These are the most delicious easy Vegan Cornbread Muffins that are also gluten-free, oil-free, so fluffy and moist. They require only 8 ingredients and are so easy to make!
VEGAN GLUTEN FREE CORNBREAD MUFFINS
I love cornbread as much as I love dessert. The buttery flavor, perfect texture and how well it goes with chili and soups, like this vegan pumpkin chili or this Mexican chili and this amazing soup. What makes this recipe so different than any other version? Well, for starters, it has no butter and no oil! Most cornbread recipes rely heavily on oil or butter so they aren’t super dry. My secret is ground pecan flour and lite coconut milk.
Pecans are naturally sweet and very, very buttery. I kid you not, these vegan cornbread muffins legit taste like there is butter in them! Each bite, I can’t believe they are so healthy.
These are also low-sugar, with very little sweetener in them. I’m not a fan of cornbread that has a ton of sugar in it. Unless it is a sweet cornbread, like my vegan pumpkin cornbread.
These are also gluten-free and the texture is straight perfection. These gluten-free cornbread muffins are based off of my Vegan Gluten-free Cornbread recipe, but just as muffins. Many people ask about making them as muffins, so I wanted you all to be able to find this easy to make version!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
(Only 8 main ingredients needed. Full details and measurements on the recipe card below.)
- Lite coconut milk: This helps replace oil and give a wonderful, buttery and moist texture to these muffins where normally oil or butter would be.
- Apple cider vinegar: This helps with the overall flavor of the muffins and reacts with the baking powder to give a beautiful fluffy rise.
- Maple syrup: Just a tiny amount of syrup to these vegan cornbread muffins to give a very mild sweetness to balance out the other flavors. These muffins are not sweet. They are more savory, so if you like your cornbread muffins sweeter, add 2-3 tablespoons or dry granulated sugar like regular white sugar or coconut sugar.
- Medium grind coarse cornmeal: This is not the standard cornmeal you see in most recipes. This is a more coarse cornmeal, giving a really hearty, amazing texture. This is crucial to these muffins. Regular cornmeal does not work here. If you prefer a regular cornmeal texture, then I have the best cornbread recipe ever in my cookbook. That uses regular fine cornmeal and readers say it’s their favorite cornbread ever.
- Pecans: Here is the magical ingredient you’ve probably never seen in a cornbread muffin recipe! These babies make these cornbread muffins so dang buttery and delicious. Pecans are also naturally a little sweet, so they give amazing flavor. Walnuts do also work in this recipe, but they are not sweet, so the flavor is a bit different.
- Oat flour: This keeps these muffins gluten-free and gives a wonderful texture, as well as helps to bind the muffins.
- Tapioca starch: This helps to bind the muffins, give them rise and keeps them fluffy and from being too dense.
- Baking powder
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN CORNBREAD MUFFINS
Step 1: Add the milk, vinegar and syrup to a bowl and whisk well.
Step 2: Add the cornmeal to the milk and whisk well. Leave to soak for 5 minutes only. This softens the coarse cornmeal a bit and give a lovely texture.
Step 3: To a large bowl, add the ground pecan meal, oat flour, tapioca, baking powder and salt (and optional sugar if using) and whisk very well.
Step 4: Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until smooth and well mixed.
Step 5: Divide the batter into 10 muffin liners.
Step 6: Bake just 15 minutes until well risen, fluffy and golden.
MORE VEGAN MUFFIN RECIPES
- Vegan Chai Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Best Vegan Gluten-free Chocolate Muffins
- Whole Wheat Chocolate Muffins
- Bakery-Style Cinnamon Streusel Muffins
- Cranberry Orange Muffins
- Vegan Gluten-free Blueberry Muffins
- Pumpkin Muffins with Cherries
- Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Muffins (a reader favorite!)
- Cinnamon Coffee Chocolate Chip Muffins
Vegan Cornbread Muffins (Gluten-free)
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups (300g) room temperature canned lite coconut milk (shaken well first ) I recommend the Thai Kitchen or Sprouts brands
- 4 teaspoons (20g) apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons (30g) pure maple syrup or agave
- 1 1/2 cups (234g) medium grind coarse cornmeal (I use this one) THIS IS CRUCIAL TO THE TEXTURE
- 3/4 cup (84g) raw pecans, ground into flour
- 1/4 cup (32g) superfine oat flour
- 1/4 cup (32g) tapioca starch
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
NOTE
- Always use a scale for accuracy when baking, following MY gram weights listed. You never need cups, just the scale and bowl.
- I use this scale.
