Earlier in the week, I had a friend request that I make a Vegan Chocolate Cake with Espresso Buttercream for another friend's birthday. I was happy to oblige, of course, because baking is one of my favorite pastimes. I also love challenging myself with using alternative ingredients to make baked goods available to all, regardless of dietary restrictions. So when my bananas reached that perfect "flecked with brown and have a golden hue" state, I decided I'd try my hand at creating some Vegan Muffins with Blueberries and Bananas.
I had recently made some Sweet Potato Chickpea Burgers when we were "running low" on groceries. (In this house, running low is quite relative.) Anyway, I knew that I should save the juice from the canned chickpeas because aquafaba (as it is known) is liquid gold in vegan baking. Make sure you always SAVE YOUR AQUAFABA.
You can whip it up into meringue consistency with the addition of a pinch of cream of tartar, just like egg whites. You can use it to make vegan mayonnaise. Almost anything eggs can do as ingredients, aquafaba can copy. And they were a perfect egg substitute for these delicious vegan muffins.
I also had leftover Earth Balance from the vegan buttercream, so I was ready to make easy vegan muffins. Add in some blueberries that came to me in a last-leg scenario, and I had extra flavor and a way to use up everything without waste. Hooray!
One note for anyone making any kind of muffins: save some of your mix-ins to top them before baking. It will automatically make your final product look like it came from the bakery. Finish with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar right before going in the oven, and they'll come out literally sparkling. Not to mention that crunch is the best part of the muffin top!
Here's the recipe for my Vegan Blueberry Banana Muffins. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
Need more vegan recipe inspiration? Check out these other posts:
- Cauliflower Tikka Masala
- Ratatouille Style Ratatouille
- Spicy Soy Glazed Eggplant
- Sweet Potato and Corn Tom Kha
If you loved this recipe, be sure to follow me on Instagram and Pinterest for more recipe inspiration. And don't forget to rate and review the muffins, too!
Vegan Blueberry Banana Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3-4 Ripe Bananas mashed
- 6 tablespoon Earth Balance Vegan Butter or any vegan butter
- 3 tablespoon Aquafaba
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 tablespoon Almond Milk or other non-dairy milk
- ½ C Brown Sugar packed, more if you want sweeter
- 1 ½ C AP Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ½ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Ground Ginger
- 1 ½ C Blueberries fresh or frozen
- 2 tablespoon Turbinado Sugar for sprinkling, optional
Instructions
- Prepare muffin tin with baking cups and non-stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 425F.
- Peel and mash bananas.
- Add melted "butter," milk, aquafaba and vanilla. Mix well.
- Add brown sugar. Mix to combine.
- Add flour, salt, leavening (baking powder and baking soda) and spices. Mix until just combined.
- Gently fold in 1 C blueberries. Dish out batter evenly into prepared muffin tin. Top with remaining bluberries and sprinkle evenly with turbinado sugar.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 425F. Drop temperature to 350F and continue to bake until wooden toothpick comes out clean, 20-25 mins.
- Let cool in pan for 20 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool the rest of the way.
Let's taco 'bout it.