Easy Buckwheat Muffins Recipe: Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free
Healthy, hearty and super simple - These buckwheat muffins need to be in your recipe book! They are incredibly tasty and a delicious way to get a healthy dose of flax seeds into your diet.
Mid-day snack attacks don't stand a chance when you have these hearty muffins within reach! Honest to goodness, they are the best buckwheat muffins you'll ever make and eat - they're tender with a slightly nutty flavor, filled with sweet apples and have the perfect glaze topping to take them over the top.
And since the recipe only needs a spoon or whisk to stir (no mixer required!) it's an easy way to get a yummy snack on the table quickly.
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Buckwheat Flour Muffins at a Glance
If buckwheat flour is a new flour to you, head over to this guide to gluten-free flours to read a little more about it. But anything made with buckwheat flour makes for a wholesome baked good. Besides that, this easy recipe is also:
- Easy to mix with just a sturdy or wooden spoon or whisk
- Convenient - instead of typical convenience food, you can have homemade muffins!
- Allergy friendly - the recipe is free from gluten, dairy, nuts (omit the pecans), and soy
- Less sugar than most muffin recipes
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Flax Seed: The flaxseed is ground for this recipe. Whole flax seed may be used, but it leaves larger seeds visible in the baked muffins.
- Buckwheat Flour: The light buckwheat flour is the star of the recipe. There is dark buckwheat flour, but I recommend the light version here. I would not recommend substituting the buckwheat as it would change the entire recipe. Check out these recipes using other gluten-free flours, like these almond flour blueberry muffins or these oat flour apple muffins.
- Baking Powder: The baking powder is a leavening agent, needed for adding lift and volume to the muffins. Make sure your baking powder is gluten free.
- Salt: The salt brings out the flavor of the spices.
- Cinnamon: The cinnamon adds spice to the muffins. There is not substitute for the cinnamon.
- Nutmeg: The nutmeg adds a wonderful spice to the muffins.
- Egg: Use a whole egg in this recipe. To make vegan buckwheat muffins, an alternative to the egg would be a flax egg or chia egg.
- Almond Milk: Feel free to use any non-dairy milk in this recipe. Coconut milk, oat milk or cashew milk would work fine.
- Vanilla Extract: Use pure vanilla extract.
- Vegetable Oil: Oil is needed as a fat for the muffins. Melted coconut oil, olive oil, canola oil, or sunflower oil could be substituted for the vegetable oil.
- Brown Sugar: The light brown sugar lends a caramelized flavor to the muffins. Coconut sugar could be substituted for the brown sugar for a refined sugar free muffin. Liquid sweeteners like maple syrup or honey, could also be used as the amount is not enough to disrupt the dry to liquid ingredient ratio.
- Granulated Sugar: The white sugar balances out the softness of the brown sugar.
- Apple: Use peeled and diced apples for best results. See the Add-ins section for other ideas.
- Pecans: Chop the pecans so they mix easily into batter. You may substitute chopped walnuts as well.
Exact measurements and instructions for making this buckwheat muffin recipe are in the recipe card below.
Step-by-Step to Buckwheat Muffins
STEP ONE: Use a large mixing bowl and add the flax seeds, buckwheat flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix everything together with a spoon.
STEP TWO: In a medium bowl, add the wet ingredients - egg, milk, vanilla, sugars, and oil. Stir together.
Note that you could do this recipe in a food processor, just process once or twice once the apples and nuts ae added.
STEP THREE: All at once, add the liquid ingredients to the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir until everything is completely mixed.
STEP FOUR: Stir in the chopped apples and nuts.
STEP FIVE: After the batter rest time, portion the batter into ten muffin cups. Bake the muffins in a prepared muffin tin at 350F for 17 minutes.
STEP SIX: Allow the baked muffins to cool in the muffin pan for 5 minutes, then remove from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack.
Add-ins & Options
The powdered sugar glaze on these muffins is completely optional but it does make them look beautiful if you're serving them to guests. If they're just being devoured as quickly as you can make them, I'd just skip the glaze.
STEP ONE: Mix together 1 Tablespoon of very soft butter with 1 cup of powdered sugar. You'll basically mash the butter with a fork until it's fully combined. Then add 1-2 Tablespoons of milk until it's a drizzle consistency.
STEP TWO: Drizzle the cooled muffins with the glaze. Tip: Keep the muffins on a cooling rack or on parchment for mess-free drizzling.
Other add-in ideas include:
- Replace the apple with a cup of chocolate chips
- Replace the apple with blueberries for buckwheat blueberry muffins
- Replace the apple with mashed banana for banana buckwheat muffins
- Omit the nuts or replace them with walnuts or almonds.
Storage Tips
These muffins can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days. Any longer than that and you'll need to freeze them for longer storage. Defrost muffins in a toaster oven or in the microwave for 1 minute.
Pro Tips
Rest Time
I get a lot of questions about the 'rest time' for gluten free batter. But basically after the batter is fully mixed, this 30 minute period of time gives the batter time to absorb the ingredients (liquid hydrates the flours) which will result in lighter textured and higher rising baked goods.
Room Temperature Ingredients
Bring all the ingredients to room temperature so everything mixes together completely. Cold ingredients don't mix well, so warm up that cold egg and almond milk.
Tip: If you want to quickly warm milk or water, simply microwave for about 30 seconds. Instructions for warming a cold egg can be found here.
Weigh Ingredients
Be sure to weigh the flour and flax seeds for the most accurate measurements using a kitchen scale such as this one. One cup of buckwheat flour may not be the same weight as what's used in the recipe - which can really alter the results!
FAQs
The best way to store them is in a well sealed, plastic container. They'll last for up to 2 days on the countertop or you can easily freeze them if you need them to last longer. They freeze really well!
Blueberry buckwheat muffins would be delicious! A cup of any of these would be delicious. Just add them after the batter is fully mixed, basically when you'd add the apples, add the ingredient you want to substitute with.
Lots! Make some buckwheat bread, or buckwheat banana bread or even buckwheat pancakes.
Good news - these can easily be made vegan. They're already dairy free, so with just a swap of the egg with a chia egg, they can be vegan too. Follow the link for how to make an egg substitute.
More Buckwheat Recipes
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Recipe
Buckwheat Muffins: Gluten Free & Dairy Free
Ingredients
Method
- In a large bowl, add the flax seed, buckwheat flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix until completely combined.
- In a medium bowl, add the egg, almond milk, vanilla extract, vegetable oil, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Mix until well blended.
- Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture all at once. Stir until combined.
- Fold the chopped apples and nuts into the batter.
- Set batter aside to rest for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
- Portion muffin batter into 10 cups of the muffin tin.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick tests done. Cool on a wire rack.
- In a small bowl, add softened butter and 1 cup powdered sugar. Mix together with a fork until fully incorporated.
- Add milk and stir. Add an additional Tablespoon milk until it reaches drizzle consistency.
- Drizzle over cooled muffins and serve.
Notes
- Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature.
- Weigh the flour for the best results.
- Muffins can be served with or without glaze.
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