Wake up to these delicious Mixed Berry Muffins. Topped with a buttery crumb topping and baked to perfection, these sweet morning pastries are bursting with flavor.
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I am excited to share with you today’s recipe. These mixed berry crumb muffins are one of my favorite muffin recipes of all time. Filled with berries bursting in every bite and topped with a sweet and buttery crumb – what’s not to love?!
This recipe is inspired by a muffin at one of my favorite (late) vegan bakeries, Dovetail Bakery, which sadly closed down several years ago.
Since then I have been diligently working to recreate their recipes at home as to not let such a wonderful bakery be forgotten forever. See: Chocolate Chip Walnut Scones and Healthy Carrot Muffins if you want some more treats.
When I worked in the Whole Foods bakery – a lifetime ago – we would get a variation of these mixed berry muffins delivered several times a week. Those were my favorite mornings in the bakery. I can still remember the delicious, comforting smell of buttery spices that hit me when I first opened the lid to that box.
So good!
Ingredients & Substitutions
I love this recipe and I think you will too! These vegan muffins are moist, rich, and bursting with berries every bite. They are the perfect morning pastry or a midday snack.
- Non-Dairy Milk – I recommend soy milk because it curdles the best. Almond milk will often curdle but not as well. This may affect the overall texture of the muffin.
- Apple Cider Vinegar – This is my vinegar of choice when making vegan buttermilk (vinegar + soymilk) but white vinegar, white wine vinegar, and lemon juice are great alternatives.
- All-Purpose Flour – For healthier flour options, you can use 1:1 gluten-free flour blends, buckwheat, or spelt flour.
- Baking Powder & Soda
- Salt
- Brown and White Sugar – Check out my guide to vegan sugars and alternative sugar replacements. For a healthier sugar alternative, I recommend coconut sugar.
- Oil – This recipe calls for coconut oil, however many other types of oil will work. I recommend trying this recipe with avocado oil or melted vegan butter.
- Vanilla Extract
- Fresh Lemon – If you don’t like lemon, this can be omitted.
- Mixed Berries – If you don’t have fresh berries, check out how to use replace them with frozen berries.
- Vegan Butter –Look for a high-quality non-hydrogenated vegan butter. I recommend either Earth Balance or Miyoko’s.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Like most of the vegan muffin recipes on this blog, these mixed berry crumb muffins are super simple to make! They just require a little bit of whisking, folding, and baking. If you think you can do that, then let’s make some vegan muffins!
Step One – Make the Crumb Topping
To make the crumb topping, combine the flour and sugars in a bowl. Cut in the butter. With your fingers, press the butter into the flour/sugar mixture until it resembles small pea-size pieces. Set it aside while making the muffin batter.
Step Two – Combine the Ingredients
To start, we must first make our “buttermilk”. To do this, mix together soymilk with 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and set it aside for 5 minutes to curdle. Once it’s curdled, whisk in the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.
In a small bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. That’s the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until it’s well combined and set aside. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until all the flour is evenly hydrated.
Step Three – Fold in the Berries
Once the batter is made, we want to gently fold in the berries. The goal with folding is to get the berries fully incorporated into the batter without overmixing the batter or breaking apart the berries. To do this, use a wooden spoon or plastic spatula and fold the batter from bottom to top in a “C” shape.
Step Four – Bake the Muffins
Scoop your batter into a greased muffin tin. I find that using an ice cream scoop is the cleanest and easiest way to get the batter into the muffin molds. With an ice cream scoop, you can ensure the muffins are equally sized as well. Fill each muffin mold about 3/4 of the way full. Top with about 3 tablespoons of crumb topping and bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove the mixed berry muffins from the oven and let them cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before flipping out to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Serving and Storing
Serving – Serve these muffins immediately. They come out of the oven warm, buttery, and hard to resist!
Storing – Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You can also freeze these muffins for up to 2 months. To thaw, pull the muffins from the freezer and let them thaw at room temperature for several hours.
Tips and Tricks
- The most accurate way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- Do not overmix your batter. Overmixing allows the gluten to develop and too much gluten will give you gummy and dense muffins.
- If you are using frozen berries, thaw the berries in a colander by running them under room temperature water. Let the berries sit for 30 minutes for any excess water and juice to run off them. Pat them dry with a paper towel before adding them to your batter.
- Fill muffin tins about 3/4″ of the way full. Any fuller than that and they will overflow.
