Soft simple Healthy Gingerbread Muffins that are holiday perfect plain or extra special dressed up with a sprinkle of sugar and dreamy frosting dollop! Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free.
Just when you thought I had forgotten about gingerbread…nope, not even close! Now that it is actually December, posting countless gingerbread things feels less weird than when I started like a month ago. There are at least a couple more ginger spiced recipes coming up on FF, and those are just the ones I know about at this point. There’s no telling what else my brain may gingerbread dream-up and beg me to make before Christmas.
I may have mentioned it before, but growing up there was lots of cookie baking in my house for the holidays, and every year my sister and I made cookie houses. Well maybe not every year, but from the age at which I was coordinated enough to use a piping bag up until the age at which it was no longer cool.
I say houseS with an ‘s’ on the end because there was absolutely no sharing or joint effort involved. She hated gingerbread, I thought making a “gingerbread” house out of sugar cookie was a disgrace, so we both did our own thing.
She was much more ambitious than I was, making boats and tree houses and sky scrapers. They sometimes collapsed mid construction and rarely made it past 24 hours. But you know what collapsed cookie house tastes like? Still-standing cookie house. Cookie is cookie, and cookie is yummy. I on the other hand made most of my design decisions based on what candy I really wanted to eat afterwards (and during!), purposely over-buying just in case.
I always looked forward to cookie house day immensely–starting off with big plans and ending with a big stomach ache. Good times!
So I thought I would embarrass myself completely and dig up some old cookie house photos to share with you. Because that’s what the holidays are all about right, sharing? Sharing things that no one really asked for, that’s what I’m doing here today. And yes, yes I did crop myself out of the later ones because six year old me is much cuter than dorky glasses-wearing middle school me trying to pull off bangs…not a good look.
In the early days I kept things simple. Classic. Four cookie walls, white frosting glue, gum drop and candy cane landscaping, an obscene amount of M&Ms–that house could’ve come right out of a kit and saved my mom me lots of rolling, cutting, baking time. Where’s your imagination little Natalie?? Also I have no clue where that photo was taken because we never had black countertops or a black table…?
Then I got a little more ambitious, pulling off a two story house with upper level balcony. Although the lack of an actual door or windows is a little concerning. And the next year I kept it simple (and rather squat) in shape but with a retro diner-floor-inspired roof. Don’t mind the actual pound of frosting in the background with a spoon sitting in it…snacks for later.
There was the year I tried to go modern but the whole house ended up looking like it was melting. Except the Lifesaver chimney, that thing was on point! And the year I went 2D as if I was a theater set designer. And the year I made a castle complete with moat and penguin wearing a fuzzy chocolate hoodie. The year I ditched cookies completely, pretended pretzel sticks were Lincoln Logs (they are not), and built a log cabin. And no, the marshmallow insulation did not actually stay put between the logs.
And then the vegan year that I tried to make a veggie house. NOT recommended…stick to cookie! There were some years in between that I couldn’t find photos from, but I think that is enough abysmal architecture for one day.
For days afterwards dessert would consist of tearing the entire thing apart, salvaging the best candy first, and leaving the boring candy canes behind along with stale cookie and dried-out too crusty icing.
So that’s a little peak into holidays in my house growing up. And a peak into where my sweet tooth got it’s start. Not the most nutritious tradition, but one that made for a lot of fun and delicious memories. And quite a few messy, crumbling-cookie disaster memories too!
There was even this one time in college I had my whole class build cookie houses as the hands-on component of a presentation in my interior design class, so I suppose I have these messy years of practice to thank for that grade.
Did you ever build a cookie house? If so, I need to hear all about it. Photos welcomed!
Anyways…back to the present day, non-horrendous photos, and more mature things. Muffins.
Why so much cookie talk in a muffin post? Because I posted these cut-out gingerbread cookies last year and that is still my go to vegan gluten-free gingerbread cookie recipe so I had to sneak this cookie talk into a non-cookie gingerbread post. Although it does makes me wonder, gingerbread muffin house…?
