Healthy Cornbread/Muffins 2.0 (Savory, Sweet, & Neutral Options!) (Vegan, GF, Fruit-Sweetened)

Kelly
Nov 12, 2024
4 min read

These corn muffins and mini cornbreads are SO moist, so flavorful, all with a beautiful golden exterior, and a fine crumb. The update that my corn muffins from 2021 needed. Made with vegan "buttermilk," chickpea flour, flax meal, psyllium husk powder, & fruit "sugars," these corn muffins are actually clean and nutritious, no vegan or dairy butter in sight! And they taste like a traditional cornbread recipe with these healthier ingredients. What's more, these corn muffins can be made into muffins or mini cornbread loaves, and there are 3 options for the flavor profile: savory, sweet, or neutral. So you can have them your way! And- as always- these muffins/breads are vegan, gluten-free, and fruit-sweetened (+ high in protein + nut-free + low-fat!). This cornbread gives all the fall feels. Happy Autumn. It's Fall Y'all. P.S. These muffins/cornbreads would pair perfectly with my Veggie Velvet Soup, go check it out!

Jump to Recipe

It's COHRN... bread! The Corn Kid is truly a legend. And what better a time to introduce the 2.0, the upgrade- if you will- of my classic corn muffins recipe since the "It's Corn" song has entered our lives?

But all silliness aside, these corn muffins/cornbreads are all the rage. For the sake of not oscillating between the words "cornbread" and "corn muffins," I will just refer to this recipe as "cornbread."

It's srsly so moist, with a nice tang from the vegan "buttermilk," a corn-forward flavor, and just enough sweetness (w/o being overpowering).

And it's vegan, GF, and fruit-sweetened, as per usual. All the goodnesses. PLUS they're super moist & fluffy, yet they have substance.

Honestly this is the best upgrade my vegan/GF corn muffins could've possibly gotten. As mentioned, this recipe can be made into corn muffins, mini corn muffins, and/or mini cornbread loaves.

And there are 3 flavor options for the recipe: sweet, neutral, or savory. And there are plenty of mix-and-match options, so this recipe is really customizable.

Substitutions in These Healthy Cornbread/Muffins

Yellow cornmeal

Coarse, fine, or medium grind cornmeal all work! You can also sub cornflour instead of the cornmeal. Just make sure whatever you choose, it's gluten-free. You can also use blue cornmeal instead of the yellow. I don't recommend using masa harina or corn grits/polenta instead of the cornmeal/cornflour ONLY because I haven't tried these Healthy Cornbread/Muffins with either of those, and they are quite a different texture which = a very different degree of absorbing the liquid in this recipe. You can't exactly swap out the cornmeal entirely, but for a corn-free option (even tho the point is cornmeal because corn muffins), you can try almond meal HOWEVER this will affect the texture and you *may* need to add additional tapioca starch to make it work. But if you can on your diet, I highly recommend that you try to use the cornmeal/flour. *Important note: Corn starch WILL NOT work in place of the cornmeal/cornflour, they are COMPLETELY different products

Buckwheat flour/Chickpea flour

There are a lot of substitution options here, and I recommend using the buckwheat for sweet corn muffins, and the chickpea flour for savory corn muffins. But you can substitute either of these with: brown rice flour, white rice flour, or GF oat flour

Sorghum flour

replace this with brown rice flour, white rice flour, GF oat flour, buckwheat flour, OR GF 1-to-1 baking flour

Tapioca flour

substitute arrowroot starch, cornstarch, OR potato starch for the tapioca starch

Psyllium husk powder

I don't have many substitution suggestions, but you can try additional flaxseed meal knowing that the results may be very different (*I CANNOT guarantee that the muffins will come out the same if the psyllium husk powder is replaced with flax meal). But you can try it. Otherwise, my next best suggestions are xanthan gum OR whole psyllium husk flakes, but I've honestly never used whole psyllium flakes, so I have no idea what different steps in preparation would be required if using it instead of ground psyllium. You cannot omit the psyllium husk because it is a binder.

Flaxseed meal

sub additional psyllium husk powder OR xanthan gum OR ground chia powder

Sea salt

Any kind of sea salt works. I used Himalayan pink sea salt. But you can also use table salt instead. Or omit the salt if you must

Full-fat coconut milk + apple cider vinegar

These are used to make vegan "buttermilk" but you can use your unsweetened plant milk of choice instead of the full-fat coconut milk. Try lemon juice or white vinegar instead of the apple cider vinegar

Date sugar

You can use banana powder instead of the date sugar (this is recommended for the savory corn muffins). OR you can replace the date sugar with maple sugar, maple syrup, honey, OR agave nectar, if you don't need these muffins to be fruit-sweetened

Avocado oil

substitute the avocado oil with olive oil, melted coconut oil, OR your vegetable oil of choice. OR you can swap melted vegan butter for the oil. Alternatively, try unsweetened applesauce.

Applesauce

replace it with banana puree (made from mashed ripe bananas) OR additional oil

Optional fold-ins

They're just that: they're all optional. Besides, I left a good deal of options for each fold-in, so use those suggestions and your best judgement/tastes/preferences when substituting the fold-ins. E.g. lime zest instead of lemon zest, cayenne pepper instead of black pepper, nutritional yeast instead of vegan cheese, fresh blueberries instead of freeze-dried, unsweetened dried cranberries instead of chopped dates, etc. Feel free to add other add-ins too, such as spices like cinnamon or basil, depending on whether the muffins are sweet, neutral, or savory