Delicious Vegan Blackberry Muffins
Vegan blackberry muffins are slightly sweet, easy to make and a great breakfast or snack option all year long. These almond flour blackberry muffins can be made with fresh or frozen blackberries and have a zesty kick from the lemon zest.
Ingredients
- Ground flax & water – ground flax and water are used to replace the egg in this recipe. Be sure to mix the flax immediately when added to water or it tends to clump. You can also use chia seeds (or ground chia seeds).
- Dairy free milk – use whatever your go-to dairy free plant based milk is for this recipe.
- Maple syrup – maple syrup naturally sweetens the muffins helping them taste just slightly sweet. The maple syrup also adds extra liquid to the muffin batter. Because of this it cannot easily be swapped out with coconut sugar or maple sugar.
- Almond flour – almond flour helps to create the base for the muffins. This recipe is best with almond flour but if all you have is almond meal, it will work, but the texture will be slightly different.
- Arrowroot powder – arrowroot flour (or powder) helps to create that soft, spongy texture for the muffins. You can also use tapioca flour.
- Baking powder – baking powder helps ensure the muffins rise when baking. Be sure you are using fresh baking powder (no more than 6 months old) or your muffins may not rise.
- Almond butter – almond butter provides the fat in these muffins, helping ensure they are moist and fluffy. You can use whatever your favorite nut or seed butter is.
- Lemon zest – lemon zest gives these muffins an extra pop of flavor and takes them to the next level.
- Fresh or frozen blackberries – you can use fresh or frozen blackberries. Be sure to lightly mash them so the berries don’t create air pockets when baking. Defrost frozen berries 30 minutes in advance.
How to make vegan blackberry muffins
Preheat oven to 375F.
In a large bowl combine the ground flax, water, dairy free milk and maple syrup. Stir well.To the flax mixture, add the almond flour, arrowroot and baking powder. Stir until well combined. Add the almond butter (I like to wait to add this until the rest of the ingredients are combined to ensure it doesn’t clump). Zest a lemon and add the lemon zest to the bowl. Slightly mash the blackberries (defrost 30 minutes in advance if frozen) and add them to the batter. Stir well but don’t over mix or the batter will take on a purple hue. Use a 1/4 cup measuring spoon, divide the mixture between 12 muffin tins. Be sure they are lined with a parchment or silicone liner for easy removal. Bake the muffins at 375F oven for 33 minutes. Allow the muffins to cool at least 10-15 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan. Let cool completely before removing the paper or silicone liners..
Top tips
- Some of the berries will start to break down the longer they sit in the batter. If you want to keep the batter from turning blue/purple, add the blackberries last and scoop the batter into the pan quickly.
- If you don’t have a lemon to zest, you could also use an orange zest or even lime zest. I do not recommend using lemon juice instead, it turns the batter a bit sour and does not produce the same flavor as adding the zest.
Want to add a topping to the muffins?
- Frosting: You can use cashew frosting or dairy free maple frosting to drizzle on top right before serving.
- Crumble: You can make an oat crumble or almond flour crumble to go on top of the gluten free blackberry muffins.
- For the oat crumble: ¾ cup of rolled oats, 1 tablespoon avocado oil, 3 tablespoons of maple syrup, and 2 teaspoons cinnamon (optional). Combine these ingredients in a bowl then crumble on top of the muffins before baking.
- For the almond flour crumble: ¾ cup of almond flour, ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts, 3 tbsp. coconut sugar, 1 tbsp. arrowroot powder, 1.5 tablespoons of avocado oil, 1 tablespoon maple syrup and optional ½ tablespoon cinnamon. Combine these in a bowl then crumble on top of each muffin before baking.
- Lemon glaze: Combine ½ cup of powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and the zest from ½ of a lemon. Tip: Make your own powdered sugar with coconut sugar or maple sugar by blending it in a high speed blender until it has a similar texture as powdered sugar.
