These vegan gingerbread muffins are moist, perfectly spiced, loaded with crunchy pecans and chocolate chips, and finished with a sweet brown sugar streusel. Perfect for holiday brunch, dessert, or an afternoon snack.
Big gingerbread fan, here! You may have noticed that I tend to use the holiday season as an excuse to share treats like vegan gingerbread cookies, vegan gingerbread doughnuts, and vegan gingerbread cake. They’re some of the best holiday desserts! But who says gingerbread has to stop at dessert? Gingerbread for breakfast is absolutely a thing, especially in December. With this vegan gingerbread muffin recipe, you can totally get away with it, and your family will thank you.
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These muffins were inspired by a bunch of ripe bananas, which are the spark for many of my baked goods (they’re one of my favorite vegan egg substitutes!). The mashed bananas blend beautifully with the warm gingerbread spices and rich molasses flavor.
And then there are the extras: chocolate chips, crunchy pecans, and a heavenly streusel topping. So much deliciousness going on! You can skip any of these for a more respectable breakfast… but why would you? It is the holidays, after all.
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.
- Flour. The recipe calls for all-purpose wheat flour (also known as white flour), but I've also successfully made it with spelt and whole wheat pastry flour.
- Brown sugar. Conventional granulated sugars can be processed using animal bone char, so we're using organic brown sugar to ensure the recipe stays vegan.
- Spices. You'll need ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.
- Salt.
- Vegan butter. You can find this in the refrigerated section of most grocery stores, near the regular butter.
- Overripe bananas. Use bananas with lots of brown spots — ideally, more brown spots than yellow. This is super important for both the flavor and texture of the muffins.
- Granulated sugar. This also needs to be organic.
- Vegetable oil. Got a favorite baking oil? It should work here. Corn, canola, coconut, and peanut oil are all fine.
- Molasses. The recipe calls for unsulfured molasses, which is the most common variety. Grandma's and Brer Rabbit are brands you'll probably find in the baking aisle. I have also made these muffins with blackstrap molasses, and it does work! Expect your muffins to have an intense molasses flavor with less sweetness if you choose to go this route.
- Non-dairy milk. Pretty much any variety you normally like to drink is fine. Soy, almond, oat, and cashew all work. My guide to non-dairy milk can provide some guidance if you're lost.
- Vanilla extract.
- Baking soda.
- Pecans. Walnuts are a nice alternative if you're not a pecan fan. You can also skip the nuts if you prefer.
- Vegan chocolate chips.
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: Prepare. Preheat your oven to 425°F and line your muffin tin with papers.
Step 2: Make the topping. Stir the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together, then stir in melted vegan butter. Place the bowl into the fridge and let it chill while you make the batter.
Step 3: Mash the banana. Peel your bananas and place them into a large bowl. Mash them up well using a fork or potato masher.
Step 4: Add wet ingredients. Whisk the sugar, oil, molasses, non-dairy milk, and vanilla in with the mashed bananas.
Step 5: Combine dry ingredients. Whisk your flour, spices, baking soda, and salt together in a separate large bowl.
Step 6: Mix the batter. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, then stir everything just until combined. Don't overdo it! You'll have a thick batter.
Step 7: Add stir-ins. Gently fold in your chopped pecans and chocolate chips. Again, be careful not to overmix the batter.
Steps 8 and 9: Assemble and bake. Divide the batter among the muffin cups, then top each one with the streusel. Pop them into the oven to bake. You'll be baking them for 8 minutes at 425°F to start, then lowering the temperature to let them finish baking at 350°F. This will give them beautiful domed tops!
Step 10: Cool. Let the muffins cool completely in the tin, on a cooling rack.
Your vegan gingerbread muffins are ready to enjoy!
Variations
- Iced muffins. Combine 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons of non-dairy milk. Drizzle it over your cooled muffins.
- White chocolate chips. Use vegan white chocolate chips instead of dark.
- Skip the topping. Want something a little lighter? Simply omit the streusel topping. A dusting of powdered sugar makes a nice alternative, or you can serve your muffins totally topping-free.
Frequently Asked Questions
I can't say for sure, as I haven't tried, but I think an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend could be substituted for wheat flour in this recipe.
Store them in an airtight container, and they'll keep for about 3 days at room temperature, a week in the fridge, or up to three months in the freezer.
Sure! Just be sure to grease your muffin tin to prevent sticking.
More Vegan Muffin Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Gingerbread Muffins
Ingredients
For the Topping
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup organic brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch salt
- ¼ cup vegan butter, melted
For the Muffins
- 2 overripe bananas
- â…“ cup organic granulated sugar
- â…“ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup unsulfured molasses
- ¼ cup unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup pecan pieces
- ¾ cup vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with papers.
- To make the topping, stir the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together in a small bowl. Add the melted butter and stir until the dry ingredients are evenly saturated. Place the bowl into the fridge to chill while you make the batter.
- Place the bananas into a large mixing bowl, then mash them well using a fork or potato masher.
- Add the sugar, oil, molasses, milk, and vanilla to the bowl with the mashed banana. Whisk the mixture well until the ingredients are combined. Set this aside for now.
- In a separate small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the bowl with the banana mixture. Stir just until the ingredients are combined and there are no longer flour streaks in the batter, being careful not to overmix.
- Fold the pecans and chocolate chips into the batter.
- Divide the batter among muffin cups, then sprinkle the streusel over each muffin, gently pressing it into the batter.
- Bake the muffins for 8 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down to 350°F and bake them for 12 to 14 minutes longer, until the tops are domed and feel set, and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean of batter.
- Transfer the tin to a cooling rack and allow the muffins to cool completely before removing them from the tin.
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I love fresh ginger. So if I wanted to use fresh ginger rather than dried how much do you think I should use?
It's hard to say without having tried it myself. I just did a quick search and found a bunch of articles that said to substitute a tablespoon of fresh for every 1/4 teaspoon of dried, but that seems like a lot of ginger to me! I'd try 2 to 3 tablespoons to start and see how it goes. I'd love to hear how they turn out if you try it.
I made these this weekend, but I had to make a couple subs based on what I had (coconut sugar for brown sugar and canola oil for coconut oil) and added in 1/2 tsp of baking powder. I wasn't sure if adding the baking powder in addition to the baking soda was a mistake, but they came out as described. The muffins were more cake-like than the muffins I usually make, and with a crisp top. They were very good with some vegan butter and a hot cup of tea. My husband and my friend both really liked them and they were gobbled up quickly.
This recipe looks so amazing!! And overall, I'm loving your website!! ^-^
Thank you!!
Alissa, would I be making a mistake by using regular molasses vs. blackstrap? It's just that I don't have it in baking supplies. But, I can imagine missing out on that flavor component.
Thanks
I'm thinking you could make it work if you used a bit more than the recipe calls for and cut back on the amount of brown sugar. I'd have to guess, but maybe bump up the molasses to 1/3 cup and cut the brown sugar to 2 tablespoons. Blackstrap is more intense but less sweet, so I think those adjustments would compensate for that. :)
Hi, How did you store these?
You can keep them in an airtight zipper bag for 3-4 days at room temperature, or for about a week in the fridge.
These look fantastic! The pecans are so cute!
Haha! I'll admit, cuteness was my primary motivation for putting the pecans on top. :)
These look amazing! I totally agree with you! I don't post as many sweets either because I'll eat them all! The holidays are a great excuse :)