Here comes another amazing vegan recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I can assure you that this is the best eggless/vegan blueberry muffins one can bake.
It's as light as an angel food cake made with only egg whites. You can imagine how light that cake would be.
So these eggless blueberry muffins which use vinegar as an egg substitute are also equally light and airy.
I used apple cider vinegar this time and got no aftertaste or smell from the vinegar. I personally feel that white vinegar has an aftertaste and smell.
I have made this vegan blueberry recipe a couple of times with many variations in using different flavors and ingredients, yet the recipe yields perfect muffins every time. I have used lemon zest, orange zest, orange juice, rice milk, and almond milk for flavorings and the liquid portion. I prefer these eggless blueberry muffins with orange flavoring the most.
I have always loved the combination of blueberry and orange. This orange blueberry bread is another best example of how lovely this combination is.
In my early days of venturing into vegan baking, I have used soy milk as a vegan substitute for dairy milk and have always felt that soy milk tends to give a rubbery texture to the baked treat. I don't know if it's just me or if others have felt it too.
That's the reason I have stopped using soy milk and these days mainly use rice milk and almond milk. Bot these non-dairy kinds of milk don't affect the texture.
I have another version of these muffins which uses whole wheat pastry flour, flax meal, maple syrup - healthy vegan blueberry muffins.
How to make vegan blueberry muffins?
Here is the step-by-step pictorial recipe on how to make fluffy vegan blueberry muffins from scratch:
Top Tip
This vegan blueberry muffin recipe is one of the most tried recipes from the blog and I get a lot of questions asking for substitutions and many other things. I have tried to answer it all either individually or consolidating similar questions and created one below.
So please take some time to go through all the questions and answers before trying the recipe or before repeating the same question in the comments section. Thank you.
If you tried this Vegan Blueberry Muffins recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
💌 Save This Recipe!
We'll email this recipe post to you, so you can come back to it later!
We will also add you to our email list. Unsubscribe at any time.
Recipe
Vegan Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour (I used bleached)
- 1 and ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Lemon/orange Zest
- ¾ to 1 cup Sugar
- 1 cup any non-dairy milk
- ⅓ cup any oil with neutral flavor
- 1 teaspoon vanilla/lemon/orange extract (optional)
- 1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 and ½ cups Fresh OR Frozen Blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F/200C (see My Notes) for 15 minutes. Lightly grease a muffin tin.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and orange zest.
- Combine the sugar, milk, oil, extract, and vinegar in a large bowl. Mix well.
- Add the dry and wet ingredients to stir until just combined. Don't over-stir.
- Gently fold in the berries using a rubber spatula.
- Fill the muffin tins about ⅔rds full.
- Bake at 400F for about 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 375F and bake for another 7-8 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes. After that remove the muffins from the tins and cool on a wire rack.
Taste & Texture
Nutrition
Recipe FAQs
I know that it's easy to get tempted to replace the oil/fat in a baking recipe with applesauce to make it fat-free, but that would result in dense and dry muffins. It won’t be as airy as using oil alone. So I would suggest just replacing half the quantity of oil with applesauce.
Since the acidic content of lemon juice is less when compared to vinegar you might have to double the quantity of vinegar. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of vinegar, use 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.
Lemon zest is nothing but grating the skin of the lemon. Care should be taken so that the inner white sheet from the skin does not peel away because it will be bitter. Lemon extract is like vanilla, and almond extract is in liquid form.
I wouldn't say that it's compulsory, but it will give these blueberry muffins a nice flavor without baking powder. You may choose to use orange zest/extract instead of simply vanilla extract will be good too.
Opening the oven door quite too often while it is baking makes cold air enter the oven and might be the reason for the muffins to sink. Another reason is that you used too much batter for each muffin.
No it doesn’t work like that. You would have to use Xanathan gum. I haven't baked this recipe gluten-free and have read that simply substituting the all-purpose flour with gluten-free flour would not work especially in baked goods that have to rise, like muffins, cupcakes, and cakes. Brownies and cookies should not be that much of a problem to bake gluten-free and can be done without xanthan gum.
