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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More Apple Breakfast Recipes:
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Caramel Apple Muffins — Soft, fluffy, springy, loaded with chunks of apples, and so much CARAMEL flavor!! EASY, no mixer needed, and you’d never guess they’re accidentally vegan!!
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Apple Pancakes with Vanilla Maple Syrup — These apple pancakes are packed with cinnamon and other fall spices. Slather with butter and dunk them in some homemade vanilla maple syrup!
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!
I doubled this recipe, and I’m 98% sure I didn’t miss anything, but my batter was super runny. It was not because of the apples since it was runny before I added them to the mix. Maybe the bananas, maybe I put a little bit more than necessary? I baked the muffins anyway, and they are really good, love the strong cinnamon and nutmeg taste. They were a bit too sweet I think, a bit oily, and definitely overly moist – next time I’ll add more flour if I see the batter is runny, I’ll try to put a little less coconut oil, and skip the turbinado on top or put less sugar in the mix. But still, one pan was sent to my daughters’ school, and one pan was devoured in seconds. :0)
Sometimes doubling isn’t always as easy as ‘just double it’ and that could be one thing but also if you think the banana was over-added a bit that could do it and extra ripe bananas are also sweeter and runnier and so maybe that was the case with the batter and the sweetness. But overall if a double batch is devoured in seconds, I call that a success!
Hi do you know the calorie intake per serving? thanks the muffins were AMAZING
No but I’ve linked to sites here where you can find out! https://www.averiecooks.com/faq
They turned out amazing!!! I think i will do a double batch next time and freeze them! YUM
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and they freeze beautifully!
Just made these, they are in the oven. My mixture was really runny too, so added more flour so it could be spooned in. I am going to try swap out some of the flour for wholemeal or add some bran next time!!
Apples can really vary in their moisture content and sometimes they leak quite a bit of moisture into the batter right away, and I would say you just had some juicy apples and that yes, next time if you feel like the batter is on the thin side, just add more flour or dry ingredients and you should be all set!
I made the apple muffins and my batter was super runny. I added more flour and some oats to get the consistency I wanted and they were delicious.
Good job tweaking on the fly. Not sure why it was runny but all ingredients vary and glad you got it to the right consistency and they turned out great!
These muffins are very good. I made them when a friend who is vegan was visiting. Everyone enjoyed the muffins, even the nonvegans.
That’s great to hear that everyone loved them, even the nonvegans!
Hi Averie,
I just wanted to let you know that I tried out this recipe and posted about it on my blog. They tasted great although they didn’t look as pretty as your turned out. Oh well, I can’t say I’m all that great of a baker.
I will be back to test out more of your recipes. They all look and sound delicious!
xoxo
Ana Luiza
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad you enjoyed them!
The tablespoon measures should be exact and not approximate as there are supposed to be 16 tablespoons in a cup. ;)
But, oh, eggs! Yes, eggs are hard to divide and can never be perfectly precise. What I do to quarter an egg is beat the egg and split it between two identical plastic cups, and then I eyeball it and pour from one to the other until they seem even. I then pour one cup into a small bowl and split the other half between the cups to get quarter-eggs. One quarter goes in the bowl with the half-egg (which then gets microwaved and eaten. Nothing goes to waste!) and the other quarter goes into the recipe.
So, yeah, eggs have to be eyeballed so their measurements are approximate. But then again, even with whole eggs it’s not exact since eggs are never exactly identical, are they?
Wow, what great flavor! I quartered the recipe and made a few muffins and ate them all warm. That was my dinner. (Very healthy, I know . . . but I also ate the rest of the apple (I’d used about half) and half a green pepper while these were baking.) Anyway, they were delicious! Perfect little autumn muffins. And mine came out so wonderfully moist, too!
Thank you for sharing.
That’s great you were able to quarter the recipe! And that you had muffins for dinner. I love the way you think and I see it as far better than say…a big baked potato. And so glad you tried them & told me you were able to really reduce the batch size. I will keep this in mind for others who ask!
