Vegan Microwave Muffins

Ashley at (never home)maker posted a recipe for simple, vegan microwave muffins that I’ve wanted to try. I changed up her recipe a bit, but these were delicious! Below I’ve posted her recipe with my changes. Thanks, Ashley!

2 tablespoons flax meal
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour 2 TBL steel cut oats
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon Bob’s Red Mill Ener-G egg replacer, just the powder
1/2 (heaping) teaspoon baking powder (I hadn’t baked in so long, I didn’t even have any baking powder, so I made some quickly with 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar)
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons maple syrup (or agave) 1 TBL turbinado sugar
Handful chocolate chips 1 TBL vegan chocolate chips
1 TBL chopped raw pecans (my addition)

Directions: stir together the dry ingredients, then add the pumpkin, then add the chocolate chips and nuts. Grease a regular mug (12 oz?) with a little olive oil, pour in mixture, microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds. Allow to cool 1 minute, then serve with some Earth Balance.

This made for a hearty breakfast!

Vegan cranberry sauce muffins

This year, I decided to make homemade cranberry sauce because a) it sounds fun and easy and b) I assumed that my brother’s girlfriend’s family did that as part of their tradition, and I wanted her to feel at home. Turns out her family prefers the canned kind, but it was worth it to make the cranberry sauce. I love the texture of the whole cranberries and being able to control the amount of sweetness. Most of the recipes I looked at, used 1 cup of sugar for one 12 oz. package of cranberries. On my first attempt, I used 2/3 of a cup of sugar and this was WAY too sweet. My mother kindly went to the store and bought me another bag of cranberries, and this time I used only 1/3 cup of sugar + 1 TBL. Then I mixed in a little of the too sweet stuff, and voila, cranberry sauce. This also meant there was a lot of leftover sauce, which is fine with me, as I already planned to make these muffins.

Veganized Cranberry Sauce Muffins (original recipe Erin Zimmer at Serious Eats)

– makes about 12 muffins –

Ingredients

1.5 cups flour
1 cup steel-cut oats
1/6 cup turbinado sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups of leftover cranberry sauce
1/2 cup rice milk
2 TBL olive oil
1 Ener-g egg replacer

Procedure

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Line muffin tin with paper baking cups.

2. In a large bowl, combine regular flour, whole-grain flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder,  baking soda and salt; mix well. In medium bowl, combine milk, oil, cranberry sauce and egg replacer; blend well. Fold into dry ingredients all at once; stir until dry ingredients are moistened.

3. Fill muffin cups about three-quarters full.

4. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Break off that seductive muffin top, then inhale the rest!

Coming soon, vegan cranberry swirl cookies!

Vegan zucchini pumpkin muffins

I told you that zucchini would get its comeuppance.  Also, there was about one cup left of the pumpkins we roasted, so I wanted to use that up too. I adapted the banana zucchini loaf recipe from  Kimmy Kokonut, by reducing the sugar and swapping the pumpkin for the bananas.

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 TBS ground flax seed

3 fl oz water (1/4 cup + 2 TBL)

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

2 cups whole unbleached flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small bowl, combine oil, sugar, flax, water, pumpkin, and vanilla. Stir well. Add in zucchini, then set aside.  In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into the dry. Stir to combine, but do not over mix. Pour into a prepared muffin pan (I used silicone, no greasing required.) Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick test comes out clean.

Make 12.

Vegan banana peanut butter chocolate chip muffins

For the perfect post-yoga snack, try one of these little treats. It has bananas and natural peanut butter, so it’s super healthy. I’m eating one right now. The truth is that I hardly ever bake, it’s really only been since I found the long lost bag of self-rising flour in the cabinet. And of course, my deep and enduring commitment to participating in VeganMofo has compelled to make things that are fairly photogenic.

2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup rice (or soy) milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 TBL cocoa powder
2 eggs worth of Ener-g replacer
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine all ingredients EXCEPT flour and chocolate chips in a bowl. Blend using a hand mixer or immersion blender (my method). When well mixed, stir in flour gently. Add chocolate chips and stir in. Pour into prepared muffin pans (I use silincone, no greasing needed). Bake 20-30 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.* Cool at least 10-15 minutes.
Makes 12
*In the first batch, I made very large muffins and it took them about 30 minutes. For the smaller ones, I’d say check at 20 minutes.

Savory eggplant muffins

I saw a recipe for green tomato muffins and thought immediately of the half an eggplant sitting in the fridge. These muffins are extremely delicious and just a tiny bit sweet. You could use other fruits or vegetables, but I highly recommend the eggplant, which is not only tasty but very nutritious.

2 cups unbleached white flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cumin

¼ cup turbinado sugar

1 Ener-g egg replacer (or faux egg of your choice)

1 cup vegan yogurt + 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice to make “buttermilk”

3 cups eggplant, diced

½ cup of water

Preheat oven to 450 and prepare a muffin tin (or use silicone like us and do not prepare anything). Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add in the diced eggplant. Then stir in the yogurt-lemon juice mixture and water. Mix well and scoop into the muffin tins. Bake 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Makes 10-12.

Double Chocolate Vegan Muffins

These delicious muffins are quick and easy to bake. This recipe was originally for our delicious cranberry muffins, then it evolved into plum muffins. Last night we had a dessert craving, so we tried the base recipe using cocoa powder and chocolate chips.  They’re perfect for a late night snack, and smell amazing. Enjoy!

2 cups self-rising flour

1 cup warmish water

2 egg replacers (we use Ener-g egg replacer)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325. Mix all ingredients–except chocolate chips–in a medium bowl. When well combined (you may need a little extra water) stir in chips. Scoop into a prepared muffin tin (we used silicone, so no oil needed). Bake for 22-25 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean. Cool at least 10 minutes. Makes 9-12 muffins, depending on the size you like.

Happy VeganMofo!