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These gluten free vegan muffins are rich and flavorful with a slightly crisp outside, and a tall, golden brown dome. This special recipe needs no tricky “egg replacers” since it is made to be naturally egg-free and dairy-free without sacrificing that dense, moist crumb.
Plus, you can add our secret vegan-friendly flavoring that makes them taste like they're made with dairy butter!
Table of Contents
Why this recipe makes the best vegan gf muffin
These muffins combine vegan butter and oil for a super tender crumb without any oily flavor, and add some extra tapioca starch to a classic gf flour blend for the best texture and a supported rise. Plus, with plenty of vanilla extract and buttery-flavored vegan butter emulsion oil, they're full of authentic bakery flavor.
This vegan recipe has all the same texture as our classic gluten free chocolate chip muffins made with eggs and buttermilk. But it's developed without the need for eggs in the first place, so it's vegan first and without compromise.
Made easily in one bowl, this small batch recipe can be doubled easily to make an even 12 muffins—or even halved to make just 3!
Ingredient notes: the secret to perfect texture & flavor
The ingredients in this recipe may seem a bit unfamiliar, since there are no “egg replacers.” Just basic ingredients that act together to create the best textured muffin. Here's a bit about what each does:
- Oil: Any neutral oil (canola, grapeseed, peanut, vegetable, avocado) works well. Just a little bit helps lock in moisture without adding flavor or making the muffins taste oily.
- Vegan butter: Block-style vegan butter provides flavor and moisture. The kind in the tub has too much oil, so use Miyoko's Creamery, Melt, or Trader Joe's vegan butter, which are all good. If you use Earth's Balance Buttery Sticks, reduce the salt by 1/8 teaspoon since it's very salty.
- Plant-based milk: Adds richness and brings the muffin batter together. Use something with a similar thickness to cow's milk, like unflavored and unsweetened almond milk or soy milk. Avoid anything fat free, like rice milk, anything with texture, like oat milk, or anything without enough moisture, like canned coconut milk.
- Apple cider vinegar: Reacts with baking soda alone and the baking soda in your baking powder to help the muffins rise high. It may have a strong smell in the bottle, but it doesn't add any distinct flavor to the muffins.
- Granulated vegan sugar: Adds sweetness and tenderness. If you're a very strict vegan, refined sugars can be vegan if they're processed without the use of bone char, so look for words like “natural” and “raw.”
- Light brown sugar: Adds sweetness, tenderness, and depth of flavor. Be sure it's vegan if you're strict.
- Gluten free flour blend: For the proper structure, you need a finely ground rice flour based blend that's properly balanced. Better Batter's classic blend and Bob's Red Mill's 1-to-1 gluten free baking flour (blue bag) are both vegan-friendly. If you're using Bob's, add another 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum or your muffins will be crumbly. You can also use my mock Better Batter blend, but Nicole's Best has milk powder, so it won't work here.
- Tapioca starch: To help the muffins rise up tall without eggs, we add additional tapioca starch even though your blend most likely already contains some.
- Salt: Brightens all the other flavors and balances the sweetness.
- Vanilla extract & butter emulsion oil: Add depth of flavor in these otherwise simple muffins, especially in the absence of eggs and regular butter. LorAnn brand butter emulsion is sold on Amazon (where I bought it) and in some of the larger craft stores.
- Chocolate chips: The easiest and most popular of all mix-ins, they add some texture and a touch of chocolate flavor. Enjoy Life is my favorite brand of vegan-friendly chocolate chips.
How to make gluten free vegan muffins, step-by-step
1. Make the muffin batter
Begin by mixing together white and light brown sugars to ensure that you are able to break up any lumps in the brown sugar. Add the vegan milk, vanilla extract, butter emulsion oil, melted vegan butter and oil, and whisk vigorously. The mixture should lighten in color as you begin to emulsify the oil in the milk which creates a more tender, smooth muffin after baking.
Add the gluten free flour blend including xanthan gum, additional tapioca starch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. You can whisk these dry ingredients together separately to avoid clumping of the leaveners, or just scatter each of them evenly over the top of the wet ingredients.
Whisk until very well combined. The mixture will fall off the whisk in relatively thin ribbons.
2. Let the batter sit
Let the batter sit, undisturbed, for about 30 minutes. As the flours absorb some of the moisture, the mixture will thicken. That creates a more stable batter that can hold the chocolate chips in suspension, and will rise higher in the oven. Double-acting baking powder will activate once when it's first mixed with moisture, and again when it goes into the oven.
3. Portion the batter and bake
Fill the wells full with batter, concentrating it toward the center of each well. In my experience, thick muffin batter piled high makes for muffins with a beautiful, tall dome.
If you're making 6 muffins (meaning you didn't double the recipe to make 12), and you don't have a 6-muffin tin, leave every other well of the tin empty to give the muffins space to expand without interfering with each other. Place the pan in the oven and fill the empty wells about 70% full with hot water to encourage even baking. Cold or lukewarm water will lower the oven temperature.
If you didn't have time to let it sit, line the prepared muffin wells with some plain batter first. Then, mix in the chips and fill the wells the rest of the way.
