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These Fluffy Vegan Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins are sweet and delicious! This easy vegan muffin recipe is perfect for breakfast or as an after-school snack.
Vegan Muffins
Hello, dearhearts! How was your weekend? Mine was good, simple and – besides the whole breaking my foot thing (!!!) – pretty relaxing. Watched The Oscars last night and that was really fun. I don’t normally get too excited for award shows, or stay up past my bedtime to watch the WHOLE thing, but made an exception last night. Although I’m certainly paying for it today, seeing the insanely talented and ever so kooky Matthew McConaughey win big made it completely worth while. If you haven’t seen Dallas Buyers Club (Or True detective!!!), I highly suggest feasting your eyes on those asap!
Vegan Cinnamon Muffins
Alright. Now that we’re all caught up, let’s talk about feasting on something else… like these muffins! These sweet little cinnamon sugar doughnut muffins are effortlessly vegan, and boast some whole wheat flour too! Facts like these make me more than happy to grab a muffin in the morning and call it breakfast.
The flavor of these muffins is definitely heavy on the cinnamon side, but the apple sauce – which helps keep things nice and moist – does slightly shine through, giving the taste a perfect balance between the two. They’re kind of like an apple cider doughnut, but in vegan muffin form. They’re also a great friend to a cup of coffee! Which is where I’m headed right now. Coffee and muffin time, peoples! Let’s do this 🙂 xoxo
If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment below and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature on Instagram! Seeing your kitchen creations makes my day. ♥
Easy Vegan Muffins
(Vegan) Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins
Ingredients
For the muffins:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 8 ounces applesauce (unsweetened)
- 4 ounces almond milk
- 4 ounces olive oil (you may use canola or coconut if you prefer)
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
For the topping:
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Glaze (optional):
- 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
- 2 teaspoons almond milk, more if needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 (F). Grease or line muffin tray, set aside.
- In a large bowl stir together flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, whisk together applesauce, almond milk, oil, and maple syrup. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring until combined.
- Fill the muffin cups 2/3 of the way full, sprinkle each with a little cinnamon sugar, and bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Glaze:
- In a small bowl, combine the ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over muffins.
Aghh, these look amazing. Anything that involves the word doughnut has me hooked instantly. And yes! Matthew’s speech last night was amazing. I haven’t seen DBC yet, but I have watched a few episodes of True Detectives. I have to admit that I’m not incredibly into it yet (only three episodes in), does it get better?
I think I’m 50% obsessed with it for the acting alone! Woody and Matthew are just killer at their jobs, and I can’t look away.
These look so light and fluffy! Wish I was having one right now! 🙂
Thank you so much, Marie! I wish I could share 😉
I just made these and added a chopped and cooked apple. So moist and delicious. I didn’t add the icing at the end, as I felt it was plenty sweet. Thanks for this awesome and easy recipe.
These look wonderful!!!! Yum yum yummy in my tummy! I have a 19 mile long run today, can you be waiting at the other end with some of these please? 🙂
As soon as I heard the word donut, I was sold! These look wonderful. I’m so sorry to hear about your foot. Feel better. Pinned.
I will never say no to anything with cinnamon sugar! Can I have 47 of these, please?!
Totally want these muffins; they look so light and fluffy and perfect! So sorry about you breaking your foot though, what a total nightmare!
I need this with my morning tea! Hope your foot gets better girl : )
I cannot fathom how fluffy these are! Bookmarking for breakfast tomorrow!
I’ve heard good things about True Detective. Now that I finished Breaking Bad, I’m on the hunt for a new show! Might have to try that one out! And also, I will never turn down a baked good with cinnamon sugar – yum!
Wow I really like the look of these! AND and and! I have all of the ingredients 🙂 always a good feeling. I might be making these tonight :)) Pinned!
I realllllly want to see Dallas Buyers Club! I already wanted to see it, but all of the clips last night (and everything about Jared Leto’s speech!) just solidified that it needs to happen ASAP. I’m normally so good about seeing all the films before hand, but this year I still haven’t even seen 12 Years a Slave! Total slacker. Anyway…these muffins are so simple and they look to die for! Love the wholesome ingredients and that cinnamon sugar topping!
These look delicious! 🙂 vegan too! wow
So impressed that you kept these vegan AND used w.w. flour! You go girl! pinned
Your poor foot!!!
I love these muffins. So crispy and cinnamon-y, and I can’t believe they’re vegan! That’s amazingggg!
PS—-I’m moving from NYC soon so if your little foot can take it we NEED to meet up asap! Email me when ya have time 🙂
Weren’t the Oscars amazing last night?! Totally agree with you! I usually am not one to watch the whole thing, but last night was a wonderful exception. The speeches, and Ellen. Recipe looks lovely, and I like that it uses alternative ingredients to make it vegan. Olive oil makes cakes more moist, great add 🙂 Thanks for sharing!!
