Vegan Bakery Style Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

closeup inside shot of vegan cinnamon streusel muffin

5 from 26 votes

Vegan Bakery Style Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

These Vegan Bakery Style Cinnamon Streusel Muffins are a beautiful memory to the ones we ate growing up, but don't have all of that butter or oil. These are dairy-free, oil-free and made with whole grain spelt flour and almond flour.

Prep Time15

Cook Time22

Total Time37

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cinnamon streusel muffins, vegan cinnamon streusel muffins, oil-free vegan muffins

Servings: muffins

Calories: 247kcal

Author: Brandi Doming

Ingredients

CINNAMON STREUSEL

1/2 cup + 2 tablepoons (70g) superfine blanched almond flour
1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons (17g) potato starch OR if you can't find this, sub with 2 tablespoons (16g) cornstarch
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
7 tablespoons (90g) light brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons "lite" canned coconut milk or cashew, soy

FOR THE MUFFINS

1 cup (128g) spelt flour OR regular all-purpose flour works too (SEE NOTES below for gluten-free version)
1/2 cup (56g) superfine blanched almond flour (See NOTE)
2 tablespoons (20g) potato starch OR if you can't find this, sub with 3 tablespoons cornstarch (24g)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon (6g) ground cinnamon
1/2 lightly packed cup (95g) light brown sugar
1 cup (240g) "lite" canned coconut milk, room temp, shaken well (I highly recommend Thai Kitchen or Taste of Thai brands, they are very creamy and thick/not watery and will produce the best results)
2 teaspoons (10g) vanilla extract

NOTE

I always recommend to use a scale for accuracy when baking, following MY gram weights listed, since we all measure differently. This greatly improves your chance for success and lessons room for error. You never need cups or to compare them to the weights, just use the scale and bowl and make sure to hit zero before adding each ingredient. My recipes are 100% tested specifically using my exact weights and your results will turn out as mine this way.
I use this scale.

Instructions

Preheat an oven to 375°F degrees and lightly spray a muffin pan for 9 muffins. This number ensures they are nice and tall and resemble close to a bakery-style look. I typically always use liners for muffins, but in this case, I lightly sprayed my pan with nonstick spray. This makes the muffins bake up better and create that beautiful dome top and streusel spread look. Using liners will not bake up the same way, but will still be delicious, so use the liners if needing to 100% avoid any oil.
To a medium bowl, prepare the streusel first so it is ready to go as soon as the batter goes into the muffin pan. Add all of the "topping" ingredients to the bowl and whisk well. Add the milk and stir with a spoon. You are going to press the mixture together with the back of the spoon repeatedly until it all comes together in damp crumbly pieces. Refer to video to see the look. It should be damp and sticky, but not super wet. Make sure all the flour is coated. Set aside.
To a large bowl, add the spelt flour, almond flour, starch, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Whisk very well until no lumps remain. Whisk in the brown sugar briefly.
Pour the milk and vanilla over the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until just incorporated and smooth. You want to avoid over-mixing the batter so the muffins don't turn out too tough from the gluten.
To the pan, divide the batter to 9 muffins. I really like to use an ice cream scoop, as this creates well rounded muffins that have a fluffier dome and look to them. The batter will fill up high., this is correct and how you will get such such muffins.
Using your fingertips, crumble the streusel topping evenly over each muffin covering all of the batter well. Break the clumps into little pieces so all the batter is covered. Gently press any pieces that fall to the pan back into the streusel topping, gently, as we don't want to deflate the batter. This is important that the streusel sticks to the batter, otherwise if too much falls onto the pan, they can burn.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick is clean and they have risen high and have a dome shape. Each batch I did was perfect at 22 minutes. Let cool 20-30 minutes, as they will still be rather moist and finish cooking. If you sprayed the pan, then you should be able to gently rotate the muffins to release them. Enjoy! Keep them stored at room temperature in a sealed container. The crunchy topping will soften overnight some.

Notes

ALMOND FLOUR: It's crucial to use a superfine blanched almond flour because it is what makes the muffins light and fluffy. If it isn't fine, you will end up with more dense/wet muffins. I like the King Arthur flour, Wellbee's, Honeyville, Nature's Eats and Nut's.com brands best. They all work well.

GLUTEN-FREE VERSION: To make these gluten-free, you will still use the same amounts of almond flour given, but sub the 1 cup of spelt flour with 3/4 cup (96g) superfine oat flour and 1/4 cup (40g) brown rice flour. Instead of potato starch, you will sub with 4 1/2 tablespoons (36g) cornstarch). The reason you are using more cornstarch here is because oat flour can make things gummy, and the cornstarch helps to bind them (since no gluten) and make them fluffy. Everything else is the same. The batter is more runny than the spelt version, therefore divide the batter into 10 muffins instead of 9. The batter will fill up high in each muffin tin, this is normal and how you will end up with tall muffins. Check the muffins at 20 minutes for a clean toothpick, but they may take a couple of minutes longer, due to oven variance. Remember to use fine flours (I use Bob's Red Mill oat flour) for the best fluffy results.

Nutrition