Muffins with Endless Flavor Options

Like anyone else, I love a versatile recipe that can be adapted to the seasons and ingredients on hand.

This vegan muffin recipe is one I have used for years as it starts you with a good base to add-in any flavor combination you want.

There will be a ton of “ifs” in this recipe as timing for adding each “extra flavor” will depend on what it is so bear with me.

Base Recipe

This is the base that you will want to start with, though the amount of milk you add may depend on your flavorings.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
3/4 teaspoon of salt (I use fresh ground sea salt as that is what we keep in our grinder)
1 cup cane sugar (same amount if using standard granulated sugar)
1/2 cup almond milk (original- unflavored and unsweetened)
1/2 cup softened butter (I use Country Crock Plant Based- olive oil)
2 “eggs” (I use Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer- Photo below)

Steps:

Preheat oven to 400F.
Follow instructions on Egg Replacer bag (2 tablespoon power whisked with 4 tablespoons of hot water to make your 2 “eggs”). Set aside to thicken for at least 10 minutes.
Add softened butter and sugar to a mixer and combine thoroughly.
Add in “egg” mixture and milk to butter and sugar and combine.
In a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) together. If you are adding in dry spices, mix them into your dry ingredients.
If you are adding a “liquid flavor” (i.e. vanilla, coffee, citrus juice, etc.) add that liquid flavor to the wet ingredients now.
With your mixer on low, add in your dry ingredients slowly, scrapping the sides as needed.
If adding berries, zest, nuts, chocolate chips, and/or other “whole flavor” add them to the mixer at this point.
Line your muffin tin with liners. I typically make jumbo muffins as they are the perfect size in my opinion.
Fill each lined muffin section 3/4 to full. The amount you add to each one will depend on your “whole flavor”. For example: batter with cranberries will need to be more full than that made with say just lemon juice and poppyseeds added.
Once filled, bake them for 20 to 35 minutes, checking with a toothpick at the 30 minute mark. The tops should brown (and crisp a bit if using cane sugar) and your toothpick should come out clean (no batter sticking to it though berry juice may).
Once happy with your bake, remove them from the oven to cool. I let them cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes before taking them out of the pan and moving them to a cooling rack. If you try to pull them out hot, they will crush and mush, and we all love pretty muffins.
Once 100% cool, I wrap them in cling wrap and keep in a jar in our pantry for easy grab and go. I find that they last well like this for up to 6 days before they begin to get a little dry.

Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer

Flavor Options

These are some of the different flavors I have done over the years.

Lemon Blueberry

1/2 cup lemon juice (added in step 6)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (added in step 6)
Zest of 1 1/2 large lemons (added in step 8)
2 cup blueberries (added in step 8)

Lemon Poppyseed

1/2 cup lemon juice (added in step 6)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (added in step 6)
Zest of 1 1/2 large lemons (added in step 8)
1 to 2 tablespoons poppyseeds (added in step 6)

Cranberry & Orange

3/4 cup orange juice- fresh squeezed or pulp-free (added in step 6)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (added in step 6)
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (added in step 6)
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (added in step 6)
Zest of one large naval orange (added in step 8)
1/2 to 3/4 12 oz bag of whole cranberries (added in step 8)

Cozy Spice

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (added in step 6)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (added in step 6)
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (added in step 6)
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice (added in step 6)
1/8 teaspoon ground clove (added in step 6)

I hope you found this versatile vegan muffin recipe helpful and if you do try it out, let me know how it went!

Thank you for reading,

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