Ah man, I wish I watched the Oscars last night! I have no idea what you are talking about and I am bummed.
Oh well, I think I need to make these muffins to make up for it. Amazing!
You are the donut (and donut muffin) queen! Also, such a bummer about your foot!!!! I hope it heals ASAP.
Wow! These look amazing! One question, though; would substituting the whole wheat flour for more all purpose flour change anything? Would the taste/texture still be good?
I’m having breakfast as I type this and it’s making me sad that it is porridge instead of one of these muffins aww :–( They look ever so delish! Look at those crunchy tops yum!
These muffins look like they have the perfect crisp exterior!!! Yum! Also, True Detective… soooo good!
I can’t believe these are vegan they look so fluffy! I love apple and cinnamon together so making these is a must for me!
So, does the maple syrup act as a binder for the ingredients then? These look amazing! My favorite muffin recipe is actually a cinnamon sugar doughnut recipe! This looks like a healthier version!
The syrup as well as the apple sauce and oil. They are truly SO delicious 🙂
Is there a way I can make these sans applesauce?!
Hi Allie. Mashed banana puree might work, but would change the flavor profile of the muffins completely. You could also try using an equal amount of lightly beaten egg, but then the recipe would no longer be vegan.
I made these with all white whole wheat and they’re SO good! You really can’t tell that they’re vegan. I dipped mine in butter and then covered them in cinnamon sugar. So they kinda weren’t vegan but they could have been! 😉 Thanks so much for the recipe. And aww! No rating stars? I’d give this a 5 out of 5 if you had stars! 😀
Oh and Matthew McConaughey? I never got him. But recently… I don’t know. I could just listen to him talk. All day. He needs to have a podcast. And just be weird and not stop speaking. Maybe I just miss my fellow Texans. 😉
This looks like a great recipe. Would you please tell me the nutritional facts for each muffin?
Thank you,
Jill
These are incredible! Only changes I made was using coconut milk beverage and vegetable oil (ran out of coconut oil). Just in time to find this and make it for mothers day! Thank you for this cinn-fully delicious recipe. My house smelled like the cider mill in the fall.
Hi Jessica! Your comment made me so happy. I’m thrilled you made these for Mother’s Day! xoxo
I just found this recipe. I have been craving something like a cinnamon donut. Have you ever made these with a gluten free flour mix? If so is it 1-1 for the flours in your recipe?
Thanks!
Amy G
Hi Amy. I’ve never tried it with GF flour mix. I think Bob’s Red Mill has a pretty good 1:1 flour you could try? Let me know if you give it a shot 🙂 xo
I just made this and these were seriously the best muffins I’ve had!! I ate about 3 before it even cooled down! Lol! (:
Yay! That rocks 🙂 I need to make a batch soon myself! xo
Thank you for this! I just made these (with all regular flour because I had no whole wheat) and they turned out beautifully! I am amazed! They taste just like muffins made with butter and egg at a Starbucks or Second Cup.
Yay! So happy to hear it 🙂 We love these muffins too! xo
I made these on the weekend. They are delicious and smell amazing. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Magda! I am so so happy to hear you enjoyed these muffins 🙂 They really do smell amazing while baking up!
These sound too good to be true! Have you tried making them with gluten free flour? I am celiac so I would need to make them gf. Do you think it would turn out the same?
Thank you!!
Carly
Hi Carly. I have made them with 1 to 1 GF flour, but have not experimented beyond that 😉 If you use a 1 to 1, they will come out great! xo
Hello Magda, these if doughnut/muffins look amazing! I was wondering if I could substitute all coconut flour for the other flours? Have you tried making them any other way?
Thank you for the recipe. These are delicious. I made it in a loaf tin and it sliced beautifully. Went down very well with the church congregation who fast meat and dairy for Easter. I’ve been requested to make another one for church tomorrow – so here I go again.
Oh damn, these are SO good!
I sell vegan cake and patisserie and wow, will these look good on the shelve 😉
Hi Esther! Thank you 🙂 SO happy to hear you enjoyed these muffins. They’re one of my favorites.
Hi guys!
Today I woke up pretty late and did lots of boring stuff around the house. My girlfriend was having kind of shitty day too, with a headache. But then we met and we decided we’d do something great to make the day better. And guess what, we came across your amazing recipe! We even bothered to go out and get all the necessary ingredients because we absolutly had to try it. Anyway, we got back in, we danced a little bit and we baked this awesome muffins recipe.
