Vegan Orange Spice Muffins

Vegan Orange Spice Muffins with glaze

These Vegan Orange Spice Muffins are melt in your mouth amazing! Studded with orange flavor in every bite, topped with an easy orange glaze and easy to make, these will be your go-to breakfast for the week!

This recipe was originally published in January 2019 – I’ve since updated the photos and tweaked the recipe for more flavor! 

I just love the concept of eating a delightfully warm pastry with a steaming hot mug of creamy coffee in my hand. There’s something so cozy about it. 

hand grabbing muffin

It’s basically like eating dessert for breakfast – and what sounds better than that?! Especially when you have as big of a sweet tooth as me! 

So, as I do for every new year, I recently conducted a poll on my Instagram account asking what recipes you wanted to see in the New Year. Surprisingly, I had so many folks say they wanted more VEGAN recipes! Actually, in retrospect, I’m not that surprised. Especially considering that about 90 percent of my recipes contain butter and cheese. Oops.

Vegan Orange Spice Muffins cooling on wire rack

Why I Love These Muffins: 

These Vegan Orange Spice Muffins have an amazing texture. The olive oil used gives these a slight savoriness to them which I absolutely adore! It helps balance out the sweet citrus. I also love the warm and cozy flavors melded throughout the inside like clove, allspice, ginger and cinnamon. Spices so cozy you wanna just curl up under a blanket forever. 

Vegan Orange Spice Muffin sliced in half

So, I was equally excited and scared to get into the kitchen to try these out! Especially since my husband and I spent the entire month of December binge watching The Great British Baking Show.

I feel like I had so much to live up to! Like, someone was going to judge and critique me so harshly until I cried. Ha! I’m a sensitive soul, okay?

These muffins are absolutely the best. I love them! They’re 100% vegan, meaning no butter, no eggs, no dairy in sight! Did I mention you can totally eat the batter if you want?!  Cheers to not getting salmonella! But in all seriousness, am I the only one who has to have at least a spoonful of batter/dough every-time I bake something? Please tell me no!

freshly baked Vegan Orange Spice Muffins without glaze

Instead, I subbed olive oil for the fat in the muffins and to ensure extra moisture, I added in applesauce! They’re melt in your mouth moist, tender and healthy-ish! 😉 

Citrus season is upon us and I’m in love with the pronounced zesty orange flavor in these muffins! Paired with cozy spices like clove, allspice, cinnamon and ginger…it’s the perfect combination! 

However, I think the real MVP of this muffin is the orange spice glaze on top! It makes the muffins absolutely perfect! Not only do they make the muffins shiny and glossy and beautiful, they add just the perfect hint of extra sweetness/orange flavor. 

orange spice glaze in white bowl

So let’s get into how to make it already! 

Ingredients You Need: 

  • all purpose flour + almond flour 
  • quick oats 
  • baking soda + powder
  • spices like: salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and cloves!
  • unsweetened non-dairy milk 
  • unsweetened apple sauce 
  • orange juice + fresh orange zest 
  • brown sugar 
  • vanilla extract 
  • powdered sugar 

How to Make Vegan Orange Spice Muffins: 

You aren’t going to believe how EASY these Orange Spice Muffins are! Just mix everything together, pour into a greased muffin tin and let the magic happen. My kind of easy breakfast!

But, really. For more direction, let’s start by pre-heating the oven to 350! In a large bowl, mix the wet ingredients together which include: olive oil, brown sugar, non-dairy milk (I used almond), vanilla extract and orange juice! Also add in fresh orange zest! Mix together until combined. 

Vegan Orange Spice Muffin batter

In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, almond flour, quick oats, baking soda, powder, salt and spices until combined. 

Slowly, add in the wet ingredients with the dry. Mix with a wooden spoon – not overmixing until it’s fully combined. 

Vegan Orange Spice Muffin batter in glass bowl, mixed

Grease a muffin tin! I used a jumbo 6 muffin tin. Feel free to use whatever you had – just make sure that the batter is distributed evenly. For my jumbo muffin tin, I filled the tins up 2/3 of the way full. 

batter in muffin tin

Pop in the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

muffins baked in tin

Let them cool in the pan for 5 or so minutes and then gently remove them onto a wire cooling rack. Let them cool for 15-20 minutes. 

close up of glazed Vegan Orange Spice Muffin

While they are cooling, whip up the easy orange spice glaze! Combine powdered sugar, spices and orange juice and a little bit of water until your desired consistency and taste is achieved. 

Pour glaze over the muffins and if desired, top with even more orange zest! YUM-O. Each bite is studded with a spicy orange flavor that will leave you wanting more. 

muffin cut in half

Vegan Orange Spice Muffin Meal Prep Tips:

  • You can absolutely make a big batch of these muffins at the beginning of the week and have one for each day! Here are some tips to get the most out of them!
  • Store the orange spice glaze separately. You don’t want you muffins to get extra moist and sticky on the outside if you’re letting them sit for a few days! I would recommend glazing them after you warm them up each time!  
  • Since these have no dairy, they don’t need to be refrigerated! Store them in a sealed glass container at room temperature.
  • These will keep 3-4 days.

I loved these Vegan Orange Spice muffins so I hope you do too! Let me know below in the comments if you’d like to see more vegan/vegetarian recipes here on Our Balanced Bowl!

