Vegan Apple Spice Muffins

The Perfect Fall Recipe for a Healthy Snack

Let me start by saying this, when a loved one asks for a healthy fall recipe, you try your best to find and create the perfect recipe! One that will satiate the desire to eat it. Thank you Rainbow Plant life for having the perfect starter to what would be a delicious treat for a Labour Day recipe treat! It is always fun to have a new recipe.

Making the Mix!

The recipe turned out really well. Of course, I needed to make some changes. I always need to add my own spin. I changed some of her ingredients and instead of making donuts we made muffins with donut holes. (We do not own a donut tin and only had muffin silicones.) The food changes made were substituting part of the all purpose flour with oat and coconut flour. (I do this in my banana bread and it is fantastic) plus no cane sugar, instead substitute with equal amount of coconut sugar. This is a lower glycemic less intense sweetener. Of course, this is all relative to taste.

Changing out the sugar and the flour increases the nutrients and health benefits without losing any of the flavours. In fact the substitutions do not increase the calories while providing additional nutrients our body use. When making these substitutions for yourself, be sure you are using the organic versions. For the oat flour, we make ours at home by grinding whole oats. We drop them in our Ninja Blender and a little blitz we have oat flour. Don’t worry I will list all the ingredients and their nutritional values down below.

BATTER INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup coconut milk (you can substitute other plant based milks as well)

• 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce 

• 1/3 cup organic coconut sugar (or us maple syrup)

• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 2 cups
  - 1 cup all-purpose flour
  - 1/2 cup oat flour
  - 1/2 cup coconut flour

• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

APPLE SPICE MIX

• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom 

Combine the spices in a bowl and mix them all up.

CARDAMOM MAPLE ICING

• 1 1/2 cups organic powdered sugar 

• 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup 

• 3-4 tablespoons plant based milk

• 1-2 pinches of ground cardamom

• 1 pinch of ground cloves

Pour the powdered sugar into a shallow bowl. Add the maple syrup and milk, a tablespoon at a time, whisking until smooth and not too thin. Add more spices if desired

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F

2. Pour the milk into a measuring cup and add the apple cider vinegar. Give it a whisk to combine. Let sit until the mixture is slightly curdled.

3. Combine in a large bowl the flour, salt, baking powder, and Apple Spice Mix.

4. In another medium bowl, combine the milk-vinegar mixture, applesauce, sugar, melted coconut oil and vanilla extract. Stir them up until batter is smooth.

5. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined, be sure not to over mix.

6. Spoon the mixture into your donut or muffin tins filling at about 3/4 full. We used foil to make the holes.

7. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.

8. Dip each donut into the Cardamom Maple Icing, and if desired, sprinkle on chopped nuts and toasted coconut. Allow the donuts to rest for 15 minutes for the icing to set.