Apple Cinnamon Muffins — These apple cinnamon muffins are studded with BIG chunks of apple! They’re so easy to make and are perfect for a quick snack or breakfast to-go.
Table of Contents
Basic Apple Cinnamon Muffins
These quick and easy apple muffins are full of chunky apple pieces and are spiced with cinnamon and a bit of nutmeg, which gives them a nice pop.
I’m a cinnamon fan, so I used 3 teaspoons. It’s not over-powering and I think apples can really stand up to spices. In fact, I’d probably use more next time.
These muffins are fast and easy to make, you don’t need a mixer, and are ready in under a half hour.
These apple cinnamon muffins are springy, bouncy, soft and fluffy, with the right amount of density. Light enough, but not airy. Your house will smell like a fall-scented candle, minus the candle.
Ingredients in Apple Cinnamon Muffins
To make the simple apple spice muffins, gather the following ingredients:
- Apples
- All-purpose flour
- Cinnamon
- Banana
- Granulated sugar
- Unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- Coconut oil
- Vanilla extract
- Ground nutmeg
- Baking powder
- Salt
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Cinnamon apple muffins couldn’t be simpler to prepare! Here are the basic recipe steps:
- Dice the apples and toss them with a little cinnamon and flour. (This gives the apples a little flavor and prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins while they’re baking.)
- To make the muffin batter, combine the wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls, then combine the two.
- Gently fold in the diced apple, and divide the batter between 12 greased muffin cups. If desired, sprinkle the top of each muffin with turbinado sugar and additional cinnamon before baking.
- Bake until the muffins are domed on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Let them cool in the muffin pan for roughly 15 minutes before removing them and allowing them to cool on a wire rack.
Tips for Making Apple Cinnamon Muffins
When making the batter, you may need to add extra flour if the batter looks a little runny. Depending on how juicy your apples and mashed banana are, your batter may look perfect, or it may be a little thin. If it seems too runny, add the extra flour in a tablespoon at a time until your batter seems right.
Also note that when making the batter you’ll want the milk (whatever kind you use) to be room temperature. If the milk is too cold, it may cause the melted coconut oil to re-solidify, and you’ll wind up with chunks of oil in the batter.
Lastly, after scooping the batter in my muffin pan, I topped each muffin with a few reserved apple chunks because I wanted the visual appeal of seeing hearty apple pieces crowning the soft muffins.
The apples soften while baking, and take on a chewier texture, but still have some snap and faint crunch. Their juices release, and it helps the muffins stay soft and moist.
Recipe FAQs
The banana flavor isn’t noticeable, but it adds fluff to the batter like an egg would. Applesauce could likely be substituted, although I haven’t tested it. I suspect the muffins won’t be as soft and tender with applesauce as with a banana.
These apple cinnamon muffins don’t taste like coconut, and even if you don’t like coconut, I suggest using coconut oil anyway. It adds a flavor undertone you can’t put your finger on, and lends a subtle richness that’s so comforting. Sub with canola or vegetable oil if you must.
I suspect this apple muffin recipe would work as mini-loaves, adding about 5 minutes to the baking time. It likely would work as one large 9×5 loaf as well, and would probably take 45 to 60 minutes at a reduced oven temp of 350F, but I haven’t tried it myself.
You can use any apple you’d like in these apple cinnamon muffins! I used a large Fuji apple, but any crisp apple will do. Other great baking apples include Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Crispin, and Jonagold.
Yes, any milk (non-dairy or cow’s milk) will work in this recipe. Just note that you should use an unsweetened milk, otherwise your apple muffins will turn out far too sweet.
Most likely, yes. Just keep in mind that you’ll want to actually measure out the mashed banana and diced apple, as too much moisture in the batter can make it runny (it’s easy to mess up the batter when doubling a recipe!).
You may be able to add diced pears or another fruit with a similar consistency to apples, but generally I would stick to using apples for this recipe. If you’re looking for more fruit muffin recipes, check out my muffin recipe archive for some great ideas!
Storage Instructions
These apple cinnamon muffins can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days. You’ll need to keep them in a cool spot in an airtight container.
