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.
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BAKERY STYLE CINNAMON STREUSEL MUFFINS
So, I guess a recipe is a success when, while testing these, I promptly ate 3 muffins back-to-back with no shame?? Yes, I think so. They are that good. I use to love traditional cinnamon streusel muffins back in the day, but they were always loaded with so much butter. Even the vegan versions I’ve seen are loaded with butter or oil. Well, these have NO OIL! And I promise you won’t be missing it either. I love proving you don’t need any oil for delicious muffins, like in these 15 Vegan Muffin Recipes Without Oil! These babies are SUPER moist and buttery. A cinnamon streusel muffin without any oil? Has it been done? I don’t know, but today it’s happening folks, lol!! Ok, I’m just a wee bit giddy over these.
OIL-FREE STREUSEL TOPPING
So, typically streusel toppings are made with flour, sugar and butter. The butter is needed to hold the flour together and make that crunchy topping after they bake. Yum, right? Well, my “butter” idea is using almond flour. It has the fat needed to give that buttery taste and it crisps up with the brown sugar beautifully in the oven. I got this idea for my topping based on the fact that I almost always use almond flour in place of oil in my baked goods for the past 4 years.
I used almond flour on top of my Cinnamon Pecan Crisp before, so I knew it would work well here. However, on that crisp, the topping is rather hefty, thick and loaded with oats. I didn’t want a heavy topping like that, so just using almond flour mixed with the sugar and a small amount of milk did the trick.
WHOLE GRAIN VEGAN MUFFINS
I used spelt for a whole grain version instead of all-purpose flour. It has a more earthy taste to it than the all-purpose versions, but it’s still an oh-just-as-delicious version! In fact, I prefer the depth of flavor, as it really brings out the cinnamon more.
What makes these muffins so bakery-ish and incredible?? Well, they are super moist thanks to the almond flour, coconut milk and light brown sugar. Since there is no oil and not a lot of fat, the light brown sugar is pretty important here. The molasses in the brown sugar gives extra moisture and also gives a wonderful hearty texture to these muffins. I really love texture in a muffin. The topping is magical. Think…sweet, crunchy, cinnamon-y and addicting!
OTHER VEGAN MUFFIN RECIPES TO TRY:
- Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Gluten-free Double Chocolate Muffins
- Whole Wheat Chocolate Muffins
- Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
- Cranberry Orange Muffins
- Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
- Caramel Crusted Pumpkin Muffins
- Sweet Potato Cinnamon Muffins
- Cinnamon Coffee Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Cherry Muffins
If you make this recipe, be sure to leave feedback below and share your pic on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thevegan8 #thevegan8!
Vegan Bakery Style Cinnamon Streusel Muffins
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.
Love your recipes and creativity. I need a sub for potato starch, at least until I’ve can track some down. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Thank you so much Becky! You can try with cornstarch, maybe adding an extra tablespoon. They will not be as fluffy and more dense, since potato starch does some serious fluff magic, but you can always try it!
My 3 daughters LOVE this muffin recipe. As a matter of fact, my 7 year old twins filled out a sheet at school for Mother’s Day and they BOTH wrote that “She makes the best . . . muffins ever”. Yep, they think I’m a brilliant muffin maker, thanks to you! 🙂
I noticed at Costco the last time I was there that they have their own Kirkland brand of super fine almond flour now. Great price of course for such a large bag. Haven’t purchased it yet myself because I still have some King Arthur’s. I’m wondering if anyone has tried it.
I think that should work fine Leslie!
Oh my !!! How have I not seen this before???
Trying it very soon
Wonderful Maggie, let me know when you do!
Hi Brandi
Loving your cookbook right now. Bought it for a friend, too.
I want to make these muffins for Christmas too.
I have Bob’s red milk GF flour. If I use hat, do I still need to use potato starch since it has it in
I don’t have any but so have tapioca and corn starch.
Please advise!
Thank you!