Bake first at 400°F for a burst of hot air that creates as much oven spring as possible for a high dome, then finish baking at 350°F so the muffins don't burn.
Cool briefly and transfer the muffins to a wire rack to finish cooling, and serve.
Expert tips for bakery-style muffins
Let the muffin batter rest
When you let the smooth muffin batter, without chips or other mix-ins, rest for about 30 minutes, the batter thickens enough to keep the mix-ins from sinking in the batter during baking. Without eggs, this is a relatively thin muffin batter when just mixed. This way, the chips stay suspended in the thicker batter, and the muffin tops rise even higher into a big bakery-style dome.
Use a combination of oil and vegan butter
Even though the vegan butter is melted, combining it with a neutral oil like peanut or vegetable oil keeps the muffins from smelling or tasting oily. If you don't mind that taste, the recipe will work with all oil (just replace the vegan butter with 35 grams more oil, not 42, since oil is all fat and butter has some moisture).
Add butter flavoring
Block-style vegan butter like Miyoko's Creamery brand is better than ever before, but it still doesn't taste exactly like dairy butter. To get that butter flavor and cover any oily aftertaste, try using LorAnn Oil's vegan-friendly butter emulsion oil. Although it doesn't taste like much on its own (I tried it!), it elevates the buttery flavor of baked goods.
Fill every other well of a 12-cup tin
If you are making only 6 muffins, you don't need a 6-cup muffin tin. It's actually better to use a 12-cup tin and fill every other well of the tin to allow the tops plenty of room to expand without interference. To help the muffins bake evenly, fill the empty wells 2/3 of the way full of warm water once the pan is in the oven.
Variations & mix-in ideas
Chips
Any other sort of vegan chocolate chip works, but it's best to avoid white chocolate chips since a dairy free variety is very hard to find.
Nuts
I like raw nuts best for baking, since they tend to be softer. Try adding some broken pieces of walnuts or pecans. Toasted coconut chips would be great, too.
Spices
Whether you're adding chocolate chips or nuts or not, try enhancing the flavor of by adding 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and/or 1/8 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg.
Fruits
If you'd like to make these into vegan blueberry muffins, start with only 3 ounces of fresh or frozen (undefrosted) blueberries but toss them in some more tapioca starch/flour before carefully mixing them into the muffin batter. Be sure to let the batter sit first to thicken before mixing them in.
You can also add up to 4 ounces dried fruit like raisins or dried cranberries. Try 2 ounces dairy free chocolate chips and 2 ounces dried blueberries for a more complex flavor.
🔄 Ingredient substitutions
Since these muffins are vegan, they're already dairy free and egg free. There are still some other ingredients you might like to replace, and some mix-ins you might like to swap. Here are some ideas:
Tapioca starch
If you don't have additional tapioca starch, try replacing it with superfine glutinous rice flour in place of tapioca starch. You can also use more of the all purpose blend, but the muffins will be shorter and the crumb tighter.
Apple cider vinegar
In my experience, apple cider vinegar is the most effective acid in activating baking powder and soda. If you need to replace it, you can use fresh lemon juice or white vinegar.
Butter emulsion oil
This is an optional ingredient. If you don't want to purchase it, the muffins are delicious as is. You can also use a full 2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste, or pure vanilla extract with some vanilla bean seeds.
Gluten Free Vegan Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 7 tablespoons (88 g) granulated sugar, (vegans, be sure it's appropriate)
- 5 tablespoons (68 g) packed light brown sugar, (vegans, be sure it's appropriate)
- ¾ cup (6 fluid ounces) nondairy milk, at room temperature
- ¾ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon LorAnn butter emulsion oil, optional, for buttery flavor
- 3 tablespoons (42 g) vegan butter, melted and cooled
- 1 ½ tablespoons (21 g) neutral oil, (canola, grapeseed, vegetable, peanut oils are all fine)
- 1 cup (140 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, be sure it's dairy free (See Recipe Notes)
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- 6 tablespoons (46 g) tapioca starch/flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 ounces mix-in pieces, dairy free chocolate chips, raisins, or chopped nuts
- Coarsely ground sugar, optional, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Grease and/or line 6 standard-sized muffin wells and set the pan aside. (See Recipe Notes about muffin tin.)
- In a large bowl, place the granulated sugar and light brown sugar and mix them together, breaking up the lumps in the brown sugar.
- Add the milk, vinegar, vanilla, optional butter emulsion, melted vegan butter, and oil to the bowl, and whisk vigorously to combine very well. The mixture will be thin.
- Scatter the dry ingredients, first the flour blend and xanthan gum, then the tapioca starch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, on top of the wet ingredients. Whisk to combine until very smooth. The batter will be sticky and runny.
- Set the batter aside for at least 20 minutes, ideally 30 minutes. It will thicken as it stands.
- While the muffin batter rests, preheat your oven to 400°F.
- Use a silicone spatula to turn the thickened muffin batter over a few times. Add almost all of the mix-in pieces, and mix until evenly distributed throughout. Reserve a few chips or other mix-ins.
