These are the Best Vegan Gluten-free Blueberry Muffins ever, truly! They are also dairy-free, oil-free, yet incredibly soft, light, fluffy & just 8 ingredients and made in 1 bowl!
*This post was originally published on 6-3-2014 and has been updated with better instructions and new photos.
VEGAN GLUTEN FREE BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
These are seriously some of the best vegan gluten-free muffins ever. Do you see that incredible texture? They are so light, fluffy, moist and incredibly rich Vegan Blueberry Muffins. This vegan recipe is only 8 ingredients and also happens to be easy, healthy and oil-free. They are fast to make and ready in 30 minutes. These are basically the blueberry version of these Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins.
Glorious, I tell ya. Golden topping and so soft and moist on the inside. Bursting with juicy blueberries. If you really love blueberries, then you should also make these Fluffy Vegan Blueberry Pancakes.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
- Superfine blanched almond flour: This almond flour is what replaces oil and butter and makes these vegan blueberry muffins moist. They will be dry without it, so it can’t be subbed.
- Superfine oat flour: I use Bob’s Red Mill. Store-bought is always finer than homemade, which will yield fluffier, softer muffins. Homemade tends to yield more dense, gritty muffins.
- Tapioca starch or cornstarch: Using either one of these starches works perfectly here. It helps to make the muffins light and fluffy, which would be too dense without it. The starch also helps to absorb excess moisture released from the blueberries.
- Baking powder
- Maple syrup
- Vanilla
- Canned “lite” coconut milk or Homemade Cashew milk: Both milks work great here! See the NOTES on the recipe card below how to make this.
- Blueberries: Either fresh or frozen will work. See my notes on how to adjust for using frozen blueberries.
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN GLUTEN FREE BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
Step 1: Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk well and break up any lumps.
Step 2: Add the milk, syrup and vanilla extract to the same bowl. Stir until a thick and smooth batter forms.
Step 3: Gently stir in the blueberries.
Step 4: Divide the batter into 8 nonstick muffin liners.
Step 5: Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick is clean. The muffins will rise a lot and have golden tips.
SUBSTITUTIONS
- Coconut Milk: I’ve tested these muffins with both canned lite coconut milk and homemade cashew milk. Store-bought cashew milk has a lot of additives and is not comparable to homemade. The fatty milk is what yields a moist and fluffy muffin, so low-fat milks like almond or rice will not yield the best results. To make homemade cashew milk, blend in a vitamix 1/2 cup raw cashews with 1 1/2 cups filtered water until smooth. No need to strain. Use 6 tablespoons (90g) of the milk for the recipe. Use extra for more muffins or coffee, oatmeal or some of my other recipes calling for cashew milk.
- Frozen Blueberries: If you would like to use frozen blueberries, that will work fine, just be sure to toss them in some extra flour first, as this will help them from bleeding too much into the muffins or adding excess moisture.
MORE VEGAN MUFFIN RECIPES
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Gluten-free Double Chocolate Muffins
- Whole Wheat Chocolate Muffins
- Bakery-Style Cinnamon Streusel Muffins
- Cranberry Orange Muffins
- Pumpkin Muffins with Cherries
- Caramel Crusted Pumpkin Muffins
- Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Muffins (a reader favorite!)
- Cinnamon Coffee Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Cherry Muffins
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If you make this recipe, be sure to leave feedback below and share your pic on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thevegan8 #thevegan8!
Vegan Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins (Oil Free!)
These are the Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins ever, truly! They are also gluten-free, dairy-free, oil-free, yet incredibly soft, light, fluffy & just 8 ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (112g) superfine blanched almond flour
- 3/4 cup (96g) superfine oat flour
- 1/4 cup (32g) tapioca starch OR cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 6 tablespoons (120g) pure maple syrup
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons (90g) "lite" canned coconut milk, can shaken well first before measuring) (SEE NOTES)
- 1/2 cup (90g) fresh blueberries (use 3/4 cup if you like more) SEE NOTES below for frozen
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 zero out in between each ingredient. My recipes are 100% tested specifically using my exact weights and your results will turn out as mine are pictured this way.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with 8 nonstick parchment paper liners.
- To a large bowl, add the almond flour, oat flour, tapioca starch, baking powder and salt. Whisk very well and be sure to break up any lumps.
- To the same bowl, pour in the syrup, milk and extract. Gently mix with a large whisk or stir with a spoon until moistened and a thick batter forms. The batter will be quite thick. Do not overmix once it's all moistened.
- Very gently stir in the blueberries.
- Divide the batter into the 8 muffin liners using an ice cream scoop. I like to use and ice cream scoop, because it creates a perfect curved dome top while they bake. Bake for 20 minutes, OR until a toothpick comes out clean with no batter on it. Blueberry juice may be present, but not actual wet batter. They should have golden brown tips on the top of the muffins. Keep in mind ovens can vary, so yours may take longer
- Cool 10 minutes in the pan and then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Since these are gluten-free, they need cooling time to firm up and finish cooking on the inside. Keep stored at room temperature.
Notes
- ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR: If you are not gluten-free, then make these regular Lemon Blueberry Muffins made with all-purpose flour!
