either way of freezing muffins is good and it means you can serve made from scratch muffins to your family without having to make them fresh each time.

I don’t think one way saves more time than the other, one way you spend the time when you’re making the muffin batter and the other way you split time between two different times. There are pros and cons to each way of freezing muffins, just pick a way and see if it works for you. If not, try the other way – it’s all good.

How to Freeze Muffins After Baking

The most common way to freeze muffins is to freeze them after baking. It’s a great option if you have time to cook the muffins and you want to be able to pull already baked muffins out of the freezer. Here’s how to freeze muffins so they store well.

Bake your favorite muffins (or try a new muffin recipe below)
Let baked muffins cool completely. This is a super important step, do not try to freeze warm muffins you’ get condensation and then ice crystals will form in your freezer container. If you cool them completely, there’s no need to put a paper towel in your container.
Put cooled muffins in freezer safe storage container. You can use ziplock bags, plastic storage containers or freezer safe glass containers. Here are some tips for freezing in glass containers. If you use a ziplock bag, you can use a straw to remove some of the air – just don’t squish the muffins. I like to stack mine in an 11 cup Pyrex container.
To reheat frozen muffins place muffin in microwave for 20-30 seconds or in oven (or toaster oven) for 5-10 minutes at 350°F. You can also put a frozen muffin wrapped in a napkin in a sack lunch and it will be thawed by the time lunch comes around. There’s no need to refrigerate muffins so they can also just thaw on the counter and eat them at room temperature.
The muffins should store just fine in the freezer for 3-4 months. Mine never last that long.

How to Freeze Muffins Before Baking

A couple of years ago I learned from Jami over at An Oregon Cottage that you could freeze muffins before cooking them. It was life changing for me! And no, I’m not exaggerating.

Up until that time would make double and triple batches of muffins to bake and freeze. Most muffin recipes make a dozen muffins and since my family of 8 could easily polish off a dozen muffins in one sitting there were never any extra to freeze unless I intentionally made extra.

I could easily spend an afternoon making 6-7 dozen muffins for the freezer and end the day exhausted and with a kitchen to clean and muffins to store. It was worth it but now I prefer to freeze the muffins before baking.

Freezing muffins before baking them seems less time intensive to me although I don’t think there is truly a time savings. I don’t need to be able to pull out a cooked muffin from the freezer. I have other snacks we can grab it we need something in less than a minute.

Here’s how to freeze muffins before baking them…

Make your favorite muffin recipe (or try one of the muffin recipes below)
Put paper muffin tin liners in the muffin tin. Depending on the muffin recipe the muffins might stick to the paper liners so I try buy the ones that are waxed or are parchment paper. There’s no need to spend a lot of money on muffin tin liners, just grab them on clearance after any holiday.
Put batter in the muffin tins and instead of baking put them in the freezer until they’re frozen.
Once frozen, put the muffins in a ziplock bag – you should be able to get 12 in a bag. You can use other freezer storage containers, I like to use ziplock bags because they stack really nicely and don’t take up much space.
To bake, put the frozen raw muffins in a muffin tin and put them in a cold oven.
Turn the oven to the temperature called for in the recipe (or 350°F which is my default) and bake. The muffins will thaw as the oven heats up. You’ll need to cook them about five minutes longer than normal.

Here’s the beauty of freezing muffins before baking them. In less than five minutes I can pull frozen muffins from the freezer, plop them into a muffin tin, and put them into the oven to bake. I can then go shower and get ready of the day or do whatever I need to do while the muffins bake. So instead of spending a whole afternoon cooking and cleaning I can make and freeze muffin batter and then bake them as needed while doing other things.

Healthy Muffin Recipes

Obviously I haven’t tried to freeze all of these recipes, but I have frozen a variety of muffins and I’ve never had any that didn’t freeze well. If you’re trying a new recipe I suggest you make just one batch to be sure your family likes it before you make and freeze a bunch of muffins.

I would consider all of these muffin recipes to be healthy. Of course, we all have our own definition of what healthy means. Some of these might not fit your definition of healthy and that’s okay, just skip over those.