These Oatmeal Vegan Muffins deliver the best moist, fluffy, and healthy vegan blueberry muffins for breakfast, filled with wholesome ingredients like oats, maple syrup, and applesauce.
I have been baking vegan muffin recipes for the past 5 years, it’s enough to say that I now master the art of baking vegan muffins. This muffin recipe is inspired by two previous brilliant vegan recipes you love, my vegan blueberry muffins and my cinnamon oatmeal muffins.
The process to achieve moist, fluffy vegan oatmeal muffins is pretty simple, I work on keeping a nice balance of flour, oat ratio to oil and milk. The oil and applesauce keep the crumb moist and bouncy and prevent a dry crumb that often comes from too much oats in oatmeal muffins.
Ingredients And Tips
- Almond Milk is my favorite option. It’s light, has no flavor, and turns the muffin crumb fluffy. My first tip is to use unsweetened dairy-free milk to avoid added sugar, and also, feel free to try high protein options like soy milk to make the muffins more nutritious.
- Apple Cider Vinegar is used to curdle the milk. It makes vegan buttermilk that adds a slightly sour flavor to the crumb, very similar to bakery-style muffins. Any acidic ingredient works, from lemon juice to orange juice!
- Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats, quick oats, or steel-cut oats. If you want the crumb to be less dry, as I like it, quick oats work better. If gluten-free, select gluten-free certified oats.
- All-Purpose Flour or white whole wheat flour works in the same amount. I advise sticking to white flour because too much fiber turns the muffins dry. While white wholewheat flour works expect a different texture. Some gluten-free flour blends can deliver good results, but I didn’t try and can’t guarantee the same texture.
- Cinnamon and Vanilla Extract are a must to flavor these vegan oatmeal muffins.
- Blueberries are my favorite berries in muffins like in my blueberry oatmeal muffins.
- Maple Syrup is a tasty refined sugar free sweetener, but agave syrup or coconut nectar works as well. I don’t recommend granulated sweeteners in this recipe as they dry out the batter.
- Unsweetened Applesauce or mashed banana. Feel free to use my banana oatmeal blueberry muffins recipe for a more robust banana flavor in your muffins. The fruit puree helps the ingredients bind together since it’s an egg-free oatmeal muffin. It also adds an excellent moisture to compensate for the fiber in oats that tends to dry out muffin batters. My tip is to keep the ratio as written. Don’t skip some of the oil for more fruit puree, or the muffin batter gets packed and less fluffy.
- Light Olive Oil is my go-to oil to add omega-3 fatty acids and a nice fluffy, moist texture to the crumb. Any oil with a light taste, like canola oil, melted coconut oil, or plant-based butter, works. Oil-free options like mashed banana or unsweetened applesauce make the muffin batter packed, wet, less bouncy, and are not my favorite.
- Baking Powder and baking soda are your raising agents for fluffy muffins.
Making Vegan Oatmeal Muffins
- First, in a large bowl, whisk all the wet ingredients: applesauce, oil, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, almond milk, and vanilla extract.
- Stir in the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt using a silicone spatula.
- When the batter is smooth and consistent, fold in blueberries and stir to incorporate. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-hole muffin paper with a paper liner, grease each with a cooking oil spray.
- Fill up the muffin cups to the top with the oatmeal muffin batter. If you like, add a few extra fresh blueberries on top of the muffins and sprinkle extra old-fashioned oats.
- Bake in the center rack of the oven until golden brown, about 25-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean,.
Expert Tips To Bake Oatmeal Muffins
- Keep the Oil. I know it’s tempting to make these muffins healthier using an oil-free option, but oats are high in fiber, and without the oil, the muffin crumb is dry, packed, and not fluffy.
- Play with Flavors. Swap the blueberries for raspberries, dried fruits, or nuts. Or swap the applesauce for mashed pumpkin puree or mashed bananas. Feel free to stir in up to 1/2 cup of chocolate chips or chopped nuts.
- Rinse Frozen Berries to Avoid Blue Muffins. Frozen blueberries tend to release a blue color when you stir them in the batter. To prevent that, place them in a sieve and give them a quick rinse under tap water to remove their color before stirring them into the batter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use gluten-free flour?
I didn’t try replacing all-purpose flour with all-purpose gluten-free flour, but it should work. Make sure you also use gluten-free certified oats, and wheat free baking powder.
Can I skip the blueberries?