I’m just by myself so I’m always majorly scaling everything down. :D It does get confusing if you’re not used to it, though. For instance, sometimes cups have to get changed to tablespoons because you can’t exactly work with 16ths of cups. So in this recipe (quartered), 3/4 cup of sugar becomes 3 tablespoons and 1/3 cup of oil (I used canola) becomes 1 1/3 tablespoons, in case anyone wants to know the conversions.
Oh, and a tablespoon of vanilla becomes a 1/4 tablespoon, a measurement for which there is no measuring spoon as far as I know. One could be exact with 3/4 teaspoon if desired, but as I don’t think vanilla has to be exact I just used a teaspoon and didn’t fill it up all the way. ;)
Wow that is so informative and helpful, and I applaud you for doing that. There are so many times where I halve recipes, and it gets tricky when there’s partial eggs, and things like 1/3 cup or 3/4 cup when you’re trying to quarter them, like you did. Better to start thinking of things in the approx number of tablespoons and start halving or quartering mentally that way – I agree! And you can never have too much vanilla :)
These are incredibly good! They have a fabulous, light texture! No one would ever guess that these are vegan. This is going in my favorites box.
I agree with you, Gina! So glad you love them and they’re going in your favorites box!
Would the banana be a replacement for one or two eggs? I don’t have any bananas on hand. I am not vegan but I am lactose intolerant, so I’m excited to try this recipe because most apple muffins seem to be made with sour cream…
I would say go with 1 egg and if the batter seems overly thick, toss in a 2nd egg. LMK what you end up doing and how it works!
I made these tonight as mini muffins (about 10 min bake time). Mine didn’t look the same, they are more speckled? But they are so delicious! Thank you!
Speckled – maybe the way your apples reacted with the baking powder and/or spices? Hard to say when baking with fresh fruit but glad you love them!
I am eating one of these right now and it is so good!!
I didn’t have any ripe bananas. Since I assume it was doing a binding job, I replaced it with oats that I soaked in a little extra almond milk (all up 1/2 cup.) They worked a treat!
I also used whole wheat flour and it went perfectly.
The batter was the perfect amount for my 12 muffin cups.
Thanks!
The banana was there to do a binding job and a little bit of fluff and lightness to the batter like an egg would. Very good call on soaked oats with almond milk. And that you used whole wheat flour – wow, very impressed that you got a good rise with wheat flour, oats, and no banana. That’s awesome and thanks for sharing!
Both of these recipes use oats in the dough and are amazing. Not sure if you make bread but if you do, highly!! recommend either. Both are vegan.
https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/05/soft-and-chewy-coconut-milk-bread.html
https://www.averiecooks.com/soft-and-fluffy-sandwich-bread/
Hey Averie – Not sure if you remember me (we were supposed to go to Joy’s workshop together), but I randomly stumbled across this recipe googling for a vegan apple muffin recipe for my son and I to make this afternoon, and I realized it was you! I was totally drawn to the gorgeous pictures and the muffins were AMAZING! Thank you for sharing :)
Hi Jenny I definitely remember you! When I realized that food/blogging/and food photography/cookbook writing was the direction my life was headed, I pulled out of that workshop. Kind of wish I had gone b/c she kept ALL of my money and would not give any back (shady!!) but such is life. Anyway – wow, SMALL world! That is awesome that you were going to make vegan apple muffins for you son. What a lucky guy! Thanks for saying hi, Jenny!!
Just pinned this! These look so pretty and tasty!! Can’t wait to bake these and enjoy with a cup of coffee this weekend! :) Thanks Averie!
Thanks for pinning and LMK what you think of them after you make them!
I am so happy I found you via Love Grows Wild linky party! I love Vegan recipes!
I have shared via Google+, tweeted, Stumbled, Pinned. I am now following you on all of your Social Networks!
Thanks for sharing!
Lisa @PrincessMouseyCards
Thanks for finding me and all the follows! I don’t even know what linky party that is?! I’ll google it and see if I can figure it out. Thanks for stopping by and the great comment & support!