These fun vegan strawberry muffins are packed with 4 cups of strawberries and lots of strawberry flavor! They come together in one bowl, are fluffy and perfectly moist from the pureed strawberries.
What to expect from this recipe
TASTE/TEXTURE: Moist and fluffy but, typical of muffins, denser than vegan strawberry cupcakes or strawberry cake.
EASY TO MAKE: These homemade muffins use only common pantry ingredients!
Simple ingredients you'll need
A complete list of ingredients, quantities and instructions are in the gray recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Notes about the ingredients
Strawberries. Fresh or frozen strawberries work well in the strawberry puree. However, it's better to use fresh chopped strawberries for folding through the muffin batter and decorating.
Dairy-free milk. We're using a very small amount of milk as we replaced most of it with pureed strawberries. I prefer using soy milk or oat milk, but any will work!
Pink food color (optional) enhances the color of these vegan strawberry muffins. Without food color, these muffins are a pale and slightly dull pink. You can use beetroot powder however, the results are very inconsistent. Older beetroot powder and some brands tend to fade and turn brown when baked.
Apple cider vinegar (not pictured) reacts with the other ingredients to create tender muffins.
How to make these muffins
These vegan strawberry muffins are easy to make! It's a simple process where you just stir the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until combined. The final batter should be thick, as it encourages the muffins to rise taller.
Here are my top tips for the best fluffy muffins:
- Measure the strawberries and flour using a kitchen scale. It is difficult to accurately measure these ingredients using cups. Too much strawberry puree can make the muffins too moist and overflow. Too much flour will make these muffins dense. If you don't have a scale, I recommend using the spoon and level method to measure your flour.
- Avoid overmixing your batter. Overmixing any cake batter encourages gluten development. In this case, overmixing will result in chewy and tough muffins.
Tips for baking the muffins
These vegan strawberry muffins are easy to bake! However, here are some extra tips.
I topped each muffin with roughly chopped strawberries. However, I had to press them into the batter otherwise they slid to the edges of the muffins. I also tried to press sliced strawberries into the muffins but they still slid away when baked.
For higher muffin tops, I recommend baking the muffins spaced apart in your muffin tin, in every other cup. This encourages more hot oven heat to circulate each muffin so they bake taller.
Also, make sure you don't overbake your muffins otherwise they'll be dry. The muffins are ready when you can gently press the middle and it bounces back. If you insert a toothpick in the middle, it should be mostly clean with a few moist crumbs.
Decoration tips
These vegan strawberry muffins are beautiful as they are, with strawberries baked into the tops!
However, you can also top each muffin with a small amount of plain or strawberry frosting and fresh strawberries. To decorate the muffins as pictured, you'll need about 1 cup of frosting.
Customizing these muffins
For the easiest gluten-free strawberry muffins, I recommend baking my gluten-free strawberry cake in a muffin pan. They dome well and stay moist for a few days.
Unfortunately, these vegan strawberry muffins don't work well with Bob Red Mills 1:1 gluten-free flour, but they may work with other gluten-free flour blends.
Coconut sugar will work the most similar to granulated sugar, but it will make the muffins brown and add more moisture.
Whole wheat flour and spelt flour should also work. However, I recommend adding an extra dash of non-dairy milk as those flours are more absorbent.
Yes of course. For depth of flavor, add 1-2 teaspoons of lemon zest. Keep in mind that if you add an extra ½ cup of ingredients (such as more strawberries), you'll likely have 1-2 extra muffins or 12 overflowed muffins.
To the batter, you can also add blueberries or raspberries (or see my vegan blueberry muffins recipe). To top the muffins, you can add sliced almonds, oats or even a crumble topping (see my raspberry muffin recipe).
More vegan strawberry desserts
Follow Rainbow Nourishments on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest, and subscribe via email to receive all of our latest recipes!
Vegan Double Strawberry Muffins
Ingredients
Wet ingredients (note 1)
- 2 cups (240g) ripe strawberries, fresh or frozen then defrosted (weighed after stems have been removed)
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 2 ½ tablespoons (40g) dairy-free milk
- ½ cup (125g) neutral flavored oil
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice (or replace with more dairy-free milk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, (optional)
- ½ teaspoon pink food coloring, (optional, note 2)
Dry ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose plain flour, (note 3 for gluten-free)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup (120g) fresh strawberries, chopped (note 4)
To decorate (optional)
- 1 cup (120g) fresh strawberries, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Line 1-2 muffin pans with muffin liners. This recipe makes 12 large muffins or at least 14 regular-sized muffins.
Preparing the vegan strawberry muffins:
- Add the strawberries to a large mixing bowl and puree with a stick blender. Or puree the strawberries in a blender or food processor then transfer the strawberry puree to a large bowl.
- Add the rest of the wet ingredients to the bowl. Whisk until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients (only the all-purpose flour, baking powder, soda and salt) to the bowl. Whisk until just before it's combined and there are still some small pockets of flour. The batter should be very thick. Don't worry if the batter looks a little bubbly - the acid from the strawberries is reacting with the leavening agents.
- Add the chopped strawberries to the bowl and fold until just combined.
- Use an ice cream scoop or a large spoon to divide the batter into your muffin pan (note 5). The batter should be thick enough for you to create a 'heaped mound' in each muffin cup (see step-by-step images above).
- Sprinkle additional strawberry pieces to the tops of the muffins, and press them into the surface.
Baking and storing the muffins:
- Bake the muffins for 22-25 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in a muffin and it comes out mostly clean (a few moist crumbs are fine). Avoid overbaking the muffins as it'll make them dry.
- Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin pan for 10 minutes. Remove the muffins and allow them to completely cool on a cooling rack.
- Enjoy the muffins warm or at room temperature.
- Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
- Note: For the best results, I recommend using a kitchen scale to measure the ingredients, especially the strawberries and flour. Alternatively, use the spoon and level method to measure the flour. Use a spoon to add flour to a measuring cup and level it off with a knife. Do not use the measuring cup to scoop flour out of your container as too much flour will result in dry muffins.
- All brands of food color vary in intensity, so you may need to add more or less, as needed. Beetroot powder can work but the results are very inconsistent and the muffins can turn brown when baked.
- For easy gluten-free strawberry muffins, I recommend baking my gluten-free strawberry cake in a muffin pan. They dome well and stay moist for a few days.
- You're welcome to add more chopped strawberries to the batter and on top of the muffins. However, this can make the muffins overflow so it's better to divide the batter across at least 14 muffin liners.
-
For the highest muffin tops, I recommend baking 6 muffins at a time in a 12-cup muffin tray. Spacing apart the muffins allows the hot oven air to bake them faster, resulting in higher tops. This means you'll need to bake the muffins in 2-3 lots.
Nutrition
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
Leave a Comment and Rating!