Hi Maureen! So glad to hear that! Are you asking to sub the Spelt with the gluten-free flour? Becatse you definitely can’t sub the almond flour, as it’s crucial to the recipe. It’s what makes these moist. Also, I am not sure what to tell you because I don’t use bobs gf flour so I really don’t know how it would turn out. I would try to sub the Spelt and potato starch with the same amounts of the bobs flour but I have NO idea if it’ll work well. His flours tend to have gums in them and make things chewy and I personally haven’t liked the results, so not sure.
Brandi,
Merry Christmas!
I made the muffins yesterday and had to wing it on my own. My dtr is gluten free right now so I am trying new flours, etc and plus I am not a baker.
So I bought Cassava flour since I read it was 1:1 with regular flour and don’t need to add stuff. I weighted most of the ingredients except the spices. I used tapioca starch instead of potato since I didn’t want to buy a bag just for this recipe.
Anyway, the muffins tasted great but were dense and didn’t rise much. I think that next time I will use less cassava flour OR use more liquid because I read that it absorbs a lot of liquid. Also, maybe cassava flour is lighter than spelt so I used more since I was going by weight. I will play around with it some and await your GF recipe attempt.
Thank you for your delicious creations and wisdom! I have thought about using buckwheat next time too since it is naturally GF.
Hi! So glad you loved these! But yes, tapioca starch or cassava isn’t going to be a great replacement for spelt and potato starch, as spelt makes things very soft and tender and potato starch makes for a light fluffy result. Tapioca can make things very dense and gummy so I would definitely use potato starch for best results! It is sold at most stores or online at Amazon. Buckwheat might be a better result than cassava, not sure, as I can only vouch for the above written recipe!
Delicious!!!! Followed the recipe by weighing everything and they turned out AMAZING! So moist and flavorful. Thanks for another amazing recipe! Every single one I’ve made of yours Brandi, has been perfect. 😁
Oh yay, that is amazing to hear Nicole! Thank you so much for letting me know! Weighing ingredients really does turn out the most perfect results, right!?
I baked these muffins today and my husband (an extremely picky eater) said I should sell them. Then he proceeded to say I bet this is a Vegan 8 recipe, only she knows how to make things taste good! We’ve just recently turned to a WFPB diet and it’s been difficult finding recipes that are more like our previous lifestyle. Your recipes are so good and so easy to follow that I even told my doctor about your site! Thank you for making our dietary transition so much easier!
Wow, that is so amazing to hear Christy!! So thrilled to hear such great feedback! I know what it’s like to have a very picky eater as a husband, haha! And that is so sweet he said that about my recipes too, made my day! Thank you for the beautiful review!
Hi Brandi! Do you think coconut sugar could be used instead of light brown sugar? Thanks!
Hi Joanna! Yes, I’ve tested these with coconut sugar and they DO work well in the muffin base, but NOT the actual streusel topping. This is because coconut sugar is much finer than the coarse texture of light brown sugar, as well as there is no moisture in coconut sugar like brown sugar (which contains molasses). It just turns into a paste, rather than an actual crumbly streusel and kind of burned. So, I wouldn’t recommend it for the streusel. Do you have raw sugar, the larger granules? You could try that and add a teaspoon of molasses or syrup to the streusel and see if that works. Start out with half the milk and mix well with a fork, pressing it all together and only adding milk as needed. It should be a moist, crumbly texture, not a paste or too dry. For the muffins though, when I tested them with coconut sugar, since it has a different flavor and much less sweet taste than brown sugar, you need more sugar, like 3/4 cup, OR the same weight amount of 95 grams. Since the brown sugar has molasses, it weighs more than the coconut sugar for the same cup measure. So, just weigh 95 grams of coconut sugar and that will work and add 1 teaspoon of molasses or maple syrup to the liquids to compensate for the lack of moisture from the brown sugar. Hope all this helps and makes sense!
Hi Brandi –
Making these this weekend. Is step #7 for the streusel topping an inadvertent repeat of step #5?
Thx!
Oops, yes, it’s fixed now!
