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.
Recipe
Vegan Blueberry Muffins Recipe
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.
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Natalie Caviness says
These muffins turned out delicious. Everyone that had one raved over them.
Madhuram says
Thank you for trying the recipe, Natalie.
reb says
There isn't a basic print recipe button...
Mike says
Our son has an allergy to eggs and finding good eggless recipes for baked goods has been challenging. I followed the recipe substituting only for real milk and these turned out great. Super fluffy, moist and delicious. I’d put these up against any egg based muffin any day! Thank you, this one is a keeper.
Madhuram says
You're welcome, Mike. Thanks for giving the recipe a try and for your feedback too.
Eva says
Just WOW! You said fluffy & they really are!! The absolute BEST MUFFINS I've ever made
Madhuram says
Thank you, Eva.
Rhonda Morris says
This is a superb recipe, I added a streusel topping. The muffins came out magnificent!
Madhuram says
Thank you for the feedback, Rhonda.
Bhargavi says
This is the best eggless muffin recipe I have ever tried! I used blueberries and bananas + chocolate chips as my two flavours and they came out so fluffy.
Madhuram says
Thank you for trying the recipe, Bhargavi.
Amy C says
I am having a brunch kitchen tea (bridal shower) for my daughter, and we have a few vegans who will be attending. I'm trying to have several options which can be enjoyed by everyone rather than this small section is for the vegans and the rest is for everyone else. I tried this recipe this morning - halving it in case it was a disaster so I wouldn't waste ingredients. Wow, just wow! I am delightfully surprised and kind of wish I had made the full recipe! These are light and bursting with flavour! I'll be making them as mini-muffins for the tea. The recipe is printed and already filed in my binder of keeper recipes. Let me say, it takes a good recipe for that to happen. Thank you so much for a fantastic recipe. I wish I could give higher than five stars! Now I'm off to look at more of your vegan recipes.
Madhuram says
Aaww...thank you very much, Amy C for your kind words and lovely feedback. Best wishes to your daughter.
Abigail Padron-Preciado says
Oh my goodness! I just made these for me and my family and they love them! I wanted to make blueberry muffins, but we did not have any eggs. So I found this recipe and made these instead. My mom and dad said that they were irresistible. Mines literally came out how the photo came out, PERFECT! Thank you so much for this, will definitely write this recipe down! 😀
Madhuram says
You're very welcome, Abigail. Thank you for trying the recipe.
Jess says
I am not vegan, but made these for a friend who is allergic to eggs. Turns out they are the best muffins I ever made! This will be my new go to recipe for blueberry muffins, regardless if the crowd is vegan or not!
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for the feedback, Jess.
Parth says
Thank you so much for this recipe! This was hands down the best muffin I've ever had, I ate five for breakfast and was so full that I couldn't eat lunch, and I ate two more for dinner!
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for the feedback, Parth.
Mich says
This recipe is absolutely amazing. My family loved it. I'm looking forward to trying more of your recipes. Thanks
Madhuram says
You're very welcome, Mich.
Panna says
Hi Madhuram,
I have been following your recipes for a long time, more than 10 years. I should tell you, these are the best muffins I tasted. I still use your temparature trick for other muffin recipes too.
And one time I ran out of All purpose flour and substituted it with bread flour. All 2 cups of it. They were still the best. I actually prefer the version with bread flour as it gives substantial bite like an egg muffin but still airy and light.
Cheers and Best wishes!
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for the lovely comment, Panna. That's a great tip on using bread flour.
Heather says
WOW these are good. And you were not kidding about the blueberry amount. I used 1.5 cups are the muffins were so moist with blueberry I could hardly get them out of the tin! They tasted incredible though, and the color on them was gorgeous. I will definitely make again with only 1 cup of blueberries!
Madhuram says
Thank you for the feedback, Heather.
Maria del Mar says
Hi,
Will this recipe work if I sub the all purpose flour with white whole wheat flour? The King Arthur one says its a 1:1 ratio.
Btw, I've made these muffins exactly as the recipe says and they're amazing, the best blueberry muffins I've ever had. Thank you.
Madhuram says
Yes, it will work, Maria. Thank you for the feedback.
Medina Gregory says
These are great with cranberries in place of the blueberries, too.
Madhuram says
That's nice to know, Medina. Will try it one of these days. Thank you.
Sadaf Nawaz says
Thank you for the amazing recipe. The muffins turned out great except that the muffin were bit dry especially the top. What can be the reason?
Madhuram says
You're welcome, Sadaf. Maybe you can try baking it for a couple of minutes less than the time specified.
Tonya Bosher says
I have made this several times, awesome, thank you! I have had success with 2 cups of oat fufu(flour) and 2tsp baking soda & 1/2 salt, I didn't get the dome shape, but it is gluten free!
