I’m not a pro at vegan baking… and never really was a pro at any type of baking. But I have to say that I think I have muffins down! I love that muffins can be made easily with whole grains and low sweetness, and have such a vast potential of flavors. This apple cinnamon muffin recipe is a compilation of all my muffin making trials into my first original baked goods recipe! My daughter (and my husband and I) can’t resist these muffins… they never last very long around here. I hope your family enjoys them as well; let’s bake!
The main flavor in these muffins are apple puree and cinnamon (duh). I fell in love with using apple puree in recipes, not to reduce the fat or oil, but because I love sweetening with fruit as much as possible. A bit of maple syrup takes them to that perfect just-sweet enough level without any refined sugar! Coconut oil and non-dairy milk add in some fat and then some flax egg for binding power. All these goodies gets whisked together.
Next comes my favorite blend of flours to use in muffins. I use a 2:1:1 ratio of whole wheat pastry flour : almond flour : oat flour. The wheat flour can be replaced with a gluten-free four blend to make these babies gluten-free as well! I have found this blend takes down the heaviness and whole-wheaty flavor and give the muffins a lighter texture, plus I just love packing in different ingredients for nutritional variety! Add in the cinnamon/salt/rising agents and mix it all into the wet ingredients.
The resulting batter is quite thick and doesn’t run like cake or pancake batter. Then into the mini muffin tray and into the oven and, in about 15 minutes, your house will smell amazing and your kids will ask you ten times if the muffins are cool enough to eat yet!
If you fall in love with this method of making muffins, some time savers would be to have apple (or pear) puree on hand for the muffins of the week, and to make a large batch of the flour blend. I still haven’t done this, but I am a terrible pre-planner when it comes to cooking! I’m gonna work on that for you guys!
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax meal, 2-3 tbsp water)
- 1 cup apple puree (~ 4 small apples)
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil
- ⅓ cup plain unsweetened non-dairy milk
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ½ cup almond flour
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or GF flour blend
- ½ cup oat flour
- Prepare flax egg and preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Measure out all ingredients, blend apples for puree and oats for oat flour, if necessary and melt coconut oil (+ a little extra for greasing the pan)
- Grease mini muffin pan with melted coconut oil using a reusable brush (or your fingers)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In the large mixing bowl with the flax egg, whisk together all the wet ingredients until blended
- Mix together the dry ingredients and add to the wet, mix until incorporated and everything looks wet. Don't overmix the batter.
You will get a thick batter that is scoopable, not runny. - Scoop the batter into the greased muffin tin (I use a ⅛ cup measuring cup or a medium sized spoon.)
- Cook for 16-18 minutes (ovens vary) until muffins spring back to a light poke.
If you have extra batter, pour into a small ramekin and bake alongside the mini muffins. Depending on the size, this could take longer, but it is also done when the muffin springs back to a light poke.
Makes 24 mini muffins.
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