Hope this gluten-free vegan cranberry walnut muffins recipe finds you well! :) This recipe is actually a version of the "Follow Your Heart Muffins" from the wonderful cookbook Veganish by , and can basically be adapted to be whatever flavor muffin you want. I chose the cranberry walnut combo as it's one of those things that I deeply associate with this time of the year.
The muffins came out wonderful and it's a recipe I would definitely use as a base for future muffin variations. It's just the kind of recipe I like -- i.e. no fuss, one bowl, easy-peasy. I served them to my husband {who is not gf or vegan, and who is generally grumpy about most gluten-free baked goods} and he said that if I didn't tell him these were gluten-free he may never have known! To me that says a lot coming from a person who turns up his nose at anything the moment he hears the words "gluten-free" ;) . He's been eating them for breakfast ever since {which makes me super happy!}.
Which brings me to the next point -- Veganish: The Omnivore's Guide to Plant Based Cooking. I received a review copy of this cookbook last week and was eager to give some of the recipes in it a go, especially because Mielle, a trained therapeutic chef, was involved with Cafe Gratitude, a Bay Area restaurant certain friends of mine have been raving about for some time now. According to them, visiting Cafe Gratitude a few years ago was their first experience tasting a vegan dessert that actually tasted good. I haven't been down to Berkeley in years, and am not sure when I'd have a chance to pay Cafe Gratitude a visit next, so I was naturally then curious to try out Mielle's recipes as some of the ones given in the book are ones that she says used to be a staple at the Cafe.
I was also intrigued with the overall idea of Veganish because it is a book meant to help people transition into a more plant-based diet, while not necessarily forcing people to change their entire way of eating or viewing food. This intrigued me, as unlike most vegan cookbooks I own, this one also caters to the ordinary folks who are just looking for a diet that's richer and more vibrant as a result of more plant-based meal options and ideas. I therefore see this as an especially valuable resource for those who cook for others and struggle to find recipes that would please the omnivores and the carnivores in their family or circle of friends alike. The book is filled with simple, yet tasty recipes for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts, sauces, and dressings, and even party snacks. I naturally turned my eye more to the sweets and breakfasts section {hence the muffins}, but I must admit I even found some savory recipes to be delightful {a rare thing, since it's really hard to get me excited about any kind of savory food}. Note however that not all of the recipes in the book are gluten-free, but most are, and I felt like the selection of gluten-free recipes is worthy enough to be excited about.
If you're looking for some delicious, nutritious, and not overly-complicated or pricey plant-based meal ideas, or if you know of anyone who would benefit from such a book {a Christmas or Hanukkah present, perhaps? ;) } I definitely recommend giving Veganish a go.
THE GIVEAWAY:
NOTE: This giveaway is now closed.
I'm giving away one copy of it here on the blog, so if you're interested in getting a chance to receive a free copy, please help me out by answering the following question in the comments section below: what winter holiday season dessert recipe would you want to see on this blog? Feel free to share more than one suggestion, or come back and add more if you have more ideas. The more, the merrier, and of course that also means more chances you'll catch my "dessert-brain's" attention!
The person to get the free copy will be picked by me based on the recipe idea that I'm most excited about making next! Which means that not only will you get the book, but you'll also be seeing a version of that recipe on the blog in the next few weeks -- a double win! ;)
*Giveaway notes: The giveaway will end on Tuesday, December 9th, 2014 at 11:59 PM EST, so all suggestion comments need to be entered in prior to that time. An email will be sent out with an update on who gets the book and the dessert I picked to feature, so be sure to subscribe to the emails here at Gluten-Free Vegan Love to stay in the loop and find out if you're it! {you can do that at the bottom of this blog}. And don't forget to leave your email address in the email field when you're leaving your comment(s) so that I have a way to get in touch with you to get a shipping address if your recipe suggestion is selected.
Now how about we get back to those delicious cranberry walnut muffins? ;)
Gluten-Free Vegan Cranberry Walnut Muffins
This recipe is provided courtesy of Mielle Chénier-Cowan Rose from her book Veganish, and is based on the Follow Your Heart Muffins recipe. It can be modified into other flavors -- see notes at the end of the recipe for more options.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Dessert
Ingredients
Dry:
- 1 ½ cups gluten-free flour blend (I used Pamela's Artisan Flour Blend)(to make your own, I recommend using ⅔ cup brown rice flour, ⅔ cup tapioca starch, 6 tbsp sweet rice flour, ½ tsp guar gum)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp {GF} baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
Wet:
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup liquid sweetener (I used maple syrup)
- 3 tbsp oil (I used olive oil)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
My add ins:
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 12 whole walnuts to top each muffin
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Combine dry ingredients.
- Combine wet ingredients.
