My Favorite Muffin Recipe: Almond-Quinoa Muffins

Just Out of the Oven

Vegan cookbooks sit on various shelves all over my kitchen and then some end up in my boyfriend’s kitchen for month’s at a time. Veganomicon is one of those cookbooks. One Sunday, Bill flipped through the book and decided on the Almond Quinoa muffins. We’ve made them regularly ever since. In fact I often see other muffin recipes I want to try but never seem to get past this one. It’s that good.

Almond-Quinoa Muffins
from Veganomicon

Makes 12 muffins

• 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds
• 1/4 cup canola oil (I substitute apple sauce for the oil.)
• 1/4 cup agave nectar or pure maple syrup (I’ve tried it both ways and prefer maple syrup.)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose or whole wheat pastry flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour.)
• 1/4 cup almond meal or almond flour (I make almond meal using my coffee grinder. Almond flour is expensive.)
• 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1-1/4 cups cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots or currants (I use half raisins and half dried cranberries. No chopping required.)

Almond-Quinoa Muffin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a non-stick 12-cup muffin tin. (I have tried using paper baking cup liners instead of greasing the tin. This does not work well. The muffins stick to the paper.)

In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the soy milk and ground flaxseed. Allow to sit for 1 minute, then whisk in oil or applesauce, agave nectar or maple syrup, and vanilla.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, almond meal, baking powder*, salt and spices. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just incorporated. Gently fold in the cooked quinoa and the dried fruit until the large lumps are gone.

Pour into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. (I like to take the muffins out of the tin to let them cool on a baking rack instead of in the muffin tin. I have tried it both ways.)

Author’s note: While typing up this post, I noticed a discrepancy in the recipe. Baking soda is not listed in the ingredients on page 227 of my copy of Veganomicon. In the directions on page 228, baking soda is included in the dry ingredients. As many times as I have made this recipe, I have never used baking soda.

One of My Favorite Cookbooks

Almond-Quinoa Muffins is my favorite muffin recipe. You can find it in Veganomicon, The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero (page 227-228).

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