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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Brandi, We LOVE & look forward to our fresh PNW Blueberries every summer. I increased this recipe by half so it would make 12 muffins. I’ve made them several times this way and they are wonderful. For the last of this summers blueberries I used my 12 muffin version of the recipe and MADE IN A lined with parchment paper LOAF PAN! I baked it for 55-60 minutes. It’s cooling completely on a wire rack on the parchment paper. We can’t wait to cut into this, we know it will be spectacular! I’ll post photos of it on IG & FB and of course tag TheVegan*
Gluten free or not, these are some of the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever made, and no one who ate them would have guessed they were GF. Definitely making these again!
These muffins are a big hit at our house! I gobbled up two!!! Hubby loves them too! I took your advice and made cashew milk as we are not fans of coconut (trying to reduce saturated fat). I put less maple syrup as we don’t like things too sweet. Also! Thanks for your tip on coating the frozen blueberries in extra oat flour — worked like a charm!
YUM!!! Thanks for another great recipe!! Will be making this again!
Just made these and I cut the baking soda in half to lower the sodium. Obviously a little denser, but still tastes really great!
Details about scale vs no scale outcomes. I am an experienced baker and I feel confident baking GF or non gluten free. I am currently and forever a GF vegan for health reasons. I came across this recipe and appreciated the simple, healthy ingredients but did not have a scale. My confidence in baking told me I could watch the video, see the batter consistency and successfully create muffins without the hassle of purchasing a scale. I have done this multiple times now and what I can tell you is this…BUY A SCALE! It is not that you won’t get decent muffins, its that you won’t get excellent muffins every single time. Today I made them for the first time with a scale and boy were my measurements totally off and honestly, no where close to what I thought I was seeing in the video. Additionally, the “hassle” of a scale is actually a time saver. I whipped these muffins (I always triple the batch to make 24 muffins) up in no time, baked them in 20 minutes and here I am with time to write review. I am completely open to weighing my ingredients moving forward and appreciate the straight forward comments about this! THANK YOU!
This recipe is by far my absolute favorite! Most gluten free ones I’ve tried are loaded with other additives or just too flour-like tasting. Not this one!! It’s easy to prepare, cooked perfect in 15-20 min each time I made them. They are so sweet without adding sugar!! I made a small flat loaf and muffins out of this recipe and I can’t get enough.
Go ahead and make yourself this amazing snack!! Thank you for such a great recipe !! 🤗
Thank you so much Allison for this amazing feedback, I really appreciate it!
I am not a baker or pretend to be but every time I make them I feel like I am one. I make those awesome muffins for my daughter and they are always a hit. Thank you for sharing those awesome recipes!
So very wonderful to hear that, thank you so much!
We’re expecting a storm in TX this week, and in order to prepare some snacks for the hubs and daughter, I made these today. I made 1.5 times the recipe so we would have 12 and it would last us 4 days. Rookie mistake. We’re down to the last two..I bet they’re gonna be gone before I type this review. These are so effing good. Don’t be like me …make a double batch. We did the 3/4 cups of blueberries, because you can never have too many blueberries. I’m making a batch of your lemon poppyseed muffins from your book now and doubling that recipe! Can you tell we love all your muffin recipes?
Hey,I read that dates wont work in this recipe but do you think date syrup will?
It should be runny and smooth like syrup consistency, otherwise they will end up quite dense.
Great recipe! I find so many gluten free vegan recipes can be quite dense but these muffins were perfectly fluffy. I didn’t have enough maple syrup so I added more milk and it worked great. I also didn’t have lite canned coconut milk so I just used unsweetened soy milk with an added bit of apple cider vinegar and added a couple tablespoons of melted coconut oil for some extra fat. They turned out great! Thanks so much!
Wonderful Katie! So glad you loved these!
This is my absolute favorite muffin recipe!!! It’s perfection!
That is so awesome to hear, thank you Sara!
Hi. My daughter in law referred me to your website. She is a huge fan of yours. This is a beautiful recipe! I am striving for both lectin free flour & egg free baking. Both oat & rice flours have lectins. May I sub the oat flour with more almond flour? I see coconut flour is out. Any other options you feel would work and keep these fluffy and moist? Thanks, Nic
Hi Nic! So kind! No, I definitely would not do more almond flour, as that adds a ton of moisture and they would end up very wet and dense. That is really tough because the oat flour makes these soft and gives a lovely texture. But the best sub for oat flour is spelt flour. You could also use regular white flour. Same weight amount for both. Sorry I missed this comment a week or so back!