I made these this morning and they are PERFECT! They are so moist and taste better than what you’d buy at a bakery. 25 minutes nailed it for my oven.
Woohoo, that is incredible feedback to hear, thank you so much Lisa!
These muffins are just so tasty! I’ll be making these on a regular basis for sure. Thanks Brandi 🤩🤩🤩
Awesome feedback, thank you Tania!
These were amazing! Easy to follow recipe, healthy ingredients, a keeper for sure!!!
So awesome to hear!
OMG. I’ve made these twice now, and the second time I added rhubarb. YUM. Seriously, these are the BEST muffins i’ve EVER made. When I told my husband it was from Vegan8, he said “duh.” – like everything from this woman is pure GOLD. I love that she included the weights of all the ingredients, the recipes always come out as intended this way & that makes a huge difference in my opinion. MAKE THESE TODAY. RIGHT NOW.
Thank you so much Hannah for such a lovely review and you and your husband’s kind words! That means so much to hear how much you love the recipes and these are the best muffins you’ve ever had!!
My favorite muffins by far! The topping is to die for. Not only does it make the house smell amazing, but they freeze really well and are the perfect size for a mid-morning snack with a nice hot cup of coffee. Ok, now I’m hungry!
p.s. These are the muffins I make when I want to impress overnight guests with an amazing breakfast treat!
Excellent. Will make again! These remind me of the boxed cinnamon streusel muffins mix but much better! I made do with what I have and used ground almonds instead of fine almond flour – it worked and didn’t weigh down the batter. I also didn’t have brown sugar so I added a tiny bit of molasses to the mixes.
Yay, that is awesome to hear, thank you for the review!
I have been wanting to try this recipe for a while. I saw it posted on IG and said I am going to try this. What an easy recipe. It came out perfectly. Most importantly it taste amazing. My hubs couldn’t wait until they were out of the oven and cooled enough for him to have one. I am sure that I will be making these again in the near future. Thanks for the awesome recipe and I’ll keep watching to see what’s next!!
These are so good! I think my muffin trays may be taller because with the gluten free version I only got nine muffins and I didn’t get that nice overflow that you did, so I’ll aim for eight next time. I subbed the brown sugar with coconut sugar and I added a tablespoon of molasses and they turned out so well. I also used oat milk instead of light coconut milk – I always do this with your recipes, I think light coconut milk in the UK may be different than what you can buy in the US because I’ve never had great results with it but always do with oat milk (I use a nice creamy oat milk). I’ve never had a cinnamon streusel muffin before but I’m a fan now!
These are fantastic. I subbed the coconut milk with unsweetened soy milk because it is what I have on hand – turned out beautifully!
The first time I made this, the topping was perfect and the subsequent 5 times I have made it, the crumb topping is sticky and one large ball that no matter what I add to it, it never turns into crumbles — just stays a suuuuuper sticky mass/ball! What am I doing wrong? Ingredients are fresh and brand new. Measuring so carefully. What am I doing wrong?! Help! I love this recipe and want to get it right again!
Hi Gwen! That is odd, but I would try adding more almond flour to make the sticky topping more dry and see if that helps. Sometimes weather moisture can affect baking and moisture levels.
I’ve made these dozens of times and they’re always wonderful! My kids request these as dessert over anything else in our house (well, it rotates between these and the chocolate chip muffins) Never did I think my kids would love a vegan dessert over other ones.
That’s so amazing to hear Michelle!
This was sooo good! I decided to bake today instead of going to the bakery and I’m so glad I did. I used my silicone muffin pan so no need for oil. Thank you!
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve made these, they are SEW good. And you know their good when your friend, a 93 year old gentleman, calls just to chat and wonders if I still bake those delicious muffins! Haha! My reply: only for you!
So guess what I’m baking!
Thank you Brandi, luv all your recipes, and thanks for the time and effort that you dedicate!
Rosebud
That makes me so happy to read all of this, thank you so much Rosebud!!