Huel experiment - Muffins

I love Huel for many things - the fact that it is vegan, sustainable, nutritionally balanced. But the texture is still a problem for me. Truth be told, I am fussy about my drinks anyway, I basically stick to unsweetened coffee or tea, and water - never liked fizzy drinks, never liked milkshakes, smoothies, milk, juices… you see where I am going with this. So, I think I have found a way around the texture of Huel in drinkable form for myself and anyone who has a problem with it. I present to you - Huel Muffins! I baked them several times already and I think I am fairly certain about the recipe even though my cooking skills level is zero.

My aim was to 1) keep it vegan; 2) keep it simple; 3) avoid adding more calories.

You will need:

  1. Huel, vanilla flavor, 12 non-heaped scoops for 12 normal size muffins
  2. Non-diary unsweetened milk (I use Alpro’s almond milk, I reckon around 600ml should be enough, but I always rely on the consistency of the dough)
  3. Baking soda - Huel is heavy as a flour, so, don’t be greedy on this one. I think I easy add 2 tablespoonfuls for 12 scoops.
  4. Apple vinegar or lemon juice (I prefer lemon juice) - 2-3 tablespoonfuls

You can add - cocoa powder, blueberries, other berries, anything else you feel like.

Mix Huel, baking soda and cocoa powder (if you are using it), make sure there are no clumps. Add almond milk and lemon juice, and mix quickly. Do not overmix. Add berries in the end if you want.

Here comes an important tip - wait for a few minutes before you scoop dough into oiled muffin tin. The times I was impatient the muffins came out too dense and did not develop any bubbles.

Bake for ~15 min in the oven preheated to 180ºC (check with a toothpick or knife). If you added frozen berries the muffins might take longer.

I am not a nutritionist, but taken that blueberries are low calorie and so is unsweetened almond milk, each resulting muffin should be no more that 200 kcal, so, about half of what a typical store-bought muffin is. They are very filling and satisfying, I typically take two or three to work and they last me all day (we have free fruit at work).

So, hope this helps. I want to experiment with the unflavored Huel soon to make savory muffins, adding tomato and olives, perhaps.

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This is awesome! Thank you so much for sharing them, it’s really really fantastic. Do you have any pictures of them at all? I’d love to see the finished product!

I don’t have non-diary, can I use file-o-fax milk instead?

Just kidding :smiley:

Would using full fat milk be OK in this? Same amount?

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I’m sure it will be even better (meaning - more like a normal muffin) with full-fat milk :slight_smile: But it won’t be vegan anymore and milk has ~5 times more calories…

Note that I’m not completely sure about the precise amount of milk (any kind), I just rely on the dough consistency.

My this week’s batch didn’t turn out very pretty as I added too many blueberries. But next batch will go directly into the thread :slight_smile:

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I don’t like cooking but I cooked your recipe yesterday using full fat cow’s milk with the addition of 6 teaspoon cocoa powder. I liked your recipe because it was minimal as opposed to that on the Huel’s website. Muffins turned out great overall. Just a bit more difficult to cook than regular muffins (meaning extra wating and are-the-ready-yet time).

One thing I’m changing for tomorrow’s try is to mix Vanilla with UU as I think UU will be a bit lighter as a flour, and probably also increase a bit the baking powder because the heart of the muffins wasn’t 100% solid and they didn’t inflate much. The proposed quantity of 600ml of milk resulted in very high viscosity for the dough but I think that this actually helps with heavy flours such as Huel.

Question: Why we put lemon juice (or vinegar) in the mix?

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Now this sounds fascinating. Thanks for sharing!

The recipe uses baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) which needs an acid in order to produce carbon dioxide Bubbles that make the muffin fluffy. Baking powder is slightly different and has a solid acid compound built in so only needs water (like in milk) to react for the same effect.

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With thanks to Kati for the original recipe, here’s my crack at a blackforest version:

Recipe I used (very similar to above):
12 scoops/470g Vanilla Huel (if using unsweetened you’ll need to flavour the mix with Huel flavouring, sugar, honey, sweetened cocoa, etc.).
30g cocoa
50g desiccated coconut
2tbsp baking powder (or baking soda and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, see discussion above)
2 handfuls of frozen cherries
800ml unsweetened almond milk

Mix all dry ingredients then stir in milk. If too watery just add a little more Huel; you want a fairly thick dough. Spoon into oiled tray. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 17 mins.

I used a cupcake tray and it made 18. All ingredients came to 2400 calories so it made 18 x 150kcal muffins.

Any further suggestions on good flavour/texture improvements appreciated, but they came out great, super tasty. I don’t ever bake (EVER), but from turning the oven on to eating took 30 minutes…

Thanks again Kati!

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These look amazing! I will definitely try your recipe, Cryurchin, thank you for the post!

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Had success with a savoury version of this. The changes I used were unflavoured Huel, soya milk,white wine vinegar, chopped black olives, chopped sun dried tomatos, mixed dried Italian herbs, salt and pepper.

Savoury Mediterranean huel muffins!

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I made this recipe with 12 scoops of vanilla Huel, ~600ml of water, 2 tablespoons of baking soda, and 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. I baked for ~20 minutes at 355*F. It was the first time I had success with Huel rising or having any sort of fluff. However, the cake underneath the muffin tops was still VERY wet, and the vanilla flavor was completely gone, lost to the bitter taste of the baking soda and vinegar. I’ve been eating them slathered in margarine and sugar, which defeats the purpose of the Huel imo, and still doesn’t mask the bitterness enough.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Is this simply because I went for water over a form of milk? I’m at a loss. I have minimal cooking/baking skills, but I’m really interested in making this work. I have similar goals, keep it vegan, don’t add extra calories, keep it simple. I don’t mind if it’s a mild flavored muffin, in fact I’d prefer it as something to eat regularly. But I can’t handle the intense bitterness (and somehow grittiness?) of the way that turned out. Is this how the others are turning out and it’s just too much for me? Or have mine turned out very bizarre?

I’d love to get this right!