- FLOURS: As noted, superfine flours work best. Homemade almond flour or oat flour tends to never be as fine as store-bought, and a bit more gritty, which will result in more dense/gummy muffins that are not very fluffy, as in my photos. Superfine almond flour is necessary so there are not bits of almond throughout or become wet/dense. I like the King Arthur flour, Wellbee's, Honeyville and Nut's.com brands best. Nature's Eats is decent, but not as fine as the others mention.
- MILK: I've tested these muffins with both canned lite coconut milk and homemade cashew milk. Store-bought cashew milk has a lot of additives and is not comparable to homemade. The fatty milk is what yields a moist and fluffy muffin, so low-fat milks like almond or rice will not yield the best results. To make homemade cashew milk, blend in a vitamix 1/2 cup raw cashews with 1 1/2 cups filtered water until smooth. No need to strain. Use 6 tablespoons (90g) of the milk for the recipe. Use extra for more muffins or coffee, oatmeal or some of my other recipes calling for cashew milk.
- FROZEN BLUEBERRIES: If you would like to use frozen blueberries, that will work fine, just be sure to toss them in some extra flour first and remove them from the freezer right before you are adding them to the batter so they do not thaw and add excess water to the batter, as this will help them from bleeding too much into the muffins or adding excess moisture.
Nutrition
Serving: 1muffinCalories: 201kcalCarbohydrates: 27gProtein: 5.3gFat: 8.9gSaturated Fat: 1.2gSodium: 126mgPotassium: 211mgFiber: 3.1gSugar: 10.9gCalcium: 101mgIron: 2mg
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Absolutely divine! And easy
So happy to hear that, thank you so much Samantha!
Can I use regular coconut milk instead of lite?
this recipe looks wonderful and i can hardly wait to make these!! thank you for sharing. 🙂
i have a question please….. you say not to use regular (high fat) canned coconut milk, but low fat rather. is this just because of the high fat content or does it actually mess with the consistency/taste of the muffins? i just bought a case of regular/high fat canned organic coconut milk so that’s what i’d prefer to use since i have plenty of it, unless it’ll make these muffins not be as good as yours came out.
thanks in advance for your response. 🙂
Hi Brandi! I just made it and my husband is saying this is the best baking I ever made!!! Thank you very much, its perfect!!!
Yay Tatiana! That is so wonderful to hear! So glad you and your hubby loved them so much!
These look amazing! Thanks so much for your recipe Brandi! I’d love to try these out for Mother’s Day breakfast tomorrow… Is there any substitute you can recommend for coconut milk?
Hi Mea! The coconut milk really helps these be fluffy, so that milk does work best. The next milk I would suggest would be cashew milk or soy milk because they have some fat in them, they may not be quite as fluffy but should still work.
This is my second batch in a week, so delicious!
Just wondering if anyone has had success with freezing these.
Sorry I missed this Rebekah! So glad you loved these! I have never tried freezing them, so sorry!
I’m new to your site and have enjoyed all you share. I just made your blueberry muffins and they were a complete hit to all who tried them in my family. Some non-vegan people as well. Thank you so much!
I’m so happy you loved these so much Jennifer, thank you so much for the feedback!
I made these today as written. We found them overly salty. Next time I’ll probably reduce the salt by nearly half. Otherwise they were absolutely delicious and went over well.
I’m so glad you loved these Shannon! Thanks for the feedback! As far as salty, that is the first I’ve ever heard that and I make these quite often and never taste salt…what kind of salt are you using? I use a fine sea salt and there is no salt flavor and no other reader has stated that, so maybe a different salt?
Annnd I’m back to this recipe! See my past glowing review above haha can’t waste to taste these bad boys again!! I’m making these today to freeze and bring to a brunch on Tuesday. What would your defrosting advice be? Thanks in advance lady! 🙂
Loveeeeeeed these! So yummy.
Yay! SO happy to hear that Kaelie, thank you so much!
Loved these! Awesome recipe
Made these today. Absolutely delicious!! Also super quick & easy!
Yay Meaghann! I’m so happy you loved these, thank you so much for the feedback! 🙂
thank you SO much for another incredible recipe! I just made these for our Easter gathering tomorrow and they are super delicious! I love that I can always depend on your recipes to have great results and taste amazing <3
So happy to hear that Gail! That is so sweet, I’m thrilled you loved these and the recipes so much!
Omg! Tasted the batter my god you have outdone yourself again! I cannot believe how good these tast b4 they even go into the oven. I can only imagine how they taste when they are done!! Thank you so much brandi!
Haha, yes, the batter is so yummy, hard to not eat it all!
Can I use something else in place of the oat flour? My daughter is sensitive to oats 🙁
Thank you! We love your sweet potato pancakes by the way. Delish!
Hi Emily! So glad to hear you love the pancakes! For the oat flour sub, that’a tough one since they help to yield the texture. Does it have to be gluten-free? If not, I would suggest subbing with spelt flour but instead of 3/4 cup, you would likely only need 1/2 cup, maybe a tad more, since it’s much more finely ground than oat flour. If it has to be gluten-free, my best suggestion would be to do a storebought GF all-purpose blend, as using just another flour like sorghum or rice flour for the entire 3/4 cup is going to leave an unpleasant texture and make them crumbly. Please let me know what you decide or if I can help further!
