Vegan Blackberry Muffins

Ensure oven rack is in the center position and preheat oven to 400ºF. If making streusel topping, do so now (read below).

In a bowl, sprinkle flaxmeal on blackberries and stir to coat. Set aside.

Measure dry ingredients and stir together in a mixing bowl. Ensure flour is not packed. I store my flour in a large container and stir it around to aerate it prior to measuring.

Add melted coconut oil, vegan yogurt, water or milk, and vanilla. Stir lightly until just combined. The batter will be thick. Pour blackberries into batter and stir to combine. Some blackberries will tear apart as you stir and this is ok. The dough will have a swirled appearance, there will be bits of purple tinted-dough and bits of regular dough—also ok!

Grease muffin pan if not using muffin cups. I do recommend muffin cups for these unless you are ok patiently removing the muffins.

Pour batter equally into the 12 muffin cups. Optionally sprinkle a pinch of sugar on each muffin or top each muffin with optional streusel. (See below if using.)

Bake for 17–20 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. To remove, let cool for 5 minutes then gently use a butter knife to ring around each muffin and softly pop out.

For the optional streusel topping:
Measure butter and place in freezer prior to making the batter or at least 10 minutes. Measure sugar and flour and place in a bowl.

Remove butter from freezer and use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the butter into the dry mixture. It will look like large grainy sand. There should be small (coffee bean or smaller) sized pearls of butter coated with flour. The trickiest step with streusel is ensuring the butter doesn’t melt. This streusel crumble will not resemble a dough, it will be loose and sandy.

Place into fridge.