The yummiest Vegan Paleo Blueberry Muffins made with coconut sugar or dates, almond flour, and lots of juicy purple berries. Easy healthy snacking!
Arguably the most perfect baked good. In my humble bloob muffin-loving opinion, but maybe that’s just me.
Maybe you can resist sweet almost-cupcake fluff concealed underneath nubbly toasty tops. Maybe you aren’t as easily delighted by biting into purple spots of juicy berry sweetness. Maybe you aren’t as smitten with easy and healthy and made-for-snacking recipes like this. But if you are, hi hello how are you friend?
Stick around, I think you will be a fan of what’s to come…
Sometimes a little indecision pays off, and this is one of those times. Dates?…coconut sugar?…dates?…coconut sugar? Clearly the only answer was BOTH. So I bring you two different but equally yummy versions of these muffins, sweetened whichever way you prefer.
Because dates add quite a bit more moisture to the batter than a granulated sweetener, it’s not just a simple swap one for the other situation. The coconut sugar version starts with non-dairy yogurt (because that is my FAVORITE way to make muffins lately) or applesauce. The medjool date version starts with blending the dates with water and nut/seed butter. You could skip the nut/seed butter, but the muffins will have a less well-defined crumb (read: slightly smushy) without it.
The rest of the recipe is almost identical for both versions, and pretty damn simple too. Almond flour, tapioca starch, baking soda, salt – you know, the usual grain-free vegan baking squad.
Oh! And if you are all about the oat flour, THIS is your muffin.
Why you need these Vegan Paleo Blueberry Muffins in your life stat:
- texture? killing. it.
- ease? just one bowl/blender, 30 minutes, done.
- consumption rate? crazy fast!
- dog approved? I almost tripped over my begging pup at least twelve times during the photoshoot
- appropriate for? every possible time of day
- taste? so so so GOOD
You are already checking that freezer for frozen bloobs by now, right?
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The yummiest Vegan Paleo Blueberry Muffins made with coconut sugar or dates, almond flour, and lots of juicy purple berries. Easy healthy snacking!
Ingredients
Date-Sweetened Version
- 12 pitted medjool dates 180g
- 1 cup (220g) water
- 1/4 cup (70g) nut/seed butter (I used almond butter)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (30g) tapioca starch (can sub arrowroot or cornstarch)
- 2 cups (220g) almond flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (70g) blueberries
Yogurt Version
- 1 cup (240g) non-dairy yogurt (or applesauce)
- 1/3 cup (55g) coconut sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup (60g) tapioca starch (can sub arrowroot or cornstarch)
- 2 cups (220g) almond flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (70g) blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, coconut sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla. Stir/whisk until combined and lump free.
- Or for the date-sweteend version, blend the dates, water, nut/seed butter, lemon juice, and vanilla until smooth.
- Add the tapioca starch, almond flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir/blend to mix.
- Gently fold in the frozen blueberries.
- Divide the batter into a muffin pan (paper liners or sprayed with oil) filling each muffin until it is level with the top of the pan. You will get approximately 6 muffins. Gently smooth the tops.
- Bake for 30 minutes at 350F or until golden brown and firm to the touch when you lightly press the center.
- Remove from the oven and cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from the pan.
- Enjoy! Keep leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 328
- Sugar: 14
- Fat: 20
- Carbohydrates: 33
- Fiber: 5
- Protein: 8
Keywords: baking, snack, dessert, paleo, vegan
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Thanks for making a date sweetened version ❤️ Can’t wait to try this. Did u use a regular size muffin pan? Thanks
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Yep, regular sized muffins although you could do mini too. Either version makes approximately six normal sized muffins though 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Thanks for the recipe sweetie <3 Can I sub for oat flour?
I haven’t tested either of these versions with oat flour, and while I do think it will work they will be a bit more dry since almond flour is naturally higher in fat. If you want to try it I’d recommend using about 1 1/2 cup oat flour instead of the full 2 cups. But I do have this oat flour blueberry muffin if you prefer: https://www.feastingonfruit.com/blueberry-coffee-cake-muffins/
Thank you Natalie. I think the almond flour in Germany is differnt in Germany. It is really low in fat and I baked the other ones and the texture was a little weird 😀 Do you meal almond meal aka ground almonds? I will try these ones here with oat flour later cause I have some almond yogurt left that I really need to use up.
Oh how interesting, the remove the oil when they grind it? You can make almond meal by just grinding your own almonds but almond flour is much finer than I can get at home and works differently in recipes. I would try the oat flour ones instead, I hope they turn out perfect 🙂
They probably do.