- Fill the prepared wells of the muffin tin all the way with batter. Pile the batter toward the center of each well if at all possible. Top evenly with any remaining mix-in pieces and press in gently to help them stick to the batter. Sprinkle the top of the batter in each well lightly with the optional coarse sugar.
- Place the baking tin in the top third of the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue baking until a tester comes out mostly clean and the muffins are nicely domed (about another 12 minutes).
- Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
If you don't have a 6-well muffin tin, use a standard 12-well muffin tin and fill every other well. To ensure even baking, fill the 6 empty wells about 2/3 of the way with lukewarm water. To make 12 muffins
This recipe doubles really easily to make a full dozen (12) muffins. Just double all the ingredients by changing the yield to 12 or clicking the [2x] button.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Storage instructions
Short term
Wrap baked and cooled muffins in plastic wrap or store in a sealed container at room temperature. They will stay fresh that way for at least 3 days.
Longer term
Freeze them in a single layer on a flat surface, then pile them into a sealed, freezer-safe container. They'll last at least 2 months that way, and can be defrosted in the microwave and refreshed in the toaster oven.
FAQs
No, this muffin batter doesn't have enough structure to make a whole quickbread loaf that rises and holds together properly.
Always check the freshness of your baking powder and baking soda, as they're the only source of rise in this egg-free, vegan recipe. Make sure you didn't omit the vinegar, which activates the baking soda, and measure all of your dry ingredients by weight. And be sure your baking powder is double-acting, which means once when hydrated and a second time in the oven.
You can just leave it out and use the recipe as-is, or replace the vanilla extract with 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste for enhanced flavor.
The muffins will still turn out, but they'll just be a bit shorter. If you watch the recipe video, you'll see that I didn't always let the muffin batter rest. Instead, to prevent the chocolate chips from sinking all the way to the bottom, I lined the muffin wells with some plain batter first before mixing in the chips and filling the wells all the way.
I really like unsweetened almond milk, since it has some fat and not a lot of distracting flavor. Unsweetened unflavored soy milk and Ripple milk are also great. I don't like baking with oat milk since it usually has unwanted texture, but if you have a favorite oat milk that mimics cow's milk in texture, it's worth a try!
Yes, you can use all melted vegan butter instead a combination of butter and oil. I prefer to add some oil to help soften the crumb and keep the muffins fresher, longer.
I don't recommend reducing the sugar, since it's also a tenderizer and keeps the muffins moist. If you'd like to try using maple syrup in place of both sugars, try using 6 tablespoons (126 grams) pure maple syrup, and reduce the milk by 1 1/2 tablespoons. Reduce the initial oven temperature to 375°F since maple syrup burns more easily, and let the muffin batter sit for 1 hour before adding the chips since it has extra moisture that we aren't able to entirely remove.
These moist and tender muffins will stay fresh in a sealed container at room temperature for at least 3 days. For longer storage, I recommend freezing them wrapped tightly, and removing as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn. Defrost for 20 seconds in the microwave and sprinkle with water then refresh in a 300°F toaster oven until warm.
Hi there, I was wondering if adding in grated zucchini would work in this recipe. I was thinking that I would drain the zucchini to remove as much moisture as I can, then follow what you recommend for fruit mix-ins. I would just make your zucchini muffin recipe however, I am allergic to eggs and substituting them can be difficult sometimes. I would love to hear your opinion on if you think this will work. Thank you!
Hi, Madi, I’m afraid that definitely wouldn’t work here. I hear you about having trouble replacing eggs in a recipe that begins by calling for them, but that really is just a very different recipe. I’m so sorry! I do have a recipe for gluten free zucchini muffins and provide some suggestions for replacing eggs, if that helps.
Can I not use GF self-raising flour?
What’s the ratio of adding xanthan powder to 100g All purpose flour/Plain flour? Thanks.
Your recipes are awesome and perfect results every time. 👌
Hi, Ranjit, in the U.S., we don’t us self-rising flour, so I don’t have much experience with it. I do know that it has a variable amount of added leavener, so I can’t recommend using it in my recipes that call for an all purpose gluten free flour blend. I wouldn’t know if you needed to add more leavener or not. As for xanthan gum, I specify how much to use in the recipe itself, which here is 1/2 teaspoon in the whole batch. The amount depends on the type of recipe. It’s not per 100 grams, it’s per cup, which as I measure it is 140 grams. I hope that’s helpful!
I made these with frozen blueberries but was in a hurry and didn’t coat the berries with tapioca starch. Oops!The sweet crust that formed on top was delightful but the inside was kinda soggy. I’ll have to try again a correct my mistake cuz I think we thought they had good flavor and crusty top was definitely a hit.
Be careful not to use more than the 3 ounces of blueberries I recommend, too, Barb, as it’s tricky to add fresh or frozen berries to a recipe like this that wasn’t specifically made for wet mix-ins. And be sure you’re measuring everything possible by weight, since the moisture balance is delicate!
Ooooo, these look so good! I may be making these tomorrow!
I think you’ll love them, Stephanie!