These vegan apple cider muffins are moist, lightly sweetened and loaded with juicy apple chunks and crunchy walnuts.
Alas, my vegetable garden that I spent so much time babbling about over the spring and summer is just about kicked. I accepted this the other day day by buying a carton of cherry tomatoes at the store. There are a few green ones left on the plants, but they seem to be taking forever to mature. There’s lots of red ones on the ground, however that happened to come about. I have to wonder how it is that I’ve gone out there just about daily to pick tomatoes for the last two months, yet every time there’s waaaaay more split and rotten tomatoes on the ground than on the vines. Do they plot to ripen and drop as fast as possible when I’m not looking?
In any event, I found that gardening is, in fact, more work than I thought. I learned a lot, and I’ll definitely do it again next year, with a bit of better planning.
It’s highly unlikely, however, that I’ll be planting an orchard in my backyard…
So, moving on to things that did not grow in my garden: apples! Throughout the summer I went through a bunch of posting phases – maybe you noticed. At the time I blamed the garden. “Oh, I’m so overrun with cucumbers. You guys are gonna have to put up with a month’s worth of cucumber recipes.” I’m beginning to realize that might not be the case. I’m definitely going through an apple phase. This follows a brief stint with butternut squash, followed by pumpkin. (Not to say that I’m finished with either.) I grew none of these things. Apparently I just get fixated on an ingredient and decide to run with it for a bit. I guess my point is that you can expect a few apple-themed recipes in the coming weeks.
This one is a doubly apple-themed recipe, as it calls for cider and fresh apples…lots of fresh apples. Muffins are one of those things I like to have around as a snack, but muffins with lots of fruit are my favorite. These muffins might have more fruit than batter, which makes them incredibly moist, and also makes me feel good about eating them.
Vegan Apple Cider Muffins
These vegan apple cider muffins are moist, tender, and bursting with juicy apple chunks and crunchy walnuts! Easy to make and perfect for a snack, light dessert, or sweet breakfast.
Ingredients
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1/3 cup canola oil (or baking oil of choice)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (all-purpose flour works too)
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/3 cup organic brown sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for topping
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 medium apple, peeled and diced (1/2 inch)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with papers.
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Stir the apple cider, oil, and vanilla together in a small bowl or measuring cup.
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Stir the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together in a medium mixing bowl.
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Pour the apple cider mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir everything together just until blended.
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Fold in the apple and walnuts.
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Divide the batter among the muffin cups, then sprinkle the tops with the additional tablespoon of brown sugar.
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Place the muffin tin into the oven and bake until the tops are set, 20 to 22 minutes.
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Remove the tin from the oven and transfer it to a cooling rack. Let the muffins cool for at least a few minutes before serving.
I want to make these, today, but what kind of oats? Rolled or quick?
Rolled oats – I just updated the post to clarify. Hope you enjoy them! :)
Thank you.
Vinegar taste was over-powering and made the house smelly for several hours. I’ve baked with vinegars before in other recipes, usually just a couple tablespoons is fine, but a whole cup of acv here ruined the other flavors I wanted to appreciate.
Hi Sean! The recipe actually calls for apple cider – not apple cider vinegar. A cup of vinegar actually sounds like a recipe for disaster! I hope you give them a try again with regular old apple cider.