These vegan pistachio muffins are the best-ever muffins I have made (or tasted - vegan or not!). They're based on my popular pistachio cake recipe, which uses real pistachios but these include non-dairy yogurt which makes them incredibly moist.
Whether you eat them as is or with a smear of homemade pistachio butter, they make the perfect treat for breakfast, brunch, or even dessert!
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📖 Recipe Overview
- Quick & Easy To Make - With just 20 minutes of active prep and 20 minutes in the oven, these easy muffins are ready to eat in less than an hour. There's no need for an electric whisk or stand-mixer either.
- Minimal Ingredients - The recipe uses mostly pantry staples and a couple of special ingredients such as pistachios and Greek-style vegan yogurt.
- Moist & Flavorful - With a soft and fluffy melt-in-your-mouth consistency and crunchy nutty topping.
Love pistachio desserts? Try my vegan recipes for lemon pistachio cake, pistachio cookies, pistachio tiramisu, pistachio cheesecake, pistachio tart, pistachio donuts, and pistachio ice cream next!
🧾 Ingredients Needed
Here's what you need to make the base of these easy pistachio muffins:
Find the complete list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
Ingredient Notes
- Raw Shelled Pistachios - They have the best color and a slightly sweet flavor, making them perfect for baking. Raw pistachios without skins or with skins are fine, just make sure they are unsalted.
- Vegan Greek-Style Yogurt - I love unsweetened soy protein yogurt from Alpro. You can also use vegan sour cream. I have not tried them with unsweetened applesauce but that should work as well if you're having trouble finding vegan Greek-yogurt.
- Vegan Buttermilk - This is a simple preparation of soy milk and apple cider vinegar which helps to create a fluffy consistency in eggless baking. You can also use almond milk or oat milk if preferred.
- Olive Oil - I use extra virgin olive oil as I love the slightly floral flavor it brings, but feel free to swap it out for a more neutral-flavored light olive oil, sunflower oil, or rapeseed oil if you prefer.
- Granulated Sugar - I recommend sticking to white sugar for this recipe as brown sugar adds a caramelized flavor which will overpower the taste and color of the pistachios.
- The vanilla glaze is completely optional as there is enough sweetness present in the muffins without it, but if you're including it, you will also need powdered sugar (aka confectioner's sugar).
- For the crumble topping you'll need some vegan unsalted butter, although you can use more olive oil in a pinch.
🥣 How To Make Pistachio Muffins
As mentioned, there are just a few simple steps to making these homemade pistachio muffins from scratch. Here are the step-by-step images:
Step 1: Blend the pistachios and sugar in a food processor until finely ground. The sugar adds some grit to the mixture to help grind the nuts into a pistachio flour consistency rather than nut butter.
Step 2: In a bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients (pistachio sugar mixture, flour, leavening agents, and salt).
Step 3: In a large separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (vegan buttermilk, yogurt, olive oil, vanilla extract, and almond extract).
Step 4: In 2 batches, carefully fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients using a rubber spatula. Make sure you don't overmix, instead fold only until there are no visible pockets of flour.
Step 5: To a small bowl, add roughly chopped pistachios, flour, and sugar with a little vegan melted butter or oil. Rub the ingredients with your fingertips to form a crumble consistency.
Step 6: Fill each muffin case all the way to the surface of the pan with batter and sprinkle the pistachio crumble on top. Bake at 190°C/375°F for the first 5 minutes, then turn down the temperature to 170°C/340°F and bake for another 15 minutes.
Once you take the pistachio muffins out of the oven, let them sit in the pan for 5 minutes - they will continue to cook in the pan. Then carefully lift them out of the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely, and drizzle with some vanilla glaze before serving.
🍫 Variations
- Mix-Ins - You can add up to ½ cup of your favorite muffin inclusions to the batter. Some options include mini vegan chocolate chips, dried cherries, or chopped nuts.
- Spices & Zest - Add half a teaspoon of cardamom spice, a teaspoon of rosewater, or the zest of a lemon or orange to the batter for a delicious twist.
- Frosting - If you want to skip the crumble topping and vanilla icing, you could go for a cream cheese frosting instead.
💡Recipe Tips
Measure in grams the best results. Although I have also included a conversion of US cup measurements for your convenience, grams are the best way to guarantee accuracy as even the slightest deviation from wet to dry ingredients can affect the recipe.
ALWAYS sift your flour, baking soda, and baking powder to remove any grit and/or lumps from the mixture. This also helps to incorporate air into the batter creating a beautifully fluffy crumb.
I love using tulip muffin liners. You can also easily make your parchment liners using parchment paper and a food can. Check out this tutorial by Sugar Spun Run!