Gluten-free and egg free is a lot of trial and error methods only. But some of the readers did mention that they tried this recipe gluten-free using rice flour and gluten-free mix (which already has the xantham gum in it). You may try it at your discretion. I will try to bake a gluten-free version shortly and blog about it soon.
Certainly you can. Just use dairy milk and if you prefer butter, melted butter instead of oil. One of the readers suggested that the muffins turn out better if oil is used instead of melted butter though.
Any oil that has a neutral flavor. Peanut oil, sunflower oil, (refined) coconut oil, avocado oil, etc could work on this homemade vegan blueberry muffins recipe.
You can try it at 350F but bake it a few minutes longer.
Halving the recipe may not work out always. It's again for you to experiment and see. Another option is to bake all the muffins and freeze the remaining and use it later. If you decide to halve the recipe and use a 12-cup pan, then you will have to fill the rest of the cups with little water so that the muffins will bake evenly and doesn’t get dried out.
You can try a flaxseed meal, but I’m pretty sure the muffins won’t be as airy and light as those with lemon and vinegar. You can blend a teaspoon of flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons of warm water.
There are a couple of reasons for this:
1) If you try to peel off the wrapper while the muffins are still warm
2) If you make it low-fat or fat-free
3) If you don't lightly grease the liners with non-stick cooking spray.
The temperature does not change, but you need to bake it for a shorter time than you would bake regular-sized muffins. Somewhere between 12-15 minutes.
I have explained it in detail here: Why does fruit sink to bottom of the cake?
Rice milk is derived from cooked white/brown rice. You can use any other non-dairy milk like almond milk, oat milk, hemp milk, etc. I personally don't prefer using soy milk because it gives a sticky texture to the baked goods. For vegan baking, my choice is either rice milk or almond milk.
Yes you can use any other berries or fruits of your choice. Or even add-ons like nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruits, etc.
sasa says
Omg these are so yummy!
Madhuram says
Thanks Sasa.
Joanna says
I did the same thing with the sugar!!! That is too funny, I read your mistake after I made them of course!! TWICE I MADE THEM and did same thing both times! 🙂 Regardless, thankfully, as you said, it did not make a difference! Great hit with my non-vegan friends at work! And a 90 year old lady who never cared for blueberry muffins!! I brought her one, then next time I saw her she asked for more. 😉
I love them as well!
Madhuram says
Thanks Joanna.
Diane says
These are the best muffins ever!! I used almond milk, since thats all I have in fridge. I also used baking powder instead of soda. Thank you so much for this great recipe.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Diane. But be aware that using baking powder for baking soda or the vice versa doesn't work always.
Maggie says
I just made these with some substitutes (for dietary and lack of a kitchen pantry reasons). I used applesauce instead of oil, 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup maple sugar (next time I will try 2/3 cup maple sugar). I also subbed the flour for Trader Joe's gluten free four. They were great! I left out the lemon extract. Thanks for the recipe!
Madhuram says
You're welcome Maggie. Now I too want to try it with gluten-free flour.
Dani says
Nom nom nom nom nom! Thank you:)
Madhuram says
You're welcome Dani.
Alexa says
Thabk you for this recipe, it's delicious. I skipped the lemon zest and extract and used almond milk as my milk. I used butter instead of oil as I'm not vegan, just allergic to eggs, and used frozen raspberries. They came out perfectly! Thanks again
Madhuram says
You're weclome Alexa.
Rama says
Hello,
Tried this recipe recently and it turn out too good. Thank you for this recipe.
Rama
Madhuram says
Thanks Rama.
Amy at Kid Cultivation says
Thanks for this recipe! I will be making these for my 6-year-old's class Valentine's Day party this week. My son is allergic to eggs (and nuts) so I'm used to egg-free baking, but it can be tough finding semi-healthy "treats" for my daughter's first grade classroom with peanut, tree nut, dairy, soy, sesame, and oat allergies that the kids will actually eat. Looking forward to these!
Trisha says
So yummy! I used Silk soy milk, apple cider vinegar, went on the low side for the sugar, orange zest instead of lemon zest and skipped the lemon extract. Will definitely make again, as long as my son Brayden approves when he tastes them! He is dairy and egg allergic, so always happy to find new recipes!