NOTE
- These muffins are not very sweet at all. There is only a tiny amount of sweetener. This is because I don't like sweet cornbread since I like to pair it with savory recipes like chilis and soups. It is only very mildly sweet from the syrup and natural sweetness from the pecan.. So, if you'd like yours a bit sweeter, add 2-3 tablespoons of dry sweetener (not more syrup) to the dry ingredients.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a muffin pan with 10 nonstick liners. I like parchment paper liners or the Reynolds Staybrite foil liners. Both never stick.
- Make sure the milk is room temperature and the can is shaken well first before measuring. To a medium bowl, add the milk, vinegar and syrup. Whisk well.
- Add the cornmeal to the to the milk mixture and leave to sit for 5 minutes only. This helps to soften the coarse cornmeal some and yield a wonderful texture to the muffins. Do not skip this step.
- Grind the pecans in a vitamix or food processor into a fine flour, being careful not to overprocess into a paste. Scrape the sides if needed for any chunks of pecans. Should only take a few seconds.
- To a large bowl, add the the ground pecan meal, oat flour, tapioca, baking powder and salt and whisk very well. If adding the optional sugar for a sweet muffin, add it as well. See NOTE above.
- Add the reserved milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until well mixed and smooth.
- Divide the batter into exactly 10 nonstick muffin liners. This will yield the perfect size muffins.
- Bake for 15 minutes only. They should be beautifully risen, golden and have a clean toothpick from the center of a muffin.
- Cool 15 minutes before eating. Store at room temperature sealed well. These have the best texture the first day, but are still good the next. Rewarm if desired with a bit of vegan butter or drizzle of syrup or agave. I like these savory because you can drizzle a tiny amount of syrup for sweetness and I like to eat a savory muffin with chili or soup.
Notes
- Medium grind coarse cornmeal: This is not the standard cornmeal you see in most recipes. This is a more coarse cornmeal, giving a really hearty, amazing texture. This is crucial to these muffins. Regular cornmeal does not work here. If you prefer a regular cornmeal texture, then I have the best cornbread recipe ever in my cookbook. That uses regular fine cornmeal and readers say it's their favorite cornbread ever.
Nutrition
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Outta the park again!!! Sooo delicious. Tastes like it has butter it in, even though I haven’t eaten butter in 12years!!
Would it mess things up in the recipe if I roast the pecans first before I grind it into meal?
Roasting releases a lot of the oil so I wouldn’t advise it, it’ll turn it into paste probably too quickly.
Have you tried substituting arrowroot flour for tapioca? If so are the proportions the same? Thx
Would it turn out well with cashew milk? If yes, how much cashew milk should I use to make the cashew milk? (Like a half cup for two cups of water ?) Thank you.
Yes I think that should work. Use 1/2 cup cashews plus 1 1/2 cups filtered water. Blend until creamy smooth. Then use 300 grams for the recipe. Let me know after you try them!
I only have full fat coconut milk on hand. Can this be used? I have low fat coconut milk on my shopping list…but the store is an hour away.
Hi Bets! No, it can’t be full-fat, it’s 3 times the amount of fat and way too thick, it would make the muffins too moist and dense. You can make light coconut milk with it though and try that. To do this, blend up the can of coconut milk with 2 cans of filtered water and then measure.
These came out great and will perfect with the chili I made from your site!
So happy to hear that Karen! Thank you for the feedback!
I really enjoy your recipes and although I haven’t made this yet I thought I would mention that it would be so convenient to have a link to other recipes using “special “ ingredients. The only reason I ordered corn meal was because you also use it in your lentil loaf recipe! Now there is a better chance that this new to me ingredient will actually be used! One thing I really appreciate is a recipe that doesn’t require exotic ingredients, dirty every dish in the house, take hours to make but is healthy and GOOD! Thank you!
Yes, this ingredient works great for both the loaf and the muffins. It is a very specific type of cornmeal though so I don’t use it for a lot of stuff, but the lentil loaf has been such a reader fave for so many years that the cornmeal definitely gets used, thank you!
Wow! These were delicious. My daughter has a ton of dietary restrictions and was so excited she could eat these. She said “this tastes like something that I shouldn’t be allowed to eat!” I did add 3 TBS of coconut sugar to sweeten them up a bit and they were absolutely perfect. They definitely have a rich depth of flavor due to the pecans. Thanks!!
Yay Stephanie! So glad to hear you loved them! Glad my suggestion of the 3 tablespoons of sweetener for a sweeter muffins was just right for you!
Hi Brandi! I’m a long time follower of your recipes (they are all amazing!) and would love to make the cornbread muffins. Can I grind my pecans in a food processor to make a meal or is it something I need to purchase?
Hi Katie! Yes, it’s listed under step 4! Let me know after you try them!