Vegan Rhubarb Apple Muffins
These light and fluffy beauties are unbelievably excellent, and this simple vegan recipe can be adapted easily to include whatever’s in season– right now, savory, moist rhubarb is making it’s all-too-brief appearance in our produce department. What better time to make muffins? I bought most of the other ingredients in small quantities from our bulk department– I prefer keeping a small pantry at home and just buying what I need from OA to make sure all my ingredients are fresh and vibrant!
Recipe
Prep Time: 15 minutes/ Cook Time: 25 minutes/ Yield: 12 muffins
Printable PDF version can be found here.
Ingredients:
1 cup almond milk (I love using unsweetened Califia)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cardamom
.5 teaspoon salt
1.25 cups light brown sugar
.5 cups coconut oil (or you can use an Earth Balance stick)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups rhubarb and apple mixture– I used about 1:2 ratio. I like to peel the tough outer skin off the rhubarb, which just takes a minute. You can substitute strawberries, peaches, or nectarines for the apples– bake with the seasons and experiment!
Topping:
.25 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon Earth Balance buttery stick
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line a 12-hole muffin pan.
- To make the buttermilk, combine the almond milk with the apple cider vinegar and set aside.
- In a good-sized bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt. Use a fork to briskly mix them.
- In another larger bowl, briskly beat the brown sugar with the coconut oil. Add the grated ginger, the vanilla, and the buttermilk mixture you made in step 2. Beat with a fork until the mixture is pretty smooth– it’ll still be a bit chunky since the coconut oil is not melted.
- Slowly stir in the flour mixture until just combined– do not overstir at this point unless you want dense, hard muffins! I use a rubber spatula to mix the wet and dry ingredients until the dry ingredients are well moistened.
- Stir in the fruit and rhubarb mixture until the peices are well distributed throughout.
- In a little bowl, combine the topping ingredients. I just use my fingers to make a paste out of the sugar and earth balance.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan. You will fill up each muffin hole to the very top, even heaping.
- Take a little teaspoon-sized patty of the topping mixture and place it atop the batter– as the muffin heats and expands, it’ll melt delightfully over the top, ideally creating a crunchy crust.
- Bake for about 25 minutes until the muffins are lightly browned and the tops spring back when you poke them. Leave them in the muffin pan to cool for about 15 minutes.
- Enjoy! Now do the dishes. ; /