Sweet, spiced gingerbread muffins with moist fluffy insides and lemon glazed tops are the perfect healthier holiday snack. Vegan, paleo, and nut-free too!
THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY SUNBUTTER
I cannot confirm or deny that I ate five of these muffins in a 24 hour period last week. And already remade them. And cried a little when I had to give two away. All unconfirmed (but highly possible) facts here.
And that’s not just because I love gingerbread a lot (SO MUCH). Personally I think eating a muffin of any other flavor this month is practically criminal, but I understand that not everyone will agree.
But we can all agree that muffins should be ultra fluffy and make your kitchen smell amazing, right? And they should be tender inside but a little crusty on the top (especially those edges) in a deliciously contrasting way, yes? And that the best muffins are one-bowl easy and bake in less than 30 minutes, agreed? And while the lemon glaze drizzles are cute and all, nothing beats a just-baked, warm from the oven, burn your fingers getting it out of the pan but so worth it muffin, you with me?
Actually don’t answer that. I know it’s true. And that’s how I know you will love these SunButter Gingerbread Muffin. Because they are everything above and MORE.
While these muffins possess all the qualities of an ideal muffin in terms of taste and texture and holiday charisma, what makes them uniquely lovable is their ingredients. We have all the usual gingerbread flavors – cinnamon, ginger, molasses, vanilla, little bit of lemon – but it’s the healthier vegan/paleo/nut-free muffin base that I am obsessed with.
The key ingredients are:
- Applesauce. See, health.
- SunButter. Just my absolute very favorite of all the nut/seed butters and it has been for years now♡ And ooh does it make these muffins moist! If you’ve done any baking with SunButter you’ll know that it has a tendency to turn muffins green, but this recipe has the right ratio of baking soda to lemon juice to avoid that. Unless you want Grinch muffins…
- Coconut sugar. Similar to brown sugar, the flavor just works so well here with all those spices.
- Cassava flour. Look, I’ve done oat flour muffins in the past and they can be good. However cassava flour makes for a texture much more similar to regular flour, but it’s still gluten and grain free.
The glaze. You can skip the glaze. Or use straight coconut butter. Or whip up the simple four ingredient lemon glaze below because gingerbread + lemon = a DIVINE combination.
These muffins walk the line between healthier snack and holiday decadent in the most graceful way, and you definitely need a batch in your fridge all December long. Happy muffin making to you!
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Sweet, spiced gingerbread muffins with moist fluffy insides and lemon glazed tops are the perfect healthier holiday snack. Vegan, paleo, and nut-free too!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240g) unsweetened applesauce
- 3/4 cup (105g) coconut sugar
- 3/4 cup (190g) Organic SunButter
- 2 tbsp (20g) lemon juice
- 1/4 cup (80g) molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups (230g) cassava flour*
- 2 tsps cinnamon
- 2 tsps ginger
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Glaze
- 1/4 cup coconut butter
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 4–6 tbsp almond milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Whisk together applesauce, coconut sugar, SunButter, lemon juice, molasses, and vanilla.
- Add dry ingredients. Stir to combine.
- Divide into a lined (or oiled) muffin pan, filling each muffin to the top.
- Bake for 25 minutes at 350ºF.
- Cool, before glazing.
- For the glaze, combine the coconut butter, maple syrup, and lemon juice (all should be at room temp or slightly warmer). It will seize up and become clumpy. Whisk in the milk one tablespoon at a time until smooth and drizzle-able.
- Top with glaze (optional, they are delicious plain too) and eat!
- Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze for longer storage.
Notes
*If you don’t have cassava flour, try these oat flour gingerbread muffins or this gingerbread cake recipe (which can be baked as muffins, just reduce bake time to 25-30 minutes) instead!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 249
- Sugar: 21g
- Sodium: 267mg
- Fat: 9g
- Saturated Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 40g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 3g
Keywords: christmas, cinnamon, dairy-free, dessert, egg-free, grain-free, healthy, molasses, nut-free, snack,
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Hey there! Is there an alternative to cassava flour, or is it the only one I should use? Thanks!
You could use all purpose instead or a GF all purpose blend should work! I also added some other gingerbread muffin recipe options in the notes 🙂
Could this be made into a Bundt cake (like one of the recipes you posted in the comments)?
And sub for coconut butter for the glaze (new allergy to coconut)
Will be trying these this weekend!!
Yes it will work in a bundt pan! But you will need to increase the bake time to 35-40 minutes or so. And I would recommend a more classic powdered sugar glaze then, like this one maybe: https://www.emilieeats.com/glazed-vegan-lemon-cake/
Hi Natalie!!!
Wondering what ingredients are in the sunbutter you use?
And what brand of cassava flour is your fav…….do you order it online?
Thanks so much. Looking really forward to trying these.
This variety of SunButter is just organic roasted sunflower seeds, no salt even. And my favorite brand of cassava is Let’s Do Organic, that’s what I used here (https://store.edwardandsons.com/products/organic-cassava-flour) which is only available online at this time. I have seen the Otto’s brand in stores now though, and that would work too!
Thank you. Wondered about the salt in the butter as I know you wouldn’t use one with sugar. I’ve been struggling with that gluten free oil free muffins too moist then 3 days later they are dryish issue and literally dreamed that cassava flour would be my saving grace from this madness (the trials, right) and then saw your post. Whether or not it works, I’m so grateful cause it brought hope!!
Hugs
The organic is unsalted, the orange jar (no sugar added) does have salt but still no sugar and I like that one too. Yes oil-free muffins are tricky to keep moist over time, but the SunButter definitely helps. And I am LOVNIG cassava flour so I hope you will too🤗
The fact that you posted this recipe on my birthday was absolutely perfect because I have been hard-core craving gingerbread since Thanksgiving! Your muffins are always the perfect healthy-decadent hybrid and I need one of these every morning and evening for the rest of December so I’m gonna need a bigger muffin pan!
I hope you had the most wonderful and fun and delicious bday my dear❤️🥳 I wish I could’ve baked you a whole birthday batch of these little muffins, but I definitely need to get a jumbo muffin pan in my house too!
Thank you! It was filled with yoga, coffee, homemade cake, and discovering a French bakery in the city. Very simple – but wouldn’t want it any other way =) And now time to make my xmas cookie list which will most definitely include your almond flour sugar cookies!