Coffee Cake Muffins
This easy Coffee Cake Muffins recipe creates moist, flavorful muffins that are a great start to your day. Cinnamon streusel muffins are light and fluffy muffins that can be enjoyed any day of the week.
I love making the best muffins ever! These vegan coffee cake muffins, my friends, are on of my favorite baking experiences, because the results are so delicious!
Why is it called Coffee Cake?
Have you ever wondered why it’s called “coffee” cake? Is it because it has coffee in it? Is it supposed to be served with coffee? It turns out both answers can be correct. Coffee cake “is intended to be eaten with, or flavored with coffee.” Here’s how to learn more about the intricacies of coffee cake.
Obviously, there’s a lot of room for creativity with a coffee cake recipe.
Why This Recipe is a Winner
- Adding molasses makes these muffins extra soft and tender
- Applesauce is another trick for making irresistibly moist muffins
- Using whole wheat pastry flour introduces an element of healthiness while keeping the muffin crumb light and tender.
The original coffee cake was imported from Germany. Maybe that’s why the best coffee cakes are made with a streusel, crumbly topping.
What You Need
You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, below. But first, here are some explanations of ingredients and steps to help you make this recipe perfect every time.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe:
- Coconut sugar — I like using coconut sugar for the streusel, but you can substitute brown sugar.
- Ground cinnamon
- Salt
- Peanut butter — We’ll use peanut butter for the streusel topping, but you can substitute vegan butter.
- Molasses
- Oats — I use rolled or old-fashioned oats, but you can substitute instant oats.
- Vegan butter
- Agave nectar — Use agave nectar or maple syrup.
- Swerve — To reduce the overall sugar load, I added a bit of Swerve zero-calorie sweetener, or you can substitute granulated sugar.
- Applesauce
- Almond milk — We’ll add a bit of unsweetened almond milk, or you can substitute any unsweetened plant-based milk.
- Ground flaxseed
- Cornstarch
- Apple cider vinegar
- Whole wheat pastry flour — I like using whole wheat pastry flour because it bakes nice and light. However, you can substitute all-purpose flour.
- Baking powder + Baking soda
- Salt — Table salt works just fine.
How to Make Coffee Cake Muffins
This is an easy muffin recipe. Just follow these steps:
- Make the crumble topping by stirring together the ingredients.
- Stir together the wet ingredients.
- Combine the dry ingredients and stir.
- Make the batter by stirring together the wet and dry mixtures.
- Pour the batter into prepared muffin tins.
- Add some crumble topping across the muffins.
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until the topping is golden brown.
Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Step One: Crumble Topping
For the Crumble Topping: combine the sugar, cinnamon, a pinch of salt, peanut butter, and molasses in a bowl. Stir to combine. Add the oats and stir until combined. Set aside.
Step Two: Add Muffin Wet Ingredients Together
To make this best muffin recipe, cream together the vegan butter, agave, and Swerve in a bowl. Stir vigorously until light and fluffy. Add the applesauce, milk, ground flaxseed, cornstarch, and apple cider vinegar. Stir to combine.
Step Three: Combine Dry Ingredients
In a medium-size bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to combine. Add the flour mixture to the milk mixture. Stir until just combined.
Step Four: Pour Batter into Muffin Tins and Bake
- Pour the batter into prepared muffin tins.
- Evenly distribute the crumble topping across the muffins.
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffins comes out clean. The crumble topping should be nice and golden brown as well.
- When done, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.
Storage Tips
Store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. These muffins can be refrigerated but may not be quite as moist. Refrigerate for up to 7 days or freeze for up to 1 month.
Healthy Coffee Cake Muffins
The goal of this muffins recipe is to create a moist, delicious, and yet healthy muffins. That seems like an impossible standard. And yet when Shawn had one of these muffins he exclaimed how hard it was to stop at one. He has more discipline than me, which is why I had to have two.
I’ve added a little bit of healthiness to this coffee cake muffin recipe by doing the following:
- Oats in the crumble topping adds nutrition and texture.
- Streusel needs fat to hold it together; I used peanut butter and it worked.
