These vegan gingerbread muffins couldn’t be easier – blend, pour, and bake! Fancy them up with some powdered sugar or a fresh ginger glaze. Naturally gluten-free and oil-free too!
Whoa, it’s December! Where did 2021 go? I doubt I’m alone in this, but this whole year has felt like a blur with a few COVID tests thrown in. Thankfully negative was positive for us each time (thank Michael Scott for this reference). Fingers and toes crossed that we make it to the end of the year without another reason to worry unnecessarily. One of the bright spots of the last couple months was bringing Pass the Plants back to life. One of the first recipes I ever posted many years ago was my vegan blender muffin base recipe. Since then we’ve had carrot cake, double chocolate hazelnut, apple cinnamon, pumpkin, pistachio cardamom, and now…..we have vegan gingerbread blender muffins!
I’m sure at some point I’ll come up with a muffin recipe that isn’t made in a blender. But these are so easy, healthy, and tasty, I’m not in a big rush. My kids gobbled these up and asked me to pack them in their lunch the next day. My son Josh, who is a recovering picky eater, lavished praise on me after trying these muffins. “Mom, these are DEFINITELY blog-worthy.” Ultimate complo. He’s six and so very sweet. I wish everyone could have a Josh cheering them on.
As with all my blender muffin recipes, the ingredients list is pretty simple. Rolled oats are the base, pepitas or nuts stabilize the mix, then flavor is brought to the party via molasses, brown sugar, warming spices like cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and of course…ginger. You CAN use fresh ginger if you want, but you have to use quite a bit for the flavor to stick around after baking. If you have frozen ginger cubes prepped ahead of time, you’re off to the races.
My favorite part about these muffins are how easy they are to make. You literally dump ingredients into a blender and puree, then pour the batter into muffin cups. That’s it. You’ve seen those “1-bowl muffin” recipes? Well, this is NO BOWL. Easy pour spout included, too!
These muffins rise a bit, but the weight of the oats definitely prevents a huge rise, so I always fill the muffin cups up nearly to the top. Then when they bake, they end up with a slight dome. Look at these beauties! They need to cool for at last 15 minutes for the best texture, and they taste even better the second day. Somehow the flavors mature overnight. Muffin puberty? THAT SOUNDS SO WEIRD. This always happens when I write late at night. I’m sorry.
Now, let’s say you can’t eat your muffins naked (the muffins are naked, not you). I mean you CAN eat muffins naked, do what you want. This has gone in an unexpected direction.
What I’m trying to say is that there is an optional glaze you can make to top these muffins that brings the ginger flavor to LEVEL GINGERLICIOUS. It’s simply fresh ginger simmered with maple syrup and thickened with cornstarch. It’ll knock your socks off, assuming you’re wearing any. If you don’t want to make the glaze, you can eat them naked, as previously discussed. The muffins will be naked, not you. But whatever you want to wear (or not wear) while eating muffins is totally up to you. DON’T CANCEL ME.
Or clothe them in powdered sugar.
No matter what you wear (or don’t wear), vegan gingerbread muffins deserve a place in your life. If you have a blender and an oven, you can make these. I hope you will. And I hope you will tell me all about it in the comments. And I hope you enjoy the remaining days of this crazy year. May all your tests have the results you want.
Vegan Gingerbread Blender Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 cups rolled oats (use certified gluten-free if GF)
- 3/4 cups pepitas (or nuts such as raw cashews or almonds)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger (or 3 frozen ginger cubes or 3 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger)
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice, optional
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, optional
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, optional
- 3 tablespoons molasses not blackstrap
- 2 cups water, apple juice, or dairy-free milk (or a combination)
Glaze
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (use 1 frozen ginger cube if you have one on hand)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Add all ingredients (except for glaze) in a blender and blend until smooth.
- Immediately pour into prepared muffin cups and bake for 22-25 minutes.
- Let cool for at least 15 minutes before enjoying.
For the glaze:
- In a small sauce pan, bring maple syrup and fresh ginger to a boil, and reduce to simmer until maple syrup starts to bubble up and evaporate the water content.
- Add 1/4 cup water and cornstarch.
- Whisk until combined and heat until slightly thickened.
- Let cool slightly before topping muffins.
I LOVE all your blender muffin recipes! I will be making these TODAY!! I’m not seeing how much molasses to use though?
Hi Lisa! <3 Thank you for catching this! Not sure how I left off that important ingredient, but it’s updated now. I would love to hear what you think of them! <3
These look awesome, and I can hear sweet Joshie’s voice complimenting you. ????. I need to score some pepitas, and try these out on my kids. I love a no bowl recipe!
It was so sweet – he just went on and on. Love that kid. <3 You can use nuts like almonds or cashews in place of the pepitas, just fyi. But they are so cheap in bulk at Winco and bring a lot of nutrition so that’s why I tend to use them. Thank you for all of your encouragement and hilarious fake websites. <3
What a beautiful photo with the powdered sugar falling like snow!
Hi – The recipe looks great but i don’t have a blender. is there a work around? Also, why can’t blackstrap molasses be used if one prefers the taste?
thanks.
Hi Jacquie! So sorry I missed this. I think you could make these in a food processor if you have one. What I would do is grind the petitas and oats down into a fine meal in the food processor, then transfer that to a bowl and stir all of the other ingredients. As for the molasses, my understanding is that the blackstrap molasses can be quite bitter, but if you enjoy the flavor give it a go I’m these muffins! Hope that helps. 🙂
yay Beth, new blender muffins!! I’ll definitely be making these! Thanks
Omg, I just found out you’re back! I’m so happy ????. Will try these soon, and the ginger cubes and the lentil soup!
We enjoyed having these on Christmas Eve! An approximate amount of time for simmering the glaze would be helpful…I wasn’t sure how to know whether the water was evaporating or how much to let the mixture reduce. I think I boiled it too long because once I put it on the muffins it turned into maple candy, but that was actually super delicious that way! 🙂
Lucy, so sorry I missed this comment! I totally agree, I need to update the glaze simmering time. I need to make them again so I can gauge the timing better and then I’ll update. But oh…maple candy topping! I want to get it to that stage and see how it is! 🙂
I’ve made these amazing muffins three times now.
The first time I substituted the water or juice with almond creamer-that didn’t go well. I also didn’t have molasses so I used maple syrup-another poor decision.
The second and third times were totally successful! I used fresh ginger which I chopped in the blender before adding the other ingredients. I used apple cider for the liquid. So flavorful and satisfying!
Mom, you win the prize for actually admitting that you altered the recipe. I’m so glad you enjoyed them as written but it doesn’t surprise me that you experimented. I mean I’m your daughter and experiment with recipes to put them here. Love you! ????