If you believe you have vegan cooking down to a science and want to take your skills up a notch in the kitchen, it's time to start incorporating everything you've learned to make delicious vegan baked treats, like muffins.
When it comes to baking, learning how to bake without milk, eggs and butter can be challenging. And while it may require more skill, at-home vegan baking is not impossible. By merely grasping a few essential baking concepts, you'll be able to make baked goods that taste even better than their traditional counterparts. Keep scrolling for a step by step guide on making vegan muffins and the key ingredients you'll need to do so.
Choose Your Flour Wisely
The key to a perfect vegan muffin recipe is to choose the right flour. Nearly all flours are suitable for vegans, including white flour. While all flours are fair game when making your vegan muffin recipe, knowing which flour to choose will have a tremendous impact on how your recipe will taste. When choosing flour, it's essential to look at the other ingredients in your mixture and determine if they will blend well together.
Additionally, you'll have the option to accommodate your muffin recipe to other dietary restrictions such as gluten free, low carb and paleo. The flour you choose will play a vital role in the overall nutritional value of your muffin. To help you get started, here's a list of our favorite flours to use when baking vegan treats.
Gluten Free Flour
When choosing a gluten free flour substitute, not all gluten free mixes are equal. You'll want to search for a gluten free flour that has been proven to make delicious baked goods. At Bob's Red Mill, we've created a unique blend of gluten free flours, starches and xanthan gum that you can use as a 1-to-1 replacement for regular flour, making it easy to transform traditional muffins into vegan, gluten free desserts. To use Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour, follow your favorite vegan muffin recipe and replace the regular flour with this easy-to-use flour blend. Perfectly formulated with a mix of brown rice flour, potato starch, sorghum flour and tapioca flour, it works best in recipes that call for baking powder or baking soda. A flour with so much potential, it makes it easy for those with celiac disease to enjoy their favorite muffins time and time again.
Gluten Free Muffin Flour
Looking for a flour that's a recipe in itself? Skip the traditional steps of muffin making and use our Gluten Free Muffin Mix to create a delicious baked treat. Use this premade muffin mix by mixing it with a few simple ingredients, and adding your favorite mix-ins like cranberries, nuts and chocolate! With this mix, making gluten free, vegan muffins at home has never been easier. Plus, each batch of our Gluten Free Muffin Mix is tested in a gluten free laboratory to ensure it's gluten free status.
Find a step by step guide for our Gluten Free Muffin Mix here.
Grain Free Flour
Some of the flours used most here at Bob's Red Mill are entirely grain free! Great for vegan recipes, grain free flours can add texture and taste to a muffin mix where it may be lacking otherwise. That being said, because grain free flours are also wheat-free, they lack a natural binding agent. While a binding agent is easy to add to your muffin mix, grain free flours should not be substituted for traditional flours at a 1-to-1 ratio. To help you better determine which grain free flour will work best in your vegan muffin recipe, keep scrolling to discover a few of our favorites.
Cassava Flour
Made from the root of a cassava plant, cassava flour features a starch-like base that adds a delicate and light texture to your baked goods. Naturally gluten free, Cassava Flour is the most similar grain-free flour to regular all-purpose/wheat flours. Gluten free, paleo, vegan and nut-free cassava flours neutral flavor makes it an excellent choice for sweet and savory muffin recipes.
Impress gluten free and paleo guests with these Chocolate Cinnamon Cassava Muffins. To make these muffins vegan, swap the eggs for this Flaxseed Egg Replacer.
Almond Flour
Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour lends a nutty flavor and moist texture to any muffin recipe it's used in and is one of our most popular vegan and gluten free flours to date. It's a satisfying flour loaded with nutritional benefits, made from whole blanched almonds that are ground into a fine meal. An excellent source of vitamin E, protein, fiber and monounsaturated fats, using almond flour in your recipe will take the nutritional value of your vegan muffins to the next level. Plus, baking with almond flour is incredibly simple, and it can be combined with a variety of other alternative flours to create the ideal muffin-like texture.
