Bakery-style Vegan Strawberry Muffins that are packed with sweet strawberry flavour. These soft and fluffy muffins have bursts of fruit and jamminess in every bite thanks to a combination of fresh strawberries and strawberry jam that gets swirled through the batter!
Preheat oven to 425 °F (220 °C) and grease or line a muffin pan with tulip-style muffin liners. (see recipe notes for more info RE this).
Make sure you have your chopped strawberries close by and give the strawberry jam a quick mix to loosen it up so it's not clumpy.
To a large bowl add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk them together to combine.
Melt the butter and add it to a medium bowl. I pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds but you can also melt it in a pan on the stove over a very gentle heat.
To the butter add the sugar, milk, apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract and whisk together really well.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix together gently. Do not beat it hard and do not over-mix. You need to just incorporate it until you can't see any dry flour. Some small lumps are ok.
Add the chopped strawberries and fold them through the batter.
Spoon in the jam and do a few quick folds so it is swirled through the batter but not mixed in thoroughly. You should be able to see streaks of it through the batter.
Divide the batter evenly between 10 muffin wells. For me that was 2 ice cream scooops in each. They should be filled pretty much to the top. Don't worry, they won't overflow because of my high temperature trick ;O)
If using the optional streusel topping, add it to the top of the batter.
Get the muffins in the oven as fast as you can and set a timer for 5 minutes. This initial 5 minutes at high-temperature step is really important so don't skip it.
When the 5 minutes is up without opening the oven door, turn the temperature down to 350 °F (180 °C) and cook them for about another 18 minutes, but all ovens are different so be sure to read my tips for knowing when they are done in the step below. If using streusel cook them for 1 minute longer.
These muffins need a little longer than most because of the extra moisture from the jam and strawberries. Don't take them out of the oven when they are looking pale. They need to have a golden hue and a skewer or toothpick inserted into the centre of one of them should come out clean, except for maybe a little bit of strawberry juice or jam.
When you remove them from the oven, leave them in the pan until cool. Do not attempt to remove them while hot because they are really fragile.
Video
Notes
Lining the muffin panThis strawberry muffin recipe is a sticky one. Unless you have an amazing muffin pan that you know will absolutely not stick, then you need to line it, but I do not recommend regular muffin liners. These muffins are big and will rise up over the tops of the pan. That means that any jammy bits above the liner could get cooked on and make removing the muffins really difficult once they cool. For this reason, I recommend that you use tulip muffin pan liners . Success Tips
For the best results weigh the ingredients with a digital scale.
Don't be overenthusiastic with the strawberries. Any more and the muffins end up too soggy and lack structure.
My tip for perfect muffin tops? They need an initial, very hot blast in the oven. Don't skip that part!
Fill the muffin pan right to the top for the best muffin tops. Don't worry, the batter won't overflow because of the initial high temperature.
Do not over-mix the batter. Some small lumps are fine.
Mixing the wet and dry ingredients separately as instructed, before adding them all together helps avoid accidentally over-mixing.
Just swirl the strawberry jam through the batter. Don't mix it in completely.
Oil-free?To make this recipe oil-free, use cashew butter instead of vegan butter. Use the same quantity and blend it up into the milk before proceeding with the recipe. If it's not really drippy/runny nut butter, you will need to add an extra 2 tablespoons of milk. Cashew butter has a neutral buttery flavour and will provide the necessary fat to create a nice spongy, good textured muffin. Note that they will not be quite as light and fluffy as they would if you use vegan butter.To storeThese muffins are best eaten within 2 days. Any longer and I recommend freezing them. Store in an airtight container with some paper towels laid out underneath and another layer on top. To freeze pop completely cooled muffins into a freezer bag or a freezer-safe container and place carefully in the freezer. When you want them, remove from the freezer and let them defrost for a couple of hours at room temperature.