But these Healthy Gingerbread Muffins don’t need the edible embellishments or frosting fanfare, they are already humbly holiday perfect just as they are. A sprinkle of sparkly sugar or a dollop of coconut frosting doesn’t hurt of course, but simple, soft, warm from the oven still wins my most-delicoius-way-to-eat-a-muffin vote!
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Soft simple Healthy Gingerbread Muffins that are holiday perfect plain or extra special dressed up with a sprinkle of sugar and dreamy frosting dollop! Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups oat flour
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 inch chunk fresh ginger
- ¼ cup tapioca starch
- 2 tsps baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp cloves
- Optional: coarse sugar for sprinkling on top
Frosting
- ¼ cup coconut butter
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2–3 tbsp nondairy milk
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a blender combine the maple syrup, pumpkin, molasses, lemon juice, vanilla, and fresh ginger. Blend until combined and no chunks of ginger remain.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the oat flour, tapioca starch, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Stir.
- Add the wet to the dry and mix until well combined and no lumps remain.
- Line or lightly oil a muffin pan. Fill each muffin cup 3/4 of the way with batter, you should get 8-10 muffins depending on your pan.
- Optional: sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar.
- Bake for 25 mins at 350F.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, melt the coconut oil. Add the maple syrup, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Add the non-dairy milk 1 tbsp at a time until smooth and creamy. Use as a glaze or refrigerate for a firmer frosting.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 200
- Sugar: 20g
- Sodium: 170mg
- Fat: 2g
- Saturated Fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 43g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 3g
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Natalie!!!! OMG!!! This totally made my morning ?? These pics are amazing! You were quite the ambitious gingerbread house architect and adorable! Modern, classic…you crack me up! And I’m dying! You had your college class build cookie houses???!! If we ever made gingerbread houses as a kid, we definitely stuck to the classic layout, but tummy aches were always involved. I don’t recall seeing any pics from our gingerbread house building moments, but that’s probably a good thing ? Every year Willow sees those kits in the store and asks if we can build one…after seeing this post I feel like that absolutely needs to be a part of her childhood! I wish they made vegan, gluten-free kits or that I was ambitious enough to make it all from scratch.
Ok, but moving on to these muffins ? Gimme!!!! And with that delicious coconut butter frosting…yum! I love this post, my friend!!
P.S. – I’m with you…a gingerbread house made from sugar cookie just isn’t the same ?
Making an all vegan/gf gingerbread cookie house with vegan candies and everything would be such a fun challenge! We sort of stopped doing it right around the time we went vegan so I haven’t attempted it, but I imagine it would be totally possible. Probably a little pricier on the vegan candies and stuff though! Ha well I had to get a more creative as the years went on just to keep things interesting 😀 Some ugly houses, but all good times! Thanks for reading along, I’m glad it could make you smile <3
Never!!! No forgetting about gingerbread! Not when the season for the lil guy is just upon us. 😉 Cookie houses: love it! Woah, boats, trees and skyscrapers? That’s the fine thing about collapsed cookies–they still taste like cookies. Haha. OKAY, but you are the CUTEST!!!! I just knew this was gonna be good when I read “I would embarrass myself.” All good things happen when we share our most embarrassing pics, etc. And OMG… each ginger, ahem, cookie house is more epic than the last. How can this be??? It’s too much awesomeness for one post. Can we rewind and do this in installments? I have this weird thing where I need to slowly parcel out awesomeness. Haha. Snacks for later? YES. That veggie house is something else, isn’t it?? Now I demand, as your bestie, to see a cupcake house. Pleeeeease? Pretty please with a muffin on top? Cannot wait to see what edible structure you make this year. SERIOUSLY. Muah! xoxo
Hahahaha so true about the correlation between embarrassment and entertainment 😀 I almost deleted them all and just talked about muffins for a couple extra paragraphs, but I figured this would be more fun! I started digging through old albums and there were too many to do them pic by pic, the muffins would’ve been jealous. Muffin on top is SO much greater than cherry on top! I mean that’s like snack on top of dessert–heck yeah!! I’m actually pretty intrigued to try a muffin house too now? Now if only I had a crazy amazing baker friend to join me because cookie house building is always more fun with friends❤️ xoxo
OBSESSED WITH THIS POST!!!! Everything from lil’ Natalie to the VEGGIE HOUSE!!! I love it all. Not to mention the recipe itself! AMAZING….as usual.
