Vegan Chickpea Flour Muffins
on Jan 26, 2021, Updated Aug 27, 2024
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These vegan chickpea flour muffins with blueberries and chocolate chips gluten-free and have a light and fluffy texture and are easy to make in one bowl with just 10 ingredients.
Chickpea flour makes a wonderful alterative to wheat flour for grain-free and gluten-free baking. These Vegan Chickpea Flour Pancakes are one of my favourite ways to use it, followed by up these delicious chickpea flour muffins.
Buckwheat flour is also great for gluten-free baking. You can try it in these Vegan Buckwheat Muffins.
About the Recipe
- Vegan (no eggs, dairy-free).
- Naturally gluten-free.
- 200 calories each.
- Easy to make in one bowl.
- Ready in 40 minutes.
- 10 ingredients.
- Swap the add-ins for any nuts, fruit, etc.
- Freezer-friendly.
Ingredients
- Flax or Chia: The recipe calls for chia seeds to replace eggs but you can substituted 2 tbsp ground flax.
- Brown Rice Flour: The muffins are made with a combination of brown rice flour and chickpea flour. I have not tested other flours in this recipe.
- Chickpea Flour: otherwise know as garbanzo bean flour, it’s actually a different flour than besan or gram flour so I would recommend sticking to gabanzo (chickpea) flour as that what’s the recipe has been tested with.
- Coconut Sugar: You can substitute brown sugar or cane sugar.
- Almond Milk: Substitute cashew milk, oat milk or soy milk.
- Coconut Oil: Substituted olive oil, canola oil or melted vegan butter.
- Vinegar: You can use white vinegar or apple cider vinegar. Lemon juice would also work. This helps add some lift but it’s not required.
- Add-In: I used blueberries and chocolates but you can use either or swap for other fruit, dried cranberries or nuts.
This list is not complete. Please see the recipe card at the end of the post for the complete ingredient list with measurements and detailed instructions.
Step-by-Step Photos
Before You Start: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Mix the chia seeds and water in a small dish and set aside for about 5 minutes. It should form a gel with a somewhat egg-like consistency.
Step 1. Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix well. This includes the 2 types of flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Step 2. Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients. This includes the chia egg you mixed up, melted coconut oil, vinegar and almond milk. Fold everything together until all of the dry ingredients have been wetted.
Step 3. Add the blueberries and chocolate chips and fold together a few times to distribute.
Step 4. Scoop the batter into 12 muffins tins. You can use muffin liners for easy removal and clean up or give the pan a light coating of non-stick cooking spay.
Option to sprinkle the muffins with a little coconut sugar or brown sugar! Crushed walnuts would be yummy too!
Step 5. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 3 minutes then carefully pop them out with a knife and transfer to a cooling rack to cool.
FAQs
You can easily make these into chickpea flour carrot muffins or zucchini muffins by swapping the blueberries for grated veggies. I like keeping the chocolate chips in there but raisins, walnuts, chopped pecans or dates all make great additions too.
Chickpea flour is not the same as besan or gram flour. Chickpea flour is made from white chickpeas whereas gram flour is made form split brown chickpeas, or chana dal. They have a similar flavour and consistency but do vary a bit.
Chickpea flour, or garbanzo bean flour, is the most common in stores in my area so I have only tested this recipe with it. You should be able to use besan or gram with some minor adjustments, such as a bit less liquid. Chickpea flour tends to dry out more than besan so besan may actually be a better choice here!
The muffins are nice and moist but they could easily become dry if you use too much flour. For the best results, I recommend using a kitchen scale to measure the ingredients accurately.
Raw chickpea flour has quite a strong flavour and is actually quite bitter so the raw batter does not taste great. The flavour cook out as the muffins bake though, so don’t worry! The final muffins have a yummy, nutty flavour.
Let the muffins cool completely then store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days, in the fridge for 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to comment section below to leave your star rating and review.
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Vegan Chickpea Flour Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp chia seeds, 24 g + 6 tbsp water
- 1 cup brown rice flour, 120 g
- 1 cup chickpea flour, 120 g
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar, 95 g
- 1 cup almond milk, 250 mL
- 2 tsp white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted (45 g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, optional
- 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, 120 g
- 1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips, optional (80 g)
Instructions
- Pre-heat over to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray the cups of a standard size muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper liners.
- Mix the chia seeds and water in a small bowl and set aside for about 5 minutes. It should form a thick gel after a few minutes.
- Mix the 2 flours, coconut sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Mix well to make sure everything is distributed and no clumps remain.
- Add the milk, vinegar, melted coconut oil, chia seed mixture and optional vanilla to the bowl and fold together until all the dry ingredients have been wetted.
- Add the blueberries and chocolate chips and fold together a few times to distribute throughout.
- Use a large ice cream scoop or spoon to scoop the batter into 12 muffins tins. Option to sprinkle them with a little coconut sugar or brown sugar. Crushed walnuts also make a great topping! Bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let sit in the pan for 2-3 minutes then gently pop each muffin out with a knife and and place on a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally published July 14, 2014.
These are dangerously good! I subbed out the rice flour for the Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 (it’s what I had), and used coconut milk instead of almond milk (due to an almond sensitivity).