You can also freeze these muffins quite easily for up to 6 months. Just let them cool completely before sealing them inside a freezer bag or another freezer-safe container.
When you’re ready to enjoy the frozen apple cinnamon muffins, either let them come to room temperature on your countertop, or microwave them for 15-second intervals until they’re heated through.
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Vegan Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Ingredients
Apples
- 1 ½ cups apple, diced small + 1/4 cup apple, diced small, reserved for topping (I used 1 large unpeeled Fuji, and it yielded about 1 3/4 cups)
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Batter
- ½ cup mashed ripe banana, about 1 large
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, other milks may be substituted including coconut, soy, rice, cow, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted (vegetable or canola oil may be substituted)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- pinches turbinado sugar, optional for sprinkling
- pinches cinnamon, optional for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a Non-Stick 12-Cup Regular Muffin Pan very well with floured cooking spray or grease and flour the pan; set aside. (I don’t prefer the cosmetic look of muffin liners and I am not sure if the paper will stick to the muffins).
- Prep the Apples
- In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups apples, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, and toss to coat. The flour helps prevent apples from sinking during baking; set aside.
- Make the Batter
- In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork.
- Add the sugar, milk (room temp milk will prevent coconut oil from re-solidifying; if it does anyway, some small clumps are okay), oil, vanilla, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, nutmeg, and whisk until combined.
- Add 1 cup flour, baking powder, optional salt, and stir until just combined; don’t overmix. Batter is quite thick and if yours is seemingly too thick, add a tiny additional splash milk to thin it.
- Fold in 1 1/2 cups apples and any loose flour in bottom of bowl.
- Divide batter equally among the cavities of the prepared pan. Each cavity will be about 3/4 full. Spraying a one-quarter cup measure with cooking spray so the batter slides right off is handy here.
- Using the reserved 1/4 cup diced apples, top each muffin with a couple pieces, divided equally.
- Optionally add a pinch of turbinado sugar and pinch of cinnamon to each muffin top.
- Bake for about 17 to 18 minutes, or until tops are domed, puffed, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs dangling but no batter. Allow muffins to cool in pan for about 10 to 15 minutes before removing and placing on a rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Caramel Apple Cinnamon Roll Bake — The soft and gooey factor of a cinnamon rolls with apples and so much CARAMEL SAUCE!! Easy, ready in 30 minutes, and uses store-bought cinnamon roll dough to save time!
This sounds stupid but I’ve been trying to watch my calories and I’d like to know how much calories per muffin.
Use an online service and plug in the data yourself if you’re curious.
I made two mini loaves. Wonderful texture! Moist with a nice crust. I forgot the sugar and they came out great still. Very sweet. My oil did solidify when I added the cold milk. The result? Nice cinnamon chunks in the bread. Not bad at all! Seriously loved this and will make often. Great snack.
Depends on how sweet your bananas and apples are I guess. Mine were sweet, but not overly. Glad you liked them! And yes, room temp milk will prevent the clumping up but hey, I love the idea of the visible cinn chunks in the bread!
Hi Averie, I made these today and…wooooooow!!! They also became part of my breakfast routine together with your vegan blueberry muffins!! But I will admit it, these ones are even easier to make, as I don’t have to worry about finding the perfect avocados! They are so soft, moist and tasty..amazing!! :)
Glad you love them and I agree – even easier than the bb/avo muffins because of the avo situation. Have you tried the vegan pumpkin choc chip ones yet? I LOVE those too! And super easy! You can use pureed squash if you can’t get canned pumpkin (in the US, canned pumpkin is really canned squash many times! but people don’t even know it..ha)!
Making these now, they look so good, and I have everything on hand. Just a note to those who don’t always plan ahead (like me) – the melted coconut oil solidified when it hit the mixture with the cold almond milk in it! Bring it all to room temp.! I’ve got the mixture near the oven waiting for it to liquify again. Pretty sure I should know better. Looking forward to trying them, thank you!!! I feel silly!
