Has anyone else been doing a ridiculously large amount of ‘stress baking’ lately, or is it just me? Since I’m going to be in the kitchen baking away my anxiety anyway, I figured I’d get a recipe perfected for all of you. With everyone at home, and Easter just around the corner, muffins sound mighty tasty. I don’t know about you, but at my house we could easily go through a dozen muffins in one sitting (sometimes more)! Join me in adding this amazingly delicious gluten-free and vegan cinnamon streusel muffin recipe to the menu this week!
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Special Ingredients
There are a few special ingredients in these muffins that help them turn out so delicious. As always, I encourage you to use what I put here in the recipe. If you can’t use those and need to swap an ingredient, go for it. I can’t promise how things will turn out, but it’s totally worth trying so that this cinnamon streusel muffin recipe meets the needs of your family!
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Flours
You might notice the absence of rice flour in this recipe. I have nothing against rice flour. I skip it because my youngest daughter just has a severe intolerance to rice. So, instead of rice flour I use a mix of sorghum flour and millet flour (along with some starches). The nice thing is that it makes this recipe about half whole grain, so it’s even healthier than most GF baked goods. These flours can be bought from many brands, but our most common brand is Bob’s Red Mill.
Expandex
I know Expandex probably seems like some weird ingredient you’ve never heard of, so you would rather leave it out. Don’t. Expandex is a fantastic ingredient for gluten-free baking and really helps improve the texture of this cinnamon streusel muffin recipe. If you absolutely can’t get your hands on it, you can try replacing it with regular tapioca starch. The results won’t be quite the same, but should still be good.
Egg Replacer
Eggs offer several things to baked goods. They help with binding, fat, and leavening (helping stuff rise). That means that one single item can’t fully replace eggs in a recipe. While the flax seeds mixed with coconut milk help with binding and fat, they offer nothing in the way of leavening. That’s where commercial egg replacer comes in. These powders are a blend of starches and leavening agents that help your baked goods rise like they would with eggs. The two most common options are by Ener-G and Bob’s Red Mill.
Techniques
There are a few tips and techniques that will make your muffins turn out even better.
Measuring Flour
When you see people baking on fictional shows they often dip their measuring cup into the flour to scoop some up, then somewhat level it off. That is the absolute WORST way to measure flour. If your recipe calls for cups (as opposed to weight), you want to slightly ‘fluff’ the flour in your container so it isn’t packed in. You can do this by gently stirring it with a spoon or a fork. Then, use a large spoon to add flour to the measuring cup till it is heaped on top. Use the back of a knife to level the flour in the cup, but do it without compacting the flour.
Using Flax Seeds
I’ve talked to many people who didn’t have good luck using flax seeds in baking. The most common reason is that they either used whole flax seeds, or pre-ground ones. Neither of those is a great option. To get the best binding capabilities while also having the best texture, you should grind your flax seeds to a very fine texture. The best tool for that is actually a simple, inexpensive coffee bean grinder like this. Grind them up into a fine powder, then mix them with the liquid the recipe calls for. Just be sure your liquid is VERY HOT. That helps it gel better.
You’ll Love this Cinnamon Streusel Muffin Recipe
You seriously need to make these muffins. They’re lightly sweet and tender with a fun hint of cinnamon. As a bonus they are gluten-free, vegan, and made with whole grain flours! Follow the recipe below to get these on your table today!
Save RecipeIngredients
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup GF all purpose flour mix
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3 tbsp vegan margarine, melted
- 1 tbsp finely ground flax seeds
- 3 tbsp HOT canned coconut milk
- 1 ¼ cup slightly warmed canned coconut milk
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup margarine, melted and cooled
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup sorghum flour
- ½ cup millet flour
- 1/3 cup potato starch
- 1/3 cup tapioca starch/flour
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 2 tbsp Expandex modified tapioca starch (if you can’t find, it can be replaced with tapioca starch)
- ½ tbsp xanthan gum
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp commercial GF/vegan egg replacer egg replacer (like Ener-G or Bob’s Red Mill)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp dried orange peel
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
Instructions
- Make the streusel by stirring together the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in small bowl, then stir in the melted margarine with a fork until all the flour and sugar are incorporated and clumps form. Set aside.
- Stir together coconut milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside.
- Stir together your flaxseeds and 3 tbsp HOT coconut milk and set aside for 5 minutes to gel.
- Preheat oven to 425*F and line muffin tin with paper or silicone muffin liners.
- Whisk together all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Stir the vanilla, melted margarine, and flax gel into coconut milk and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Quickly stir liquids into dry into dry ingredients, scoop batter into prepared muffin liners and sprinkle with streusel. Put into preheated oven.
- After 5 minutes of baking, drop the oven temperature to 375*F and bake for an additional 10-13 minutes (until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean).
- Let muffins cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and finish cooling directly on rack.
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