Honey Sweetened Whole Grain Muffins

Sweetened only with honey, these spelt muffins have become my standard muffin recipe for the past couple of years. I started making them at a horrendous house sit on a tiny island in Denmark in 2024 – it was freezing, with no heat, so I baked every day to bring the temperature up to 18 degrees in the house. I made these every second day for two months (yes, we do eat that many muffins) and a couple times a month ever since.

I bake exclusively with ancient grains, and spelt is my primary flour. There are hundreds of spelt flour recipes on Occasionally Eggs. These were tested for a cookbook proposal I wrote, but I ended up going with a different recipe entirely for the potential book. It’s a great base spelt muffin recipe and any number of mix-ins can be added. Berries, chocolate, nuts, dried fruit, and so on are all great.

Please note that these are whole grain muffins and are sweetened with honey, so the texture is a little different from white flour, white sugar muffins (cake). They’re almost cornbread-like. Hydrating the batter before baking is important. Don’t skip that step!

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Ingredients You’ll Need and Why

This is a minimal recipe that you can make as is or use as a jumping-off point for various mix-ins. These are my notes from recipe testing, and you can find the full recipe card below with complete measurements and instructions.

• Spelt flour: use whole grain spelt flour. I haven’t tested with sprouted spelt. I use either home-milled or store-bought flour with no changes to the recipe (be sure to use the weight measurements). Light or sifted spelt is fine and will make the muffins slightly lighter in texture.
• Milk: any type of milk should be fine, as long as it’s plain and unsweetened. I usually use homemade oat milk or soya milk. Higher protein milks are a bit more effective at curdling once the vinegar is added, but it doesn’t make much of a difference in the final result.
• Vinegar: apple cider vinegar is ideal. Plain white vinegar (5% acidity) also works, as does lemon juice in a pinch.
• Honey: I tested with maple syrup but prefer honey in this recipe. I find that maple syrup makes the muffins slightly claggy. See my blackberry muffins for a whole grain alternative that does use maple syrup – the recipe is quite different but both are excellent.
• Oil: olive oil is my preference but it can lend a strong flavour to the muffins. Use your preferred baking oil but stick to one that’s liquid at room temperature (not coconut oil).
• Egg: one egg is enough to bind the muffins and increase the rise. I have tried making these vegan and they are stodgy. Don’t skip the egg.
• Cinnamon: omit for plain muffins or switch in another spice like cardamom or nutmeg, or a blend you like.
• Add-ins: try fresh or frozen berries like blueberries, chopped chocolate or chocolate chips, chopped nuts, raisins or other dried fruit, and seeds (not chia or flax). Stick to about 100 grams of any add-in.

How to Make Spelt Muffins

This is a really simple one-bowl recipe, with the dry ingredients sifted in to get rid of any lumps. Spelt flour can clump when stored, but if I can see that it hasn’t, I won’t sift it and will only sift the baking powder and soda. If you’re milling your own flour, no need to sift – feel free to mill right in to the mixing bowl (that’s what I do).

Step 1: mix the milk and vinegar together and set aside. Whisk the egg in a large mixing bowl, then add the honey and whisk again to combine. I recommend mixing these together first as creamed honey is difficult to mix with more liquid ingredients. Whisk in the oil, buttermilk mixture, and vanilla.

Step 2: add the dry ingredients and whisk again to combine, being careful not to over-mix. You want to mix until just combined, no longer. A few small streaks of flour are fine. Set the batter aside to hydrate for ten minutes while the oven preheats.

Step 3: transfer the batter into a lined or greased 12-cup muffin tin. The size of muffin cups does really vary from brand to brand, which is unfortunate, but this should fill the cups up about three-quarters of the way. Optionally top the muffins with a little raw sugar.

Step 4: bake until lightly golden, about 20 minutes. I have tested these with a hot start and found no difference in texture, so it’s a faff for nothing. In my experience baking muffins that way is only really effective when you have more eggs in the batter.

Expert Tips for the Best Muffins

• Hydrate the batter: these are whole grain muffins, and that whole grain spelt flour will suck up some of the moisture from the other ingredients if you let it. Setting the batter aside to hydrate while the oven preheats will thicken it slightly and really improves the texture of the muffins.
• Don’t reduce sweetener: just like sugar, honey is a liquid in the muffins and if you reduce it the muffins will be dry. If you want less-sweet muffins, use maple syrup instead of honey, which is naturally less sweet, and don’t reduce the amount.
• Weigh your ingredients: cups are just not accurate and this isn’t bread dough – you can’t go by feel. For the best result, weigh the ingredients and don’t make unlisted changes or substitutions to the recipe. If it’s not mentioned in the ingredient list above, then I haven’t tested it.
• Check oven temperature: if you find that your muffins and other baking often turns out differently than described from reputable, real recipe websites, your oven might be running at a different temperature than you think. Most home ovens are off by at least a few degrees, and I’ve had an oven that was 40°C off. A small portable oven thermometer is well worth investing in if you think that might be the case. I use two, in different places in the oven.