Yes, you can make the recipe without fruits, or use other adds on like a mix of dried fruits: cranberries, raisins, chopped dates or nuts like almonds, pecans or walnuts.
Can I use frozen berries?
Yes, you don’t need to thaw the berries, stir the frozen berries directly in the batter.
Can I use coconut sugar or brown sugar instead of maple syrup?
No, this recipe has been created to use liquid sweetener but feel free to use my strawberry banana oatmeal muffin recipe to use crystal sweeteners.
More Vegan Muffin Recipes
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Oatmeal Vegan Muffins
This oatmeal vegan muffins recipe delivers the best vegan blueberry muffins for breakfast, filled with wholesome ingredients from oats, maple syrup, apple sauce and ready in less than 30 minutes.
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Servings: 12 muffins
Calories: 225 kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup Almond Milk - (note 1)
- 1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar - (note 2)
- ½ cup Maple Syrup
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Light Olive Oil - (note 5)
- ¼ cup Unsweetened Applesauce
- 1 cup Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats - (note 3)
- 1 ¾ cup All-Purpose Flour - (note 4)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ cup Blueberry - fresh or frozen (note 6)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper case liners. Grease with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk all the wet ingredients: applesauce, almond milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract, oil, and apple cider vinegar. Stir until the batter is smooth.
- Using a silicone spatula, stir in the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
- Fold in blueberries, fresh or frozen, and stir to incorporate them evenly.
- Fill the prepared muffin pan evenly with the oatmeal muffin batter and sprinkle extra oats or blueberries on top of each muffin before baking.
- Bake the muffins at 350°F (180°C) for 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.
- Cool down on a wire rack before serving.
Notes
Note 1: You can also use soy milk, oat milk, or any unsweetened plant-based milk you love.
Note 2: You can use lemon juice or lime juice instead.
Note 3: Quick oats are a great option too. Pick gluten-free certified oats if desired.
Note 4: White spelt flour or white wholewheat work well in the same amount. I didn’t try all-purpose gluten-free flour for this recipe.
Note 5: Any oil with a low flavor works well, like canola oil, melted coconut oil, or avocado oil. For an oil-free option, try mashed banana or applesauce.
Note 6: You don’t need to thaw frozen blueberries. My tip is to place the frozen berries in a sieve and run cold tap water onto the berries to remove the blue hue and prevent the muffin batter from turning blue/purple.
Store: Store the muffins in the fridge for up to 4 days in a sealed box, or freeze them for up to 1 month in zip-lock bags.
Nutrition
Serving: 1Serving | Calories: 225kcal | Carbohydrates: 31.1g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 9.9g | Saturated Fat: 1.4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6.9g | Sodium: 207.4mg | Potassium: 93.9mg | Fiber: 1.8g | Sugar: 10.5g | Vitamin A: 12IU | Vitamin C: 1.9mg | Calcium: 68.7mg | Iron: 1.3mg | Magnesium: 17.7mg | Phosphorus: 57.3mg | Zinc: 0.5mg
I love this recipe! I used chocolate almond milk, banana instead of applesauce as your suggestion, chocolate chips instead of blueberries and some cocoa powder(added less flour). original recipe and my changed one, both amazing!!!! thank you!
That’s sounds tasty, thanks for sharing, and for making my recipes!!!
It would be very helpful to present very high protein recipes that are gluten free.
Thanks!
When you go to my high-protein recipe category, you can then filter the list on Gluten-Free. Here’s a link to all my gluten-free high-protein recipes!
I just made these muffins and THEY ARE FANTASTIC, just like every recipe of yours I’ve tried so far. One winner after another. Thank you!
Thank you So much!
I haven’t cooked this yet, and i wondered if i can use almond flour instead of regular flour because i am gluten intolerant. The almond and banana cookies cane out very well.
It might be a bit dry with almond flour.
Can you add protein powder to this recipe? And if so how much?
You might be able to add some, but I have a protein oatmeal muffin recipe that you should try instead!
Can you use mixed fruit instead of blueberries
Absolutely!
Can I use Almond flour instead of all purpose white/wholewheat flour?
I haven’t tried, but I suppose it might be a bit too dry with almond flour.
I don’t have a muffin tin. Would this recipe work as a loaf? If so, how large would the loaf pan have to be?
It would work, but you’d have to bake it for a bit longer. I’d typically use a 9×5 pan.
Can you use honey instead of maple syrup?
Yes, it should work, they are generally fine to substitute.