Madhuram says
Thanks Trisha.
sathia says
want to receive in my mobile
Sweta says
Your recipes are excellent!! I made banana strawbery muffin and the vegan blueberry muffin. It turned out really good. I have used various recipes from different blogs and honestly, I loved the information and recipes you have. Keep up the good work.
Madhuram says
Thanks for the feedback, Sweta. I'm very glad that you love my blog.
Vegan friend says
FYI, dairy milk is not vegan.
Sarah says
I've made this recipe around four times and it's fantastic! I use olive oil in place of canola oil and it doesn't result in any unpleasant taste. It's also great to try with frozen mixed berries, and you can substitute half of the flour for whole wheat flour if you want a little more fibre.
Madhuram says
That's great Sarah.
KatieH says
These were very good! Thank you so much! I was very excited to find a muffin recipe that tastes delicious and is 100% vegan. I used brown sugar and almond milk which turned out really well. One thing, my muffins had a baking soda aftertaste. I was wondering if that was normal, or if I somehow screwed up the recipe. Any tips for getting rid of that baking soda taste?
Madhuram says
You're welcome Katie. I'm suspecting that the baking soda would have gone bad. Did you check the expiry date or is it a long time since you got it?
Desiree Cuniberti says
I've made these twice - LOVE THEM! I substituted vanilla extract for the lemon extract, used 2% regular milk, and apple cider vinegar (as suggested). Also I calculated Weight Watcher points - 4 points for 1 muffin. (The mix ended up making 18 for me).
Madhuram says
Thanks Desiree. This recipe is surely a keeper.
Alex says
These were amazing! I made them with apples and cinnamon with a vegan streusel topping and they were perfect -- airy and perfectly moist. Adamswife, I tried adding the vinegar at the end and that did the trick for a fluffy texture.
Madhuram says
Thanks Alex. I'm also going to try the vinegar trick the next time I bake these muffins.
adamswife says
LOVE THESE!! I used whole wheat flour and these were still great. i always add in the vinegar after i've stirred everything else together - it makes for a better "rise" and fluffiness. I also used orange zest and no extract. Thanks for this recipe. I've used it a few times and always had great results 🙂
Madhuram says
You're welcome Adam'swife. I too have tried a whole wheat version of this recipe and it's here: Vegan Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
Jessica says
I made these exactly as the recipe stands, but substituted applesauce for oil. The batter was awesome! The smell was amazing! Got them out, let them cool for a while, and they tasted like an awful bitter bar of soap or something of the sort. What could have caused this? I am not new to baking, I have never had this taste, and I am going crazy trying to figure it out... I washed the BB, I have clean pans, and used cupcake liners.. nothing smells odd, just the horrible, haunting taste!
Madhuram says
I'm guessing it's something to do with the baking soda. Did you use baking powder instead of baking soda? I'm asking this because somebody else switched it in a recipe and ended up having a very bitter cake.
Farzana says
OMG I had to write back to you . . . trust me, its the baking POWDER !! I went through this going crazy trying to figure the exact same as you describe here. Get rid of the baking powder and get a new one. Try a different brand as well. That's what I did. Actually, try this . . . open your baking powder and take a good whiff at it. Do you slightly smell what you are tasting? This is what I did and realized the problem. Cheers.
Jessica says
DEFINITELY! I worked up the courage to make them again yesterday. I thought, hmmm I have some extra baking powder in the pantry, I'll open it up and use it. Sure enough.. no rancid terrible taste! I was really bothered by it 😛 Thank you for writing back ~ appreciated !
Farzana says
No problem ! I'm glad it worked out for you ! 🙂
Farzana says
If you decide to omit the gum, add an extra TBSP flax meal (add about 1 TBSP extra water to your liquids) Also, allow it to sit for 5 minutes before attempting to remove it from your pan. Otherwise, it will rip open and start crumbling. I have baked without the gum more than half a dozen times and works just great. Not as sticky/gummy, which sometimes I like. I have also tried this using soya milk and it also just works fine 🙂