- Make sure to let the muffins sit in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before flipping them out to a wire cooling rack. Otherwise, the muffins may fall apart.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. While I choose soy milk because it curdles so well, many people have had success with almond milk, oat milk, and cashew milk as well.
If you are using frozen berries, thaw the berries in a colander by running them under room temperature water. Let the berries sit for 30 minutes for any excess water and juice to run off them. Pat them dry with a paper towel before adding them to your batter.
Yes! If you want to make this muffin batter in advance, store the batter in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours. To bake the muffins, preheat the oven and bake according to the instructions. However, these muffins may take a few minutes longer to bake since the batter will be chilled. The muffins will also be slightly denser as the baking soda begins to activate once it’s mixed into the batter, causing it to be slightly less potent.
For sure! For gluten-free muffins, I recommend using a 1:1 baking blend.
Sure. If you would like to make this recipe oil-free, simply swap out the oil for additional applesauce at a 1:1 ratio.
More Vegan Muffin Recipes
- Blueberry Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Banana Nut Muffins
- Pumpkin Muffins
- Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
Vegan Mixed Berry Muffins
Ingredients
Mixed Berry Muffins
- 1 cup soy milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup + 2tbsp. granulated sugar
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp. coconut oil, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1½ – 2 cups fresh mixed berries
Crumb Topping
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 4 tbsp vegan butter, cut into small pieces
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F. Line a muffin tin with baking cups and set aside.
- Start by making the crumb topping. Combine the flour and sugars in a bowl. Cut the butter in small cubes and add. With your fingers, press the butter into the flour/sugar mixture until it resembles small pea-size pieces. Set aside.
- In a small bowl combine soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Set aside to allow milk to curdle.
- In a larger bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Once your soy milk has curdled, add sugar, coconut oil, lemon zest, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until well incorporated. Be careful not to overmix – a few lumps are okay. Fold in mixed berries.
- Spoon into muffin tins, filling each cup about ¾ full. Top with about 3 tablespoons of crumb topping, gently pressing it down over each muffin. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from heat and allow muffins to cool before removing from pan.
Notes
- The most accurate way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- Do not overmix your batter. Overmixing allows the gluten to develop and too much gluten will give you gummy and dense muffins.
- Make sure to let the muffins sit in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before flipping them out to a wire cooling rack. Otherwise, the muffins may fall apart.
Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m a 14-year (and counting) vegan, professionally trained photographer, former pastry chef, founder of My Darling Vegan, and author of the
Cathy says
So. Good. I even used frozen berries and oat milk and it came out perfect. Vegan butter instead of coconut oil. Mmmmmm.
olivia says
it was really good
Mariam says
Mine are baking as I type! They are already tasting and looking amazing 🤩 thanks for the recipe!
Eye says
My first time baking anything vegan, for a friend w heath issues. Was super nervous but this recipe turned out delicious! Can’t really tell the difference from my regular muffin recipe. Will definitely come back again 🙂
Shari says
These are amazing! They were a big hit at my summer gathering. I enjoyed one two days later and it was as moist and fresh as when they came out of the oven. I’ll be keeping these in the rotation for sure!
Tammy says
Can you sub ay other milk like Hemp?
Emily says
Thanks for this recipe.
I decreased the sugar to 1/4 cup and also added 2 tsp cornstarch for fluffiness. I didn’t use the crumb topping but sprinkled a few oats on top.
My trick for using frozen berries is to put half the batter into the muffin tin, then drop in a couple of berries. Then I cover with the second half of batter and press in a couple more berries. That way they stay in place and don’t bleed their juices into the batter.
Debi-jo says
This is a terrific recipe. I’ve made it with peaches, as well as berries, and they’re both great. I find it makes 18 muffins, not 12. I don’t fill them more than 2/3 full because of the crumbs.
Brenda Nadin says
Everyone loves them!
Ruth says
Great recipe! I made the muffins with fresh raspberries and blueberries that I bought from the farmer’s market yesterday. So moist and fluffy!
I made some adjustments: reduced sugar to 160g and used half white and half brown sugar; and used lime zest because i didn’t have lemon zest. I didn’t use the crumbles but they were still delicious 🙂
Sydney says
The literal best, most moist, fluffy muffins I have ever made. I used frozen marionberries which resulted in blue patches of color that made the muffin look like it came straight out of a Dr. Suess book <3 So much fun, 10/10 would recommend to anyone.