Spiced Peach Muffins {vegan, gluten free, dairy free, soy free}

For me, starting up a new school year wouldn’t be quite complete without a bout of procrastination baking. Baking is definitely my #1 form of procrastination, and has gotten me through many stressful periods of grad school. It is the perfect vice: once I’m done procrastinating, I have a batch of something tasty to stress eat when I realize how little time I have left to finish my homework. I’ll admit it is a pretty messed up system, but it’s worked well for me for the last two years, so it’s only proper that I start off my last semester of grad school the same way.

Since my past three CSA boxes have had peaches in them, I’ve been trying to incorporate them into my baked goods before they all go bad (see my previous post for Peach Blueberry Cobbler). This time I decided to go for something I could easily grab in the morning on my way to the gym at 5:15, or take with me to class for a mid-day pick-me-up (because I obviously need one after waking up at 4:45 😴) . These spiced peach muffins were the perfect fit. They pair sweet peach flavors with warm fall spices, a perfect match for these late summer, early fall September days.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m making an effort to make recipes with smaller yields and less processed sugar and these muffins fit both of those requirements. This recipe makes six medium-sized muffins and contain no processed sugar (they are sweetened with maple syrup and the peaches themselves). Having a smaller yield recipe not only stops me from eating a dozen muffins by myself, it also cuts down the amount I spend on baking supplies (which is going to be essential if I keep testing out new recipes while putting off my school work).

Instead of using applesauce as my egg replacer, like I normally would for muffins, I switched it up a bit and used fresh pureed peach. This really brought out the peach flavors in the muffins, and worked wonderfully at replicating the moisture, structure and texture of a standard muffin. [Similarly to with applesauce, the polysaccharides in the peaches form a starch gel when baked, allowing them to mimic the protein networks formed when eggs are used in baking]. The peach puree allows for the functional characteristics that eggs normally provide, with some additional sweet peachy taste and none of the cholesterol or animal cruelty.

 

Recipe

Dry Ingredients

• 1¼ cup gluten free flour (I prefer Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour)
• ½ tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cardamom
• 1/8 tsp salt
• Optional: 2 tbsp chopped walnuts, pecans or crystallized ginger

Wet Ingredients

• ¼ cup cashew milk (or your dairy-free milk of choice)
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 1/3 cup pureed peach (~1/2 a peach)
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• ½ peach, diced

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. In a large bowl combine gluten-free flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and salt.
3. In a separate bowl stir cashew milk, coconut oil, peach puree, and maple syrup until well mixed.
4. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until smooth
5. Fold in diced peach, and any other optional mix-ins (ex. walnuts, pecans, crystallized ginger).
6. Evenly distribute batter into a muffin tin (this recipe should make around 6 muffins).
7. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.
8. Remove muffins from the muffin tin and allow them to cool on a cooling rack
9. Enjoy!