Now, the important bit: these muffins are delicious! No, seriously, they really are. We’re on our second batch. Yummy!
Just one more thing: what about next time you ditch the white coloured text on a white background? It just makes it easier for us. We had to copy it to a word document to find out the ingredients! We get it that this is so awesome that it should be kept in secret… But let’s be cool and share it with the world? 🙂
Anyway, thanks for making our sunday brilliant!
So happy to hear you guys enjoyed the muffins! I do have a question though – about the white text? Our print is black on a white background, so I’m not sure what you mean by white on white?
Burned
I was so excited to male this recipe. I had all the ingredients except whole wheat flour. I followed the recipe to the tee….put them in the oven and after 20 minutes I took them out….they were burned at the bottom. Was it the flour? …I also made some smalls and some large. .amazingly the small ones were not as burn as the large ones. Any advise….they are kind of moist?
Hi Beatriz. I’m slightly confused by your comment. Are the muffins burnt or are they moist?
How many (standard I assume) muffins does the recipe make?
Thank you.
Hi DJ. This recipe yields 12 standard muffins 🙂
Does this really call for 4 ounces of oil? That’s fluid ounces, right? I started making these and then stopped midway through pouring the oil to make sure I’m reading that correctly. Seems like a lot of oil, but I’ve never made donuts before.
Hi Kay. Yes, 4 ounces, or a half cup.
Confused Baker here,
Are the applesauce and almond milk also fluid ounces?
Ounces is such a confusing measurement. I just read somebody’s blog stating that if it doesn’t say “fluid” then it has to be weighed!!
Hi Ron. Apologies for the confusion! I measured the applesauce and almond milk in a glass spouted measuring cup; I didn’t weight them. I hope this helps!
These are AMAZING!! Rave reviews from me (the vegan) and the entire family!! I turned around and they were half gone….my 10 year old ate 6!!! His many hugs and kisses and “thank you mom, those were delicious!” made up for him eating half… Ha ha! My cousin visiting also wanted the recipe immediately. I used coconut oil…very delicate and delicious flavor. Thanks again!
Made these today. So delicious!! Thank you 🙂
These are in the oven now!! How did you make the glaze?
Did anyone fins out how to make the glaze??
I have made these muffins twice this week. They are by far the best vegan muffins I have ever had. So easy to make and so much like a donut!
You are a nourishing food angel!
Thank you thank you thank you! One happy customer
Hello, what do you suggest for someone who is vegan but also has a nut and soy allergy ? Would rice milk work ?
Yes!! I bake with rice milk often! It is a bit “thinner”, maybe just to me, it feels that way next to especially a soy milk or almond, but I have had good results. Just be sure to adjust if you use a milk that has added oil and/or sugar!
One of the wonderful things about vegan eating is how many new things we find in just every area of eating. I love that there really is a milk for everyone! A lady in a comment section on another Blog seemed determined to tell me there was nothing that would work for her son, who (and I still am so sad for this little guy, he like I -me? – is allergic to so much) FINALLY I sent her to look at hemp milk, they used it, and were so happy. So was I!!
I thought I could never be vegan because of my soy allergy, and it was about 4 or 5 years ago that a precious lady who had just won “Cupcake Wars” told me she had a cookbook coming out with alts for soy, and she was right. Yay! I hate that you have the nut allergy, that would be tough along with soy… probably a dumb question but is coconut a nut? Or fruit or seed? There is coconut in every dessert recipe I have pinned lately – I’d better go look that up while it’s on my mind!! :0) Hope that works or worked for you!! :0)
I just moved into a new apartment and don’t have a muffin pan yet so I made it into a loaf! Absolutely delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
I made these with gluten free flour, and although they were extremely moist, I found the olive oil flavor to overpower the cinnamon. Will try again with coconut oil in hopes that will work, as I really think I would love these otherwise
My son loves these muffins! They are so good!
These look delicious but I’m wondering why the top looks so flat? Is this the result everyone came to when baking? I prefer a muffin with a big rounded top… any way to achieve that with this recipe? Thanks!
I was wondering how many calories are in each muffin?
I want to try these! How do I make the glaze??
This is a great recipe thank you for adding this! It’s sooooooo yummy and moist and my kids gobbled them up this morning and I am impressed!!!
These look delicious! I want to make these asap! Can I just use all purpose flour instead of whole wheat?
Can I use soy milk instead of almond?
Hi Heidi. I think those changes should work fine 🙂
Great.. Thank you! What’s the difference in using olive oil vs canola oil? (I always use canola or vegetable oil when I bake.) just curious!
I made these on Friday night (two days ago) only doubled the cinnamon and used coconut sugar instead of brown sugar, and I loved them. Absolutely delicious. My two year old helped me devour them. My husband is not a fan of coconut sugar so I may make him a batch with the dark brown sugar, but I have no regrets. ***** (five stars)
How do you make the glaze?
