Moist and tender Apple Muffins that are baked with juicy apples and cozy autumn spices. They are sweet and tart, fluffy, flavorful and delicious!
One of our favorite fall traditions is heading to a local apple orchard and bringing home lots of apples, plus some fresh bakery like apple cider donuts or apple bread. To use up all the apples I brought home a couple days ago, I decided to make these cinnamon apple muffins for breakfasts. Along with apple chunks baked in the batter, a touch of warm, cozy autumn spices makes them the perfect easy thing to bake on the first weekend of fall.
WHICH APPLES TO USE
As much as I love the combination of sweet and tart flavors, I use both Granny Smith and Honeycrisp. Not only are they firm enough to hold their shape during baking, they will bring a little tart taste to balance out the sweetness in the muffins.
The apples in these muffins are cut into tiny bite-sized cubes, around 1/2-inch. If it’s too tiny, you’ll lose the texture. If you prefer crunchier bites of apple, you can cut them into larger pieces, but they shouldn’t be larger than 1-inch cubes. Otherwise, they’ll stick to the paper liners and fall out of the muffins.
HOW TO MAKE THESE APPLE MUFFINS
The muffins are made using the muffin method, which is probably the easiest method to make a baked good. Mix all of the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another bowl, and then combine the two together and fold in the apples. It’s very important not to over mix the batter to keep the muffins as light as possible. Once all ingredients are combined, the batter will look lumpy and that’s perfectly fine.
ADD-INS AND TOPPINGS IDEAS
The muffins are good on their own but if you want to play with the flavors and textures, you can try my favorite add ins/toppings:
- Add up to 1/2 cup of dried fruits like raisins or cranberries
- Add up to 1 cup of chopped nuts: walnuts, pecans, almonds
- Add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of sweetened coconut flakes
- Sprinkle the top with sliced almonds
- Drizzle the top with homemade caramel sauce
- Make streusel by combining 1/4 cup of melted butter, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of all purpose flour, 1/4 cup of chopped nuts and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Crumble the streusel on top of each muffin.
I hope you’ll give these tasty little apple muffins a try – let me know if you make them by leaving a comment and rating below. Happy Fall! xo
More Apple Recipes To Try:
- Moist Apple Bread With Cinnamon Caramel Glaze
- Apple Galette
- The Best Apple Crumble
- Homemade Spiced Apple Cider
Apple Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups (240g) apples (about 1 large apples or 2 small apples), peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 3/4 cups (230g) all-purpose flour, sifted
- 2 teaspoons (10g) baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon (5g) ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (180ml) whole milk, or 1/2 cup of whole milk and 1/4 cup of sour cream/Greek Yogurt
- 1/2 cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF/190ºC. Line 12 muffin cups with liner papers or grease well.
- Cut up the apples into 1/2 inch cubes and place in a bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar, and mix.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula just until combined. Do not over mix. The batter at this time should be thick and lumpy (with some ribbons of flour still throughout the batter). Fold in apples.
- Evenly distribute the batter between the 12 liners, each 3/4 of the way full. All the batter should be used up. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Muffins are best the same day they are made, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. Muffins can also be frozen for up to 2 months.
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