Vegan Blueberry Muffins

Stop what you're doing right now and make these vegan blueberry muffins. Seriously. Muffins this delicious should not be able to be made in 30 minutes or less, but they are! And you probably have all the required ingredients at home already.

When I'm making a recipe, I always test at least six variations of the recipe to make sure it's the most delicious version possible. But I might have made this one a few more times than necessary because... these muffins are just so good!

If you need an excuse to make them, vegan blueberry muffins are perfect for school events or breakfast meetings, but I won't tell anyone if you want to make them for an everyday treat. Whether you're serving them to vegans or a crowd that includes omnivores, everyone will love these muffins.

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

All-purpose flour: This flour worked best in my tests; as of now I don't recommend substituting with other types of flour like whole wheat or gluten-free all-purpose.

Vegan granulated sugar: I used organic cane sugar; some sugar is processed using animal bone char, but organic sugar isn't, so it's a safe choice. You could also use brown sugar for a deeper caramel color and richer flavor.

Baking powder: Allows the muffins to rise and create tall muffin tops.

Salt: Enhances the flavor of the muffins and keeps them from being overly sweet.

Plain, unsweetened almond milk: I recommend using either almond milk or soy milk, since those types of milk tend to be more consistent between brands in my experience. However, other types of non-dairy milk should also work if they have a similar thickness.

Sunflower oil: I like using sunflower oil, but other oils like canola or vegetable oil would work as well. For an oil-free version, replace the oil with an equal amount of applesauce.

Apple cider vinegar: Reacts with non-dairy milk to create a "buttermilk" flavor; you could also use white vinegar or even lemon juice.

Vanilla extract: For flavor; I prefer real vanilla extract because it has a more complex flavor profile than artificial vanilla.

Blueberries: Choose sweet, flavorful blueberries, since they're the star of this recipe! If you can't get fresh blueberries, you can use frozen, but if you don't want the color to bleed into the batter, you'll need to take some extra steps. The simplest option is to dust your frozen blueberries with some flour before folding them into the batter. Alternatively, you can rinse them in a sieve or colander until the water is mostly clear. Then pat them dry with paper towels and fold into the batter as usual.

Variations to Try

• Replace the blueberries with chocolate chips

• Use other fruits or berries in place of blueberries (blackberries, raspberries, cranberries, chopped strawberries would all be delicious)

• Add a bit of lemon zest, and replace a bit of the milk with lemon juice for lemon-blueberry muffins

• Top them with coarse sugar (like turbinado sugar) before baking for easy crunchy tops

• Add a streusel topping: mix 2 tablespoons of cold vegan butter with 1/4 cup each of flour and light brown sugar until crumbly, then sprinkle on top before baking

• Replace the sugar with brown sugar and add a teaspoon of cinnamon

Tips for Perfect Muffins with Tall Muffin Tops

Measuring flour: Measuring flour with cups can result in large variances in the amount of flour that actually gets used. For that reason, if you have a kitchen scale, I highly recommend you turn on the metric measurements in the recipe card and weigh your flour. If that's not an option, make sure you're spoon measuring your flour into the cup (don't use the cup to scoop up the flour). To do this, use a large spoon to add flour to the measuring cup until it's full. Then, use the back of a knife to scrape off the excess flour, being careful not to pack flour into the cup.

Temperature: Starting off with a high temperature and placing the muffins high in the oven are key to raising the muffin tops and turning them golden brown in color. With some recipes you'll only need the high temperature for 5 minutes or so, but this recipe does require more time at a higher temperature. When you see the tops just beginning to turn golden brown, you can reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (180°C).

Don't over-mix: This step is absolutely critical for light and fluffy muffins. You want to just mix to the point that there's no raw flour visible, and the batter is still a bit lumpy. If you mix the batter longer, more gluten will form and the muffins will be dense instead of tender.

Fill the liners almost to the top: With so many blueberries in this batter, these muffins won't rise quite as much as other muffin recipes, so you'll want to fill the liners almost to the top to get tall, domed muffin tops. In order to make sure my muffins are all the same size, I like to place my bowl of batter on my kitchen scale to check that I'm adding an equal amount of batter to each liner. I press the "tare" button to set the scale to zero, then when I remove batter, it will change to a negative number, which is the amount of batter I've removed. I press the tare button again after each muffin. For this recipe, I used about 82 grams of batter per muffin.

Check for doneness: Ovens can run hot or cold, so be sure to use a toothpick to check your muffins before you pull them out of the oven. Insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin and it should come out clean. If the toothpick has batter or crumbs stuck to it, your muffins need more time.

Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before you transfer them to the wire rack to finish cooling. This will ensure they don't fall apart.

Make-Ahead, Serving, and Storing

Since this recipe doesn't have baking soda, you can make the batter up to 1 day in advance and refrigerate it in the mixing bowl, covered, if you prefer. When you're ready to bake the muffins, just heat your oven, and continue with the recipe, filling the muffin liners as normal.

Before serving these blueberry muffins, let them cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire cooling rack. They're delicious while they're still warm, but they'll be easier to remove from the wrapper once they're cooled completely.

Store your vegan blueberry muffins in an air-tight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. If you want to store them longer, you can use a freezer bag or freezer-safe container to freeze them up to 3 months. Before you're ready to serve them, just leave them at room temperature for a few hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I need to change the oven temperature after 15 minutes? Baking at a high temperature allows the muffin tops to rise and turn golden brown. If you don't mind pale-colored muffin tops, you can bake your muffins on the middle rack at 350°F (180°C) for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Can I use frozen blueberries? You can, but frozen blueberries tend to bleed juice into the batter and turn your muffins a shade of greenish-purple. However, they'll still taste just as delicious! If you want to minimize this color leakage, you can either dust your frozen blueberries with some flour before folding them into the batter, OR place them in a sieve or colander and rinse them in water until the water is mostly clear. Then pat them dry with paper towels and fold into the batter as normal.

Can I make these blueberry muffins without oil? Yes, you can replace the oil with an equal amount of applesauce for an oil-free version.

More Sweet Vegan Breakfast Ideas

• Fluffy Vegan Pancakes

• Vegan French Toast

• Vegan Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Pop-Tarts

• Vegan Glazed Donuts

• High-Protein Oatmeal