Vegan Toffee Apple Muffins (Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free)
These toffee apple muffins are so incredibly delicious! Imagine all the flavours of a toffee apple and a touch of cinnamon in a light and fluffy muffin. They also happen to be vegan, so also perfect for people with egg & dairy allergies too. I actually got into vegan baking because I have friends with egg & dairy allergies and I’ve found it’s not that tricky to bake some fabulous light and fluffy vegan cakes.
Did you know that apple sauce is a brilliant substitute for eggs? Just substitute each egg for 60g of apple sauce for an egg-free cake. I modified my recipe for apple crumble muffins (which are dairy-free) swapping the eggs for chopped apples and cooking them first to make a rough apple sauce. It worked brilliantly giving a lovely light and fluffy apple flavoured muffin.
I also added lemon juice to the wet ingredients of these muffins and bicarbonate of soda to the dry ingredients to help give more rise - it’s quite a common thing to do in vegan baking. This also works really well, but it’s really important to work quickly so the reaction happens in the oven and not in the mixing bowl! Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry and spoon into the muffin cases as quickly as you can. And don’t over mix the batter!
Also a quick note about the vegan caramel sauce which I have tried to keep as simple and easy as possible. It’s not really smooth and creamy like regular caramel sauce - I’d say it has more of a fudgey texture - but it does have a lovely caramel flavour. Leftover sauce can be warmed and drizzled on pancakes.
These muffins are fairly labour intensive, and create more washing up then I would like, but they are so worth it! If you’re after some shortcuts, use ready made apple crisps and ready made caramel sauce. Enjoy.
Vegan Toffee Apple Muffins (Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free)
Makes: 12 muffins
Hands On Time: 45 mins
Baking Time: 1 hour 15 mins (including apple crisps)
INGREDIENTS:
For the vegan caramel sauce:
200g light brown sugar
50 ml water
50g coconut oil
Sea salt to taste
For the caramel apple muffins:
3 dessert apples, e.g. gala, finely diced
200-300ml water
3 tbsp vegan caramel sauce (from above)
350g self-raising flour
100g light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp of cinnamon
100ml sunflower oil
275ml oat milk (or other vegan milk substitute)
2 tbsp lemon juice
For the apple crisps to decorate:
One apple
Ground cinnamon (optional)
METHOD:
To make the vegan caramel sauce:
Place the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed saucepan and stir over a low to medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Do not allow the mixture to simmer. It helps if you have a light coloured pan so you can see the sugar crystals.
When all the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat slightly and allow it to simmer gently for 2-3 minutes until it has thickened a little and becomes like a thin syrup.
Take the pan from the heat and whisk in the coconut oil. At this point the mixture might look like it has split, but don’t worry.
Return the pan to a low heat and stir the caramel until smooth. Add salt to taste. Turn off the heat and allow to cool in the pan. If you find it becomes very solid before it comes to room temperature you can add a tiny splash of boiling water to loosen it, but be careful not to add to much.
For the caramel apple muffins:
Place the diced apples in a saucepan and pour over enough water to just cover them. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer until the apples are soft and the water has evaporated. Mash the apples roughly but so there’s still plenty of texture. Add the caramel sauce to the apples, stir through and leave to cool.
Pre-heat the oven to 200 C / 180 fan / gas mark 6. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases ready for later.
Place the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda a large mixing bowl and stir well to combine. I use a large ballon whisk for this. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.
Stir the other wet ingredients - the oil, milk and lemon juice - into the cooled apple mixture and pour into the well of the dry ingredients.
Carefully stir the dry ingredients into the wet using a metal spoon. Stir until the ingredients are 'just' combined. Do not overwork the mixture or you will end up with tough muffins.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases and bake for around 20 - 25 minutes until the muffins are golden, well risen and have a slightly springy texture. A knife will come out with just a few crumbs when they’re done. Leave to cool in the tin fora few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the caramel apple crisps:
Pre-heat the oven to 140 C / 120 fan / gas mark 1.
Slice the apple very thinly horizontally (a mandolin is perfect for this) discarding any seeds.
Arrange the apple slices on a non-stick baking sheet or on a sheet of baking paper. Sprinkle with cinnamon if you like.
Bake for around 45 minutes until the apples are crisp turning once half way through. Leave to cool before use.
To assemble the toffee apple muffins:
Spoon around a tablespoon of the caramel sauce onto the top of each of the cooled muffins. You may need to warm the sauce slightly if it has become too stiff. If it’s too runny it will run straight off the muffins, so it’s important to get the consistency just right.
Place an apple crisp on top of the caramel sauce on each muffin. Leave the muffins until the caramel sauce has cooled completely and looks set. You can sprinkle each muffin with a little cinnamon or edible glitter if you wish or just leave them as they are.