Vegan Blackberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 4.5 tbsp ground flax
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup dairy free milk
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 2.25 cups almond flour
- 1/3 cup arrowroot flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 1 medium lemon, zested
- 1.5 cups blackberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- In a large bowl combine the ground flax, water, dairy free milk and maple syrup. Stir well.4.5 tbsp ground flax, 3/4 cup water, 1/2 cup dairy free milk, 1/2 cup maple syrup
- Add the almond flour, arrowroot powder and baking powder to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Stir well2.25 cups almond flour, 1/3 cup arrowroot flour, 1 tsp baking powder
- Add almond butter to batter and stir well to fully incorporate.1/4 cup almond butter
- Zest the lemon into the bowl with the other ingredients.1 medium lemon, zested
- Lightly mash the blackberries and add them to the batter. Stir 2-3 times to incorporate but not overmix.1.5 cups blackberries
- Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to evenly distribute the batter between the muffin tin (be sure to line with parchment or silicone muffin liners). You may need a spatula to get the batter out of the measuring cup.
- Bake in a 375F oven for 33 minutes.
- After 33 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool 10-15 minutes. Remove muffins (with liners) to a rack and allow to fully cool before serving.
Recipe Notes
- Use parchment paper or silicone liners for the muffins to make them easy to pop out of the muffin tin and for easy clean up afterwards.
- As the berries cook and burst inside the muffins, the muffins may fall a bit. If you want to ensure that the muffins don’t fall, you will need to mash the berries slightly (not into a puree, just slightly) and fold the mashed berries in. Large berries will create air pockets that can fall once the muffins start to cool.
- When zesting the lemon, you only want to get the top yellow part, not the white pith that is bitter.
- Allow the muffins to cool completely before taking them out of the muffin liners. They will be very fragile the first 10-15 minutes out of the oven but have the best texture once cooled completely.
- Counter: Store the muffins on the counter 1-2 days in a airtight container.
- Fridge: The muffins do great when stored in the fridge up to 5-6 days.
- Freezer: Store blackberry muffins in the freezer up to 3 months. See the tips in the post for how to store them.
Nutrition Information
Common questions
Can you substitute other berries for blackberries?
Yes! This recipe would work great with blueberries, raspberries, strawberries or even cherries. For the strawberries and cherries, be sure to remove the stems, the pit (cherries) and cut them up into smaller pieces so they are distributed well throughout the muffins.
Can you use frozen blackberries?
Yes! That is one of the reasons I love this recipe so much is because it can be made all year long from frozen blackberries. Let the berries defrost about 30 minutes then mash them slightly with a fork before adding to the batter.
How to remove blackberry seeds
If you don’t love the seeds in the blackberries, you can always mash the blackberries, and pass them through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Use the puree in the muffins (the muffins will change color).
What if you don’t have arrowroot powder?
If you don’t have arrowroot flour, you can use tapioca starch or cornstarch as a 1:1 replacement. You can also make these muffins with oat flour instead of arrowroot powder, but you will want to also reduce the amount of almond flour as well.
To make 12 blackberry muffins with oat flour instead of arrowroot powder, you will need 1.75 cups of almond flour and 1 cup of oat flour. Note that these muffins are best eaten within 2 days and kept on the counter or frozen immediately as the texture gets very cakey when stored in the fridge.
Can you freeze these muffins?
Yes! These muffins can be frozen for up to 3 months. Be sure to freeze them in a freezer safe bag or container. I like to wrap them in parchment paper then tightly in plastic wrap or in a heavy silicone bag like stasher bags to help keep them from freezer burn.
Simply defrost the muffins on the counter or warm them up in the microwave or in a low (300F) oven for 10-15 minutes to defrost.
Love these blackberry muffins, they really hit the spot. I eat them as a snack mid-day. Easy recipe and delicious.
Eric, I agree! We eat these up as an afternoon snack as well.