Dairy-Free and Egg-Free Pumpkin Muffins with Crumble Topping

Whether you’re vegan, allergic, or flabbergasted at the current price of eggs, you may be in the market for an egg-free treat to brighten up your day.

May I interest you in a dairy-free, egg-free pumpkin muffin with a delightful crumble topping?

Unless you come over, you will have to make these yourself. But aside from the crumble, this is a one-bowl recipe, and you can have these in almost no time with pantry staples.

Hypothesis 1: The dairy-free, egg-free pumpkin muffins will be easy to bake.

Hypothesis 2: Despite the lack of typical ingredients (anything dairy, any eggs), the muffins will achieve peak texture with a soft, tender crumb complemented by a slightly crunchy topping.

Hypothesis 3: They will also be a sweet, but not too sweet, delicious treat no matter the season!

Method

Recipe Sources:

Muffin batter recipe from One-Bowl Vegan Pumpkin Muffins by Nora Cooks

Crumble topping taken from Eggless Pumpkin Crumb Muffins by Mommy’s Home Cooking

Allergen-Friendly Modifications:

Dairy allergies:

The batter is naturally dairy-free! Substitute a butter alternative in the crumble instead of butter. I used an Imperial brand margarine stick with a 1:1 ratio. Most brands of stick margarine will work here - the texture is not too particular, but I would stay away from the spread versions. Coconut oil may work here, please let me know if you try that!

Egg allergies:

None needed! These recipes are naturally egg-free.

Nut allergies:

I used almond milk in this recipe for the liquid, but you could easily choose a different option such as soy or oat milk.

Soy allergies:

Don’t use soy milk (see above), and check the ingredients of your butter alternative in the crumble. Soy-free alternatives that I’ve used in the past (but not tested for this recipe) include coconut oil and Country Crock almond oil or olive oil sticks.

Wheat allergies:

Gluten-free and wheat-free baking is a whole other skill set for which I am only a novice. Sometimes, a gluten-free mix works great as a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour, but other times it may fall apart (if that happens, make lemonade of out your lemons and try cake pops or trifle!). Please let me know if you do try these with a gluten-free substitute and how it turned out!

Procedures

1. Start with the batter recipe from Nora cooks. Fortunately, we have been gifted a one-bowl recipe. It starts with mixing your wet ingredients (see Figures 1-2).

Figure 1.

Wet ingredients.

Figure 2.

Wet ingredients, all mixed up.

2. Add your dry ingredients. The author thoughtfully suggests sifting them together, which probably helps with even distribution, as well as preventing over-mixing. I say probably, because I just poured it all in and hoped for the best (see Figures 3-4).

Figure 3.

Dry ingredients added to bowl.

Figure 4.

Dry ingredients, carefully stirred in.

3. Pour into muffin tin. I filled my muffin cups pretty full, so this made 13. You could also make them a bit smaller, and err on the side of less baking time. You could stop here and go right to baking (see Figure 5), or take the next step of adding a simple crumb topping (see step 4).

Figure 5. Portion control ;)

4. Mix your ingredients for the crumble topping from the second recipe. I used a pastry cutter and it came together quite quickly (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. Crumbly crumble.

5. Top your muffins mine made more than I needed, even when coated generously. However, this might be helpful if you make smaller and more muffins. Then, bake! Since I made bigger muffins, I used the high end of the recommended baking time.

Results

With a fluffy, tender interior, and a slightly crunchy crumble topping, these easy, dairy-free and egg-free muffins are a winner! The sweetness is balanced by the savory taste of pumpkin and pumpkin-related spices.

But you don’t have to take my word for it!

Reviewer #1: Excellent! (Eats another).

Reviewer #2: “I’m so glad I saved this for the AM- it has such a bright floral flavor… Yum!”

Figure 7. Baked and cooling muffins.

Figure 8. What a snack.

Figure 9. Courtesy of our lovely and generous Reviewer #2!

Figure 10. What a stack.

Figure 11. Local Ann Arbor-ites - any guesses for these local landmarks buildings?

Discussion

Our results strongly support our central hypotheses!

We can bake simple muffins, and they can be extremely delicious all without dairy or eggs. I recommend baking and enjoying these no matter the time of year!

Will these dairy-free, egg-free pumpkin crumble muffins help you withstand another unprecedented time? The next in a series of once-in-a-lifetime events of our lives? I can’t tell you for sure, but you’ll probably be happier, fueled, allergen-friendly, and budget-conscious, so I think it’s worth a try!