Madhuram says
Thank you, Tonya. Yes, gluten-free muffins are tricky.
Bec says
Wow! These muffins are actually SO good. I was searching for an egg-free muffin recipe for my son's lunchbox and stumbled across them by chance. I am so glad I did! They rise perfectly using your temperature method. Thank you so much 🙂
Madhuram says
You're very welcome, Bec.
Rose says
Fantastic recipe with brilliant and complete explanations - thank you
I wanted to try making muffins (visitors!) but had no eggs. That’s because I’m allergic to them. What to do? Yay the vegans And Willy’s Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother!
I tried making 2 batches - raspberry (following your instructions absolutely) and Mediterranean savoury. I used melted butter instead of oil.
Your instructions are spot on, perfect - they worked.
Muffins are cooling; I’ve tried one of each and I think the visitors will be amazed. They are so light and so fluffy and rose beautifully. Thank you
Madhuram says
Wow! Thank you very much Rose for taking your valuable time to leave such detailed feedback! I'm glad that you got both the variations spot on. Now I can't wait to try your Mediterranean savory version.
Tahira Akhtar says
Hi I was wondering if they will work with oat flour to make them suitable as breakfast muffins? Or maybe a mixture of white flour and oat flour? Thanks in advance
Madhuram says
It won't work with just oat flour alone because it's gluten free and you won't get enough rise in the muffin. You can replace the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour and a very small portion of oat flour mixed with white/wheat flour might work.
Gitaben Kumar says
Hi can I used normal plain flour
Madhuram says
You can use, Gitaben.
Michael says
Hello !
Just made these with wheat flour, came out nice and moist and super delicious!! Thank you !
Madhuram says
Thank you, Michael!
Cathy Pelletier says
I have made the vegan blueberry muffins a number of times and like them a lot. I would like to submit the recipe to include in a local fundraising cookbook in Midland Ontario Canada. Would that be ok?
Madhuram says
Sure you can use it, Cathy.
Nidhi says
Really good recipe for eggless muffins. Few variations I made were - I had to add more milk and less oven time to avoid drying of muffins during my second batch.
Madhuram says
Thank you for the feedback, Nidhi.
Jackie Rios says
So easy and yummy! I used oat milk, the full cup of sugar, and vanilla instead of lemon extract/zest. Husband approved. Will definitely make again.
Madhuram says
That's great, Jackie!
Jen says
Can use whole wheat flour?
Madhuram says
Yes, you can, Jen.
Mmm says
These are amazing! I didn't have lemons or the lemon extract so just used a tsp of vanilla extract, fresh blueberries tossed in flour, and 180g sugar - perfect sweetness and great texture. Thank you for recipe!
Madhuram says
You're very welcome.
Lori Romick says
Absolutely delicious!! I did substitute 1/2 cup of the flour with whole wheat flour and 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds- but this recipe was just what I was looking for. Thanks!
Madhuram says
You're very welcome, Lori.
Cassandra says
I halved the amount of sugar, missed out the lemon zest and lemon extract (didn't have any) and used extra virgin olive oil, raw milk and frozen blueberries. They were unbelievabley light, fluffy and tasted amazing.
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for the feedback, Cassandra.
Laura says
Can I mix these ingredients manually using a whisk or mixing using a stand mixer with paddle attachment is recommended?
Madhuram says
You don't need a mixer for this recipe, Laura. I don't even own a stand mixer. For all my recipes I either use a normal whisk or electric beater.
Ashley says
These turned out great! I used vanilla extract instead of lemon, and skipped the zest.
Madhuram says
Thank you, Ashley.
Mohana says
Hi all it's my favourite recipe and all my friends absolutely love it. Thank you for this
Madhuram says
You're welcome, Mohana.
Haleh says
Great recipe! Moist inside, crunchy outside. I only made half the recipe so we wouldn’t eat it all:)
Madhuram says
Thanks for the feedback, Haleh.
Hema Ramanathan says
Amazing recipe. Followed to the dot and turned out Awesome. Vanished from my tea table within a few minutes. Thanks Madhuram
Madhuram says
You're welcome, Hema.
Janet says
I was excited about making this after reading the reviews, but I ended up being disappointed. I cut the recipe in half and I do understand how to calculate half, lol. The lemon abstract was replaced by vanilla, because that’s what I had. I used organic brown sugar. It took around 40 minutes to bake. The canola oil seemed strong. Any idea where I went wrong?
Madhuram says
Sorry to hear that it didn't turn out good, Janet. 40 minutes is too much baking time. Halving the recipe will be reducing all the measurements into half. It should work out fine. I have done that before. Did you reduce all the ingredients to 50% measurement?
