Cinnamon Apple Muffins Recipe
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Cinnamon Apple Muffins are so scrumptious and full of warm cinnamon and crisp apple bits and finished with a cinnamon sugar topping. Favorite bakery style muffins recipe with amazing flavor and aroma, perfect to enjoy anytime.
And believe me, when autumn rolls around, these babies are in high demand.
In reality, they are perfect as a year-round breakfast treat, but for some reason, I immediately associate them with cool autumn mornings with all that cinnamon and apple deliciousness they have in their favor.
And luckily, these babies definitely have lots going on in their favor!
These cinnamon apple muffins use just one apple to make a dozen muffins, but if you prefer more apple bits in your muffins, by all means, I’d increase it to two. Dice them small so that the pieces of apple aren’t overwhelming when you take a bite of muffin. You want every single bite to be well-balanced in flavor and texture.
What Apples to Use for Cinnamon Apple Muffins?
You can use whichever baking apple you prefer. I like to use Braeburn, Rome, Jon Gold, Gala, Granny Smith, Honey Crisp, and SweeTango apples in these muffins. I also like that when I bite into the apple pieces, I still know that it is apple and not make me think it is applesauce or apple butter included. Don’t you?
Along with apples, flour, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla, you’ll just need some butter, milk, baking powder, salt, and eggs. The classic ingredients for a cinnamon apple muffin, I think. Nothing weird here.
Once the muffins are in the oven baking, I like to brown a little bit of butter and mix together a bowl of cinnamon sugar. Then, once the muffins have cooled slightly, I dip the tops of the muffins into the slightly warm brown butter and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Talk about perfection!
Amazingly enough though, folks don’t just eat the tops of the muffins and then forget about the sweet little base. They gobble the whole thing up it’s so well balanced in flavors.
But, just in case you were wondering, you can skip that indulgent little coating on the top, but I seriously recommend you don’t.
These muffins are so easy to make ahead so you can have this delicious muffin when ever you want.
Freeze instructions: You can make these muffins ahead and store them in an airtight container for a couple of days or freeze them to keep them longer up to 3 months. Just cool the muffins completely, wrap them in 2 layers of freezer wrap so they are airtight and place them in the freezer. You can also freeze them after you add the topping.
To Reheat: You can either let them thaw at room temperature or heat them frozen, unwrapped in the microwave, or wrapped in foil in the oven. If you want, you can wait and add the topping after you reheat them.
Other Favorite Muffin Recipes
More Muffin Recipes
Here’s my Cinnamon Apple Muffins. Make them soon.
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Cinnamon Apple Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (240 +.02 g) all-purpose flour, (spoon + level)
- 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour, for coating apples
- 1½ teaspoons (6 g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (1 g) kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons (5 + 1 g) ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, for coating apples
- 2 cups (240 g) diced apples
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (198 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large (100 g) eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons (9 g) vanilla extract
- ½ cup (113.5 g) milk
For the Topping:
- 1/2 cup (113 g) butter, melted
- 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (31 g) ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375º F. Spray muffin tins with bakers spray or coat well with shortening or butter and flour, making sure to discard any excess flour from the tins after coating.
- Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Mix flour with ground cinnamon used to coat the apples. Toss diced apples with the flour/cinnamon mixture to coat apples in a separate bowl. Set aside.
- Cream together butter and sugar until lightened in color, about 3 minutes. Add an egg, one at a time, taking care to fully incorporate before adding the other. Mix in vanilla.
- Gently fold in flour mixture, alternating with milk. Stir until just combined. Fold in diced apples and scoop mixture into prepared muffin tins, filling about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 20-30 minutes.
- Prepare topping for muffins while the muffins are baking by melting the butter and allowing to cool slightly. Pour butter into a separate bowl sized easy for dipping tops of muffins. Mix together granulated sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl and set aside.
- Once muffins have baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly in the muffin tin. Then, remove each muffin and brush the butter on with a pastry brush (or dip into the melted butter) and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place onto a plate to finish cooling.
Notes
The original recipe called for a 1 to 1 mixture of sugar and cinnamon. If you prefer a less cinnamon flavor in your topping, reduce the mixture to 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
All I can say is yum! They’re so good!! I used liberty apples from apple picking and they were perfect for this!!
Text says one apple. Recipe says 2 cups. One apple doesn’t equal 2 cups. Did anyone else have that question about these muffins?
Cynthia, I used one large Honeycrisp apple to make these. Our grocery store has those big ones that can definitely be diced into 2 cups. If you don’t have those big apples, you will need to use more than one.
While the muffins are good, the prep time of five minutes is extremely under-rated.
Jenrich, the prep time in a recipe refers to the time it takes to follow the steps in the instructions up to the cook time. It assumes the apples are already diced, and the ingredients are at room temperature, as listed in the recipe. The time it takes to peel, chop, dice, melt, etc. varies so much from person to person that the time to mix the batter after all ingredients are prepped and pour it into the muffin tins is a more accurate estimate. It might take you 15 minutes and someone else 20-30 minutes.
Just made these after going apple picking, and they were a HIT! I only had salted butter on hand, and it did not heavily impact the flavor. They’re moist and absolutely delicious!
These muffins are so good. I added mini cinnamon chips and that was really good, my husband ate four! I read the instructions to the topping wrong so I did it incorrectly but it did not take away from the end product, just the look of them. It was totally my bad as I read it wrong. I will make them again.
Christine
Very Good! These made 24 small/mini muffins.
When do you add the milk? I don’t see if in the instructions?
Alison, It is in Instruction 5 on the Recipe Card. Gently fold in flour mixture, alternating with milk. Stir until just combined. Hope you enjoy the muffins.
They were so good! The second they came out of the oven, they were gone!
Absolutely delicious! I made these today, substituting the 2 eggs for 1/2 cup of unsweetened cinnamon applesauce I had just made, and they turned out fabulous! Baking time for me was 23 minutes. VERY cinnamon-y, very apple-y, very good!
I’ve found my new fall muffin recipe!
Did you follow all of the other directions, just substituted the eggs and applesauce?
Is the topping correct….1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup cinnamon?
Debbie, that topping in the recipe is correct. See my information in the NOTES Section of the recipe card if you would like less cinnamon.
I though the same thing Debbie!
Sarah, the NOTES at the bottom of the recipe card instructions say you can reduce the amount of cinnamon if you prefer. Also, in the post, I state you can even omit the topping if you prefer. The amount in the recipe is the way my family prefers the muffins. I hope you enjoy.