Delicious apple cinnamon muffins made with an easy batter, filled with sweet + tangy apples, and spiced with lots of cinnamon! Top with more cinnamon sugar. Easy & quick!
Tall, soft, and super fluffy, these apple muffins are perfect for making anytime but especially now in apple season. Plus, they are topped with more cinnamon sugar so that they almost taste like an apple cinnamon donut but with waaaay less work!! This is a great recipe for a quick snack, quick breakfast, or anytime you feel like a yummy treat.
These are the best apple muffins. Similar to my vegan apple cake for sweetness, these moist muffins are a bit spicier with extra cinnamon. You are gonna love these muffins!
Free from: Dairy (optional), soy, peanuts, tree nuts, coconut, fish, shellfish, crustaceans, mollusks, celery, corn, sesame, mustard, lupin, sulfites, and more
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Why You’ll Love these Apple Cinnamon Muffins
- Easy recipe with simple ingredients
- Extra soft and moist
- Crunchy topping that makes it taste like a donut
Ingredients
- Apples - There are a few kind of apples that you can use in this. I love apples that are tart and sweet, so a Honeycrisp is my go-to apple. You could also use Fuji, Jonathan, Pink Lady, or Granny Smith apples. Just make sure that you use fresh apples for the best flavor.
- Apple Juice or Apple Cider - Apple juice helps with the apple flavor for the muffins. If you have non-alcoholic apple cider, which would have even more of a spicy kick, feel free to use that!
- All Purpose Flour - You just need simple all-purpose flour for these muffins.
- Sour Cream - This is a secret ingredient for these muffins! The sour cream provides a bit of extra fat and flavor as well as helping them rise up in the oven. If you don’t have sour cream, you can swap out for an equal amount of vanilla or plain Greek Yogurt.
- You’ll also need - Baking powder, salt, cinnamon, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract
Allergy Substitutions
To make these gluten free, substitute with your favorite gluten free flour blend. I recommend King Arthur Measure for Measure.
To make these dairy free, swap out the butter and sour cream with your favorite dairy-free butter and sour cream. You could also use a plant-based yogurt in place of the sour cream. Just stick with a vanilla or plain flavor so you don’t have competing flavors.
To make these corn free, make sure that your vanilla extract and baking powder are both corn free.
Instructions
For the full instructions, complete with measurements, please see the recipe card below.
Start by preheating the oven to 375F with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line a muffin tin with liners, or spray with a neutral flavored oil. This recipe makes a few more than a dozen muffins, so you should prepare 15 or 16 muffins. Set this aside until ready to bake.
In a medium bowl, sift or whisk together the dry ingredients: The flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set this aside.
In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar. Mix that on medium speed for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Mix that again until the eggs are incorporated. Finally, add the last wet ingredient of apple juice.
The batter may get lumpy from adding the apple juice, but don’t worry! It will smooth back out when you add the dry ingredients.
Now, it’s time to add the dry ingredients to the wet. Add them all at once and mix them together on low speed until it’s all incorporated.
Finally, add the diced apples. I like the apples to be about the size of raisins. That way I can have more tiny apple bits in every bite of muffin. However, if you like larger chunks of apples, you can slice them any way you like. You could even use grated apple if you like. I just like to see the apple pieces in my muffins.
Mix in the apples by hand to make sure they are distributed evenly throughout the batter.
Add the finished apple muffin batter to the prepared muffin trays. Fill them up about ¾ of the way full. I love for my muffins to have a nice dome on top!
Baking the Muffins
Bake the muffins for 27-30 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in them pulls out clean.
Immediately remove the muffins from the hot trays and have them rest on a wire rack for cooling.
After 10 minutes, while the muffins are still warm, brush them with the remaining melted butter and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. You could also sprinkle with turbinado sugar and cinnamon if you prefer larger sugar crystals. Enjoy!
FAQs
Firmer apples are generally a better choice for baking. Think apples like Granny Smith, Honey Crisp, or Jonathan. You can do a mix of more tart and more sweet, something like a Granny Smith and a Fuji or Pink Lady.
Yes! Swap out the butter for your favorite dairy-free butter. I find I get the best results with stick based vegan butters, like Earth Balance or “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”.
To replace the sour cream, use your favorite dairy free sour cream or dairy free yogurt. Just make sure that it is a vanilla or plain flavored yogurt.
You can also check out my vegan apple cake for a recipe that is already dairy free!
Yes. While I haven’t made this particular recipe with gluten-free flour, I would say that a good quality gluten free flour with xanthan gum would work. I recommend King Arthur Measure for Measure as I get good results with that flour in my other baking.
You can also check out my gluten free apple cinnamon muffins or apple coffee cake for a gluten free option that was specifically made for gluten free flours!
That has to do with science! Room temperature ingredients mix better with each other so you get a softer baked good.
How to Store
These muffins are so tasty they won’t last long!
Countertop: Keep the apple cinnamon muffins in an airtight container on the countertop for up to 5 days.
Freezer: These muffins can be frozen after baking. Don’t coat them in butter and cinnamon sugar, just place the baked and fully cooled muffins into a freezer safe container. They will keep for up to 3 months. Let the muffins thaw in the fridge or at room temperature for a few hours. Then brush with melted butter and cinnamon sugar and serve.
More Apple Recipes
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Recipe
Equipment
- mixing bowls
- mixing spoons
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- Whisk or sifter
- hand mixer or stand mixer
- Muffin liners
- muffin tray
Ingredients
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
- ½ cup butter room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup apple juice
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 1 cup apples diced
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Muffin Topping
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F with the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Line the muffin tray with liners or spray with a neutral flavored oil. Set aside. You may need a second tray as I generally get 15 muffins from this recipe.
- Dice the apples. Cut them into raisin seized pieces so that they blend well into the batter. Set them aside. You can toss them in cool water so they don’t brown while you make the rest of the recipe.
- Sift the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together. Set this aside.
- Mix the wet ingredients. In a large bowl with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Mix on medium speed for 5 minutes. Add the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract. Finally, pour in the juice.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients. Pour the sifted dry ingredients into the wet and mix for about a minute on low speed. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl to fully incorporate the ingredients.
- Add the apples. Drain them if you have them submerged in water. Add the apples to the batter and mix.
- Fill the muffin cups up ¾ of the way full.
- Bake for 27-30 minutes. The muffins will be done when they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the muffin pulls out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and from the hot muffin tray. Let them rest on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.
- Brush the top of the muffins with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
- How to Store
- Countertop: Keep the apple cinnamon muffins in an airtight container on the countertop for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: These muffins can be frozen after baking. Don’t coat them in butter and cinnamon sugar, just place the baked and fully cooled muffins into a freezer safe container. They will keep for up to 3 months. Let the muffins thaw in the fridge or at room temperature for a few hours. Then brush with melted butter and cinnamon sugar and serve.
- For jumbo muffins: Bake at 375F for 35 minutes. Makes about 8 jumbo muffins.
- For mini muffins: Bake at 350F for 13-15 minutes. Makes about 40 mini muffins.
- Allergy Substitutions
- To make these gluten free, substitute with your favorite gluten free flour blend. I recommend King Arthur Measure for Measure.
- To make these dairy free, swap out the butter and sour cream with your favorite dairy-free butter and sour cream. You could also use a plant-based yogurt in place of the sour cream. Just stick with a vanilla or plain flavor so you don’t have competing flavors.
- To make these corn free, make sure that your vanilla extract and baking powder are both corn free.
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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