- To keep the muffins moist I used applesauce.
- A combination of agave and Swerve kept sugars minimized.
- To add some fiber I used whole wheat pastry flour.
- Ground flax seeds add Omega-3s.
Finally, a way to add delicious healthiness to an indulgent breakfast treat with crumb cake muffins.
More Muffins Favorites
If you love these vegan coffee cake muffins, here are more muffins favorites you’ll want to try!
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Coffee Cake Muffins with Streusel Topping
Ingredients
Crumble Topping
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- ¼ cup peanut butter softened
- 2 teaspoons molasses
- ½ cup oats (I used instant)
Muffins
- ½ cup vegan butter
- ½ cup agave nectar (or maple syrup or honey)
- ¼ cup Swerve (see notes)
- ½ cup applesauce , unsweetened
- 1 cup almond milk , unsweetened
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 350°F/175°C. Line muffin tins with papers or spray with vegetable spray.
Crumble Topping
- For the Crumble Topping: combine the sugar, cinnamon, a pinch of salt, peanut butter, and molasses in a bowl. Stir to combine. Add the oats and stir until combined. Set aside.
Muffins
- In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter, agave, and Swerve. Stir vigorously until light and fluffy. Add the applesauce, milk, ground flaxseed, cornstarch, and apple cider vinegar. Stir to combine.
- In a medium-size bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to combine. Add the flour mixture to the milk mixture. Stir until just combined.
- Pour the batter into prepared muffin tins. Evenly distribute the crumble topping across the muffins. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffins, comes out clean. The crumble topping should be nice and golden brown as well.
- When done, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.
- Store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. These muffins can be refrigerated but may not be quite as moist. Refrigerate for up to 7 days or freeze for up to 1 month.
Recommended Equipment
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Notes
The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Could you call these coffee cake cupcakes? Sure! It’s a fine line between muffins and cupcakes. Whatever you call them, enjoy!
National Coffee Cake Day
I think there’s a national food day being celebrated almost every day! Today is not an exception. It’s national coffee cake day. I am celebrating this delicious food holiday with some awesome food blogging friends.
Some of these recipes may not be vegetarian let alone vegan. Feel free to reach out to me if you’d like help veganizing any of these coffee cake recipes.
Traditional Coffee Cake Recipes
- Vegan Coffee Cake comes with a delicious crumble topping!
- Vegan and Gluten-free Coffee Cake by Feasting on Fruit
- Coconut Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake from Creations by Kara
- Vegan Breakfast Cake with Kahlua Frosting by Loving it Vegan
- Moist Coffee Cake Muffins from Pretty Providence
- Vegan Gluten-Free Cinnamon Coffee Cake from Rachel Mansfield
- Sour Cream Coffee Cake by Savory Experiments
- Slow cooker coffee cake by 365 Days of Slow Cooking
- Cinnamon coffee cake muffins from My Mommy Style
- New York Style Crumb Cake from Epicurious
- Mason Jar Pecan Streusel Coffee Cake thanks to Premeditated Leftovers
- Grandma’s Cinnamon Coffee Cake by Simply Stacie
Fruit Coffee Cakes
- Lemon Rhubarb Coffee Cake by the Crumb Blog
- Strawberry Coffee Cake by Grandbaby Cakes
- Peach Coffee Cake by Real Mom Kitchen
- Vegan Blueberry Coffee Cake Loaf by Sweet Like Cocoa
- Apple coffee cake with streusel topping by Super Golden Bakes
- Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake coming from the Baker Upstairs
- Lemon and Blueberry Coffee Cake by Barbara Bakes
Flavored Coffee Cakes
- Vegan Pumpkin Coffee Cake by Vegan Richa
- Chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake by Ashlee Marie
- Easy Carrot Coffee Cake from An Italian in my Kitchen
- Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake by The Salted Marshmallow
- Gingerbread Coffee Cake by Kristine’s Kitchen
This post was originally published in 2018 and was updated to include new photos, new text, and an updated recipe in 2021.
love muffins, especially muffins with a topping.
I’m with you on that! Give me a crumble topping any day!