- Stir wet ingredients into dry. Fold in any add-ins. Immediately pour into oiled muffin tins (I used muffin liners instead). Bake for 15-20 minutes (I baked mine for 20), until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Notes
Optional Additions (Suggested by Mielle): ½ cup dried fruit, ½ cup chopped nuts or seeds, 1 tablespoon poppy or sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon citrus zest, 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger, 1 tablespoon fresh herbs, ½ cup sauteed savories, such as onions, peppers, corn, etc.
These muffins will store well in an air-tight container for 2-3 days. They freeze well, so freeze any leftovers for later use.
TW says
Thank you for your recipes. I've tried some others, and they've turned out great! I try not to do vegetable oil. Do you think I could sub AquaFaba 1:1 for the veg oil in this recipe (or maybe Coconut Butter)? Would it turn out the same (or similar)?
The Real Person!
Hey TW. This is actually not one of my recipes, but one I got from a cookbook I was reviewing. As such I haven't played around with it too much and so not sure how it will work with aquafaba. I do however have tons of oil-free recipes of my own on this blog, which you can find by going to the main recipes page here and selecting "oil-free" in the tabs at the top: https://www.unconventionalbaker.com/all-recipes/
I'm thinking you might like these oil-free muffins as an alternative :). These are my absolute favorite: https://www.unconventionalbaker.com/pumpkin-molasses-muffins-gluten-free-dairy-free-refined-sugar-free-eggless/
And there are these as well: https://www.unconventionalbaker.com/vegan-gluten-free-applesauce-muffins-oil-free/
Hope this helps!
DessertPlease says
Hi Audrey!
I tried these today...mostly a success! The only things I changed was having fresh cranberries in there instead of dried ones and also...strawberry juice instead of water. Haha I realize in retrospect it's a bizarre switch but I wanted to take advantage of the new addition in my kitchen- a juicer! And I had a lot of strawberries on hand so it was a very berry muffin :) However, some of the muffins weren't baked fully while others were. It was weird, might be something with my oven..it's new so I'm getting used to certain functions, I may not have reset the temperature properly after it preheated at 350 (can't remember now). I kept them in for longer even and took out the ones that seemed done. It may have been the sugar from the strawberry juice...to make them waterier? I can't imagine the cranberries causing a problem but I'm not very experienced. Any suggestions about using Pamela's flour blend? I'm new to it. Or just in general when cooking with GF flour.
The second batch I tried with Red Mill's 100% stone ground whole wheat pastry flour and they baked fully. BUT that was also because I didn't go for the strawberry juice and I made sure the oven temperature was the same throughout. I would write it off to that being the problem but it has happened before that with the GF flour blend, the cake or muffins don't bake fully (very done at the top, even a tad crispy, but still needs time in the center). Also, the ones with the Pamela's blend were tastier to me! So I hope to get it right next time..
Thanks for any suggestions you can offer!
The Real Person!
Strawberry, juice? Interesting choice :) I never tried using strawberry juice in muffins, so I can't say that's the problem for sure, but the only reason I can think it might be is:
*Brief baking 101: in this recipe {and many others in general} you use a combination of baking soda + lemon juice to get the muffins to rise {it's called a leavening agent}. You'll notice that once you add the wet ingredients in and mix the batter begins to change {sometimes if you get the lemon juice directly on some baking soda you'll see this reaction in action -- it'll hiss and bubble... That's the acid from the lemon reacting with the baking soda}. So the idea here is that you first spread the baking soda through the flour mix {by mixing the fry ingredients} and then add in the lemon juice {with the wet ingredients}, mix quickly, transfer to the pan, and put it in the oven right away. You want this leavening reaction happening while the muffins are in the oven, because as these bubbles form and the batter rises, it'll also bake and keep its risen shape.
Strawberries are very alkaline, so perhaps adding the juice in that quantity overpowers and neutralizes the acid in the lemon juice, hence the reaction is off, hence the muffin may act funny while being baked...This wouldn't be a problem if you were adding strawberry bits, only as a juice because it's fully incorporated throughout the whole batter...
Fresh cranberries are fairly watery though too, so when you put a test skewer in to see if the muffins are ready, note that you'll get some moisture on the skewer from the cranberries themselves -- that's normal. I'm not sure if you mean the whole muffin came out watery? It may have just been something as simple as too many cranberries... :)
Now the oven temperature concerns me, and to be honest I suspect this is where the problem is more than anything else I mentioned above. An unstable oven temperature + gluten-free baking don't get along. So you need to first make sure your oven temp is accurate {more often than not, it's actually wrong}, and you need to make sure the oven is pre-heated to the right temperature and that the temperature remains stable throughout baking. I wrote more about this here, if you're curious: 5 Surefire Ways to Destroy Your Gluten-Free Vegan Cake. Another common problem is that ovens {especially older ones} can have pockets of uneven heat distribution {like if some of the grill spots don't work as well}, which leads to uneven baking. If the problem is not too bad, sometimes rotating the pan towards the end of the baking cycle can help {though you never want to open the oven in the initial stages because that could cause your muffins/cake/etc. to collapse}.
