Vegan Bakery Style Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

These Vegan Bakery Style Cinnamon Streusel Muffins are a beautiful memory to the ones we ate growing up, but don’t have all of that butter or oil. These are dairy-free, oil-free and made with whole grain spelt flour and almond flour.

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BAKERY STYLE CINNAMON STREUSEL MUFFINS

So, I guess a recipe is a success when, while testing these, I promptly ate 3 muffins back-to-back with no shame?? Yes, I think so. They are that good. I use to love traditional cinnamon streusel muffins back in the day, but they were always loaded with so much butter. Even the vegan versions I’ve seen are loaded with butter or oil. Well, these have NO OIL! And I promise you won’t be missing it either. I love proving you don’t need any oil for delicious muffins, like in these 15 Vegan Muffin Recipes Without Oil! These babies are SUPER moist and buttery. A cinnamon streusel muffin without any oil? Has it been done? I don’t know, but today it’s happening folks, lol!! Ok, I’m just a wee bit giddy over these.

OIL-FREE STREUSEL TOPPING

So, typically streusel toppings are made with flour, sugar and butter. The butter is needed to hold the flour together and make that crunchy topping after they bake. Yum, right? Well, my “butter” idea is using almond flour. It has the fat needed to give that buttery taste and it crisps up with the brown sugar beautifully in the oven. I got this idea for my topping based on the fact that I almost always use almond flour in place of oil in my baked goods for the past 4 years.

I used almond flour on top of my Cinnamon Pecan Crisp before, so I knew it would work well here. However, on that crisp, the topping is rather hefty, thick and loaded with oats. I didn’t want a heavy topping like that, so just using almond flour mixed with the sugar and a small amount of milk did the trick.

WHOLE GRAIN VEGAN MUFFINS

I used spelt for a whole grain version instead of all-purpose flour. It has a more earthy taste to it than the all-purpose versions, but it’s still an oh-just-as-delicious version! In fact, I prefer the depth of flavor, as it really brings out the cinnamon more.

What makes these muffins so bakery-ish and incredible?? Well, they are super moist thanks to the almond flour, coconut milk and light brown sugar. Since there is no oil and not a lot of fat, the light brown sugar is pretty important here. The molasses in the brown sugar gives extra moisture and also gives a wonderful hearty texture to these muffins. I really love texture in a muffin. The topping is magical. Think…sweet, crunchy, cinnamon-y and addicting!

OTHER VEGAN MUFFIN RECIPES TO TRY:

• Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins
• Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Gluten-free Double Chocolate Muffins
• Whole Wheat Chocolate Muffins
• Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
• Cranberry Orange Muffins
• Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
• Caramel Crusted Pumpkin Muffins
• Sweet Potato Cinnamon Muffins
• Cinnamon Coffee Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Chocolate Chip Cherry Muffins

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Vegan Bakery Style Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

Brandi Doming

These Vegan Bakery Style Cinnamon Streusel Muffins are a beautiful memory to the ones we ate growing up, but don't have all of that butter or oil. These are dairy-free, oil-free and made with whole grain spelt flour and almond flour.

5 from 26 votes

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 22 mins

Total Time 37 mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Yields 9 muffins

Ingredients

CINNAMON STREUSEL

• 1/2 cup + 2 tablepoons (70g) superfine blanched almond flour
• 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons (17g) potato starch OR if you can't find this, sub with 2 tablespoons (16g) cornstarch
• 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 7 tablespoons (90g) light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons "lite" canned coconut milk or cashew, soy

FOR THE MUFFINS

• 1 cup (128g) spelt flour OR regular all-purpose flour works too (SEE NOTES below for gluten-free version)
• 1/2 cup (56g) superfine blanched almond flour (See NOTE)
• 2 tablespoons (20g) potato starch OR if you can't find this, sub with 3 tablespoons cornstarch (24g)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 tablespoon (6g) ground cinnamon
• 1/2 lightly packed cup (95g) light brown sugar
• 1 cup (240g) "lite" canned coconut milk, room temp, shaken well (I highly recommend Thai Kitchen or Taste of Thai brands, they are very creamy and thick/not watery and will produce the best results)
• 2 teaspoons (10g) vanilla extract

NOTE

• I always recommend to use a scale for accuracy when baking, following MY gram weights listed, since we all measure differently. This greatly improves your chance for success and lessons room for error. You never need cups or to compare them to the weights, just use the scale and bowl and make sure to hit zero before adding each ingredient. My recipes are 100% tested specifically using my exact weights and your results will turn out as mine this way. 
• I use this scale.

