Well, how about that, I never thought that the day would come when I start baking, on my own! But since I got used to Elizabeth’s amazing vegan bakery while in Chapel Hill and she’s not around at the moment, it emerged to me that I might just try something myself. I observed her making all those cakes, muffins, and cookies. It seemed that at least the muffins shouldn’t be too difficult, especially since I happened to get a muffin pan for free (if you’re reading this sis’, it’s yours!). Anyway, I thought I’d start with a chia seed base, since they are pretty good for a nice fluffy texture. These are effectively a classic lemon & poppy seed muffin with the chia seed replacement, and veganised, of course.

Lemon & Chia Seed Muffins

I followed this recipe, with a few slight variations, namely I used 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and replaced the honey with 60ml of agave syrup. I also used oat milk instead of soy milk. I was a little suspicious of the complete lack of fat in this recipe, but that did sound good to me, as I prefer my bakery ‘healthy’. The only fat used was just a little bit of canola oil to line the muffin pan. No sugar either, the light agave syrup and vanilla extract were enough to counter the lemon bitterness. The recipe made eleven muffins.

The muffins turned out great! The only thing was that I had to bake them for about 30min (in 175 Celsius) instead of the 20min suggested in the linked recipe. The consistency was great, and my version got a nice colour as well. There can’t be very many calories in these, but they still taste like ‘bakery’. Splendid with some lemon & ginger tea!

I’ve got plans to try at least a blueberry and a chili-chocolate muffin when I get around to it…