Muffins are an excellent way to start your day. We can’t imagine anyone turning down a muffin. One of our favorite vegan blueberry muffin recipes is a crowd-pleaser on the vegan and non-vegan sides of the fence. The best part, besides their delicious flavor, if they are pretty straightforward and inexpensive to produce. Even a novice baker can make these blueberry muffins.
A Few Muffin Baking Hacks Before We Begin Baking
Have you ever bought a “fresh” muffin at a bakery and found it was semi-tough or not as fluffy as expected? Several things can cause these effects, but the most likely culprits are old baking powder or baking soda. If possible, try to use fresh baking soda and baking powder to ensure your muffins are fluffy and not chewy.
If you aren’t a vegan, you’ll still love these muffins. However, we realize everyone, even some vegans, are not a big fan of almond milk. You can use soy milk, cashew milk, or coconut milk in place of almond milk if you prefer one of those kinds of milk. If these aren’t for you individually, consider any possible allergies when choosing non-dairy milk. Consider allergies for all the ingredients for that matter.
It’s not necessary, but consider adding a little lime, orange, or lemon zest to the recipe for some added kick. Sometimes we want a little bonus flavor added to baked goods. Anyone can make these muffins and make them delicious if they follow our recipe, but there’s no harm in adding your own twist to it. There’s room in almost anyone for a little improvement or personalization.
Preheat your oven and don’t think about putting these muffins in it until it’s ready. You know your oven better than we do, so adjust for temperate issues. Some ovens are a little hotter or colder than the temperature they’re advertising. Putting the muffins in the oven before it is preheated is another way to end up with chewy muffins or ones with burnt bottoms.
This tip isn’t really a hack, but it’s an important note, don’t switch the unsweetened applesauce for sweetened applesauce. It sounds tempting, but these muffins are already sweet and adding more sweetness will drown the flavor entirely. We added some ideas above if you want a little extra flavor. Try adding zest and stay away from adding more sweetness to the recipe. Let’s get to baking.
Easy Vegan Blueberry Muffins
These muffins are great for breakfast or as a quick dessert. They’re sweet with a little tart punch. You’ll need about thirty minutes to get everything ready from mixing to eating.
That’s ten minutes to prep the ingredients, about twenty minutes of baking time, and a minute to cool slightly before you try one. The recipe makes about 18 to 20 muffins depending on the size of your pan and how much batter you put in each cup. As a bonus, they have less than 150 calories per muffin.
Before you get started, make sure you have all the ingredients and everything else you might need to make sure this is a fast process. Obviously, you’ll need a muffin pan and muffin cups. Glass bowls are the way to go for mixing baking ingredients. Gather two large bowls and a medium-size bowl. You’ll combine the muffin ingredients in 4 stages including the final step.
Follow the instructions closely. Mix everything in the order we’ve outlined to avoid runny, messy batter or flat muffins. The most important thing is to let the dough sit as little as possible, so it doesn’t lose any air trapped in it.
At the same time, don’t go overboard mixing the ingredients or the batter will get runny and messy. You’re walking a fine line here but follow our guide, and you’ll do fine. They are much easier to make than the paragraph makes them sound.
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The Ingredients
2 ½ cups of fresh blueberries
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup unsweetened almond milk
As we mentioned before, try to use fresh baking soda and baking powder. You can swap the almond milk for unsweetened soy milk, coconut milk, or cashew milk. Feel free to add some lemon, orange, or lime zest to the recipe for a little-added tart kick and flavor. Try to stick with the other ingredients to keep the muffins on track with the recipe. You won’t be disappointed.
Prepping and Baking Instructions
Before you do anything else, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. An adequately preheated oven is critical to perfect muffins, and it keeps your muffins from burning on the bottom or coming out of the oven chewy. While the oven is preheating, place baking cups in your muffin tin. Optionally, give the cups a quick spray with any vegan-friendly nonstick cooking spray.
Set your muffin tin to one side and put the blueberries in a glass bowl. Make sure the container is large enough to hold all the blueberries and has room for tossing the berries in a little flour. Sprinkle a little flour over the blueberries and roll them until they are lightly covered in flour. Try not to add too much flour during this step; about a tablespoon is enough flour to coat the berries.
Grab a large glass bowl and combine the applesauce, oil, and sugar. Beat the mixture until it is fluffy. Once these ingredients are light and fluffy, add the vanilla, baking soda, and white vinegar to the mix and whisk the mixture until it’s mixed well. If you want to add lime, orange, or lemon zest to the muffins, add it to this bowl during the first steps.
Get another large glass bowl and whisk the salt, baking powder, and flour together. Once those ingredients are mixed well, pour the almond milk into the bowl with the wet ingredients.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the bowl after you add the almond milk. Stir all these ingredients until they are mixed well but be careful and avoid mixing them to avoid flat muffins. Gently fold the blueberries into the mix until you get them evenly distributed throughout the bowl.
Using an ice cream scoop or cookie scoop, place one scoop of batter into each muffin cup. Muffin tins vary in size depending on the manufacturer. Try not to fill the cups more than halfway or the muffins will outgrow the cups and turn into a mess. You can eat messy muffins, but the presentation is half the fun.
Bake your vegan blueberry muffins for 20 to 25-minutes until they’re golden brown. Use the toothpick test to make sure they are done in the middle before removing them from the oven. You’re close to the best part now, eating the muffins.
Storing Your Vegan Blueberry Muffins for Later
Have you ever grabbed a leftover muffin from inside a sealed container and found it was sticky and messy to eat, or soggy? As muffins age, the moisture and sugars in them make their way to the surface of the muffin. If left on a cooling rack, the muffin will dry out and turn into a tough, chewy mess.
If you store them in a sealed container, the moisture reacts the same way except it can’t get away from the muffin. The muffins absorb the moisture over and over until they become soggy and sticky.
The sad truth about all baked bread, muffins, and their ilk are they begin to get stale the moment they cool off. That said, always allow your muffins to cool completely before storing them in a sealed container or airtight bag.
Over time muffins dry out and turn into sadness, or become a sticky, soggy mess as described above. If you’re storing the muffins overnight or for about a day, you can leave them on a wire cooling rack or anywhere else for that matter.
If you put them in a sealed container overnight, put a paper towel on the bottom of the bowl and one over the muffins. The paper towels prevent sticky muffins. You can store muffins for a few days this way. However, if you keep them in a sealed container for longer than a day or two, the muffins are going to get sticky. Let’s be honest; muffins rarely last longer than three days before we eat them anyway.
Our Final Notes
These muffins are easily on our top five list of great-tasting muffins. Eat them all yourself or share them with friends. We think you’ll love these vegan blueberry muffins whether you are forced to share them or hide them for yourself. They’re easy to make and taste amazing, but don’t take our word for it, bake a batch or two and find out for yourself.