These wholesome vegan pistachio muffins are lightly sweetened, moist, tender, and perfect for breakfast. Made with a full cup of pistachios and studded with dried cherries! Oil-free.
Where are my pistachio fans? The unique, deliciously nutty flavor of pistachios makes these healthy muffins totally irresistible!
We love that these muffins are not super sweet, which makes them really nice for breakfast or as an afternoon snack. Serve with a generous spread of vegan cream cheese or a cup of cashew yogurt.
Ingredients and Equipment
This is a summary to get you started. Scroll down to the recipe card for complete instructions.
Here's what you'll need to whip up a batch of vegan pistachio muffins...
Food processor, mixing bowl, small bowl, muffin pan, cooling rack.
You'll also need:
- shelled, unsalted pistachios - if your pistachios are salted, simply omit the salt in the recipe
- dried bing cherries, optional - sub raisins, cranberries, or apricots, if preferred
- oat flour
- baking powder
- baking soda
- fine sea salt
- applesauce
- non-dairy milk - I recommend coconut, soy, or almond for this recipe
- apple cider vinegar
- vanilla extract, optional - or sub almond extract
- maple syrup
Instructions
1. If including dried cherries, cover with warm water to soften and rehydrate.
2. Pulse half of the pistachios in a food processor until they're the texture of coarse crumbs.
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3. Add remaining dry ingredients to the food processor, and pulse to combine. In a separate mixing bowl whisk together the wet ingredients.
Drain the cherries well. Roughly chop the cherries and the remaining ½ cup pistachios, reserving a handful of nuts for decorating the tops of the muffins.
Whisk together the wet and dry ingredients, then fold in the cherries and pistachios.
4. Scoop about ⅓ cup batter into each muffin cup. Top with reserved pistachios, and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 17 to 19 minutes.
So easy, right?
Allow muffins to rest in the pan for about 5 minutes, then place on a rack to cool.
Tips and Substitutions
- You may end up with enough batter for a 13th muffin. No worries! See the Notes section of the recipe for instructions on turning that into a quick snack for the baker. 😉
- Feel free to substitute another dried fruit if you can't find cherries, or skip the fruit altogether.
- So far I've only tested this recipe with oat flour and can't recommend any substitutions.
- Milks that contain a decent amount of fat like soy, almond, and coconut (the refrigerated, drinkable type) work well in these oil-free muffins.
I hope you enjoy these healthy pistachio muffins! If you try the recipe be sure to leave a comment and star rating below to let everyone know how they turned out.
More vegan muffin recipes:
Oil-Free Blueberry Banana Muffins
Classic Vegan Blueberry Muffins
Awesome Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Golden Milk Muffins
Coconut Garam Masala Muffins
Loaded Oat Flour Breakfast Muffins
Healthier Microwave Mug Muffin
Recipe
Healthy Vegan Pistachio Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
- scant ½ cup dried cherries, optional
- 1 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
- 2 cups oat flour (200 g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup applesauce
- 1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk such as almond, soy, or coconut - I like coconut milk in these, the refrigerated type, not canned.
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a standard 12-cup muffin pan, or use paper liners or a silicone muffin pan.
- Place dried cherries in a small bowl and cover with warm water. Set aside.
- Place ½ cup pistachios in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the consistency of coarse crumbs. This won't take long; stop periodically to make sure it's not turning into pistachio butter! Once the pistachios are ground, add the oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pulse several times to incorporate. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the applesauce, milk, vinegar, vanilla, and maple syrup. Set aside.
- Drain the cherries well. Roughly chop the cherries and the remaining ½ cup pistachios, reserving a handful of nuts for decorating the tops of the muffins.
- Whisk the wet ingredients again to reincorporate the heavy maple syrup, then add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl. Whisk until there's no dry flour. Fold in all of the cherries and the larger amount of pistachios. Scoop about ⅓ cup batter into each muffin cup, filling them almost ¾ full (you might have a bit of batter leftover; see Notes on how to make a bonus microwave muffin with it). Sprinkle reserved pistachios on top of each muffin.
- Bake for 17 to 19 minutes or until the tops are firm when lightly pressed. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.
Notes
Storage
Store pistachio muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or refrigerated for up to 5 days. Muffins can also be frozen.Estimated Nutrition (per serving)
Nutrition information is an estimate and will vary depending on the exact amounts and specific products and ingredients used.
Geri
Can I use pistachio cream instead of actual pistachios? If so, how much?
Lori Rasmussen
Hi Geri - That won't work here because the pistachios aren't blended all the way into a cream. So basically they are a dry ingredient, and pistachio cream is not.
Just another GF Vegan cooker...
These muffins didn't have as much pistachio taste as I'd like to.
I don't know how many grams you are assuming a cup of pistachios is; 1 cup ended up being 136 grams for me. I added half of that (68 g) plus the 200g oat flour (which I weighed) together with the other ingredients according to the directions, and the batter was way too runny the first batch. I made it again and added just enough oat flour to make the batter slightly thicker than pancake batter and they turned out better and rose without falling! If it were me, I'd just increase the pistachio flour to 136g so it has more pistachio taste and forget about the chopped pistachios, plus however much oat flour you need to make it slightly thicker than pancake batter consistency.
If you could clarify how many grams of ground pistachios you are assuming a 1/2 cup is, it would help the muffins turn out more consistently I think! But overall, great recipe. The applesauce really helps make these moist and a little fluffier than the other recipe I usually make.
Lori
Hmm, did you blend the pistachios into flour as instructed in step 3? The recipe is well-tested and has worked well for others, as you can see. So unfortunately I'm not sure what happened with your batter. I'm happy you seem to have enjoyed the muffins anyway! Note: if you tap on "Metric" above the ingredient list it shows the weight of the pistachios in grams.
Franny
Excellent recipe. I followed it exactly, except I didn’t have cherries so subbed dried cranberries. Turned out perfectly; the oat flour made a very moist muffin, just barely sweet, with an exotic crunch of pistachios and a pop of tangy sweetness from the fruit. I loved getting a large “bonus” 13th muffin which I baked in a ramekin and quickly devoured as a “taster.” 😉 This recipe is a keeper! Thanks, Lori!
Lori
I'm so happy you enjoy them, Franny. And thank you for the lovely feedback!
Irvonne
I just made these and they are fabulous- delicate and subtle balance of the fruit and nuts. Pistachios with fruit give them a more unique/exotic, almost Middle Eastern flair. I used whole-wheat pastry flour, agave in place of maple syrup, dried cranberries and salted pistachios(what I had on hand.) So delicious! Thanks for sharing💓
Lori
What a delicious review! Thank you, Irvonne. I'm so happy you enjoyed the muffins!
Karen Ricketts
Moist, cake-like texture, with a delicious flavor. I didn't have dried cherries so used chopped dates instead (soaked, like you suggested to do with the cherries); we really liked them as well as the subtle flavor of the pistachios. I got 20 muffins instead of 13 for some reason - bonus! This will be another of our favorite muffin recipes - thank you!
Lori
Hi Karen,
Yum! I bet the dates were delicious in these. Thanks so much for the feedback!