I did 1 1/2 cup of oat flour and 1/2 cup almond meal and left out tapioca. Turned out super good 🙂
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Woohoo! I am so happy it was a success Laura🤗
Yay for date-sweetened baked goods!! Slightly confused, though at the amount compared to the coconut sugar. 55g coconut sugar= 55 g sugar, but 180 g dates = 119 g sugar, more than twice as much! Seems like you should be able to get away with using less to maintain the same amount of sugar per recipe. Did you experiment with that at all?
Hi Sammy! The weight is quite a bit more with dates to achieve the same level of sweetness since it’s not just straight sugar there is fiber and stuff too, whereas coconut sugar is just straight sugar. You can try using less dates if you like but this is the amount that I think tastes best 🙂
I have a few questions:
1. Can I bake this as a cake instead of muffins, or is the temperature/timing different?
2. Can I use dates in the yogurt version instead of coconut sugar?
3. Can I use dairy yogurt in the yogurt version instead of nondairy? (I understand it won’t be vegan)
4. I can sub any fruit for the blueberries, right?
Hi Ashley! Okay so…
1. Yes you can make it into a cake. In like a square cake pan the cook time/temp will be about the same, maybe an extra 5 mins (toothpick test it). In a loaf pan I worry the center may not cook through properly so if you do try it I’d go longer at a lower temp (like 40-45 mins at 325 or so).
2. No, I don’t recommend doing yogurt and dates. That will be too much moisture and make them mushy.
3. Yep, any kind of yogurt is fine. I’d go with a lower fat one, full fat tends to be too rich with the almond flour too.
4. Yep!
Hope that helps!
Do you think I can sub both tapioca starch and almond flour with Bob’s Gluten Free Flour for baking? Or at least sub almond flour with GF flour? Many thanks!
I haven’t tested it, but yes I do think that will work. The texture may be different and less fluffy, but you will have to try it and see. And you won’t need the tapioca starch so just the GF blend 🙂 Good luck!
Oh Natalie, these muffins look glorious!! Total perfection. Of course I love that coconut sugar and yogurt version! I love these two versions, both so awesome and healthy. Stick around, um, yes, I’m moving in with these babies. I’m definitely liking what’s going on here. And with two version to pick from, what more could we want..yummy muffin versus another yummy muffin, hmmmm, decisions decisions, haha.
I love the fact that your dog was begging for these, you mean that cute little funny dog that was hiding in your tub yesterday?! Hahahaha, that was too funny. Has he ever done that before? Maybe he was feeling guilty and sneaking some of these blueberry muffins, lol. I think the fact that these muffins are dog-approved is another tell tale sign of their awesomeness and should be a hashtag on IG, #dogapprovedmuffins lmao! Loving these Natalie, definitely the perfect muffin treat for Easter, FO SHO!
Bahaha that should totally be a hashtag😂 And she turns her nose up at most dog foods and even random things like pecans (which we both know are damn good, she’s wrong there) so she has pretty high standards. I gave her one little bite and after that she would not leave me alone even after I almost tripped over her twice. So maybe not quite as surefire a sign as your daughter and husband devouring an entire cake in record time, but close😆 Mmm still dreaming about that slice you are going to send me🍋🍋 Happy almost Easter Brandi!
Gimme all the blueberry muffins!!! 😍 These look incredible! Hmmm?? Date sweetened or coconut sugar??? I’m torn! I feel a pull towards the yogurt-coconut sugar version because that combo is just so good, but i have a feeling the date ones are equally delicious!! I say that because we made your date sweetened brownie cups the other night (again for the third time 😆) and this last time we just ate them plain jane…Willow said, “these are the best cupcakes Mom!” I seriously love the dates + almond butter combo…add in blueberries and you’ll be fighting me for the last one! I’m still debating which version to go with! Maybe I’ll just have to make both! 😂😋
This was one of those times I could not pick a favorite either, but I am a sucker for yogurt baked goods too. Haha well if Willow has declared them cupcakes then I just need to take that idea and run with it–new fancier version with frosting and sprinkles🤗 Oooh scratch that, now I want to add blueberries to those🙊 Okay you are just inspiring me in all kinds of delicious ways right now💙
I just made this and it didn’t cook on the inside, any ideas why? I followed the recipe and temperature and time.
Sounds like your batter was probably too moist, did you make the date version or the yogurt? And did you measure by weight or volume. It’s likely some minor measuring differences made the batter too moist and you needed more flour, which with almond flour baking can lead to them not cooking through properly. I highly recommend using the weight measurements, that is much more surefire with baking!
hi! can i use coconut flour as a replacement for almond flour?
