Fluffy, moist, and delicious gluten-free vegan sweet potato muffins that are loaded with mini chocolate chips and contain the perfect balance of warm spices!
You have leftover sweet potatoes from last night’s dinner or from your holiday meal….you can either:
1. Save them and serve for lunch or another dinner… OR
2. Give those leftovers a total makeover and make a batch of these very easy-to-make vegan sweet potato muffins. Put those leftovers to good use!
Of course, you don’t have to make these muffins with just leftover sweet potatoes; you can bake up some sweet potatoes especially for this recipe.
Or if you have a pressure cooker, my favourite way to make sweet potatoes is by making Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes so they finish in a fraction of the time, compared to baking, which means your sweet potato muffins will be ready even quicker!
Note: You can also use leftover sweet potatoes to make these:
- Gluten Free Sweet Potato Pancakes,
- Sweet Potato Waffles
- Gluten Free Sweet Potato Bread
- Sweet Potato Pudding
This recipe is very similar to my vegan gluten free pumpkin spice muffins , they just have a few small differences, like the spices used.
Cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom give these gluten free sweet potato muffins the perfect balance of flavours. And did I mention how easy they are to make?
They come together in just a few minutes, so you can have these muffins ready to take out of the oven in just 35 minutes.
I usually make these muffins during the fall and winter because that’s when sweet potatoes become a go-to side dish in my home.
When I make sweet potatoes, I try to make a little extra so I can bake up a batch of muffins for snacking on throughout the week and for school snacks.
As mentioned, they’re great for snacks but they’re also nice to have at breakfast, to serve at brunch, to bring to a potluck…basically, they’re good for all occasions!
I used mini chocolate chips in the muffins you see in the photos but I have also made them with regular chocolate chips. I also sprinkled a little on top of each muffin but that is optional and only if you want slightly more chocolate.
And who wouldn’t want extra chocolate 😉
Do I have to use chocolate chips?
No, but I highly recommend it 🙂 If you don’t want to use them though, you can replace them with raisins, dried currants, chopped walnuts or chopped pecans.
Will coconut oil make the muffins taste like coconut?
If you use extra virgin coconut oil in this recipe, the flavour will not come through at all, you won’t even know coconut oil was used. If you don’t have coconut oil, any other neutral flavoured oil will work in this recipe.
What is the texture like?
Have a look at the picture below 🙂 They’re soft, fluffy, moist, and perfect. They’re everything you have been told that vegan gluten free baking is not!
If you make these muffins, please share a pic with me on Instagram by tagging me! (@delightfuladventures) or by leaving a comment below.
And check out all of my other vegan gluten-free recipes!
If you like this vegan sweet potato muffins recipe, you’ll probably also like these:
- Vegan Gluten Free Morning Glory Muffins
- Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Muffins
- Mini Vegan Gluten Free Apple Muffins
- Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
- Vegan Carrot Muffins
- Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
How to Make Vegan Sweet Potato Muffins
Vegan Sweet Potato Muffins
Suggested Equipment:
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
- 6 tablespoons water
- 1 ¾ cups (245g) gluten free flour blend **see important note about flour below**
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¾ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ⅓ cup (80ml) melted coconut oil (plus extra for greasing muffin tin)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅔ cup (100g) coconut sugar (or brown sugar 67g)
- 1 cup (240g) mashed sweet potatoes
- ¾ cup (135g) mini chocolate chips (plus extra for sprinkling on top, optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Prepare your flax eggs by whisking together ground flax seeds and water. Set aside to thicken.
- Line a muffin tin with liners or generously grease the inside of each cup with coconut oil.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom.
- Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Using a spoon or a large scoop, divide batter into the 12 muffin cups.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle of the largest muffin comes out clean.
Recipe Notes:
- It's important to know that different gluten-free flour blends use different ingredients and ratios, so results will always vary if you substitute. I have never used any other brand of flour to make this recipe (other than Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour (Amazon link) with the red label, NOT the blue label), so please know that your results may not be the same as mine if you substitute with another gluten-free flour blend.
- This recipe will NOT work with coconut flour or any other single gluten-free flour.
- Be sure that your sweet potatoes are fully cooled and mashed very well so there are no lumps. This can be done with a fork or you can puree them using a hand blender or food processor to make sure they are as smooth as possible.
- Raisins, dried currants, or nuts (chopped walnuts or pecans) can be used in place of the chocolate chips.
- I like to use an ice cream scoop to add the batter to the muffin pan as shown in the picture above (this is the one I have). If you don’t have a scoop, you can use a tablespoon. Be sure that each muffin cup has roughly the same amount of batter so they all finish baking at the same time.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container and eat within 2-3 days.
- Nutrition info is based on 1 muffin made with mini chocolate chips in the muffins, none on top. Nutrition info is only to be used as a rough guide. Click to learn how nutrition info is calculated on this website.
Nutrition Info:
Kyanne says
Could I substitute applesauce for the oil?
Gwen Leron says
Hi Kyanne, I haven’t tried it with this recipe in particular but it should be fine. The muffins will turn out a little less moist, though. If you do try it, I recommend not using paper muffin cups since the muffins will stick to them. You can either bake them directly in a high-quality non-stick muffin pan, in silicone muffin cups, or in parchment paper liners, which are all naturally non-stick. Let me know how things go 🙂
Megan says
Wish I could post my picture – they look delicious! I did add a bit of Maple Syrup to sweeten and opted for Pecans instead of chocolate chips. The perfect fall muffin!
Gwen Leron says
I’m so happy you like them, Megan. Pecans are a great choice! If you’re on Instagram, you can post on there and tag me so I can see 🙂 Thanks so much for your note, I appreciate it!
Nancy says
My kids LOVE these muffins. And I absolutely love the addition of cardamom to this recipe. Super fluffy and soft!
Gwen Leron says
I’m so happy to hear that you like them, Nancy, and especially happy that they passed the kid test. Phew 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to leave your note and rating, I appreciate it!
Christina says
I made them last night and they were fantastic! After putting them in the oven, I realized I forgot to add the flax egg 😬, so that batch was rather crumbly, but, the second was perfect.
Gwen Leron says
Oops! I’m glad you realized the mistake and that you were able to fix it for the second batch! And I’m so happy to hear you liked them, Christina, thanks for taking the time to leave your note 🙂
Georgia says
I just made this recipe with a modified gfJules mix to make it grain free (my son doesn’t seem to tolerate BRM).
My non-gluten free hubby loved them! I left out the chocolate chips and just added chopped pecans. I’m sure it would be delicious with raisins but mine were too dry.
Thank you for this fabulous taste of Fall goodness!
Gwen Leron says
Wonderful, Georgia! I’m glad it worked out well with that flour, and I’m very happy to hear you like them. A trick for re-hydrating your raisins if they’re too dry is to soak them in water for a while before adding them to your recipe. (see this post for details) Thanks for taking the time to leave your note 🙂
Madison says
Hi I would like to know if I could use almond flour ( also how much )
And could I keep these out of the fridge for 3 days ( road trip ) thanks!
patricia says
Do you think squash could be subbed in for the sweet potato? I always have an abundance of squash. Thanks
Gwen says
Hi Patricia! I think squash would work just fine, but if you do use squash, I suggest using my pumpkin muffin recipe (click here to see it) instead of this recipe and use the squash instead of pumpkin. Let me know how it goes!