Many people believe that being vegan means that you can’t have any fun with food (it’s true). However, these same people must have never eaten a vegan muffin! They are so good that people don’t even believe they are vegan (as many vegan foods are, we are mastering the art). Not only are they delicious, but they are better for you, for the environment, and no animals are harmed in the making! There should be more press releases out about the magic of these, I’m telling you. Since there isn’t, I will share with you favorite recipe, and you tell me what you think!
Special thanks to Joy of Vegan Baking for this amazing recipe!
Blueberry Vegan Muffins!
Blueberry Vegan Muffins!
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour (I used bleached)
1 and 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 Lemons For Lemon Zest
3/4 to 1 cup Sugar
1 cup Milk, any (I used Rice Milk)
1/3 cup Canola Oil
1 teaspoon Lemon Extract (I did not use it)
1 tablespoon White Vinegar (I used Apple Cider Vinegar)
1 and 1/2 cups Fresh OR Frozen Blueberries
2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour (I used bleached)
1 and 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 Lemons For Lemon Zest
3/4 to 1 cup Sugar
1 cup Milk, any (I used Rice Milk)
1/3 cup Canola Oil
1 teaspoon Lemon Extract (I did not use it)
1 tablespoon White Vinegar (I used Apple Cider Vinegar)
1 and 1/2 cups Fresh OR Frozen Blueberries
PROCEDURE:
Preheat the oven to 375F (see My Notes) for 15 minutes. Lightly grease a muffin tin.
In a medium bowl, combine together flour, baking soda, salt and lemon zest.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar, milk, oil, extract, and vinegar. Mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stir until just combined. Don't over stir.
Gently fold in the berries using a rubber spatula.
Fill the muffin tins about 2/3rds full.
Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 22 minutes.
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.
NOTES:
I didn't want to bake 2 batches when I started. What happened was I didn't read the recipe properly and poured the measured sugar on top of the flour instead of mixing it with the wet ingredients. I continued with it anyway and saw that the muffins began to brown very much around 12 minutes itself. The original recipe had mentioned to bake it at 400F. So I reduced the oven temperature to 375F. I thought that adding sugar to the flour was the reason and so I baked another batch following the instructions correctly. Even then the same thing happened. That's when I realized that the oven temperature was the culprit. That's the reason I have changed the temperature to 375F in the procedure. Later I was going through a whole wheat banana muffin recipe in The Joy of Baking website and there it was mentioned that baking that muffin directly in a muffin tin without the paper liner would yield a crusty and brownish muffins but it would soften later. The same thing happened in these blueberry muffins too. So you may also try lining the muffin tins with a paper liner, instead of pouring the batter in the greased molds.
I didn't want to bake 2 batches when I started. What happened was I didn't read the recipe properly and poured the measured sugar on top of the flour instead of mixing it with the wet ingredients. I continued with it anyway and saw that the muffins began to brown very much around 12 minutes itself. The original recipe had mentioned to bake it at 400F. So I reduced the oven temperature to 375F. I thought that adding sugar to the flour was the reason and so I baked another batch following the instructions correctly. Even then the same thing happened. That's when I realized that the oven temperature was the culprit. That's the reason I have changed the temperature to 375F in the procedure. Later I was going through a whole wheat banana muffin recipe in The Joy of Baking website and there it was mentioned that baking that muffin directly in a muffin tin without the paper liner would yield a crusty and brownish muffins but it would soften later. The same thing happened in these blueberry muffins too. So you may also try lining the muffin tins with a paper liner, instead of pouring the batter in the greased molds.
Regarding sugar, the original recipe itself mentions 3/4-1 cup. For the first batch I used 3/4 cup because the vegan strawberry cupcakes which I tried earlier from the same book used 1 cup sugar and was very sweet. The sweetness of the blueberry muffins were perfect for us, but it may not be enough for everybody, especially if the blueberries are very sour. So for the second batch (I had already decided to give it to my neighbors, because I didn't want to have it at home and gain weight) I decided to increase the quantity of sugar. I used little more than 3/4 cup and little less than 1 cup. That was good too.
I used frozen blueberries. Thawing is not necessary. Add it to the muffin batter directly from the freezer, but do not over mix, or else it would start bleeding.