Coconut oil liquefied again, muffins finished, and everyone loved them! Be careful, they’re addictive. Thank you again for the great recipe! I’m making more for a party tomorrow! :)
Thanks for trying them, Debbie, and yes, if your milk is very cold and your coconut oil is freshly warmed, the cold milk can cause it to solidify but I find that vigorous whisking smooths it out and if you have a few pebble chunks, not a biggie. But yes, room temp ingredients are always best.
So glad you loved them enough to make more tomorrow for a party!
These look delicious but can they be made without the sugar? I don’t eat sugar. Could I perhaps substitute organic raw honey or pure maple syrup ? Wonder if that would alter the taste at all? And I love cooking/baking with coconut oil but my picky son says it tastes funny to him Thanks!!
“Wonder if that would alter the taste at all?” <--- of course if you remove all the sugar YES the taste will be altered. That would be the case with any recipe; if you remove an ingredient of course the results will vary. You could sweeten with raw honey or maple if you want to compensate by bulking up the dry ingredients/flour and are experienced in the kitchen to do so. But as you are aware, I'm sure, honey and maple are forms of sugar and the body really treats them as sugar, when it comes right down to it. I say make the recipe as written!
Averie these look so good and remind me of an apple muffin recipe I made last year and HAVE to make again. I just bought a few huge Heney Crisps and am dying to bake with them. :)
I love all of those huge apple chunks tucked inside of every bite and that you snuck banana and coconut oil inside. This is the perfect autumn breakfast or snack. I love apple baked goods so much and am glad you share that love!
Just like I figured I had better hop to it with the pumpkin recipes, the apple ones, too. Does the world need another apple muffin recipe? No. But I tried to make it unique with the coco oil, vegan, etc. Your apple muffins are a work of art. Love them!
Hi Averie–I am most definitely on board with the seasonal kick, but (after reading some of your replies to other comments) am simply in love with what you have created here at your blog. Five years already–how time flies! As someone who has already managed to go through so many experimental phases in blogging in just a year, getting a feel for what works for me and what doesn’t, I just wanted to take out a moment to say that posts like these are a total inspiration to keep experimenting and adventuring in blogging. THANK you, Averie!
Thanks for the lovely comment and yes, my blogging continues to evolve. I try to post what I love, what I know readers want, or think they want, and try to find a balance of healthy, vegan, versus totally…not so much either of those things :) It’s all a balancing act and some weeks and months there’s a great mix; other times, not as much and it’s nice to post a few vegan recipes in a matter of a week and have people say they appreciate them! :) And that this post is appreciated – thank you!!
I am beginning to love vegan muffins even more than regular muffins – they are so delicious! This look like no exception!
Apples in muffins are my all time favorite, the chunk apples with just a little bite are the best!! I love that they are vegan too, I need to start cutting back on things, especially since it’s not sweatpants weather here..yet ;) I am jealous of you being a bit cooler than us!!
Not really any cooler down here in 80F San Diego than in the OC I don’t think :) But the rest of the country isnt having our typical hot/warm Sept weather so I made these. As I sweated while they baked :)
Oh my, I want to eat ’em all!!! I think I can almost smell them! :) Wishful thinking…
I am all about vegan muffins! Especially when they look *this good! Love all those gorgeous apple chunks, too
Thanks Ashley!
These make me SO excited for fall and apple season. And for muffins too!
I read your botulism/canning post today and loved it :)
Keep the vegan muffins coming! Maybe it will be a healthy fall! This look fantastic, I love the chunks of apples inside and on top!
YUM! I adore using mashed banana in place of eggs in my recipes. It keeps everything together, tastes delicious, and keeps everything moist!
Exactly and in this recipe, just 1, so they really don’t take on any banana flavor.
Yay for muffin kicks! I love your take, and I especially love that they’re vegan – it’s just not easy to find good, moist vegan muffins these days. Thank goodness for ripe bananas and almond milk! :)
Most muffin recipes I see, vegan or otherwise, look horribly dry to me. No bueno! These are nice and moist!
You’re on a roll with these muffins! They look delicious, and such a great way to use apples this fall!
Yes indeed :)