A friend of mine who works with me at my day job—we’re both book designers—has a side business I’m a big fan of. It’s a monthly cocktail subscription service called Shaker & Spoon that delivers drinks right to your door. Pretty great. I mention this because these Lemon Chia Muffins were kind of inspired by them.
From time to time my friend has fresh ingredients left over after the month’s Shaker & Spoon production and she’ll give me things like rosemary or thyme or limes. This time around I received lemons and needed to come up with something to use them in before they went bad. I’ve always been a fan of lemon poppy muffins, so that’s what I landed on after a bit of thinking—but with chia seeds instead. Since I’m not a big baker, I used this Martha Stewart recipe as a starting point and changed it up a bit.
The holidays seem to be when I do most of the baking for the year (last week I made Matcha Sugar Cookies, and not too long ago Pumpkin Bread), so I imagine you’ll see something else fresh out of the oven on this site in the coming weeks. Until then, give these muffins a try!
Tell Me What You Think
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this recipe if you make it. So drop me a comment below, and be sure to tag @nutfreevegan on social media if you’re posting photos. It’s always super fun to see these dishes out in the wild!
Lemon Chia Muffins
Ingredients
- ¾ cup vegan butter melted, plus more for pan
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for pan
- Egg replacer equivalent to 2 large eggs
- ½ cup soy milk
- ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
- Zest from two lemons
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 2 Tbsp. chia seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F, with rack in lower third. Butter and flour a 6-cup muffin pan, tapping out excess. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together butter, egg replacer, soy milk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients; make a well in the center. Add liquid mixture and chia seeds to well. With a rubber spatula, gently stir ingredients just until batter is moistened.
- Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Loosen muffins, and tip them on their sides to cool in pan.
Nutrition
I’m not a fan of chia seeds. Do you think I could just leave them out and still get good results?
Absolutely, Pamela. These muffins would work fine on their own without the chia seeds. If you do want a little something extra, though, you can try flax, hemp or poppy seeds. Blueberries would be good, too!
Hey, which egg replacer did u use?
Thanks!
Hi Clara,
In this recipe I used the Ener-G Egg substitute. Bob’s Red Mill makes a good one, too. Or, a good way to do it with this particular recipe is to mix one tablespoon of chia seeds with three tablespoons of water. Hope this helps!
I’m a big fan of lemon cake so anything lemon usually gets my attention. I think the chia seeds make it an interesting recipes. i was to try it out!
So good! I didn’t have any sugar so I used agave syrup, left out egg replacer since chia seeds are already considered an egg replacer and added chopped strawberries on top.
I love that, Lindsey! Did you soak the chia seeds to turn them into that cool gel texture first? That’s a great way to create a binder! And strawberries? YUM!
Would this work with almond flour?
Hi RJ,
It should be fine to make that substitution. Because I’m allergic to almonds I’ve never done it myself, but a little research says that you should make it a 1:1 substitution and increase the baking powder just slightly (I’d say 1/4 tsp.) to accommodate the heavier weight of the almond flour. Hope this helps!