The BEST Vegan Blueberry Muffins: moist, light, fluffy, and packed full of sweet, juicy blueberries. They're fuss-free, easy to make and come together in one bowl! They're also gluten-free, refined sugar free and healthy enough for breakfast.
Blueberry muffins are one of the easiest and most fool-proof baked goods you can make from scratch. And you can absolutely make fluffy vegan muffins using no eggs - let me show you how!
How to make this recipe
- Mix together all the ingredients in a glass mixing bowl.
Tip: Use a measuring jug to measure out the plant-based milk.
- Transfer the mixture into muffin cases in a muffin/cupcake tin.
- Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.
How long do these keep for?
Though these muffins do obviously taste best when fresh, they do keep for up to a few days.
These Blueberry Muffins can be stored at room temperature for up to a day. But if you want them to keep for longer, they're best stored in the fridge, where they keep for up to a few days.
Yes - they keep in the freezer for up to a couple of months.
If you have just taken them out of the fridge or freezer, I'd recommend warming them up in an oven toaster if you have one.
If you're not into blueberries, you can use any other type of similar fruit such as raspberries, blackberries or cherries, or dried fruit such as dried cranberries, figs or dates.
You can use either fresh or frozen blueberries.
Tips for using frozen blueberries
For best results, carefully stir frozen blueberries into the batter at the very last minute, making sure they are still frozen when you mix them in. This will stop the colour of the blueberries ‘bleeding’ into the batter.
Substitutions you can make
This recipe is very flexible, and can be easily adapted to suit your dietary needs, budget, ease and convenience.
- You can use any type of oil: coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- You can replace the ground almonds (almond meal/almond flour) with ground walnuts.
- For a nut-free version: replace the ground almonds (almond meal/almond flour) with ground sunflower seeds or use 30g (¼ cup) coconut flour instead of 150g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds.
- You can use plain flour, wholemeal (whole wheat) flour or spelt flour instead of the gluten-free flour if you're not gluten-free.
- For an oil-free/no oil version: replace the oil with a few tablespoons of applesauce!
How you can customise this recipe
- You can add a little cinnamon.
- You can add a handful of chopped walnuts or some desiccated coconut.
- You can top the muffins with flaked almonds or coconut flakes before baking.
- If you prefer to use less sugar, or if you like a vegan blueberry bread texture, use my sugar-free Gluten-Free Vegan Blueberry Banana Muffins recipe instead.
- You can add oats - use my Gluten-Free Vegan Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins recipe!
Troubleshooting tips
- Make sure to use the right amount of baking powder - 2 heaped teaspoons! Use too little baking powder and your sponge won't be fluffy, too much and it'll have a bitter taste.
- If you don't use the lemon juice, make sure to replace it with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar as it's crucial to add some acidity which reacts with the alkali bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to create a bubbly batter, and fluffy sponge.
- Make sure to use an all-purpose shop-bought gluten-free flour blend (or a homemade gluten-free flour blend), as opposed to just using any type of gluten-free flour you can find (such as almond flour, coconut flour, buckwheat flour etc).
Serving suggestions
These Blueberry Muffins work well as part of a brunch, served alongside dishes such as:
More gluten-free vegan blueberry recipes
- Lemon Blueberry Cake
- Blueberry Banana Bread Muffins
- Blueberry Pie
- Blueberry Crisp
- Blueberry Banana Bread
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make this recipe
Vegan Blueberry Muffins (Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
- 60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 200 ml (⅘ cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice *
- 8 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) **
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 100 g (1 cup) fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil).
- Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the lemon juice, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and ground almonds.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
- Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry.
- Add the fresh blueberries and fold in gently, to make sure you don’t crush them.
- Transfer the mixture between muffin cases in a muffin tin.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Tastes best when fresh, but keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Video
Notes
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Cathy Houghton
Hi I would like to make these tomorrow, I have lots of applesauce in my freezer which I am trying to use up before the next crop of apples.
Can anyone tell me if they have used applesauce / puree instead of the whole apples, how much would I need and do I need to make any other changes to the recipe?
Thank you
Rhian Williams
Hi - thanks for your message. I'm sorry I don't know what you mean because I haven't used any apples in this recipe?
Susan Christopher
for me this yielded 12 nice muffins in a silicone pan. Good texture (when the GF flour did not also have almond flour in it!). Thanks for posting.
Beginning bakers: Worth a try. Muffins are quite forgiving. The measures make the recipe look more complicated than it is. If your skewer hits blueberries, it will not come out looking "clean" even after the muffins are done.
I used this with 60g of vegan butter (melted, cashew based) for my “oil”, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, vinegar for lemon juice, 1 T baking powder (for 2 heaping teaspoons), 1/4 t salt (for a pinch), and 175g blueberries (probably over a cup but not 1 3/4!). The muffins weren’t as sweet as I had expected. I think I would up the salt next time. Most muffin recipes can handle about 1/2 cup of extra nuts or flour and that held true for this – I added some buckwheat flour for additional texture.
I appreciate your work to get a base recipe – but I wonder :
– How much is your 2 heaping teaspoons? I read your note of how important it is to get the right amount… but you gave an unmatchable amount) With 1 Tablespoon, my muffins were either fluffy nor bitter. (I don’t think I want fluffy muffins but my additional buckwheat flour helped there.) When I tried this with no buckwheat flour and a GF flour that also had almond flour in it, the texture was too soft for me
– Which oils have you used besides coconut? 60grams of weight is a varying amount of liquid so do we just ignore that and use 1/4 cup or are you suggesting that you prefer 60ml, a measure of volume?
I am confused that you list a very precise measure of flour, using weight, and then other measures are imprecise.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much for your feedback! 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder is 8 grams. I've tried a variety of different oils. If using a liquid oil I measure out 60ml or 1/4 cup of it and it's worked every time!
Kristen
Hi there,
These turned out delicious but not as fluffy as yours. I’m sure it’s my GF flour mix that I purchased as I’ve found the same with other recipes I’ve tried with it.As I’m in Canada I can’t click the link for amazon and get it to work. What brand are you using?
Thanks 🙂
Rhian Williams
Hi Kristen, thanks for your feedback. I use Dove's Farm gluten-free flour or Bob's Red Mill - you can alternatively use rice flour instead and add 1 tablespoon tapioca starch. Hope that helps!
Hannah
This recipe is awesome thank you Rhian!!!
They worked perfectly and taste so good 🙂
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so glad you liked them!
Ellie
I am not vegan but was looking for a gluten free/dairy option both for a healthier alternative and also for my partner who cannot eat gluten or dairy. Not bad at all considering it is a gluten free option.
I ate one straight from the tin and should have left it to cool first! But I was surprised at how tasty and fluffy they are. I used 8 tablespoons of maple syrup but maybe I am missing the sweetness from sugar? Not complaining as such as it is healthier.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much for your feedback! You can substitute the maple syrup with sugar if you wish!