A couple months ago, I was invited to a JAMboree hosted by a dear friend. She described it as, “a sweet swap and contest of sorts.” She had us all cook up a favorite jelly, jam chutney or conserve and bring eleven quarter-pint or half-pint jars of our entry to her home. She served wine as everyone had a taste of all the entries. After all the wine sipping and socializing all the guests voted on their favorite and a winner was chosen.
I’m not here to tell you I won. Before this, I had never canned solo. I’ve done it plenty of times in my mom’s or Katie’s kitchen, but never in my own little apartment. I was a little bit intimidate and overwhelmed by the possibilities. I went to the farmer’s market to purchase supplies and I came home with 12 pounds of onions. I was in a burger with blue cheese and onions phase. I decided to can caramelized onions, which I now realize was the most unexciting offer, but at the time I was really excited about to make a big batch of them. I cried. A lot. It was glorious. Anyway, I mailed in my entry because I couldn’t attend in person (you’ll see me at the 2nd annual JAMboree!) and a month later my mom gave me eleven jars of delicious and interesting jams to try. I had totally forgotten that I would be receiving jars of jam in exchange for my caramelized onion slop. I’m over my blue cheese burger phase and well into my what do I do with all this jam phase.
I intended on creating a vegan jam muffin recipe, but in my morning daze I added honey to the muffins. Technically honey isn’t vegan, which is why I hereby name this batter creation the almost vegan jam muffins! You could swap out the honey for maple syrup or another preferred sweetener, but I love them just the way they are. For the milk, I simply used almond milk; you can use whatever you prefer. Instead of adding an egg, I created a flax meal egg substitute, the easiest and most reliable in my experience.
Ingredients:
- 1 + 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 TBSP baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup almond milk (or whatever milk you prefer)
- 1/4 honey
- 1/4 vegetable oil
- 2/3 cup jam (I used a friend’s strawberry balsamic)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 TBSP ground flax meal
- 3 TBSP water
The How:
- In a small cup stir 1 tablespoon of ground flax into 3 tablespoons of water and set aside. This will transform into your egg substitute.
- Preheat the oven to 350° and grease a standard-sized muffin tin.
- Combine the flours, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together the milk, honey, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
- By now the flax and water mixture should have a gelatinous texture resembling that of an egg. Incorporate the flax egg into the wet ingredients.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the flours and mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. Pour the jelly into the batter and stir just a few times. You want the jelly to appear in large swirls throughout the batter. Add some more jelly if you want sweeter muffins.
- Fill each muffin tin about 3/4 of the way. Batter should make 12-15 muffins.
- Bake for 16-20 minutes. Test by inserting a toothpick into the center of the largest muffin. If it comes out clean they are done. Remove the jam muffins from the tin and set on a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy with tea, coffee or juice 🙂 These almost vegan jam muffins are hearty enough for breakfast, but delicious enough for dessert too! The strawberry balsamic jam was SO tasty. I was tempted to add nuts or oats to the muffins, but I really wanted the jam to shine in this recipe and it really does. These whole wheat muffins have the perfect about of moisture and sweetness for a breakfast snack. Now that they’re all gone, I’m left wishing I had more strawberry balsamic jam!
