We love muffins any time of year. They are super versatile and once you know the basic recipe you can get creative with all kinds of variations.
We originally planned this recipe to come out for Christmas. Vanessa had come up with an amazing & decadent coconut topped & blueberry filled variation for a cafe in Shoreditch, London who we’ve been working with on their vegan menu. However we missed the boat on Christmas whilst trying to rebrand The Vegan Larder (Life, urgh..- sometimes it gets in the way!)
Then Louise wanted to use up some cranberries that had been hanging around in her freezer and some clementines which needed eating and we thought… you know what – This is such a great base recipe- we should share it so EVERYONE can have warm, yummy muffins and can get creative with their own delicious versions!
The basic mix uses a ‘linseed’ (aka flax seed) mix , which works really well as an egg substitute however you can also substiute chia seeds for the flax/linseed and it will work just as well. Also- feel free to use any kind of plant milk! We just use whatever happens to be in the fridge & handy! You could even sub in water if you really needed to!
Ideas for fillings: Use the same weight of “wet” peeled fruit or whole berries. Frozen is fine to use too!
Orange with a teaspoon of ground cardamom
Apple & a teaspoon of cinnamon
Raspberry & vanilla
Strawberry or Raspberry & substitute the dessicated coconut with cocoa powder
Cranberry & clementine
Blueberries- or any berry
- 90 ml sunflower oil
- 1 1/4 cup caster sugar
- 2 linseed "eggs " use one
- 2 ½ cups self-raising flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ¼ cups frozen blueberries or other fruit
- 1 ¼ cups coconut milk
- 12 muffin cases
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Pre-heat oven to 190⁰C and put muffin cases in 12 piece muffin tin.
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In one bowl, place the oil and sugar. Mix to fully combine.
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Add linseed eggs to oil and sugar. Mix together. Don’t worry if they don’t look like they fully mix together – this is normal.
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In another bowl, sift the flour and baking powder.
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Add a quarter of the flour and baking powder to the oil, egg and sugar mix, and a quarter of the plant milk, and mix well. Do this until with the rest of the flour, baking powder and plant milk, adding in quarters, until the whole mixture is combined.
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Add the fruit and coconut (or whatever ingredients you have chosen) to the muffin mix. Fold the fruit in carefully so they stay as whole as possible.
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Spoon the mixture into each muffin case.
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Bake for 25 minutes. By this time the tops should be a golden brown. Put a skewer in one of them and make sure it comes out clean. They may need an extra 5 minutes.
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Once cooked, take the muffins out the tin and put on a cooling rack.
Eat these plain or ice thickly with coconut icing.
Soothing Butternut Squash and White Bean Soup