Help me make great vegan muffins. (Difficulty level: no bananas.)

May 31, 2019 1:09 PM

Vegans of Metafilter, help! I need to make some muffins for a group of people with allll the dietary restrictions by tomorrow morning. I had a plan until someone said they’re allergic to bananas. Please give me your favorite vegan muffin recipes that don’t have bananas in them? Thank you!
posted by centrifugal to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

Vegan blueberry muffins

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients
1 ½ cups All-purpose flour
¾ cup White sugar
2 tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. Salt

Wet Ingredients
¾ cup Non-dairy milk (such as soy or almond)
½ cup light oil (such as canola or vegetable oil)
1 tbsp. Fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)


Preparation:
1. Preheat your oven to 400°F.
2. Lightly grease the cups of a muffin pan or fill it with liners.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients except for the blueberries. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the blueberries and lightly fold them in, being careful not to overmix. It’s ok if there are lumps.
5. For large bakery-style muffins, fill 8–9 muffin cups right to the top with batter, then bake for 18–22 minutes until lightly golden on top, and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes
out clean. For small muffins, divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups and bake for 15–20 minutes, until lightly golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
posted by MiraK at 1:13 PM on May 31, 2019

Another recipe which I have not yet tried:

Base:
Ingredients

2 cups flour (prefer organic unbleached)
2 tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt (pink ground Himalayan if possible)
⅔ cup sugar (organic preferred)
⅔ cup oatmeal
¾ cup water
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup of your desired fillings
Directions

Mix all ingredients together and bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes in muffin tins. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. I think the cookies taste best if they are eaten within 48 hours of baking.

Variations and Fillings:
Here are some of my favorite fillings to use with this recipe.

Chocolate Chips – I have used regular chocolate chips (makes the recipe no longer vegan) and also vegan chocolate chips. Enjoy Life makes a fantastic dairy, nut, and soy free chocolate chip that tastes amazing in this recipe.
Nuts – I have used a variety of nuts and all came out wonderful.
Peanut Butter
Raisins
Golden Raisins
Dried Fruit
Granola
50/50 peanut butter and oats
Honey and oats
Any variety of candies
Coconut
Mandarin Oranges
posted by MiraK at 1:15 PM on May 31, 2019

How about morning glory muffins? I’ve been trying to replicate the amazing ones from Peet’s coffee. There are many variations online; this is one I found but don’t have the original source for (apologies to the original source!)

Ingredients
1/4 C Raisins soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and drained
1 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Salt
1 C peeled and grated Carrots
1 medium tart Applepeeled, cored, and grated
1/4 C Shredded Coconutsweetened or unsweetened (I used sweetened)
1/4 C chopped Walnuts
1-1/2 Tbl Ground Flax + 4-1/2 Tbl Waterrefrigerated for 20 minutes
1/3 Cup Oil of your choosing
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Tbl Orange Juice

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Line a muffin tin with muffins papers.
In a small bowl, cover the raisins with hot water, and set them aside to soak while you assemble the rest of the recipe.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt.
Add the grated carrots, apple, coconut and nuts.
In a small bowl, beat together the flax mixture, oil, vanilla, and orange juice.
Add to the flour mixture, and stir until evenly moistened.
Drain the raisins and fold them in.
Divide the batter evenly amongst the muffin papers. They can be close to full.
Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes, until they are domed in the center and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes in their pan on a rack, then turn out of pans to finish cooling. Wrap any leftovers airtight, and refrigerate. King Arthur Flour states that these can be stored at room temperature for several days; freeze for longer storage.
posted by stillmoving at 1:18 PM on May 31, 2019 [2 favorites]

I use apple butter where some vegan recipes use bananas -- apple butter is apple sauce cooked down even farther, until it's not watery at all.
posted by clew at 1:25 PM on May 31, 2019

Post Punk Kitchen has several recipes for muffins and quickbreads.
posted by Kpele at 1:47 PM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]

My favorites are a veganized version of these Applesauce Oat Muffins. I replace the egg white with 1/2 tbsp flax mixed with 1.5 tbsp water, use soy/etc milk, and either leave off the topping (they're still great without it) or replace the butter with Earth Balance or whatever. I also up the brown sugar a tad, and use regular old-fashioned oats.

These Sweet Potato Muffins are also pretty great.
posted by gueneverey at 2:15 PM on May 31, 2019

I use almost the exact same recipe that MiraK posted for vegan blueberry muffins except I use applesauce instead of canola oil (some people swear by avocado oil as well).

also, lightly coat the blueberries in flour before you fold them - it helps with keeping them from all settling on the bottom of the muffins.
posted by alathia at 2:23 PM on May 31, 2019

Seconding Post Punk Kitchen with a special recommendation of the orange cranberry. I subbed chocolate chips for the nuts once because a friend is allergic, and now I don’t make them any other way. They’re always a huge hit with my omnivore friends. In general, for baking, you can never go wrong with her recipes.
posted by FencingGal at 3:11 PM on May 31, 2019 [1 favorite]

I may be too late with this answer but personally I just put cooked squash in place of the mashed bananas in muffin recipes. Particularly successful if chocolate chips are called for.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:47 PM on May 31, 2019

Almond-Quinoa Muffins from the Veganomicon.
posted by kyrademon at 8:30 AM on June 1, 2019