These light and airy cardamom oat muffins are gluten free, dairy free, and low in sugar, making them well-suited for a variety of diets. Cardamom is one of my favorite spices. It’s commonly used in Scandinavian baked goods, such as cardamom cake and bullar.
As you know, I also love muffins. I love that:
- they provide little portions,
- they are easy to make nutritious,
- they are quick to bake, and
- my kids love them.
So it seemed only logical to create a cardamom muffin recipe.
When my 9-year son came home from school recently he declared, “You made cupcakes!”
“No, they are actually muffins.” I said “Healthy cardamom oat muffins,” I added.
He took a bite, “these are so good!” He declared. His younger brother agreed.
They are good. Perhaps too good to be a muffin? I will let you in on a secret, to create this recipe I adapted my go-to vanilla cupcakes recipe. But, I made some significant changes, including:
- reducing the sugar,
- switching to oat flour,
- using almond milk instead of kefir,
- cutting back on the oil,
- and adding cardamom instead of vanilla.
So in my book, these cupcakes have been “healthified” and are therefore deemed muffins. Of course, I realize that muffins technically aren’t supposed to be beaten with an electric whisk. And while they may not have frosting, these are best with a little topping on them. I really liked the coconut flakes, but my kids preferred the ones with the pearl sugar on top (shocker). So perhaps a more appropriate name for them would be cardamom oat cupcake-muffins, since they are kind of a hybrid between the two, but I am going with muffins.
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider or plain vinegar
- 1½ cups gluten-free oat flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cardamom
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup natural cane sugar
- ¼ cup canola or grapeseed oil
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
- Topping suggestions:
- Shredded coconut
- Pearl sugar (coarse sugar crystals)
- Slivered almonds
- Pumpkin seeds
- *You can grind your own oat flour by placing oats in a food processor. However, I tested this recipe using store-bought, certified gluten-free oat flour.
- Put cupcake liners into muffin tins.
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Measure out almond milk and add the vinegar. Let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardamom.
- In another bowl, add eggs and beat with an electric mixer or hand whisk. Add sugar and beat or whisk until blended. Add oil and applesauce and beat or whisk to combine.
- With the mixer on low speed, or using a whisk, slowly add half of the flour and mix until combined. Then add half of the milk and mix until combined. Add the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk. Beat until just combined.
- Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin, filling until about ⅔ full.
- Top with desired toppings.
- Let cool for a couple of minutes and then carefully transfer cupcakes to a wire rack.
Use a toothpick to test for doneness.
To make pearl sugar topping more prominent, add it 6-8 minutes into cooking. That way it won't shrink down into the muffin as much.
Cardamom is my favorite baking spice! I went to college in Minnesota with lots of friends of Swedish descent. I even spent some time in Sweden in college. So I’m so excited to have found THREE new recipes to use cardamom (the cake and the bullar!) I’m also so excited to have discovered your blog – because even though Nordic food is ‘trendy’ now, it’s always been comfort food for me! (I grew up on Swedish meatballs – maybe not really traditionally Swedish – but still yummy!)
So glad you love cardamom and Swedish food! This is the blog for you! Yes, interesting that Nordic food is “trendy” right now. Thanks for stopping by. I’m a big fan of your blog as well!