Recently, I was thrilled to find a great new (to me) blog called The Austerity Kitchen. Then I was bummed to find out that it was no longer publishing new material. I hate it when that happens! Thankfully, the authors posted a fabulous vintage oat muffin recipe before they moved on to greener pastures, and that same oat muffin recipe has since become my go-to muffin recipe.

There were two things I loved about The Austerity Kitchen: one, that it had vintage recipes; two, that those recipes came from times and places when certain foods were scarce and home chefs learned how to make do. My kind of recipes! I love that previous generations - who knew little about food sensitivities and allergies - can teach our generation about gluten(or wheat)-free and vegan cooking. Even if they were neither gluten-free nor vegan. Yup. Totally cool.

I did have to slightly adapt the recipe to make it completely vegan, replacing the egg with flax gel. In fact, this recipe is actually quite sturdy, and I’ve replaced both the egg and the fats with fruit or vegetable purees (banana, pumpkin, sweet potato, etc.) and it still turns out fabulous. Unlike most wheat-free vegan baked goods, they aren’t very crumbly. More crumbly, I suppose, then wheat-based muffins bound with egg, but not as crumbly as your typical wheat-free vegan product. I’ve also used all different kinds of sweeteners (molasses, honey, unrefined sugar) with equal success.

Here’s the basic recipe, with some suggested adaptations that have worked for me.

Don’t you love those super QUICK instructions? They take almost half an hour to bake, but the mixing up time is minimal.

These are some of the EASY-est wheat-free vegan muffins I’ve had the privilege of trying. Hence they have become my favorite!

Oat flour is an excellent and CHEAP replacement for what flour if you have allergies or sensitivities. It can be gluten-free if you have gluten-free oats. But don’t waste money on store-bought oat flour: just grind old-fashioned oats 1/2 cup at a time in your coffee grinder, or dump the whole lot in your food processor.

These are very HEALTHY with lots of good fiber, minimal (and healthy) sweeteners, and extra vitamins from the fruits and vegetables (if you use them).

Do you have a go-to muffin recipe?