Apple sauce is an easy way to make recipes vegan and avoid having to use added sugar or oil in recipes! I made a recipe that can be used for both muffins and donuts using apple sauce, and it is so simple and tasty!
As I mentioned in my recent pumpkin apple oats recipe, I got a jar of pumpkin apple sauce at Whole Foods. It’s very tasty, so I wanted to bake something with it, so I used it in this recipe! However, you can certainly use regular apple sauce as well! I’ve realized that the majority of my recent recipes are pumpkin-themed, and maybe not everyone loves pumpkin as much as me… so if you aren’t a pumpkin fan, just stick with regular apple sauce! You can still use pumpkin spice in the muffins, or you could use apple pie spice or cinnamon instead.
I intended to use almond flour for these, as I was basing it on a similar recipe I have used before. However, I only had ½ cup of almond flour in my pantry, so I used whole wheat flour for the rest of the recipe. If you are making these either gluten free or nut free, you could use either almond flour, whole wheat flour, or gluten free all-purpose and use about 2 cups. The amount might need to be adjusted slightly depending on the type of flour, and I’m not sure of the exact amounts since I haven’t tried it. If you are going to try this, I would suggest starting with between 1 and 1 ½ cups and then mixing everything together, then adding more flour as needed until the liquid is evenly absorbed and the batter has a smooth, slightly fluffy (from the baking powder) consistency.
Ingredients
Makes about 30 mini muffins and/or donuts
Wet:
1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax mixed with 3 tbsp water, and refrigerated for at least 5 minutes) note: can sub regular egg
1 cup apple sauce
⅓ cup milk (I used oat milk to make these vegan)
¼ cup maple syrup
About 1/2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp almond extract (optional, omit if nut free)
Dry:
½ cup almond flour
1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
½ tsp pumpkin spice (or apple pie spice or cinnamon)
3 tsp baking powder
Steps
Preheat oven to 350 F, and lightly oil a mini donut pan or line a muffin tin with paper liners and lightly oil them - or both, like I did!
Prepare your flax egg. While it is setting, assemble the rest of the ingredients.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together in separate mixing bowls.
Add the flax egg to the wet ingredients, then combine all ingredients together. Mix until evenly combined - it will be somewhat fluffy due to the baking powder.
Spoon the batter into the tin, sprinkle more pumpkin spice on top, then bake for 15-20 minutes - a toothpick should come out clean.
Let cool, and enjoy
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