Soft and Fluffy Vegan Blueberry Muffins

Who doesn't love blueberry muffins, the most ubiquitous of the coffee shop cakes, but sometimes I find they can taste a little bit synthetic. My version uses only fresh blueberries, and store cupboard vegan ingredients.

This was inspired by my lemon poppyseed muffins and my beetroot muffins and also pairs well with my healthy vegan breakfast muffins!

Honestly, is there a more iconic baked good than the blueberry muffin? So iconic, in fact, that it might take down a slice of cherry pie in a throwdown. But not all blueberry muffins are created equally. Most have egg and butter in, and some are dry, some are stingy with their blueberries and others are just overpriced.

These are the best vegan blueberry muffins because they are none of those things. They are tender, with enough blueberries to satisfy every bite, are eggless and dairy-free and use store cupboard ingredients. Lemon zest adds a freshness to the flavour, and a delicious cinnamon/sugar topping gives you a sweet and crunchy muffin top that is irresistible!

I love that this is such a short ingredient list and that I can prep them in a little under 5 minutes. It makes baking so simple.

• blueberries. You can use fresh blueberries or, as I did, frozen blueberries. I often buy blueberries when they're reduced in the supermarket, freeze them in ziplock bags and they are just perfect to cook with from frozen, or to throw into smoothies
• sugar - not too much, these get their sweetness from the blueberries and the crunchy cinnamon topping
• yogurt - of course, this replaces the egg element and ensures a tender crumb in your fluffy blueberry muffins. This replaces the buttermilk element in regular blueberry muffins.
• egg replacer - I also use some egg replacer though to ensure that the muffin batter isn't too wet, giving a stodgy muffin

See recipe card for quantities.

Add the wet ingredients into the sifted dried ingredients

Place into oven at 350 fahrenheit

Using an scoop, ¾ fill your muffin cups.

Ready to eat!

• Preheat your oven to 200c.
• Prepare your muffin pan, either line with cases or lightly oil and flour the muffin holes.
• In a small dish, whisk together the tablespoon sugar and cinnamon. Set to one side.
• Sieve the flour, baking powder and baking soda, half cup of sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl.
• In another mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, vegan yogurt, lemon zest and whisked up egg replacer, until smooth.
• Pour this into your dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
• Now fold in the fresh blueberries. You will have a thick batter.
• Using a scoop or quarter cup measure, spoon the batter into your prepared muffin pan.
• Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture equally over the muffin batter.
• Bake for between 20-25 minutes. or until pale golden and they spring back to the touch.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a cooling rack before eating!

• Blueberries - instead of blueberries, try whole raspberries or chopped strawberries instead
• Flour - use gluten free self-raising flour instead
• Vegan Butter - use melted coconut oil or vegetable oil instead
• Cinnamon Sugar - omit the cinnamon if you don't like cinnamon, or omit the sugar altogether for a plainer muffin

• Healthy - to make healthy vegan blueberry muffins, use wholemeal flour instead of white, or a mixture of spelt flour with regular flour to give a nuttier taste
• Deluxe - omit the cinnamon topping and instead add a drizzle made with a little lemon water icing and sprinkle with some toasted slithered almonds

I like to use a muffin pan that is fairly deep, giving you a nice rise on the muffins. Some recipes don't use muffin liners either, instead spraying the tray with a little oil and the flouring. This is a perfect option if you are concerned about the sustainability of muffin liners. They also freeze better out of the liners too.

To ensure that the correct amount of blueberry muffin batter is dispensed into each cup, I like to use either an ice cream or muffin scoop. You could also use (in this instance) a quarter cup measure. But I just use my vintage ice cream scoop.

Store the baked and cooled muffins in an airtight container. They only really last a couple of days though because they contain fresh fruit.

Muffins that won't be consumed within a couple of days can be frozen, and thawed out at room temperature.

Make your muffin batter the night before, but don't add the blueberries until you intend to bake them. If you add fruit the day before, it will break down and stain the the batter.