These are amazing!
I’ve made several and this is hands down THE best doughnut muffin recipe! I SUCK royally in the kitchen but this recipe was so good it made me seem like a pro! They came out moist and fluffy and delicious. I substituted the oil for aquafaba for a lower fat version and I added some cardamom and nutmeg..WOW!!!! I don’t know if that’s what made it so amazing or what, but hot dang were they yummy!!!!
This recipe turned out great! I did have to make a few substitutions due to allergies. I used a gluten free flour blend that had flax (cup4cup wholesome flour blend) in it and substituted 1/4 of the flour amount with corn meal. I always have an issue with GF and Vegan baking turning out gummy, and this combo worked great! I did have to increase my time (could be my oven) to almost 30minutes. My family really enjoyed them!
These muffins were absolutely delicious. I used all-purpose flour entirely and vegetable oil instead of olive oil. They were moist and flavorful, and the crunch top was perfect. They also had a surprisingly good rise. I doubled the recipe for a large group and used the remaining batter for mini donuts. They were a hit. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Thank you so much for creating these! I make these at least once a month for myself and 2 girls, we love them! I sometimes add apple to them and swap out the applesauce for banana, we sometimes just don’t have applesauce, but still delicious!
Any idea about the nutritional values?
These were delicious and so easy to make! Thank you!!
I made these today with my very picky 3 year old! they were so easy and turned out beautiful and absolutely delicious! These are toddler and mama approved! Going in our “favorites box” can’t wait to eat them with a cup of coffee 🙂
The sugar topping…how did you do that? I presume by just mixing it with water but it doesn’t say in your recipe. Also, is it icing sugar or just regular sugar?
I’m making these for a friend so wanna get them right
Thanks
Am I missing something? It looks like there’s some type of icing on them but there’s no description for how to make the icing or the ingredients involved.
And, it seems like there is a resistance to answering the dozen people that have asked about the icing. *eye roll*
This recipe is perfect: Easy; fast; and very tasty. I was worried, after reading a FEW of the comments, that maybe the muffins would not turn out well, or that they would not tast as good as so many people raved that they did. Those folks were right— the muffins are phenomenal, period. It is truly a fool-proof recipe; and because there is no blending, or electric mixer, or flax egg to deal with, they also are enjoyable to make! Thank you for this recipe. I will use it all the time now!
I really want to make these but I do not have maple syrup. Can I use regular syrup instead? Or any other substitute that you know of?
I used two more tablespoons of brown sugar instead of the maple syrup
These are soooo good! They’re light and fluffy and beautifully flavored. I used mostly oat flour, because that’s what I had, and they turned out great. They do need to rest after taking them out of the oven (I dropped a pan as I took them out, and the two muffins in it flattened). Will definitely make again!
These came out great! It was my first time making vegan muffins. I didn’t have apple sauce on hand so I made my own, it only came to half the amount needed so I used canola oil for the rest. I used all brown sugar and left out the maple syrup. I also used all AP flour. These were super light and fluffy and the cinnamon sugar on top made for a nice crust. Both of my (also non vegan) brothers said these were their favorite muffins out of all the ones I’ve made!! (And I bake a lot lol)
I made these today and they were awesome! Made our house smell delicious. I added pure bourbon vanilla extract to the muffin dough and the glaze and it turned out awesome! I also used buckwheat flour instead of wheat flour and it turned out awesome. 10/10.
Heya these look amazing i want to have a go at baking these but im in the uk and i cant find unsweetened applesauce other than baby food pouches, can i sub it for a flax egg?
Love these. I blend 2 old apples up instead of using applesauce. Also, I use canola oil, and I don’t put the glaze on or maple syrup in it. Turned out great. The first time I made this recipe I made them as jumbo muffins and baked them 25 minutes.
I also don’t use all of the cinnamon sugar topping, I’m not sure if all of it is supposed to be used?
Trying this recipe out for the second time right now but I did 1 cup WW and 3/4 cup AP flour. Also reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup. We’ll see how it goes!
This will definitely be a go to recipe in my house.
WoW the bomb !!
I had a compote of mixed Concord grapes and apples , I added 1 tsp pumpkin spice , fresh nutmeg , clove and 1/3 cup of raisins . I only used 1/3 cup of palm sugar and only 1/2 table spoon of the cinnamon sugar . It was perfect next time I can even reduce the palm sugar to 1/4 cup no need for 3/4 cup for me . They didn’t rise much and the mixe was thin is it normal I added probably 1/3 cup more flour . The texture is so so good amazing . Thank you