Gluten-Free Vegan Banana Cranberry Jam Muffins
Thanksgiving has come and gone and now I’m all ready for Christmas time. A time of friends and family, holiday parties, Hallmark movies (I have a small obsession), and LOTS of baking!
I’ve realized that in October and November everything that I cook and bake is orange and brown. Pumpkin, sweet potato, cinnamon, more pumpkin. All orange and brown! Why have I not been making more recipes with cranberry and pomegranate for their beautiful, vibrant red color and their delicious flavors?
Who knows, my friends. But after I made my cranberry orange chia jam the other day, I knew it was time to get more color into my recipes this season and STAT!
These gluten-free and vegan banana cranberry jam muffins are full of color! Using my cranberry chia jam recipe, we swirl this beautiful, red jam into my gluten-free and vegan banana muffin base.
If you didn’t see the recipe for the cranberry orange chia jam recipe the other day, go check it out because it’s one you don’t want to miss.
The jam is super easy to make, only takes a few ingredients, and is ready in under 30 minutes. If you don’t want to make your own chia jam, then go ahead and use your favorite store-bought jam or fruit preserves.
I don’t recommend jelly for this recipe because the consistency of jelly is a little weird. We want dense and chunky fruit goodness. I know “dense and chunky” isn’t exactly the most appetizing description for this… but it’s what we’re looking for.
You can’t swirl jelly into a muffin and have it set up beautifully if you ask me. So go jam or preserves or better yet – make my cranberry orange chia jam! You won’t regret it!
These banana cranberry jam muffins are everything you could want in a breakfast. They take about 30 minutes from start to finish. They don’t use any egg replacers – just the bananas as a binding ingredient – and you most likely have all of the ingredients in your kitchen right now!
To make them gluten-free, I’ve used two different gluten-free flour blends with great success – Namaste gluten-free flour blend (you can buy this CHEAP at Costco FYI) and Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 baking flour (the blue bag, NOT the red all-purpose flour bag, trust me on this one).
Also, if you don’t need these to be vegan or dairy-free, all you have to do is substitute out the vegan butter with regular dairy butter. Easy peasy!
The muffins do take a bit longer than other muffins in the oven to bake up, about 23-25 minutes, but every minute is worth it! Slather these babies with some (dairy-free) butter, more cranberry chia jam, or eat them plain. They even make a great snack on the go!
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Have leftover cranberries? Try these gluten free cranberry recipes!
- Easy Cranberry Mimosa
- Red Wine Cranberry Sauce
- Cranberry Goat Cheese Log
- Cranberry Orange Chia Jam
- Cranberry Salsa Cream Cheese Dip
- Cranberry Beet Smoothie
- Cranberry Jalapeño Salsa
Gluten-Free Vegan Banana Cranberry Jam Muffins Recipe
Gluten-Free Vegan Banana Cranberry Jam Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (see notes*)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 very ripe bananas
- 1/4 cup vegan butter (I like Earth balance or regular dairy butter, melted)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup cranberry orange chia jam (divided)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or line with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine gluten-free flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and whisk to combine. In another bowl, mash bananas with a fork. Then add in melted dairy-free butter, granulated sugar, apple cider vinegar, and pure vanilla extract. Whisk to combine.
- Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to mix.
- Fold in 1/4 cup of the cranberry orange chia jam, reserving the other half of the jam. Fold so that there are swirls of jam throughout the batter without completely mixing it in.
- Spoon muffin batter into the muffin tin wells to get 12 regular-sized muffins. Add 1 tsp of the chia jam to each muffin well and swirl with a knife.
- Bake at 350F for 23-25 minutes, until muffins are lightly browned on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Let cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.