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Learn all the hacks to turn staple ingredients into delicious, moist apple cinnamon muffins you can prep ahead!
Fluffy Apple Muffins with Cinnamon
My family loves fruit in their muffins, so after creating the most epic blueberry muffins and pear muffins, it was time to turn the irresistible apple cinnamon combo into a muffin recipe to die for. You can make them in half an hour from start to finish, and each bite has tender, juicy apple pieces that will delight your taste buds. So good!
Ingredients
To make these muffins, you’ll need apples and classic baking ingredients: sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, baking powder to make the batter rise and yield a fluffy texture, and any regular or dairy-free milk. To create the golden crust, you’ll mix brown sugar with ground cinnamon. If you need them gluten-free, check out this apple muffin recipe.
The Best Apples for Baking
While you can use any firm-textured apple to make these cinnamon muffins, some varieties hold up best in baked goods. Green apples (Granny Smith) are a classic. Their tart flavor caramelizes in the oven, turning out perfectly sweet. Braeburn, Cortland, Crispin, Golden Delicious, Honey Gold, Honey Crisp, and Fujis also work great for this recipe.
How to Make Cinnamon Apple Muffins
- Preheat the oven and make the topping.
Preheat the oven, line a muffin pan with paper liners, and combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl to have the topping ready to use. - Combine sugar and butter.
Beat them until smooth, for about 5 minutes, to get soft muffins. Then, add vanilla and eggs. - Make the batter.
Use another bowl to combine flour and baking powder and add this dry mixture slowly into the butter-sugar bowl. Add the milk to the batter until smooth. Fold the chopped apples into the batter. - Fill and bake.
After filling the muffin pan with the batter, sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar topping. Bake for about 22 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool down for 10 minutes before enjoying.
How to Freeze Cinnamon Apple Muffins
Once the muffins have cooled down, place them on a baking sheet and freeze for about one hour until frozen. Store them in a zip bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can also freeze the muffin batter in paper liners as shown in this post. Thaw the muffins on the counter, overnight in the fridge, or microwave them for about 30 seconds to one minute each.
More Favorite Breakfast Ideas with Cinnamon
If you are as obsessed with cinnamon as I am, you’ll definitely want to try these coffee cake muffins, my epic cinnamon pancakes, and devour a few slices of this incredible cinnamon apple bread.
Cinnamon Apple Muffins
Watch how it’s made:
Ingredients
For the muffins:
- 1 apple, peeled and diced
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup butter, softened at room temperature (not melted)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ cup milk, any
Topping:
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
Prep:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
- In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
Make the muffin batter:
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the sugar with the softened butter until smooth and creamy, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, until incorporated into a batter.
- In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
- Add the flour mixture slowly into the butter-sugar bowl and combine. Add the milk to the batter until it's smooth. Fold the chopped apples into the batter.
- Fill the muffin cups about ¾ way to the top with batter, making sure the apple pieces are distributed evenly throughout.
- Sprinkle each muffin with ½ teaspoon of the cinnamon-sugar. Using the back of a fork, gently swirl the brown sugar into the batter.
Bake:
- Bake the muffins in the preheated oven for about 22 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool down for 10 minutes before enjoying.
Storage:
- Store muffins at room temperature in an airtight container or zip lock bag lined with a paper towel (to absorb any excess moisture) for up to 24 hours. Refrigerate them for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
- I've tested this muffin recipe with a 1:1 all-purpose gluten-free flour successfully. Depending on the brand you use, you might need to add 1-2 tablespoons of extra liquid.
- You can use whole-wheat pastry flour (white whole-wheat) but not regular 100% wheat flour.
- You can use 1 cup all-purpose flour and ½ cup whole-wheat flour. Using the full amount listed in the recipe of regular whole-wheat flour will yield very dense muffins.
Dina says
These cinnamon apple muffins taste soooo good! Thanks for the recipe, Laura!