Thank you for getting back to me! I do need it to be gluten free. I can do a store bought gf flour. Do I do 3/4 cup? Could chickpea flour possibly work with maybe some tapioca flour? If so how much. Thank you!
Yes, I would do the same amount. I wouldn’t suggest chickpea flour because the taste will be way too strong and you don’t want to add more tapioca, since there is already some in there. I would suggest King arthur GF blend (not Bob red mills), it’s the best tasting. Or try a 50/50 combo of brown rice flour and sorghum flour. Keep in mind, the taste/texture will change some though since I wrote the recipe based on oat flour. Just add extra chocolate chips or blueberries, haha 🙂
Happy birthday! Thank you for the recipe. I am going to try it with my homemade almond milk.
Wonderful, let me know how they turn out!
This has been my staple muffin recipe for almost a year now! They’re SO easy to put together, moist, perfectly sweet, and healthy! My mom is hooked on these things, too 🙂
Wow, so glad to hear that Megan, thank you so much for letting me know, I truly appreciate it!
Made these yesterday and my 5 year old loved it, she had 1 1/2 of them for breakfast! Made them with frozen blueberries and still turned out really good. I used 1/3 syrup and added about 1/2 of a small banana. They started to brown on top so I took them out and found they were still a bit gooey in the middle so I put them back in for a few minutes and they are really good . My dtr ate one of the gooey ones before I put them back in and she didn’t care at all. Like these a lot better than the straight coconut flour muffin recipe I was using before. THanks~
Oh, I’m so happy to hear your daughter loved these so much! Yes, the banana would make them more gooey but so great that she didn’t mind, haha! Thanks so much for the feedback!
I made these (chocolate chip) when I discovered your website a month or so ago and they were amazing! Thank you
Yay! So glad to hear that Tamela, thank you so much for the feedback! I really appreciate it!
These look amazing Brandi! I am going to try them out tomorrow! I think I’ll add lemon zest 🙂
Wonderful Julia! Lemon zest sounds wonderful! Please come back and let me know what you think!
Hi! I just made these and they are so yummy! Thanks!! I was wondering if there is anything different I need to do if I wanted to make mini muffins? These collapsed a little bit on me, but it was my first time trying them and they tasted delicious so I didn’t care. I wanted to make mini ones to give away so any tips would be appreciated! This is your second recipe I’ve tried and both have been so great! I am excited to be trying the butterfingers tomorrow with my success so far. Love your site!
Hi Jennifer, I am SO sorry for such a late response! Sometimes so many comments come in and I miss one, I truly apologize.
I’m SO happy you loved these so much!! These shouldn’t collapse at all, in fact these are extremely fluffy and rise well. Did you sub an ingredient or grind your own almond flour by chance? I use a blanched almond flour and it’s very light and fluffy and produces really great results in baking muffins and cakes, etc. Thanks again for trying the recipes!
Can I substitute a different non-diary milk for the coconut milk? Thanks!
Hi Arielle! You can try almond milk or soy milk and that should work fine. Coconut milk is richer with more fat, so it makes the muffins richer and hold well, but I think they should still be delicious with almond or soy milk. Let me know after you try them!
I have just found your website I want to bake, bake, bake and bake and eat, eat and eatttt! Everything looks awesome, thank you so much for putting this together and sharing, really.
Question about these in particular: you already discussed in another comment about the use of starch. I haven’t got any tapioca starch handy but I do have corn starch. Would you suggest using the same amount to try that replacement starch?
Thank you!
Hi Mariana! Aww thanks so much, I hope you do bake and eat it all, haha!!
Yes, you can use cornstarch with the same amount and it should still work fine. Just a side note though regarding slight changes that will happen: they will not rise and be as fluffy since tapioca really gives a springy texture and rise. It also will not turn quite as golden brown because tapioca helps things to brown nicely. Also, it will leave possibly a slight starchy taste…hopefully won’t be detected after baking. Lastly, tapioca has wonderful binding qualities and acts as the “egg”, so they may be more delicate so make sure to let them fully cool before eating. Cornstarch can make the batter slightly thicker, so you may need to add just a tad more milk. The batter should be fairly thick, but easily pourable. If it is too thick, add a tablespoon more of the coconut milk.
Let me know how it turns out please!!
Can anything be substituted for the almond flour? Thanks for your help. Patti
Hi Patti!
Yes, one of my readers above left a comment staying this and had wonderful success. Originally she tried an even swap of the almond flour with sunflower “flour”, which is just grinding up raw, unsalted sunflower kernels in a food processor until it resembles a flour (don’t overprocess) and then measure. But the 1 cup was too strong of a sunflower taste so she just used 3/4 cup sunflower “flour) and 1 cup oat flour and left this feedback:
“~ 1 cup of oat flour
~ 3/4 cup of raw, organic sunflower flour
We also doubled the blueberry amount. Wow!!
My very picky son has asked me to make them several times over the last few weeks.
Thank you!!!!”
Please let me know if you make them Patti!