Vegan Coffee Cake Muffins

vegan coffee cake muffins / loveandlemons.com vegan coffee cake muffins / loveandlemons.com

I’m heading to Chicago later this week and I’m trying to think warm thoughts… It’ll be all of 1 degree when I land… and, (brr), my skin just isn’t that thick anymore.

These muffins are a variation of my absolute favorite childhood breakfast: my Grandma Kissel’s coffee cake. On cold snowy mornings, there was nothing better than waking up to smell of warm cinnamon-ey cake wafting through the house.

Of course these are slightly healthier and also vegan – using almond milk instead of sour cream and coconut oil instead of butter. But this is cake after all, so whatever you do, don’t skimp on the best part – the crumbly walnut topping.

vegan coffee cake muffins

 
Author:
Serves: 12 muffins
Ingredients
  • 2 cups spelt flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3 teaspoons cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
  • ⅓ cup cane sugar
  • 1¼ cup almond milk, at room temp
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
crumbly topping:
  • ⅓ cup crushed (unsalted, raw) walnuts
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon (hardened) coconut oil
  • frozen blueberries, optional
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners or cooking spray.
  2. Make the crumbly topping by crushing walnuts and mixing them with brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Using your hands, work in the hardened coconut oil until incorporated but still very crumbly. Set aside.
  3. Make the muffins, first sift together the dry ingredients.
  4. In a separate bowl, by hand, whisk together the wet ingredients.
  5. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Don’t overmix.
  6. Scoop a heaping tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup (just enough so the batter covers the bottom. Sprinkle in some of the crumbly topping, and a few blueberries each.
  7. Add the remainder of the batter, more crumbly topping and a few more blueberries.
  8. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out (nearly) clean.

38 comments

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Rate this recipe (after making it):  

  1. These are so yummy! I’m waiting to get muffin tins off my wedding registry so I made these in a donut hole pan (ha!) and they worked great! Just changed the bake time to 15 minutes instead. Love your recipes and books! Never stop!

  2. Kat
    05.05.2016

    Thank you for the wonderful recipe. I made these for my family this morning and they didn’t even last long enough for me to take a picture. I swapped pecans for walnuts simply because that’s what I had and it came out heavenly 🙂

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      05.07.2016

      I’m so glad you liked them!

  3. Amy
    04.25.2016

    What an awesome recipe! I just made these. Not sure where I went wrong, but I only got enough batter for about eight muffins. I replaced 1/4 of the milk with espresso and they came out beautifully.

    Thank you for this delicious recipe!! I can’t wait to make it again!

  4. Kelsey
    04.21.2015

    I just made these, though I made them for my family who isn’t too into the almond milk and healthier side of things. I just subbed the coconut oil for veggie oil, and almond milk for regular milk. They turned out absolutely wonderful, and I can’t stop eating them!!

  5. Maggie
    03.13.2014

    I HAVE to try these! Any substitutes for the spelt flour besides wheat flour for us GFers?

    • jeanine
      03.14.2014

      If there’s a gf blend you like you can sub that in – I know people love cup 4 cup, and Pamela’s. I’ve used a combo of 1/2 almond flour and 1/2 oat flour for similar recipes…

A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.