Instructions

 

• Preheat an oven to 375°F degrees and lightly spray a muffin pan for 9 muffins. This number ensures they are nice and tall and resemble close to a bakery-style look. I typically always use liners for muffins, but in this case, I lightly sprayed my pan with nonstick spray. This makes the muffins bake up better and create that beautiful dome top and streusel spread look. Using liners will not bake up the same way, but will still be delicious, so use the liners if needing to 100% avoid any oil.
• To a medium bowl, prepare the streusel first so it is ready to go as soon as the batter goes into the muffin pan. Add all of the "topping" ingredients to the bowl and whisk well. Add the milk and stir with a spoon. You are going to press the mixture together with the back of the spoon repeatedly until it all comes together in damp crumbly pieces. Refer to video to see the look. It should be damp and sticky, but not super wet. Make sure all the flour is coated. Set aside.
• To a large bowl, add the spelt flour, almond flour, starch, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Whisk very well until no lumps remain. Whisk in the brown sugar briefly.
• Pour the milk and vanilla over the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until just incorporated and smooth. You want to avoid over-mixing the batter so the muffins don't turn out too tough from the gluten.
• To the pan, divide the batter to 9 muffins. I really like to use an ice cream scoop, as this creates well rounded muffins that have a fluffier dome and look to them. The batter will fill up high., this is correct and how you will get such such muffins.
• Using your fingertips, crumble the streusel topping evenly over each muffin covering all of the batter well. Break the clumps into little pieces so all the batter is covered. Gently press any pieces that fall to the pan back into the streusel topping, gently, as we don't want to deflate the batter. This is important that the streusel sticks to the batter, otherwise if too much falls onto the pan, they can burn.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick is clean and they have risen high and have a dome shape. Each batch I did was perfect at 22 minutes. Let cool 20-30 minutes, as they will still be rather moist and finish cooking. If you sprayed the pan, then you should be able to gently rotate the muffins to release them. Enjoy! Keep them stored at room temperature in a sealed container. The crunchy topping will soften overnight some.

Notes

ALMOND FLOUR: It's crucial to use a superfine blanched almond flour because it is what makes the muffins light and fluffy. If it isn't fine, you will end up with more dense/wet muffins.  I like the King Arthur flour, Wellbee's, Honeyville, Nature's Eats and Nut's.com brands best. They all work well.

GLUTEN-FREE VERSION: To make these gluten-free, you will still use the same amounts of almond flour given, but sub the 1 cup of spelt flour with 3/4 cup (96g) superfine oat flour and 1/4 cup (40g) brown rice flour. Instead of potato starch, you will sub with 4 1/2 tablespoons (36g) cornstarch). The reason you are using more cornstarch here is because oat flour can make things gummy, and the cornstarch helps to bind them (since no gluten) and make them fluffy. Everything else is the same. The batter is more runny than the spelt version, therefore divide the batter into 10 muffins instead of 9. The batter will fill up high in each muffin tin, this is normal and how you will end up with tall muffins. Check the muffins at 20 minutes for a clean toothpick, but they may take a couple of minutes longer, due to oven variance.  Remember to use fine flours (I use Bob's Red Mill oat flour) for the best fluffy results.

Nutrition

Serving: 1muffinCalories: 247kcalCarbohydrates: 39.1gProtein: 3gFat: 8.9gSaturated Fat: 2gSodium: 143mgPotassium: 203mgFiber: 3.9gSugar: 20.7gCalcium: 111mgIron: 1mg

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Keyword cinnamon streusel muffins, vegan cinnamon streusel muffins, oil-free vegan muffins