Bake up delicious Vegan Muffins with little work, thanks to a homemade muffin mix. Dotted with pears and scented with vanilla, these muffins bake up quickly and easily and are perfect to freeze.
If pear muffins aren’t your thing, just swap out the pears and stir in your favorite chopped fruit or berry. You can even add nuts or chocolate chips! Customize the mix however you like, such as Vanilla Muffins or these amazing Apple Cinnamon Muffins.
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Almost years ago my daughter asked if she could pursue a vegan diet. I was surprised at the request since she loves baking and makes practically perfect macarons, but I also said yes.
When your child chooses a nutritious path, you don’t argue. Am I right?
I’m glad that she has been able to continue her baking endeavors and even includes one of my recipes in her regular rotation of vegan baked goods.
My standard homemade muffin mix is very easily adapted vegan, making some of the best muffins ever.
Why Make This
They’re super customizable. With a homemade muffin mix at the ready, you can experiment with all kinds of mix-ins. These would be really nice with a handful of dark chocolate chips thrown in. Or you could use chopped nuts or a different fruit or a different extract or …. You get my drift.
They’re delicious! Plant-based baking can be super tasty with these Vegan Muffins. Adjust the mix-ins to make these muffins your favorite.
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make Vegan Muffins:
almond milk – I typically keep almond milk on hand, but you can use your favorite milk, such as soy or coconut. Remember you can freeze almond milk if you have too much to use before it goes bad.
neutral oil – A neutral oil is one that doesn’t impart a lot of flavor to the recipe. Examples include canola, sunflower, and avocado.
applesauce – Applesauce gives body to the muffins. You can use homemade or store bought. I typically keep applesauce cups on hand as they are already pre-measured for baking a batch of vegan muffins.
flaxseed meal – I use flaxseed meal as an egg substitute whenever I’m baking without eggs. It works really well.
water – You’ll need a little water to hydrate the flaxseed meal.
extract – You can use whatever kind of extract you like, such as vanilla, almond, lemon, or maple. I like vanilla for these vegan muffins with pears.
Mix and Match Muffin Mix – You can make several batches of the muffin mix and keep them on hand in the pantry or freezer. If you are making these muffins vegan, be sure to use a vegan sugar. I usually buy Zulka brand at ALDI.
mix-ins – Mix-ins will make your muffins more interesting. In this version, I use chopped pear, but you can use any favorite chopped fruit, berries, nuts, seeds, chocolate, or dried fruit.
raw sugar – I love topping muffins with raw sugar. It adds a wonderful crunch to the muffin top and another layer of sweetness.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Prep step: Preheat the oven to 375°. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with 18 paper liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
1. In a small mixing bowl, combine the water and flaxseed meal. Allow this to set for five minutes.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, applesauce, flaxseed egg substitute, and vanilla extract.
3. Add the pear and the muffin mix to the wet ingredients and gently fold to combine.
4. Divide the batter into the 18 prepared cups. You can do more or less, just adjust the baking time. Sprinkle the tops generously with raw sugar.
5. Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted comes out with a few crumbs attached, about 25 minutes. Cool on a rack.
Freezing Instructions
To freeze muffins unbaked: Assemble the recipe as directed. Instead of baking, slide the pan into the freezer for several hours until the muffins are frozen solid. Remove the frozen muffin “pucks” from the pan and store them in an airtight container in the freezer. To bake, replace the frozen muffins into a muffin tin and bake, adding five minutes to the baking time if needed.
To freeze baked muffins: Bake the muffins according to the recipe and cool completely on the rack. Place in an airtight container or ziptop bag and store in the freezer, for up to 2 months.
FAQs
You’ll need some liquid in this recipe. If you don’t want to use a plant-based milk, you can substitute juice, water, or tea.
This recipe yields 12 jumbo, 18 medium, and 24 small size muffins. Increase the baking time by about five minutes for jumbo muffins, decrease it for smaller ones.
You can add up to 1 ½ cups of mix-ins to this recipe for vegan muffins, including things such as chopped fruit, berries, dried fruit, nuts, or seeds. You can also use shredded zucchini or carrot.
Recipe Costs
Knowing how much it costs you to prepare a recipe can help you decide if it’s the type of recipe to make regularly or one you might want to save for special occasions. Let’s crunch some numbers and see how this recipe pencils out.
- almond milk – $0.28
- neutral oil – $0.16
- applesauce – $0.35
- flaxseed meal – $0.08
- extract – $0.25
- Homemade Muffin Mix – $0.92
- fruit – $0.50
- raw sugar – $0.08
While your costs may vary depending on how and where you shop, you can expect to pay about $2.65 for a large batch of vegan muffins, about 15 cents each!
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Vegan Muffins with Pears
Equipment
- large mixing bowl
- rubber spatula
- USA muffin pans
- parchment muffin papers
- wire rack
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoon water
- 2 tablespoon flaxseed meal
- 1 batch Mix and Match Muffin Mix
- 1 cup almond milk
- ½ cup neutral oil
- ½ cup applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped pear or other favorite fruit or berries
- raw sugar for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with 18 paper liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the water and flaxseed meal. Allow this to set for five minutes.2 tablespoon flaxseed meal, 6 tablespoon water
- In a large bowl, whisk together the homemade muffin mix ingredients.1 batch Mix and Match Muffin Mix
- In another large mixing bowl, combine the milk, oil, applesauce, flaxseed egg substitute, and vanilla extract.1 cup almond milk, ½ cup neutral oil, ½ cup applesauce, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add the pear and the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and gently fold to combine.1 cup chopped pear
- Divide the batter into the 18 prepared cups. You can do more or less, just adjust the baking time. Sprinkle the tops generously with raw sugar.raw sugar for topping
- Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted comes out with a few crumbs attached, about 25 minutes. Cool on a rack.
- To freeze: cooled muffins can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on June 24, 2014. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Carla
I plan on making these. If I don’t venture out for sunflower oil, what do you recommend? What about coconut? (mine has no coconut scent).
Jessica Fisher
That should be fine.
Jenna
What about applesauce instead?
Jessica Fisher
Haven’t done it, so I can’t make any promises. Try it and come back and tell us. 😉
Jenna
Will do!
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I just bought some apple-pears from Costco. They were a good price and I thought they would be something different and fun, but none of us cared for them. They have been sitting in my fridge until I could find something to do with them. I just found my answer! I, too, find that most recipes have too much sugar. I am in the habit of cutting the sugar and using brown the majority of the time. Thanks, again, for the recipe. Pinning!
Joshua Hampton
Prepped muffin mixes saved my mornings countless of times. Thanks for this awesome muffin recipe.