Made with creamy peanut butter, infused with spices, and studded with dark chocolate chips, my vegan blackstrap molasses muffins are sure to become an instant favorite!
I'm a big time muffin lover, and I'm totally crazy about every muffin recipe on this site. Give me vegan banana muffins, vegan blueberry muffins, or vegan chocolate chip muffins, and I'm a happy girl! But these blackstrap molasses muffins are my favorite muffins ever, and I make them all the time.
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I really love blackstrap molasses, and I especially love the combination of blackstrap molasses and peanut butter. I used this blend in my recipe for blackstrap molasses breakfast cookies. These muffins are a bit more substantial and indulgent than the cookies. If you love a satisfying muffin that you can really sink your teeth into, these are for you! The peanut butter makes them a bit denser than your typical muffin, and the chocolate chips make them feel really decadent, even though the muffins themselves aren't too sweet.
These are great for breakfast or as a snack, and they're perfect with coffee or vegan hot chocolate!
Ingredients You'll Need
Below you'll find a list of ingredients in this recipe, with notes and substitutions. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to see the full recipe, including the amount of each ingredient.
- Spelt flour. Spelt if my favorite variety of flour for making these muffins, but you can substitute all-purpose wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour if you'd like. You can even use oat flour, but you'll need to increase the total amount of flour to 2 ¼ cups.
- Coconut sugar. You should be able to find this in the baking or natural foods aisle of your grocery store. Brown sugar can be substituted, but make sure it's organic, to ensure the recipe is vegan.
- Baking powder.
- Spices. You'll need ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- Salt.
- Non-dairy milk. Pretty much any type of non-dairy milk you'd normally drink will work. Soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, and cashew milk are a few options to consider. Need help choosing? My guide to dairy-free milks can give you some guidance.
- Peanut butter. Stick with creamy, natural peanut butter (the runny kind!). If you've got some conventional peanut butter to use up, try another recipe, like my vegan Kandy Kake, vegan peanut butter cookies, or vegan peanut butter bars.
- Blackstrap molasses. Blackstrap molasses is different from regular molasses. It's thicker, richer, and much more intense in flavor. Regular unsulfured molasses will probably work in this recipe, but the muffins will be sweeter and have a milder flavor.
- Coconut oil. I use coconut oil in this recipe because I like the flavor and texture it gives the muffins, but any neutral baking oil will work. Vegetable oil, canola oil, and corn oil are all fine.
- Vanilla extract.
- Vegan chocolate chips.
- Shredded coconut. This makes a nice topping for the muffins, but is by no means required.
How They're Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a muffin tin with papers.
Step 2: Whisk your dry ingredients together in a large bowl: spelt flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, spices and salt.
Step 3: Combine your wet ingredients in a small container: milk, peanut butter, molasses, melted coconut oil, and vanilla. Stir everything together until the ingredients are mostly combined. It won't be perfect!
Tip: Make sure your liquid ingredients, and the non-dairy milk in particular, are at room temperature or slightly warmer. If the mixture is chilly it will cause the coconut oil to solidify.
Step 4: Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir everything up just until the ingredients are combined.
Step 5: Gently fold in the chocolate chips, sill being careful not to overmix the batter.
Step 6: Divide the batter among the cups of your muffin tin, then sprinkle the tops with shredded coconut.
Step 7: Pop the muffin tin into the oven and bake the muffins for about twenty minutes.
Step 8: Let the muffins cool in the tin, on a cooling rack, for at least a few minutes. You can let them cool completely, or take one out to enjoy while it's still a bit warm. So good!
Leftovers & Storage
Your blackstrap molasses muffins will keep in an airtight container for about three days. After that the texture tends to degrade, so I recommend freezing them if you think they'll be around longer. Seal them up well and they'll stay good in the freezer for about three months.
Variations
- Almond butter muffins. Almond butter can be directly substituted for the peanut butter in this recipe.
- White chocolate chips. Use vegan white chocolate chips instead of dark. King David and Enjoy Life white chocolate chips are both vegan.
- Crumb topped muffins. Instead of topping your muffins with coconut, combine ½ cup of flour with ¼ cup of brown or coconut sugar, then cut in ¼ cup of cold vegan butter. Use this to top your muffins. It's similar to the topping used in my vegan coffee cake muffins, so if you enjoyed them, you should love this!
Frequently Asked Questions
They can! Substitute 2 ¼ cups of oat flour for the spelt flour.
The most likely reason is that you're using old baking powder. Sprinkle some in a glass of water. If it doesn't fizz, it's spent and needs to be replaced. Another possibility is that you overmixed the batter. Stop stirring once you no longer see flour streaks.
Yes! Simply grease your muffin tin before adding batter.
More Vegan Muffins
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Peanut Butter Blackstrap Molasses Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups spelt flour
- 3 tablespoons coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 â…“ cup unflavored soy or almond milk, room temperature
- â…“ cup creamy natural peanut butter
- ¼ cup blackstrap molasses
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups vegan chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons shredded coconut, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° and line a 12 cup muffin tin with papers.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt.
- In a separate bowl or small container, stir together the milk, peanut butter, molasses, coconut oil, and vanilla extract.
- Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir just until the ingredients are fully combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Divide the batter among the muffin cups and optionally sprinkle the tops with coconut.
- Bake the muffins for 20 to 22 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched.
- Transfer the muffin tin to a cooling rack and allow the muffins to cool for a bit before serving (but they're extra awesome when still a tad warm).
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Thank you for the recipe. I love it! The muffins came out so perfect!
I used 1 cup organic buckwheat flour and
1 cup organic unbleached flour. I used 1/2 cup carob chips and 1/2 cup dried black currants.
The crumb topping is an excellent addition. I inadvertently forgot to add salt. I used West Life unsweetened plain soy milk. I will be making this again.
These are very tasty! Made them this morning and they turned out with amazing texture and flavor. I used all purpose flour since it's what I had on hand. A crucial step worth noting in the directions is add the melted coconut oil last! I made the mistake of adding it in with the molasses and then taking too long to measure out the pb, vanilla/etc and the coconut oil solidified in the wet mixture so I had to microwave all of the wet ingredients it to remelt it. Thought it was going to be a baking fail but fortunately they still turned out ok!
the peanut butter is a bit subtle, but this was delicious!
These are amazing! I made using gluten free 1-1 flour and cashew butter instead of peanut. Used applesauce instead of oil. Added grated ginger for fun. I will definitely make these regularly!
I made these for my 1-year-old son with some amendments. I omitted the salt, chocolate chips (sorry, kiddo!) and coconut flakes. I subbed 1 cup of fortified infant oat cereal for one cup of the flour and I used whole wheat flour for the remainder. I made 36 mini muffins, baking for 12 minutes (1.2 mg iron per tiny muffin!). They turned out pretty well, although maybe needed more milk because the infant cereal is very absorbent. Next time I might replace 3/4 of the flour with the cereal to increase the micronutrient content and then up the oat milk as well.
Thanks so much for the recipe, it is fantastic.
Hi Alissa, I made your recipe after considering several "molasses muffins" recipes. I wanted to include applesauce so replaced most of the soymilk and I didn't have a lot of the spices either so only used cinnamon. The muffins came out moist, soft and cake-like - just what I love :) I did feel that I was missing flavor from the spices so will def include them next time. Looking forward to making them again as the holiday season draws closer!
Yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed them! Applesauce sounds like a wonderful addition! Thanks Adeline!
Hi! I love your recipes! I was wondering if I could use peanut butter powder instead of natural peanut butter. What do you think? And how much would you use in place of it? Thanks!
Thank you! I'm afraid I'm not sure! I've never baked with powdered peanut butter. If I were to give it a try, I'd add some applesauce as well to replace the oil that's naturally found in peanut butter. I'd love to hear how it works out if you try it!
Any issues expected if I use a gf blend or gf oat flour instead ?
I haven't tried, but I think that should work! I usually have luck in recipes like this with Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur's all-purpose gluten-free blends. Enjoy!!
Can you substitute applesauce for the coconut oil?
I'm not sure! It usually works but I haven't tried it with this particular recipe. Please let me know if you try it!
I tried substituting applesauce for coconut oil and it worked! But I also increased the peanut butter to 1/2 cup.
Met again with the same brunch group I wowed with the lemon blueberry coffee cake and wanted to try something new. Since the last try was such a big hit I scrolled through your other recipes and I'm so glad I hit on this one! They turned out perfectly, moist and delicious! Everyone loved them. Thanks so much for making me look like a rock star to my friends.
Hello !
I am able to use regular molasses instead of blackstrap?
If you do they will probably be a bit sweeter. You might be able to do that and cut down on the sugar, but I can't say by how much.
I make these a lot! But I like to melt the chocolate into the batter. Its a gorgeous swing of taste with the peanutbutter. And I make them with wholegrain speltflour. They are so nutritious and they taste incredible!
So I decided that today is the day I tried out more of your recipes! :)
I'm so glad you like them! I'm all for adding chocolate to just about anything. :) I'll probably try it myself next time I make these. Thanks Sari!
Can I replace the splet flour with a regular whole grain flour?
I think whole wheat or all-purpose would work.
I don't normally like muffins but now I really want to try these. Bring on the iron prowess of the blackstrap molasses!
I'm always looking for new ways to use blackstrap molasses! It's definitely a favorite of mine. :)
These look delicious. I love the flavor combo of pb & blackstrap molasses. Will ap flour work in place of spelt flour?
Thank you! I think all-purpose will work - I've swapped it out for spelt flour in other recipes and never had a problem. :)
Very tasty batch of muffins. I took mine out of the oven at 18 minutes. The coconut was nicely toasted and knife came out clean (except for the chocolate gooey parts). I subbed whole wheat pastry flour for the spelt. I am on strict orders to limit myself to ten types of flour at any one time. Also used chocolate chunks rather than chips.
Awesome! Glad you liked them! And thanks for letting me know that whole wheat pastry flour worked - I always get questions on flour substitutions, so I'm sure that will be helpful for some readers. :)
These look amazing! I've never tried making muffins with molasses- I can't wait to try them out! :) Thanks!
Thanks Beth! I hope you enjoy them!