All-Purpose Flour
Like we mentioned earlier, nearly all flours are vegan, including all-purpose flour. At Bob's Red Mill, our all-purpose flour is unbleached, unbromated and enriched baking flour from the highest quality North American Wheat. With a 10-12% protein content, this flour ensures good gluten development and a deliciously satisfying muffin texture.
Pick a Healthy Sweetener
A crucial step when making any vegan baked good is to use a healthy sweetener. Processed sugars and syrups can quickly turn a healthy dessert into a high-calorie, high-carb snack. To ensure that your recipe remains as natural as possible, we recommend adding in naturally sweet sugar substitutes like agave and dates! Not only do these natural sweeteners add a unique flavor profile to your baked goods, but they're also loaded with essential vitamins and nutrients, amping up the nutritional value. To learn more about healthy sugar alternatives, read this article on the most common natural sweeteners.
Use Baking Add-ins
When making vegan treats, it's vital to use ingredients to bind, moisturize and boost your vegan mixture. With animal-based add-ins like buttermilk and eggs being off-limits, you'll need to get creative with your add-ins to ensure your muffins turn out precisely as planned. While there are many easy vegan-add ins out there, here are a few of our favorites.
Swap Lemon Juice for Buttermilk
Buttermilk is a common ingredient used to boost baking soda's ability in muffin recipes. So what happens when you can no longer use it? We recommend using lemon juice as a vegan substitute. Being that lemon juice is ten times more acidic than vinegar, it does an excellent job mimicking buttermilk's ability to help your muffins rise and creates a fluffy texture.
Use Bananas as a Binding Agent
Bananas are a natural binding agent that works well when you require an egg substitute. While bananas will add a more fruity flavor to your recipe, they'll also help to sweeten it naturally. Which means you won't need to add as much sugar. Now, if you're not keen on the taste of bananas, don't worry. There are several other vegan binding agents like flaxseed and tapioca starch that work just as well.
For a vegan muffin recipe that utilizes bananas' binding powers, try out these Easy Vegan Protein Muffins.
Create Frosting With Avocados
Loaded with healthy fats, avocado is a creamy fruit that, when blended, is an excellent substitute for cream-based frostings. If you're looking for a vegan, healthy way to take your muffin recipe up a notch, combine blended avocados with chocolate to make a mousse-like frosting that will taste great on nearly any sweet dessert muffin.
Utilize Vegan Swaps
When turning traditional muffin recipes into a vegan masterpiece, you'll likely need to make a few swaps here and there. Milk, eggs and butter are a staple in many muffin recipes. However, just because they're used often doesn't mean they're the only option. In fact, countless vegan swaps can be made when making your favorite muffins. Here are a few of the most commonly used swaps.
Vegan Milk Alternatives
If your recipe calls for milk, have no fear. Nearly all plant-based milks can be used in baked goods. When determining which milk you'd like to use, it's crucial to think about the other ingredients in the recipe and if the flavors will blend well together. Because plant-based milk offers more flavor than conventional milk, using it can add a subtle, sweet taste to your dessert.
These plant-based Cinnamon Apple Crisp Muffins use almond milk to create a satisfyingly sweet blend of ingredients.
Vegan Egg Alternatives
Eggs hold many unique duties in baking. Not only do they create structure and stability, but they also work to emulsify fats and liquids, add moisture, and create lift. So how do you replace eggs in a recipe that specifically calls for them? We recommend using a tried and true egg replacer.
When making your next muffin recipe, we recommend the following substitutes.
Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Egg Replacer
Vegan Butter Alternatives
Butter adds moisture and flavor to muffin mixtures, which works to hydrate flour, starches and bind ingredients together. When baking vegan muffins, several butter substitutes work just as well. Apple sauce, coconut oil, nut butter, mashed banana and dairy-free yogurt are only a few of the many options you can use to create vegan muffins that everyone will enjoy.
Now that you better understand how to properly use flour, add-ins and baking swaps when making vegan muffins, it's time to put these tips and tricks to the test! Whether you choose to make one of the recipes mentioned above or try out your own, we're confident that the result will be mouthwatering!