Ha the veggie house! There is no veggie substitute for frosting, that was the main problem there 😀 Thanks girl!
Christmas won’t be Christmas without some sort of gingerbread flavoured edibles! These muffins sound delicious, perfect December breakfast treat 🙂 I love the pictures of you with your gingerbread creations when you were a little girl, so cute 😀 😀 😀
So very true!! And some peppermint goodies too of course, working on that now 🙂 Thanks Nadia!
I love gingerbread and gingerbread houses! My sister and I always made our own separate gingerbread houses growing up as well. There was no collaborating with use either lol. I actually tried my hand at a vegan gingerbread house from a recipe I got from ilovevegan.com. Other than some cracking in the roof-because I was impatient and wanted to assemble it-the recipe turned out great! I posted a picture of it on my instagram (runningvegan012). You will have to scroll down a ways to see it. I still have my cardboard cutouts; maybe I will make it again this year. 🙂
Of course I had to scroll back to find that gingerbread house (and got distracted by some cake along the way lol?) But oh my goodness THAT HOUSE!!!!! You are a pro–puts my messy structures to shame Kayla, wow! Where did you learn such perfect piping skills!? And I love the dainty little sprinkles too. You are making me want to make a vegan one this year, ahh they are so much fun? Haha glad it wasn’t just my sister and I that couldn’t share the job. Thank you so much for sharing that with me, you have to let me know if you do it again this year!
Awe thank you! You are too kind! My mom bought me my own pink measuring cups (which I still use) and baking stuff on my tenth birthday. I’ve been baking ever since. I was the designated birthday cake baker for years at my house. 🙂
Omg, I literally just made a Gingerbread Molasses cake yesterday and I swear it was the best cake I’ve ever had in my life and now I see these AMAZING gingerbread muffins and want the whole dang batch!!! I’m dying over all of those adorable houses you made too, I was laughing the whole way through and that veggie house, hahahaha! You are just too cute for words! LOL at the black countertop comment, haha! And I’m so glad you have not stopped all of this awesome ginger explosion of recipes because like I’ve told you before, I LOVE ginger and honestly could eat it everyday of my life…that and cinnamon. What an amazing recipe, I definitely need to try these in between all of my billion Christmas dessert chaos trials going on over here. In love with this recipe and of course you know I love my coconut butter! 🙂 The photos are so pretty and I’m drooling over all the closeups!
Ooooh I am big time looking forward to that cake!!! Because you know I am just as obsessed with ginger molasses as you and I know how amazing you are with cake? Gah dreaming about it already! Ha the veggie house…the lack of frosting was the real challenge on that one. I should’ve used hummus or something lol. Trying to space out all the ginger recipes with some peppermint in between, but I could just do nothing but gingerbread all month haha!
I hear you! I could do gingerbread every single day! I’m really hoping to get that cake up before christmas, but I am trying to finish a project to get up soon and not sure if I can get it all done, but I’m going to try super hard! I need a clone!
Haha, yes hummus would have been brilliant….sooo funny!
Ahhh, Love this post!! Brings back many awesome memories of my own gingerbread-house-making-days. The funniest memory I have is of my little brother – each time we all baked together, he would insist on making a treat for our dog, Zoe, as well… and the gingerbread house was no exception! He made a tiny little house (probably about 2 inches long) and put as much effort into icing it. I can’t remember if he added sweets to it as well (hopefully not, for Zoe’s sake!) but she certainly enjoyed eating it – all in one gulp of course 😉
Love your website too – can’t wait to try the recipes!
A quick question – is there any substitute for oats/oat flour in recipes? Unfortunately I don’t tolerate oats very well and there are so many awesome recipes I have found on various sites which include it.