Monika says
I just made these muffins and they were so delicious! It was as if I was taking a bite into the sunshine! The only issue I found was that the blueberries (I used frozen) fell apart in the muffin. What should I have done differently?
Notes: I made this using whole milk, lime zest, lime juice (2 tsp instead of extract), and frozen blueberries.
Madhuram says
Wow! What a creative expression, Monika! Taking a bite into the sunshine! Lovely! Hope you didn't thaw the frozen berries. Just mix it in a teaspoon of flour and add it to the batter at the very end and give a light twirl with a spatula. Overmixing will mess it up.
Tennessee says
This is a great and easy recipe and it said it made 12 but it has even more than that and it is great because we were out of eggs and I couldn’t find anything except this and it’s a great one , I highly recommend this recipe to anyone
Madhuram says
Thank you very much, Tennessee.
Kristina Ray says
Great recipe! I added vanilla extract and some cinnamon instead of lemon zest and I think they turned out well. Thanks!
Madhuram says
Thanks, Kristina.
Kelli says
My batter came out very thick. Any suggestions?
Madhuram says
The recipe has perfect measurements, but sometimes I think the type of flour we use might slightly affect how much liquid it absorbs. You can try to dilute it with some milk/water.
Amy C says
Definitely spoon your flour into your measuring cup. Scooping flour with the measuring cup gives you way more flour than the recipe calls for. 🙂
Melissa says
Thank you for this recipe. Our family is staying in amid the coronavirus crisis and baking is an all time favorite pass time. These muffins are delicious!!! We used King Arthur Gluten free measure for measure flour, olive oil instead of canola oil and hemp milk because our son is nut free. Excellent recipe!!! We will make it again. So good our non food allergy child devoured these. Lol
Madhuram says
Thank you very much, Melissa. Stay safe!
shailja says
Hi. Could you please share gram measurements for this? Thanks a lot! really eager to try.
Madhuram says
Hi Shailaja, can you please check the baking measurements page for tables to convert the recipe into grams? Thank you.
Madeleine Cornwell says
Madhuram!
I made this yesterday, and I was so happily surprised at the results. The texture was soft and moist and very flavorful and I didn't miss the eggs at all. I didn't have fresh or frozen blueberries, so I used dried blueberries that I soaked in water before incorporating them in the batter. Unfortunately most of them sank to the bottom, but still yummy. I also made some muffin tops, since I doubled the recipe. My husband loved them too, and he's not a huge fan of sweet muffins. Definitely keeping this in my favorites. I can't wait to try the spinach banana muffin and prove for myself that I can eat spinach in a sweet food! Thank you so much!
Madhuram says
You're very welcome, Madeleine. When using dried fruits you will have to toss them in flour so that it won't sink at the bottom. I'm sure you will love the spinach banana muffins!
Anshika Aggarwal says
I think baking soda quantity is too much. Try lessening it.
Angela says
Hi Madhuram! I made these blueberry muffins and they were AMAZING!!! I used thin coconut milk instead of rice milk and distilled white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar. I used almost 1 full cup of sugar as my blueberries were more on the tarty side. The texture was perfect and the lemon flavour complements the taste of the muffins so well. Thanks a ton for sharing this recipe!!!!
Madhuram says
You're very welcome, Angela. Adding coconut milk is a wonderful variation. Does the muffin smell coconutty? Is it too overpowering or just mild?
Angela says
I used store bought coconut milk which is very thick and creamy. So I added water to make it thin ( like the 2nd extract of coconut milk). Not a soul would say that coconut milk has been used to make the muffins! It's not overpowering at all. It's too mild that you can't get the coconutty flavour one bit.
PS - I forgot to rate the recipe previously so I'm giving it with this comment.
Madhuram says
Oh, wow! I will be trying it soon with coconut milk too. I have a couple of cans at home.
Thank you very much for clarifying and for the rating, Angela. I appreciate it. 🙂
Shirley VanGarde says
Good eggless recipe. Combined dry ingredients and liquids separately, then gently folded together. Made 55 minimuffins perfectly golden at 375F for 12 min, cooked direct in pan no papers. Unexpectedly needed to make vegan muffins with no time to run to store. Used unsweetened rice milk, lemon juice as the acid for the soda, dried cranberries and sunflower seeds instead of blueberries, added some cinnamon and nutmeg. This guest prefers lower sugar so I used 1/2 c and it was fine. Like all eggless muffins, there is extra leavening and the soda flavor comes through. This batch was quickly eaten by those w/o dietary restrictions too.
Madhuram says
That's awesome, Shirley. Thank you very much for the detailed feedback.