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Coconut flour will not work here unfortunately. It’s very unique and rarely works as a sub for other flours😞
Hi Natalie, these muffins are absolutely delicious! I’ve made the date sweetened version twice. However, mine come out rather gooey in the middle. They aren’t as solid as yours in the video. I tried leaving them in the oven longer, but then the bottoms burn and the middle is still kind of gooey. What do you suggest?
Hi Karla! It sounds like an issue of not enough flour, are you measuring by weight or volume? I would add an extra 1/2 cup almond four and see if that fixes it. The batter should be quite thick and no where near pour-able, probably thicker than most muffin batters you are used to. Hope that helps!
Hi Natalie! I measured by volume. The batter was pretty thick to me. I used an ice cream scooper to put it in the baking tray. I will try more almond flour and let you know how it goes. Thank you so much Natalie!
Observation: the coconut sugar option and your chocolate chip muffin recipe are pretty much identical, only this one has baking soda and lemon juice as a raising agent, and the other uses baking powder.
Looks amazing, though! Can’t wait to try it!
Q: Which do you think I should do — chocolate chip muffins, blueberry muffins, half/half or bluechocolateberry?
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Or maybe both–blueberries and chocolate chips all in one muffin? I personally prefer the blueberry ones, but blueberry muffins are just my favorite for those jammy cooked berry bits😋
Hi! Is it possible to use almond meal instead of almond flour for this recipe?
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They tend to work quite differently in baking so I don’t recommend it unfortunately, I don’t think the texture will turn out well😕
Hey Natalie! May I ask if I can use regular whole wheat flour instead of almond flour for the date-sweetened recipe? And is it possible to bake the muffins in a loaf pan and make it a cake instead? Thank you!
Almond flour and wheat are not interchangeable, oat and wheat are though if you want to make that version! And I don’t recommend this one as a loaf, it’s designed to be muffins so the middle may not cook through properly and you’d need to bake much longer for a loaf bread. Hope that helps!
Hi 🙂 Do the blueberries have to be frozen? Thank you and love what you do xx
No, you can use fresh too!
This tasted really healthy and I really enjoyed it! I thought it had a bread pudding-like texture. I love that it’s date-sweetened and just the right amount of sweetness.
I am so happy you liked them! One of my favorites too😋
I don’t think there’s nearly enough flour in this recipe. I’m trying to use the yogurt version, and the first two times I made this recipe, they were still gooey in the middle and didn’t have that muffin structure/texture. Because I really want to find a good vegan gf blueberry muffin recipe, I tried it again but using 2 and 1/3 cups of almond flour. That was better but some of the muffins still fell apart when I tried to take them out of the tin, so still not a good structure. I’m going to try again using either 2 3/4 or 3 cups of almond flour. Hopefully that works….but I’ve made your chai spice muffins and love them and noticed they have way more flour in the recipe ….
Hmm I haven’t had that issue with this recipe, but you can definitely try reducing the amount of yogurt or adding more flour. Also are you using fresh or frozen berries? I believe I used fresh here, so frozen will add more moisture which could be the issue too!
I tried the yogurt version and they came out wayyy to wet, and were not holding together at all. I would have baked them for longer but they were already very brown on top. So because i followed the recipe exactly (except I used fresh and few more blueberries, but i read in the comments that it was possible to use fresh ones, soi thought it should be fine): what could be the issue? Any help/answer would be great appreciated!
made the date version exactly as is. they came out perfect!!!
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YAY! I am so happy they turned out perfectly for you, one of my favorites😋
I’ve made this recipe many times now as it really helps with my 2 year olds constipation. I make the date version and do use almond meal instead of almond flour. Also, instead of blueberries I use zucchini. I pulse it in my food processor until it’s rice sized pieces and then mix it in! It’s so delicious and my toddler gobbles them up. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!!
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Whoa your version sounds amazing!! I especially want to try the zucchini thing, they sound so delicious and wholesome for kids and myself haha. Thank you for sharing, and I am so happy you guys love them🤗
Oooh, could I sub zucchini mash for the applesauce? I’m on a low FODMAP elimination diet and apples are a no go right now. I have a ton of frozen zucchini mash leftover from this years CSA (I use it in zucchini bread) and I wonder if it would work? #onthelisttotrythisweekend
I haven’t tested that but worth a shot! You could also use pumpkin puree in place of applesauce, I do believe that is FODMAP friendly? Or nondairy yogurt if you can have that 🙂
Love the date version! These are my go to almond flour muffin – my toddler loves them too. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
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Aw yay! I am so happy you guys are enjoying these, my favorite blueb muffin too💙