P.S. Your veggie house is probably my favourite – so original!!! 😀
Hahahahaha I love the doggy gingerbread house story–made me laugh!!! So sweet of him to make it an all-family-inclusive activity 😀 That must’ve been adorable, I feel kinda bad for my dog now that I never thought to do that for her…never too late to start! As for the oat flour sub, quinoa flour will quite often work as will buckwheat. Cassava flour is a new one to me that I really love and is often even better than oat flour for GF baking, so in general I would recommend trying that stuff out. And almond flour is another that I like and will work in some of my recipes. It varies recipe to recipe though depending on the other ingredients involved so I can’t easily give you a single answer that is always guaranteed to work. But if ever you have a particular recipe in mind to try just leave me a comment or shoot me an email and I will give you my best suggestion!
Thank you, thank you for sharing those awesome glimpses into your early days of creative baking/food decorating!! I’m so impressed! Honestly I loved the veggie hut! My mom and I made a few gingerbread houses over the years, sometimes with a kit and other times following some magnificent photo or instructions I found in a magazine. I always had big ambitious plans for them! Also these muffins look and sound delicious! I love anything gingerbread flavored and never get tired of it, no matter what time of year!
Yes that was totally us too!! Find these super elaborate photos online or in a book, come up with crazy plans, and then end up with a pile of cookies that looks nothing like it haha. Like those pinterest fail side-by-side photos 😀 So much fun and totally worth it anyways though! I’m sticking to more simple gingerbread things this year like muffins I think 🙂 Thanks for checking it out Larice <3
I’ve never had Gingerbread Muffins but your pictures made me want to make these bad boys today. Your cookie house photos are awesome. I love your veggie hose, I should make one this year. 🙂
You absolutely should try both!! Although the veggie house is quite a bit trickier than the muffins, the problem is that there is no good veggie glue that hardens like frosting does. Thanks for reading Mary!
Oh my gosh those old pictures are so precious! It seems that we share the same love for all things gingerbread! I can’t believe I have not made any gingerbread foods this year!!! time to change that, but first, THESE MUFFINS! Oh so fluffy I could die <3
I think we most definitely do share that spice-mixed-with-molasses flavor love, it’s so good in so many forms! It’s quite silly really that we wait all year to make ginger-y things, then I feel like I have to pack as many as possible into the month of December. But I am enjoying it thoroughly 😀
LOVED this post Natalie! I loved seeing all your childhood creations and photographs of you! You were one adorable kid…and those gingerbread houses were awesome haha! What a great tradition…i know all about your gingerbread cutout cookies from last year…my kids LOVED making them and they tasted so great! So these muffins i’m sure are just the same. I love gingerbread-anything! BTW…that veggie made one is on point hahah! Love that you were able to dig up all these pictures! I think a picture from this year is much needed!
Oh my goodness I had almost forgotten the cookie from last year!!! That’s right! Wow and that was a whole year ago lol 😀 Digging up the pics was half the fun. The veggie house was the one time my sister and I did actually collab, so half the credit is hers. Otherwise it probably never would’ve even made it to the photo-taking stage haha! Thanks for catching up and reading, it means a lot to me <3
That veggie house kills me. Way to be ambitious! I love the addition of all the old gingerbread house photos, and little Natalie was so darn cute!! I love that you guys made gingerbread houses every year- I’ve only made one once, and that was at a holiday party at school in first grade. However, I am getting together with some foodie friends and making one tomorrow night, which I am quite excited about.
My family’s holiday tradition is always to make and frost sugar cookies together. I’ve had some of my closest friends over for the last five or so years to make and decorate sugar cookies too. It’s always a great time, especially when we try to see how ugly we can make the cookies.
These muffins look great- I’m definitely trying them when I’m home over holiday break! Thanks Natalie!
Ha I think it’s more like TOO ambitious 😀 I remember making a couple at school Christmas parties too, out of graham crackers if I remember correctly. And it was a total mess if I remember correctly–first graders and frosting is a messy combo. Ah you are making one this year!?! I need to see a photo, you have to post it on IG or something!! We had the sugar cookie decorating tradition at my house too (so many cookies lol), that’s what my mom sent to her entire humongous extended family every year for Christmas for years. It was always fun to help. Ha I love the ugliest cookie challenge, I want to try that now 😀 Have fun with your house making and happy holidays!!