When filling your muffin liners, skip every second well so that only half of the cavities are filled. This helps the hot air to circulate more evenly and helps the muffins to rise nicely. If you only have one muffin pan, I recommend baking the muffins in 2 batches. The muffin batter can sit out at room temperature for 30 minutes while you're baking the first batch.
The secret to high muffins is starting them off at a high temperature, then after 5 minutes of baking reduce the temperature and continue baking.
Don't turn out the muffins from the pan, as this will remove some of the delicate crumb topping. Instead, carefully lift them out onto a cooling rack using your hands.
💬 FAQs
While a lot of other recipes for pistachio muffins rely on pudding mix for their flavor, these muffins are made with 100% natural pistachio nuts with no pistachio pudding mix in sight. They have a delicate nutty pistachio flavor with hints of vanilla and almond, and a slight tang from the vegan yogurt.
Their consistency is incredibly fluffy and moist thanks to the combination of olive oil, dairy-free yogurt, and vegan buttermilk.
In this muffin recipe, vanilla extract and almond extract help to intensify the natural pistachio flavor. I also opted for good-quality raw pistachios and kept the other ingredients neutral to let the nutty flavor shine through!
I haven't tested the recipe with gluten-free flour, but if you want to give it a try I'd suggest an all-purpose GF flour such as Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur which contains xantham gum. Also, make sure you let the batter rest for 30 minutes before baking, and let me know in the comments below if you give it a try!
Store them at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days or in the fridge for up to a week. Let them sit at room temperature for an hour before serving if stored in the fridge.
You can also freeze them in a sealed container or ziplock bag and defrost them for a couple of hours before serving.
🧁 More Vegan Muffins
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Description
Equipment
Ingredients
Muffins
- 120 g (1 cup) raw shelled pistachios, (with or without skins) *see note 1
- 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar, use organic if based in US
- 240 g (2 cups) all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 tablespoon baking powder, sifted
- ½ teaspoon baking soda, sifted
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 batch (240 ml) vegan buttermilk, *see note 2
- 118 ml (½ cup) olive oil, or neutral oil like rapeseed or sunflower oil
- 80 g (⅓ cup) vegan Greek-style yogurt, or vegan sour cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
Pistachio Crumble
- 40 g (⅓ cup) raw shelled pistachios, (with or without skins)
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, use organic if based in US
- 1 tablespoon vegan butter, melted, or olive oil
Vanilla Glaze (optional)
- 120 g (1 cup) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon non-dairy milk
Instructions
- Prepare: Preheat your oven to fan-forced 190°C(375°F) or conventional 210°C(410°F). Line half of the cavities in the muffin tray with muffin liners - I recommend only filling every second cavity as this promotes high muffin tops! The recipe will make 8 large muffins - so if you only have one muffin pan I recommend baking them in 2 batches, just make sure you let the pan cool between batches, and keep the muffin batter rested in the fridge until ready to use for the second batch.
- Blend the nuts and sugar: Add the pistachios and sugar to a food processor or blender, and blitz until finely ground.
- Mix the dry ingredients: To a medium mixing bowl, add the pistachio sugar mixture, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine.
- Mix the wet ingredients: To a separate large mixing bowl, add the vegan buttermilk, olive oil, yogurt, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Whisk to combine.
- Make the muffin batter: Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 2 parts. Fold the ingredients into the batter between each increment until there are no pockets or streaks of flour. Do not be tempted to overmix!Set the batter aside.
- Make the pistachio crumble: Roughly chop the pistachios and add them to a small bowl with the flour, sugar, and melted vegan butter. Use your fingertips to rub the fat into the dry ingredients. You'll be left with a crumble consistency.
- Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, distribute the batter amongst the muffin liners. Sprinkle pistachio crumble on top.
- Bake at fan-forced 190°C/375°F or conventional 210°C/410°F for the first 5 mins. Then turn down the temperature to 170°C/340°F or conventional 190°C/375°F and continue to bake for another 15 minutes. Check they are done by piercing them with a toothpick or a knife, the knife should come out almost clean- a few crumbs are fine. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes, then carefully lift them out of the tray and transfer them to a cooling rack to cool further for 30 minutes.
- Make the glaze: Mix the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and non-dairy milk until smooth. You can add more or less sugar depending on whether you want it runny or thicker. Drizzle the icing on top of the muffins once they have cooled.
- Storage: Place the muffins in an airtight container and store them at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the fridge for up to a week. Let them sit at room temperature for an hour before serving if stored in the fridge. You can freeze them in an airtight container and defrost them for a couple of hours before serving.
Notes
- Pistachios: Raw shelled pistachios with or without skins (without skins will give the most vibrant color). I do not recommend roasted and/or salted pistachios.
- Vegan Buttermilk: One batch is 1 cup/240ml, here's how to make it.
Nutrition
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