My vegan blackberry muffins are moist, lightly spiced, and bursting with juicy blackberries, all topped with an irresistible oat crumble. They’re easy to whip up with simple ingredients and perfect for breakfast, brunch, or whenever you’re craving a little sweetness!
Baking up sweet treats with summer berries is my love language. I’m a total berry addict! And while I’ll never say no to a good strawberry or blueberry treat, blackberries are my favorite. They’re big and juicy with a slightly tart flavor and a wonderfully unique texture. I always keep a stash of fresh blackberries in the fridge for snacking, so it only made sense to turn them into a batch of muffins.
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If you love my vegan strawberry muffins or my vegan blueberry muffins, you're going to flip for these vegan blackberry muffins. They’re full of juicy little bursts of blackberry goodness and topped with a decadent oat crumble.
Even if you’re not already a blackberry fan, these muffins might change your mind. My husband is usually not into them. “Too many crunchy seeds!” he tells me. But he grabbed one of these off the cooling rack, gobbled it up, declared his love for it, and was shocked to find out it was a blackberry muffin. The seeds soften in the oven, and the tartness mellows, leaving behind pockets of juicy sweetness in every bite.
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.
- Rolled oats. Quick oats will work fine as an alternative.
- Flour. The recipe calls for all-purpose wheat flour, but I've also successfully made these muffins with whole wheat pastry flour, so feel free to use that.
- Brown sugar. Use organic brown sugar, since conventional brown sugar is often processed using animal products.
- Cinnamon.
- Salt.
- Vegan butter. You can find this near the regular butter at most grocery stores. Look for brands like Earth Balance, Melt, and Miyoko's.
- Sugar. Remember why the brown sugar needs to be organic? Same deal here. Use organic.
- Baking powder.
- Baking soda.
- Non-dairy milk. You can use any variety of unsweetened and unflavored non-dairy milk, such as soy, almond, oat, or cashew. Read my guide to dairy-free milk if you're feeling lost.
- Vegetable oil. You can use any neutral oil you normally bake with, such as canola, corn, or melted coconut oil.
- Vanilla extract.
- Apple cider vinegar. Need an alternative? Read my guide to apple cider vinegar substitutes for baking.
- Blackberries.
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!
Steps 1 & 2: Get ready. Preheat your oven to 425°F and line a muffin tin with liners.
Step 3: Make the topping. Stir your rolled oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together, then add melted butter. Mix everything until the ingredients are fully combined. Stick it in the fridge to chill.
Step 4: Combine the dry ingredients. Whisk your flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together. Set this aside for a moment.
Step 5: Combine the wet ingredients. Stir your milk, oil, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar together in a small bowl.
Step 6: Mix the batter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, then stir everything up until combined.
Tip: When baking, always use room temperature ingredients, unless the recipe specifies otherwise. This might mean warming up your non-dairy milk.
Step 7: Add the berries. Gently fold halved blackberries into your batter. Be very gentle. They may run a little bit, but things won't get out of hand as long as you don't overmix the batter.
Step 8: Transfer to muffin tin. Divide the muffin batter among the cavities of your muffin tin, then sprinkle the topping over the batter, pressing it in gently.
Step 9: Bake the muffins. Start with eight minutes in the oven at 425°F, then turn the oven temperature down to 350°F, and let them bake for another fourteen to sixteen minutes.
Tip: This method of starting your muffins at a high temperature, then turning it down helps give your muffins nice domed tops.
Step 10: Let them cool. Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack and let your muffins cool completely before digging in.
Variations
- Skip the topping. Prefer your muffins plain? Skip the topping for a lighter, simpler version.
- Nutty blackberry muffins. Stir in some chopped pecans or walnuts. Keep in mind that this will increase the volume of your batter, so you might end up with more than a dozen muffins.
- White chocolate blackberry muffins. I loved the addition of vegan white chocolate chips to my vegan raspberry muffins. They'd be just as delicious in these blackberry muffins!
- Spiced blackberry muffins. These muffins include a touch of cinnamon, but feel free to use extra if you're a real cinnamon lover. You could also add spices like nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and ground ginger.