Can I use honey instead of maple syrup?
Honey is much thicker and stickier and sweeter, so it will definitely change the flavor and possibly the texture. I never use honey in my baking, so I can’t say for sure. Agave would be a much better sub, but you can always experiment and see.
This is a fantastic recipe! Without eggs or yeast you achieved an impressive texture which is the most challenging part of vegan and AIP baking. Addictively delicious too! Best muffin I have made since going vegan. Well done and thank you for sharing. 😊👍💕
I think next time I make them I am going to add some lemon zest and juice as I am particularly fond of the lemon blueberry combination.
Yay Amanda! Thank you so much for such wonderful feedback!
Love these muffins! Made a batch using frozen blueberries. They turned out great. So tasty! I also froze them for quick mornings and the toast/reheat wonderfully in toaster oven. Perfect for a mid-day snack too.
Hi! I just made these and they are wonderful! I got 8 muffins out of the batch and my family has already eaten half before they’ve even cooled! 🙂 I was wondering if you’ve ever doubled the recipe to make 12 muffins? Also I didn’t weigh the liquids. Where you have the gram measurement for liquids similar to what you do with your dry ingredients… weigh on the scale? Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi Stephanie! If you double them, you will get 16. Trying to double and put it all in 12 muffins would make them overflow, it’s too much batter. You measure the same weigh as with the dry. Have the bowl on the scale, hit zero, then slowly pour in the liquid until you reach the gram weights listed. You don’t need to use cups or anything to compare, just use the scale and bowl. Super easy, much faster and easier cleanup.
Wow, amazing recipe but i’m not able to get coconut milk, can you let me know the substitute for coconut milk.
Another creamy milk like cashew or oat?
If I wanted to make these with whole wheat flour, what would I have to change?
Thanks 🙂
Hi, I’m sorry but these won’t work with whole wheat flour. They are written based on using almond flour and being gluten-free. The almond flour provides a ton of moisture, so if you subbed with all whole wheat flour, they would be a very different result and be very dry. Whole wheat flour is very high protein too, so they definitely make things more chewy, it would be best to find a recipe that calls for whole wheat flour, since it performs so differently in baking!
Can I use dates instead of maple syrup?
Hi! Dates will not work that well because they are chewy and dense and not a flowing liquid texture. They’d end up very dense using dates.
Homemade blueberry muffins, generally, are okay. I mean the tops are usually good, but the bottoms are just meh. HOWEVER…. your blueberry muffins? INCREDIBLE!!! I need to watch my caffeine intake, so I am trying not to make all of your chocolate goodies first, and I thought I’d give these a try. HOLY amazingness… from the top down!!! SPECTACULAR! Another recipe you’ve nailed!!! I made seven slightly larger ones. They fluff up nicely and have beautiful rounded tops. THANK YOU!!!
You are the best, thank you so much Kelley!!
Wondering if there’s a sub for the oat flour? Unfortunately, I have a sensitivity to oats, so am looking for alternatives. Thanks!
Hi Michelle, perhaps a gluten-free all-purpose blend like this one? I prefer this one to all others because it has no added gums or a gross flavor. It is my favorite one if I’m using a premade blend, it is rice and starch-based. I’ve not tested this of course, but that is my best suggestion. You could also try brown rice flour, but it will likely make it a bit more dry/crumbly (possibly). https://shop.kingarthurflour.com/items/gluten-free-all-purpose-flour
Could you substitute coconut low fat yogurt for the coconut milk? It’s what I have in the house!
These were the best muffins ever!
So delicious, Brandi, thank you.
Awesome Twyla!
These are terrific! I lost my sweet tooth but wanted something in these so I used a ripe banana in place of the maple syrup and added just a touch more cashew milk. Husband and I devoured these when they were ready!
So glad you enjoyed these Juliana!
Substituting almond milk for coconut milk? I use coconut milk rarely so I cringe to open a whole can of coconut milk for only 6 tlbs. Any suggestions on the left over milk? Thanks!!
Hi Donna! Please refer to my NOTES on the recipe card where I address the milk. You are welcome to try almond milk if you like, keeping in mind that it is much less creamy and more watery, therefore your muffins will be less fluffy and more dense.