If you love good things in life… you will love these Wheat-free Vegan Cranberry Lemon Muffins!
These are nice and light and so tasty! I made them with spelt flour but they can be easily made gluten-free (I made a gf version too and they were delicious!)
I made these the other day and took them for a sweet little picnic with a friend. If I had to pick all my favourite things in life it would be; good food, good friends and picnics.
It’s the perfect way to lay back and summarize all the good things this summer had to offer with all its magic and wonder…. I’m learning to really LIVE this year and I’m learning to let go of so much…. It’s all bittersweet (kind of like these muffins (they are on the tart-sweet side so they’re perfect for these words, right?)
And letting go is not an easy task and muffins help with that…
The only thing I can think of right now is…. breathe, breathe, breathe…. and have one more muffin…. ;)
One Bowl Wheat-free Vegan Cranberry Lemon Muffins
wheat-free, dairy-free, egg-free, vegan, nut-free, refined sugar free
Ingredients:
prep time : 10 min cook time : 25 min makes 10-12 muffins
INGREDIENTS :
- 1 1/2 cup light spelt flour OR all-purpose gluten-free flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup organic raw cane sugar (or powdered stevia)
- 1/2 cup coconut milk (or other plant milk)
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted OR grape seed oil
- 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- zest of 1/2 lemon (organic or see notes if not organic below)
- 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, halved
DIRECTIONS :
- Preheat oven to 350F. and line a muffin pan or use a silicone baking pan.
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add in milk, oil, apple sauce, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest.
- Stir to dissolve the sugar for about 1 minute.
- Stir in cranberries.
- Pour into a muffin pan and fill right to the top for fuller muffins or 3/4 full for smaller muffins
- Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350°F or until slightly golden on top.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack 15 to 30 minutes before serving.
NOTES : if you’re using the zest of a lemon, it’s best to make sure you get organic lemons that’s because there’s a lot of toxins in the waxy coating on regular lemons. If you can’t get organic lemons, here is what you should do to help remove a lot of that waxy coating:
- fill a cup with boiling hot water and dunk a whole lemon into it.
- leave it in for about 10 seconds and remove with a fork or spoon to help you lift without burning your fingers
- wipe the lemon while still hot with a paper towel and place back in the water
- repeat a few times to get as much of the residue off as possible
Cranberry Lemon Muffins have ALWAYS been my favourite! (they were my Tim Horton’s fave thing to grab for ages!)
And although cranberries are usually associated with Christmas…. there is no reason why you can’t eat them year-round.
These taste very summery to me right now, but I bet you when I do make them in December they will fit the Holiday season too… they’re just so good and basically any reason you need to bake these delicious and healthy muffins is a good reason :)
Cranberries are also AMAZING fruits!
They are super low in sugar which is great if you’re trying to cut back but still want to indulge.
Sugar in fruit is healthy, but in terms of sugar grams, it can certainly add up and you could be eating too much and it can still spike your blood sugar. If you don’t do things that naturally help you lower blood sugar, than over time, even fruit can be a problem.
So cranberries are awesome!! :)
Our summer picnic was so amazing….
Although it could have been better…
I met up with my friend who is moving away to Europe… and we’ve been friends for over 15 years SO when I say it could have been better, I mean that she could stay and not move…
So this was our little goodbye picnic. But NOT a real goodbye because we swore we would remain #BFFs…. but of course, things will be very different with her not around… :(
So I can see how these Cranberry Lemon Muffins are a bit bittersweet. They’re sweet but tart/ bitter from the cranberries. Kind of like the mood during our picnic…. bittersweet… because I already miss her so much…
I bet every time I make these muffins I will think of my friend…. and I’ll send her a box of them and we’ll Skype or Facetime and we’ll eat them together ;)
These are refined sugar free with raw cane sugar and just 1/4 cup of sugar is used in this whole recipe.
These can also be reduced further from sugar calories and you could use Stevia instead which is a 0 calorie natural sweetener.
Using cranberries as opposed to other fruit in recipes is great to cut the sugar! Cranberries contain very little natural sugar and add a nice tart flavour which balances the sweetness nicely.
Overall, these will not give you a sugar coma and taste very light with both flour options (gluten-free or spelt).
These are approved for breakfast too (if enjoyed with a high-protein smoothie or other high-protein foods) :)
Blogger, Recipe Developer, Photographer and Author. Loves healthy food, photography, sunshine and dancing in the kitchen with her two daughters. 
These muffins look so soft and gentle!! <3
It's incredible this summer is going to be finished yet, I'm living messy months and I can't wait until October when all this will be over. I'll recover with a lot of muffins then :P
Oh thanks girl :)
Hope you already tried these yummy muffins… and I hope all is well :)
xoxo ella
These pictures are precious!!! You make me want to go for a picnic :) I love this recipe too–they sound delicious!!
Thanks Ali :)
Picnics are just the loveliest way to spend the day + eat yummy food! :)
Hope you give these a try soon :)
xoxo ella
Hi Ella! I came to your blog after reading of it from the Blender girl. I saw that you wrote books about cutting of sugar and all that, but I see you used organic cane sugar in this recipe. Can you please explain how it could be a better option ? I understood refined or not refined as long as it its sugar it’s not good for ya. I haven’t been using sugar in my house for over a year so if there’s any info I’m missing I would love to learn about it.
Thank you
Mira
Hi Mira,
Thanks so much for visiting and for your great question :)
(apologies my reply is so late, but I got so inspired by your question that I thought I would answer it all on its own post ~ figured more people might be asking/ wondering the same thing as you are… :) but the summer’s been so busy and I can’t fit this into a post just yet #lifestuff ;))
So I’ll try to briefly explain my stance on sugar here….
I’m not anti-sugar at all. I feel that sugar (healthier sugar) can be enjoyed and we can still be healthy while indulging without the guilt.
My stance on sugar and the meaning behind ‘cut the sugar’ is to focus on Quality AND Quantity when it comes to sugar.
A quality sweetener that’s unrefined and ideally low-glycemic is the best sweetener for the occasional treat.
Occasional treat – as in baking at home (so you know what’s in the food you’re making and you can control how much sugar you add and from what source (same goes for other ingredients). Baking on the weekend is great so you have something to look forward to and enjoying a bit of the sweet life on Sunday and/ or special occasions is a lovely way to life the ‘sweet life’ without feeling deprived. For the rest of the week, you can make do with fresh fruit as a source of sugar and try to limit over-sweetening your food, smoothies, oatmeal bowls etc.
For example, I don’t eat fruit with my oatmeal, I eat fresh fruit separately as a snack about 2 hours after my breakfast to distribute the sugars so my blood sugar is nice and stable… I apply the same for lunch, mid-afternoon snack and dinner etc. keeping to a healthy range of ‘sugar’ that’s around 15 grams of sugar from great sources either fruit or unrefined sugars such as honey, maple syrup, dates, coconut sugar or in a rare occasion when the taste can’t be overpowered by a sweetener raw cane sugar.
I also don’t sweeten my tea or coffee and prefer the natural taste of beverages, I also don’t even drink juice because it’s stripped off fiber which speeds up a blood sugar spike AND much prefer real fresh fruit to eat and chew as chewing fruit secretes enzymes and that helps you kick off digestion the healthiest way :)
I think this covered A LOT and yet I’m not even done…. :) There’s so much more that I cover in individual posts on my blog here or in the book Cut the Sugar :)
I do hope this clarified a bit, if you have any other questions at all, please do not hesitate to ask :)
Sending big hugs,
xoxo ella