I made these muffins two days ago, and have been walking around in a happy little fog since then because these little vegan morsels of yumminess are so incredibly AWESOME.

Light and tender, moist and chocolately, what more could you want in a muffin? If I had a cafe, these would be on the menu every freakin’ morning.

I adapted a recipe found here. I cut the sugar to 2/3 cup, and they were still really sweet, so next time I’ll cut it to 1/2 cup.

1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F). Grease a muffin tin, or use muffin liners.

2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well mixed. Set aside.

3. In a medium mixing bowl, add water to the powdered egg replacer according to the package directions for the equivalent of one egg. Whisk mixture together until foamy. Put the yogurt, oil and vanilla into a measuring cup and whisk with a fork until emulsified. Then whisk yogurt mixture into egg replacer until well blended.

4. Gently fold wet mixture into dry, just until evenly mixed. Do not overmix. Fold in mashed bananas and chocolate chips.

5. Spoon into prepared muffin tin.

6. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, rotating tin halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Cool five minutes in pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 incredible muffins.

It’s a bit cheeky calling these cherry almond muffins, since they contain neither cherries nor almonds.

This is yet another variation on my vegan bran muffin recipe. Like the apricot muffins, I used oat bran instead of wheat bran.

For the cherry taste without the cherries, I used cherry-flavoured dried cranberries (Craisins), which were in the stash of vegan goodies I brought back with me from Canada. These little morsels are bursting with awesome cherry flavour. I SO wish they were available here, but noooo, we can only get ordinary dried cranberries here. I actually ended up using only half cherry-flavoured cranberries, and half ordinary dried cranberries, to stretch the supply.

I also added some almond extract to the batter, since cherry and almond flavours mingle so well together. I thought of adding a few sliced almonds on top of the muffins, but all I had were whole almonds, and I didn’t really want to try and slice them myself. But I bet they’d be a nice addition.

Last week, I bought some organic golden syrup at a health shop in Salisbury, so I used this as a sweetener. Agave syrup or maple syrup could be used instead.

1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F). Grease a muffin tin, or use muffin liners.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add water to the powdered egg replacer according to the package directions for the equivalent of two eggs. Whisk mixture together until foamy. Then whisk in soya milk, oil, golden syrup, sugar and almond extract until well blended.

3. Stir in bran and let stand for 5 minutes.

4. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add to the liquid mixture, and fold gently until just combined. Fold in cherries or cranberries.

5. Spoon into greased or paper-lined muffin tin, filling just to the top.

6. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, rotating tin halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.

Sorry for the lack of posts, peeps, I’ve been unbelievably busy and not had time to give proper attention to my blog.

I’ve been making mostly quick meals that I’ve made before, so nothing much exciting to report from the kitchen.

However, since rediscovering my favourite vegan bran muffin recipe, I’ve made a couple of variations… one with dried blueberries, which was delicious, and another with dried apricots, which was just as yummy. I also tried a variation with fresh blueberries, and although they were good, the blueberries made the muffins a bit soggy. I think dried fruit is better in these muffins.

For the apricot muffins, I substituted oat bran for the wheat bran, and used agave syrup instead of date syrup. I also used a bit of orange extract, which added a nice subtle orange flavour.

As before, I used Orgran No Egg, but Ener-G Egg Replacer will work just as well.

1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F). Grease a muffin tin, or use muffin liners.

1. In a large mixing bowl, add water to the powdered egg replacer according to the package directions for the equivalent of two eggs. Whisk mixture together until foamy. Then whisk in soya milk, oil, agave syrup, sugar and orange extract until well blended.

2. Stir in bran and let stand for 5 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add to the liquid mixture, and fold gently until just combined. Fold in apricots.

4. Spoon into greased or paper-lined muffin tin, filling just to the top.

5. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, rotating tin halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.

This recipe is adapted from one in an unknown magazine that I clipped out years ago. It adapted easily to being made vegan. I first made these muffins years ago, and recently found the recipe again (lost amongst my rather large collection of clippings, papers and such like). An old friend, rediscovered!

The original recipe called for fresh blueberries, but I like to make them with dried cranberries. Probably pretty much any dried or fresh fruit could be used. They are moist and delicious and just sweet enough. Mr Thrifty eats these with a big smile on his face, and says they are his favourite muffins.

The egg replacer I use is Orgran No Egg, but when I lived on the other side of the pond, I used Ener-G Egg Replacer, so I know that either one will work.

I didn’t have any molasses, so I used date syrup from ASDA. It worked great!

1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F). Grease a muffin tin, or use muffin liners.

1. In a large mixing bowl, add water to the powdered egg replacer according to the package directions for the equivalent of two eggs. Whisk mixture together until foamy. Then whisk in soya milk, oil, molasses (or date syrup) and sugar until well blended.

2. Stir in bran and let stand for 5 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add to the liquid mixture, and fold gently until just combined. Fold in cranberries.

4. Spoon into greased or paper-lined muffin tin, filling just to the top.

5. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating tin halfway through, until muffins are firm to the touch.

Makes 12 muffins.