There is no doubt we all get accustom to baking the same muffin recipe occasionally adding in different fruits or flavouring. I’m guilty, I do it over in over again. It’s time to spice things up in the kitchen and get a little creative.

I decided to try something completely different and go vegan. Just the word VEGAN sounds scary but after a little research I was delighted to experiment with this simple recipe that not only tasted light like a lemon meringue pie it was also healthy.

The secret with vegan baking is replacing the eggs and milk – EASY! There are two options in replacing eggs by using either ground flax meal or chia seeds. Most recipes using chia seeds will suggest ground chia seeds however they are more expensive and you will achieve the same result with whole chia seeds so don’t bother buying ground chia seeds.  Any non dairy milk will do such as almond, coconut or soy. Lucky I’ve been of cows milk and had almond milk in the fridge so that is what I used.

Vegan lemon almond muffins

I also used olive oil to bring out the lemon and almond flavour in the muffins that gave them that light taste.  For an added boost add in lemon extract.

Try this recipe and let me know what your thoughts are. I loved the change from the heavy all bran oaty muffins I generally make.

Vegan Lemon Almond Muffins

Recipe by Lina Zussino

A healthy and light tasting vegan citrus lemon and almond muffin recipe.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Total time: 40 minutes

Yield: 12

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup Non dairy milk such as almond milk
  • 1/4 cup Pure maple syrup
  • 3 tbsp Olive oil
  • 2 tbsp Ground flax meal
  • 1 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup Unrefined Sugar
  • 2/3 cup Almond meal
  • 1 – 1/2 Cups Barley flour
  • 1 Lemon Zest
  • 1.5 tsp Lemon extract (Optional)
  • 1/2 tsp Baking soda
  • 2 tsps Baking Powder
  • 1/3 cup Lemon juice

Cooking Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly oil a 12 cup muffin pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, mix the milk, maple syrup, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon extract, lemon zest and ground flax meal.
  3. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients, barely flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and ground almond meal.
  4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients mixture, and pour in the liquid mixture. Stir until just blended. Spoon into the prepared muffin pan.
  5. Bake 25 in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  6. Remove from oven, let cool for a couple of minutes in the pan, and transfer the muffins to cool on a cooling rack.