Frequently Asked Questions
I haven't tried, but readers have had success using all-purpose gluten-free flour blends in similar muffin recipes.
You can! This works best if you add them frozen, rather than letting them thaw. This means that you won't be able to cut them in half, which is fine if you don't mind giant chunks of blackberries in your muffins.
They'll keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about two days, in the fridge for about five days, or in the freezer for up to three months.
More Vegan Muffin Recipes
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 Blackberry Muffins
Ingredients
For the Streusel Topping
- ¼ cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons organic brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch salt
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter, melted
For the Muffins
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup organic granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups blackberries, halved
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Line a 12-cavity muffin tin with paper liners.
- To make the topping, stir the oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together in a small bowl. Add the melted butter and stir until the ingredients are combined and the dry ingredients are saturated with butter. Place the bowl in the fridge to chill while you prepare the muffin batter.
- To make the muffins, whisk the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl.
- In a small container such as a liquid measuring cup, stir together the milk, oil, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar.
- Pour the milk mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir everything together just until combined.
- Gently fold in the berries.
- Divide the batter among the muffin tins, then sprinkle with the topping, gently pressing it into the batter so it adheres to the muffins.
- Bake the muffins for 8 minutes at 425°F, then turn the oven temperature down to 350°F and bake them for another 14 to 16 minutes, or until they're domed on top, golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Place the tin on a cooling rack. Let the muffins cool completely before removing and serving them.
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Thanks for the recipe. I am both vegan and gluten free- would really love it if you added if gluten free flours work in your recipes!
Thanks
This is the first time I have ever commented on a recipe... because these are so good! A friend gave me heaps of blackberries so I wanted to bake something vegan with them. These were delicious! My first batch was with the oil but the next ones I used applesauce instead... just as good! When the fresh blackberries finish for the season, I will try some frozen berries. The muffins also freeze well. Thank you for an awesome recipe!!
I'm so glad you enjoyed them!
They turned out lovely, thanks for sharing this recipe! I used fresh blackberries from our garden and actually made the recipe twice in one week. My husband and mother-in-law enjoyed them very much. I like that they are not too sweet so the taste of the fruit is really natural. Second time round I slightly adapted the topping by omitting the salt, oil and brown sugar and substituting maple syrup. Just took them out of the oven and they smell delicious, can’t wait to tuck in. This recipe is a keeper 🤗
Oh, blackberries from the garden...I'm jealous! I'm glad you're enjoying them! Thank you so much Sandy!
I Just made the muffins (they are in the oven) . I am quite concern what did go wrong as dough was very very thick. I added more milk and oils, not sure if that will actually help
Hmmm...I'm not sure what went wrong! The batter is a bit thick - it shouldn't be pourable. I wouldn't recommend adding extra liquid. I hope they turned out okay!
I would use frozen next time. I thought the muffins were too dry for fresh blackberries.
Hey Alissa!
I've worked with this recipe twice now and I love it! The first time we actually put the dough in a baking tin for bread loafs as we did not have a muffin tin available and that worked out as well. We also used fresh blueberries and raspberries then whereas the second time I added cherries, frozen raspberries and strawberries.
Thanks for sharing the recipe, I'm sure I'll be making these again soon!
That's awesome! I was thinking of trying it out as a loaf too, so I'm glad to know if worked. Also so happy to hear you've been enjoying the recipe. Thanks so much!
just wondering—do you put fresh blackberries in these? Do you think frozen ones could work also?
Alissa used fresh, but we think frozen might work. Let us know how it works for you.
Thanks for cooking with us!
I love crunchy seeds, too! I find they add an extra dimension of texture to anything they're in. These muffins look fantastic! :)
Oh, lovely! There is so much berry in that muffin- lush! Also, I'm a seedy lady too, love that pop!
I'm all for seeds. Especially sesame seeds in sushi. And these muffins look fantastic!!!! Whenever I try and make vegan muffins..... lets just say they don't look anywhere near this good!!!