Healthy Coffee Cake Muffins with Streusel Topping

These coffee cake muffins are moist, flavorful and a great start to your day. Perfect for the weekend, these light and fluffy muffins can be enjoyed any day of the week. This is a classic coffee cake recipe turned into your new favorite breakfast muffins with a cinnamon-spiced crumble topping. Make these muffins today!

I love making muffins. It might have been one of the first recipes I made in my life, but I doubt it. I think my first jab at solo baking was a batch of cookies, and I think they turned out ok.

Before then I was a pro at making boxed mac and cheese and following whatever orders my mom yelled my way. I was, I guess, her sous chef.

But muffins definitely came early on in my baking life and I’ve been hooked ever since. I love the individual cakes and the flavor profiles that can be experimented with.

When I went vegan, baking took on a whole new meaning in my life. I think because it presented an even greater challenge and I was intrigued with figuring it out.

These vegan coffee cake muffins, my friends, may be the pinnacle of my baking experience. At least so far.

Why is it called Coffee Cake?

I’m not a big fan of coffee (I have a specific medical condition which limits caffeine), so I’ve often wondered why it’s called “coffee” cake. Does it have 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.”

You can learn more about the intricacies of coffee cake, but here’s my summation:

• Flavor it with coffee (or not)
• Serve it with coffee (or not)
• Prepare it as a one-layer cake (or not)

Obviously, there’s a lot of room for creativity with a coffee cake recipe.

The original coffee cake was thought to be an import from Germany and maybe that’s why most coffee cakes are made with a streusel, crumbly topping.

Healthy Coffee Cake Muffins

The goal with these coffee cake muffins was to create a moist, delicious, and yet healthy muffin. That seem 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 these coffee cake muffins by doing the following:

• used oats in the crumble topping
• streusel needs a fat to hold it together; I used peanut butter and it worked
• added applesauce to keep the muffins moist
• used a combination of agave and Swerve to keep sugars minimized
• whole wheat pastry flour adds some fiber
• ground flax seeds add Omega-3s

Finally, a way to add delicious healthiness to an indulgent breakfast treat!

We hope you love this recipe for Coffee Cake Muffins as much as we do! If you decide to make them, be sure and snap a photo and share it with me using #namelymarly on Instagram. We love seeing your photos!

Coffee Cake Muffins

I took the very best vegan coffee cake and turned it into Coffee Cake Muffins. You'll love these tender, crumbly-topped muffins for breakfast, for brunch, for snack time, and even for dessert! 

5 from 7 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Coffee Cake Muffins

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Servings: 12

Calories: 230kcal

Author: Marly

Ingredients

• For the 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)
• For the Coffee Cake 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
• 1½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

• Heat your oven to 350. Line muffin tins with papers or spray with vegetable spray.
• For the Crumble Topping: combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, pinch of salt, and peanut butter in a bowl. Stir to combine. Add the oats and stir until combined. Set aside.
• For the coffee cake: 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 - 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.

Notes

Regarding Swerve: we’ve started working towards reduced refined sugar in our recipes and my research has caused me to lean towards Swerve. It’s main ingredient is erythritrol which has been shown to not impact blood sugars.
Here’s info from Dr.Greger at Nutrition Facts on erythritol:

https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/erythritol/
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/erythritol-may-be-a-sweet-antioxidant/

Truvia is another good option as it does a mixture between erythritol and stevia.

Enjoy!

National Coffee Cake Day

I think there’s a national food day being celebrated almost every day! Today is not 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. Lemon Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Traditional Coffee Cake Recipes

Vegan Coffee Cake with Pumpkin Seeds recipe
Vegan and Gluten-free Coffee Cake by Feasting on Fruit
Coconut Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake from Creations by Kara
Vegan Coffee Cake with Kahlua Frosting by Loving it Vegan
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
Blueberry Coffee Cake from Texan Erin
Strawberry Coffee Cake by Grandbaby Cakes
Raspberry Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake by Buns in my Oven
Peach Coffee Cake by Real Mom Kitchen
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Coffee Cake by Sally’s Baking Addiction
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

Wow, that’s a lot of coffee cake recipes! You know, that means lots of delicious weekend (and weekday) breakfast treats to enjoy!