These subtly lemon-flavored vegan blueberry muffins are perfect for making on cool summer evenings during blueberry season, or any time of year with frozen organic blueberries. The double twist of lemon juice and zest (finely grated peel) is what makes them shine. Photos by Evan Atlas.
Makes: one dozen
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or light spelt flour
- 2 tablespoons wheat germ or ground flaxseeds
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ⅓ cup natural granulated sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tablespoons safflower oil
- ¼ cup plain or vanilla rice milk or almond milk, or as needed
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest, optional but highly recommended
- 1 cup fresh blueberries (or frozen blueberries, unthawed)
- ½ cup finely chopped walnuts or sliced almonds, optional
- Unsweetened shredded coconut for topping, optional
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the first 5 (dry) ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir together.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the applesauce, oil, enough rice milk to make a smooth, stiff batter, and the lemon juice and optional zest. Stir together just until thoroughly combined.
Stir in the blueberries, then divide the batter among 12 foil-lined muffin tins. Sprinkle the optional walnuts or almonds and/or natural granulated sugar evenly over the tops of the muffins.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins are golden and a knife inserted into the center of one tests clean. When cool enough to handle, transfer the muffins to a plate or rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Find lots more muffin recipes in Muffin Mania.
- Sweet tooth still craving? Here are more Vegan Baking and Sweets.
Wendy says
so good, eating one right now
Nava says
Glad you enjoyed it, and sorry for the delayed response!
MaryAnn Flood says
this will help me get back on my vegan way of eating.....I've fallen off and I'm not happy with myself & having a really hard time staying on track; especially eating out.
Nava says
That's what we're here for, MaryAnn. And I'm pretty sure you're on VegKitchen's Facebook page, where we give ideas for easy and healthy recipes several times a day!
Dru says
The instructions mention yogurt, which isn't included in the list of ingredients. Did you intend to say apple sauce?
Nava says
Dru, thanks for the catch. I had non-dairy yogurt as an option, but deleted it in favor of the applesauce. Much easier to obtain a 1-cup quantity; and while I do like coconut yogurt, it's very expensive. And soy yogurt — I just find that unappealing.
pam says
why is it when i share off from your page here that the pic of the item is not showing up, but a pic of a diff item shows up instead?
Nava says
Pam, are you talking about Facebook, or Pinterest? If Facebook, it's some sort of glitch on their end. Which is why I usually just post the correct photo as a jpeg, unless I'm being lazy. I should continue to do that. But if you're talking about sharing off the site, and having a similar issue, let me know. It would be a separate kind of problem.
Christine McMahan says
I have never used foil liners just paper liners, is there a difference in how they come out?
Love your recipes!!
Thanks,
Christine
Nava says
Thank you, Christine! I just find the foil liners less sticky, but if paper liners work for you, that would be fine.
Schnee says
Hi Nava, just made a batch, but had to make some subs...
no whole wheat flour, so took 8 cups AP, added 2 cups bran and 3/4 cup germ
no apple sauce, so I diced 2 medium sized Empire apples, and micro waved for 5 minutes, left the peel on, but think next time might peel them
regular cooking oil
3/4 each of blue berries and rasp berries.. when microwaved to thaw they made a cup, with a 1/2 tbsp of juice that I put in the mix...
the batter turned a deep purple when adding the berries, as is the muffins ;D took a bit longer than 25 min, and could have gone longer I think, but all in all, a good recipe to work with... Thx
oh, and I found you via a FB link from a friend... who posts recipes... 😉 going to look at the Chocolate raspberry banana smoothie, looks great ;D
Schnee says
PS, no foil or paper liners, so went the olde fashioned way, a bit of butter around inside the muffin tins; I'm well over the hill and looking down the other side 😀 always on the lookout for healthy, safe food, that my Dr would approve of 😉 now if we can just get rid of winter so I can get out in the garden 😉 sw