Vegan Breakfast Muffins (homemade recipes)

It’s strange that so many people spend a fortune on expensive sugary breakfast cereals, when it’s far healthier, tastier and cheaper to indulge in some breakfast muffins. Enjoyed with a cup of something warm for breakfast, they are a wonderful start to the day. These apple muffins (Rainbow Nourishments) only need 7 everyday ingredients.

Choose caffeine-free tea or coffee, if pregnant or nursing (also avoid chocolate muffins).

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (vanilla, nutmeg, citrus, nuts and chocolate are unsafe near animal friends). Bin citrus and rhubarb scraps, as acids may harm compost creatures (same with tomato and alliums – onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives). It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).

For tinned foods, fully remove lids (put inside) or pop ring-pulls back over holes (and pinch top opening closed) before recycling, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.

Do you really need muffin liners?

There is big business in selling muffin liners, but they are not really needed. In fact, one chef says using them takes away the caramelised ‘yummy bit’ at the bottom, leaving you sad!

If you use disposable muffin cups, look in shops for If You Care brand, as they are free from chemicals, sold in cardboard packaging.  Or choose reusable silicone muffin trays.

Joseph Joseph non-stick muffin tray holds 12 muffins, and features easy-pull handles on the sides, to provide a larger gripping point if wearing oven gloves. Made from heavy-gauge carbon steel, it’s sold with a 10-year guarantee.

Although non-toxic cookware is better, all cooking fumes are dangerous around birds (even if brands say the opposite). Most caged birds are likely happier in outdoor aviaries anyway, where they can at least fly and enjoy the company of other birds.

Simple strawberry and banana muffins

One bowl strawberry banana muffins (The Simple Veganista) are a great way of using up leftover fresh fruits, including spotty bananas that are naturally sweet.

Homemade vegan blueberry muffins

These vegan blueberry muffins (The Simple Veganista) only need a few ingredients. Just mix into a batter, they’re ready in 30 minutes with just 8 ingredients (blueberries, oil, plant milk, flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, vanilla) and one bowl.

If you’ve found some juicy blueberries at the farm shop (or went overboard at the PYO farm), these muffins are waiting for you to make them! Only rinse just before cooking (the silvery ‘bloom’ is what protects them). If you can’t find fresh blueberries, PACK’d sells organic frozen berries in paper packaging.

How to store and freeze muffins

If you live alone or as a couple, it’s easy to store leftover muffins, so you can follow recipes to make a whole batch. After cooling, just store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days.

You can store them in the fridge for a few days longer, but they may start to dry out. You can freeze leftover muffins for up to three months in the freezer. Separate each one with baking paper (or wrap individually in plastic-free wrap. Then just remove one individually and reheat in the oven at 160 C for 6 to 10 minutes.

Forget American Super-sized Muffins!

Super-size muffins are a fairly new invention, sold in coffee shops nationwide. However, one nutritionist says that compared to recipe books 30 years ago, they are around three times bigger. With just one around a third of a woman’s daily calorie allowance (even more with a creamy coffee and sugary syrup).

When asked, one coffee shop said that ‘one serving’ was half a muffin. So who is eating the other half, when you’ve spent a fiver? This is how crisp companies get around ‘traffic light systems’ for salt. By saying ‘one serving’ is a few crisps, or one of the mini bags inside a big bag.

Don’t bother with supermarket muffins

Posh M & S sells American-style blueberry muffins (in plastic packaging). But despite being a ‘balanced breakfast or sweet afternoon tea treat’, they contain a paltry 17% blueberries (with pasteurised egg, whey and flavouring). The lemon muffins are no better, with added palm oil.

Tesco charges £2 for just two ‘finest muffins’ that last for 2 days (see above – make a whole batch from natural ingredients and freeze the rest). These contain similar ingredients as M & S (dried egg, dried milk, whey powder, palm oil and glucose syrup, which often shows up as a ‘hidden sugar to avoid’). Just use natural cane sugar in homemade muffins.