Did you enjoy this recipe? Here are some others that you might like: 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Muffins 

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins 

Cinnamon Apple Spice Muffins

Vegan Blueberry Coconut Cheesecake Bars 

Thank you so much for following along here, friends! Want to see more? Be sure to follow ourbalancedbowl on Instagram and tag me with your photo if you end up making a recipe! You can also post a photo of your recipe to the Our Balanced Bowl Facebook page! Like a recipe that you saw? Follow me on Pinterest here! I always love to see your re-creations! If you do make a recipe, it would make my whole day if you were to rate and comment so I can get your feedback! Lots of love! – Haylie

5 from 12 votes
Print

Vegan Orange Spice Muffins

These Vegan Orange Spice Muffins are melt in your mouth amazing! Studded with orange flavor in every bite, topped with an easy orange glaze and easy to make, these will be your go-to breakfast for the week!

Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Keyword orange muffins, vegan muffins, vegan orange spice muffins
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 6 people
Author Haylie

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup quick oats
  • 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill almond flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp allspice

Wet Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1-2 tbsp fresh orange zest (and more to garnish if desired)

Orange Spice Glaze

  • 3-4 tbsp powdered sugar (more if you need to thicken glaze)
  • 1 tbsp orange juice
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/8 tsp allspice

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together your all purpose flour, oats, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices until all combined. Set aside. 

  2. In a large bowl, add your olive oil and brown sugar. Mix together until combined. To this mixture, add your unsweetened almond milk, orange juice, vanilla extract, apple sauce and orange zest. Mix together until combined. 

  3. Slowly add in your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and mix just until combined, making sure not to overmix. 

  4. To a greased muffin tin, fill the tins 2/3 of the way full with the muffin batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick comes clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove and let cool on a rack. Pour the glaze over them when you're ready to eat. Enjoy! Garnish with additional fresh orange zest if desired.

Orange Spice Glaze

  1. While your muffins are cooking, make your glaze. In a small bowl, combine your powdered sugar, orange juice, water and spices. Mix until smooth and no lumps of powdered sugar remain. If your mixture is too thin, add more sugar. If it's too thick, add more water. 

Recipe Notes

I used a jumbo 6 muffin tin to make these. The recipe should work fine for a 12 muffin tin as well - you just may need to add more glaze. 

25 comments / Add your comment below

  1. 5 stars
    Delicious!! Needing a baking session, I made these tonight. They received the whole family’s approval – even the picky 15-year-old! Fantastic with or without the glaze.

  2. 5 stars
    Love that show! Always inspires me and I can’t believe how talented the contestants are. Though hubby and I are not vegan, we do regularly eat a lot of vegan and vegetarian meals weekly. Not even intentionally, it’s just we enjoy them. Having said that, this chicka LOVES cheese!!! Anywho 😉 – nothing like freshly baked muffins straight outta the oven with a cuppa. These sound delicious, Haylie. And that orange flavour is just the best! Have a wonderful weekend ahead, my friend 🙂

    1. Thanks, Dawn!! Yes, my husband regularly eat vegetarian meals during the week just since it’s so easy to throw together some veggies!! Thanks for all the love! Have a lovely weekend as well 🙂

  3. 5 stars
    I made these as mini bundt cakes and they were delicious. I love how moist they are. Next time I might add some orange zest to make the orange more pronounced.

  4. 5 stars
    These look amazing, Haylie! I have been avoiding dairy (so hard for a cheese lover like me!) so these vegan muffins my eye. I love citrus baked goods and anything with a glaze. Also, I’m a proud member of Team Batter Taster. 🙂

  5. 5 stars
    I can just smell these baking up in the oven – the orange and spices pair so well together. I’d love one with my afternoon cup of tea right now!

  6. These look excellent! I love the combination of flavors you have here and I can see why it became your mom s specialty. And of course glaze! How can you go wrong?

  7. 5 stars
    I absolutely love these muffins! They’re the perfect amount of sweet and moist. My family eats them all within 24 hours 😬😬😬

  8. 5 stars
    I love these muffins! I make them all the time. I am wondering if you have the nutrition facts for them? Or do you know a quick, reliable website/source to figure them out?

    1. Hi Amanda!! I’m so glad to hear that you like them so much – it means the world! 🙂 I would suggest just googling calorie counter and see what you find! I know that when I was dieting more strictly, I used myfitnesspal and that seemed pretty reliable. For my website, I also used to use https://nutrifox.com/ which you could check out! Looks like they have a free trial 🙂 Thanks again!!

  9. 5 stars
    Delicious!!!On to my 3rd batch as per families request to help get them through online Uni lectures. I did use wholemeal flour and coconut sugar just to “feel more healthy ” but there was no compromise on taste. Yum!!

  10. 5 stars
    Thank you for the delicious recipe, Haylie! Made these as a test for an upcoming baby shower (that will be at brunch time). The expectant mom is gluten-free and refined sugar free. I just used Bob Red Mill’s 1-to-1 gluten-free flour instead of all-purpose flour, coconut sugar instead of brown sugar. I also swapped the olive oil with melted Miyoko’s Creamery butter. They came out amazing. I will probably make the glaze with orange juice and maple syrup instead of using the powdered sugar. They will still be awesome!

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