As for Bob's Red Mill's mix -- I'm not a huge fan of the flavor/texture. I find Pamela's a much, much nicer brand which is why I recommend it more. I've used Bob's successfully in some recipes before, but overall it's more coarse and dense, and it's also not as kind to my stomach unfortunately...
I hope this gives you some more room to explore. I love that you're not giving up :) I'm sure you will get the hang of it sooner than later. I had so many failures starting out {like when I misread a cake ingredient list and put in 14 tsp baking soda instead of a 1/4 tsp -- bahaha! The result was a hilarious explosion out of the pan, though I didn't think it was that funny at the time... ;)}. The point is you learn through trial and error, especially if you're the explorer type, which I get the sense you are with these substitution experiments so far! :)
DessertPlease says
Hahaha- imagining your 14tsp of baking soda explosion. Too funny. Thanks for breaking down all the possible problems I’ve been running into. That link of 5 things to look out for helped loads. I’m super suspicious of my oven…and also, I realized just yesterday that this new one requires that after you set it to bake at 350, it reaches that temp and then turns OFF as if you only wanted it preheated and nothing else (doesn’t make sense to me). Yet the 350 temp stays on the screen making it seem like it’s still at that heat. So I need to turn it on again to ‘officially’ bake. Major facepalm moment :) Yet it explains all the weird things that’ve been happening and even so, I plan on getting that thermometer...seems worth it. I dived quite quickly and randomly into vegan and gluten-free baking and, like you guessed, I do like to explore and am curious about different flavor combinations …though this may be problem #6 for me haha. Best to get the hang of the basics by following recipes that others have succeeded at before I let my imagination get ahead of me. (Will have to hold back on the strawberry juice and the like additions for now..)
If this little adventure hadn’t started, I never would’ve learned the workings of baking soda and powder (let alone the difference). On that note, if muffins turn out cracked at the top, is that signs of too much leavening…or perhaps over-baking? Also, I didn’t know there could be such a thing as too much cranberries so I was, let’s say ‘lenient’, about how many of those go in…. ;)
I agree with using Pamela’s over Red Mill’s. It’s so much tastier!
Thanks for your input again!
The Real Person!
Glad to have helped :). And yes, sometimes you need to first get a good hang of the basics, and then you'll have the freedom to do all the experimenting in the world ;).
About the "too many cranberries" issue -- personally I tend to add more fruit and add-ins than many recipes call for, but that said, with most fruit you need to consider that it adds a lot of moisture, and too much moisture can spoil the texture. So it's about finding a good balance.
As for the cracking at the top -- could be due to a lot of variables. Could definitely be the result of a faulty oven -- if it's too hot it can cause the muffin/cake/cupcake to dome very quickly and crack. Putting in too much leavener could do that too, especially if the pan is too small for all that leavening action {so it goes all up to the top very quickly}. Could be other things as well though, but those are the two main reasons. BUT, that said, with breads and muffins, especially homemade ones, it's quite normal for things to dome and crack slightly, so I wouldn't worry about it too much so long as things taste good and have a good texture otherwise ;).
Suzanne Holt says
What a great combination of holidays flavors. I like the gluten free aspect. Pinned to my "Healthy Holidays" board.
The Real Person!
Thanks so much, Suzanne! There's never a shortage of cranberries or walnuts at our house this time of year ;)
Vera says
Great recipe - I was just looking for a good muffin recipe to play around with!
I think my holiday fav is definitely shortbread - I'm a huge sucker for it and miss it terribly now that I am staying away from dairy/gluten! :)
The Real Person!
Thanks Vera! Shortbread is definitely a holiday must :)
Natalie says
These muffins look scrumptious, Audrey! Love the walnut and cranberry combination - how festive! I wonder if I can use rice flour and potato starch? I imagine molasses and spices would be a nice combination as well. Definitely worth a try :)
If there's one recipe I'd love to make for my husband, who can't have gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, corn, beans and nuts, is the traditional mince pies. I've been struggling to find a good recipe for a pastry crust that doesn't use butter or eggs and yet flakey and tender. The mincemeat filling should be less challenging: dried fruits, stewed apples, maybe coconut oil?...I'd really love to see what you can come up with.
Thank you for such a great giveaway, btw.
Have a wonderful holiday season!
The Real Person!
Hi Natalie,
Thanks so much! :)
Yes, rice flour and potato or starch would work really well. In fact the gf blend I used (Pamela's) is primarily rice and starch. I would do 1 cup rice flour, 1/2 cup starch, + 1/4 tsp guar gum or xantham gum.
Molasses and spices sounds really nice -- I'm thinking of trying these in ginger + molasses next, actually!
Mincemeat pie is a lovely suggestion by the way -- now you got me thinking about ways it could be done! ;) I'll be sure to let you know what I come up with...