Thanks Natalie!! I will definitely post a picture, although the lighting won’t be very good haha. Happy holidays to you as well!
did you mean 2 teaspoons of baking powder or tablespoons?
2 teaspoons!
Made these last night and they were perfect! I love ALL the recipes I’ve tried from you. I was so excited to finally see a baked recipe with pumpkin in it from you. I hope you’ll have more even though pumpkin season is waning. You are my absolute favorite food blogger which is saying a lot because there are so many awesome ones these days. As a former raw 80/10/10er I really appreciate the choice of ingredients you use. Thank you so much!!!?
Oops, misspelled my own name. It’s Myra.
Hi Myra! Ah yay I am so happy to hear you liked these!!! More baked pumpkin recipes–I’ll keep that in mind. It’s awesome in baked goods so I should be able to sneak it into a few more things 🙂 Aww thank you that means a lot to me! I tried raw 80/10/10 for a while too (didn’t last too long lol) but I still enjoy the high carb low fat whole foods ingredients and recipes 🙂 Thank you so much for the kind words and happy weekend to you!
I swayed away from raw 80/10/10 a couple years ago. I did it for a few years and liked it but decided to re-introduce cooked back in my life and love it. I, like you, seem to feel best with whole plant foods whether cooked or raw. I like the freedom and the ease of it in social situations for sure. It’s also fun to incorporate more fats. I especially like making recipes like yours and sharing with non-vegans and wowing them with how good healthy food can be. Your recipes are simply brilliant.
These muffins look perfect! Especially that crunch of sugar on top.
Mmmm the sugar sparkle is my favorite part too 🙂 Thanks Lindsay!
AW I love love loveeeee this!! You are too cute. Also very very impressed with all of your gingerbread houses.
I don’t remember making them as a child, but when I was in high school my friends and I started a tradition of making them. One year we did Adventure Time themed and the next year we did Harry Potter, so fun!
Aaaand these muffins look AMAZING. That sugar topping <3
That sounds amazing!! I need to revive the tradition and start doing pop culture themed ones like that, I love it…I am already imagining a completely collapsed Hogwarts cookie castle now 😀 Thanks lovely, hope your Monday was good and your week is too!
Woow Natalie these Muffings are adorable. I LOOOVE Ginger. And as all you recipes, I know these would tunr out incredible good. I’ve to try them. ALso I looove all the older pictures.
Much love! xX, Annelina
Hehe thank you for reading Annelina <3 I am crazy about ginger too, especially right now!
You think you love ginger? I made these and threw in a heap of chopped up “naked” ginger AS WELL. (this is like crystallised ginger but somehow not crystallised. Still has sugar on it but it does wash off). TRIPLE ginger!!!! yay!!!! Seriously, am about to make again as my family all whooped and squeaked with pleasure while eating them! thanks!
Triple ginger cookies–OH YEAH!! I am a little ginger jealous, not gonna lie. This “naked” ginger sounds amazing, where do you find it? Hehe I am so happy everyone loved them though, thanks for the feedback Jane 🙂
I’ve been love bombing your page today!! but i didn’t end up making these in the end as i was all out of naked ginger!! (In Australia it’s just in the supermarket). So i made the sultana oat ones instead!
★★★★★
Is tapioca flour the same thing as tapioca starch?
Yes, same stuff 🙂
Awesome. Thanks!
Looking to make these this year, but I’m trying to use what’s in my cabinet rather than spend loads on baking, and I’m out of tapioca starch. Would cornstarch be okay? Thanks so much – these look amazing!
Yep absolutely, corn starch will work too!
Thank you! This looks like my dream gingerbread recipe!
Oops, don’t think my question went through. Sorry if it shows up twice.
I have cornstarch at the moment, but not tapioca starch. Would that work okay, do you think?
Thanks so much! They look delicious.
hello 🙂 I love you desserts ! my blood sugar levels haven’t been the best on them though, is there any chance you may know how many carbs and grams of sugar are in one muffin?
I just calculated the nutrition info and added it to the recipe for you!