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.
Cinnamon Apple Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (240 +.02 g) all-purpose flour
- 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 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
I made these with gluten free flour and non dairy margarine and milk last week and they turned out perfectly Often times GF flour makes muffins rubbery but not this recipe . Thank you so much for the recipe. I will make these again and again.
Margaret
I’m so glad that it worked well for you with the changes!
They turned out beautiful, but due to the temp of my oven, likely 25 minutes would have worked well. I was also very surprised by the thick, stickiness of the dough. It was note like a bread than a muffin. Still delish, but just different than a true “muffin” texture when complete. Oh, and while i do love cinnamon very much and use it almosy daily, I also reduced the ratio for the coating as well. Thank so much!
These were delicious! I substituted with gluten free all purpose flour and they still turned out fluffy and delicious! thank you so much!
These muffins were delicious and fluffy. Perfect amount of apple and I put topping on before cooking to make it crunchy (no butter). Only trouble I had was they stuck to the tin. Made a bit of a mess getting them out but they were just for hubby and I so no worries 🙂 I’ll use muffin cases next time to be sure!
Thank you so much for such an easy & nice recipe. I am a beginner in baking & these muffins I just baked are good but not perfect as 2 of it slightly burned. I used ready made apple filing instead of fresh one. The next time I’ll try with fresh apples. The topping is fantastic!!
I’ve made these so many time and I can tell you, without a doubt, best apple cinnamon muffins ever! I love them and thank you so much for the recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoy them, Katie! xo
Best muffins I’ve ever made!
This is a very good recipe, but there is an error in the amount of cinnamon. There should not be 1/2 cup. I used 1/2 Tablespoon and that seemed a good ratio to the sugar.
Hi Natalie,
I think we must like them really, really cinnamony. 🙂
Taste-wise, these were the bomb! But look wise…eh…not so much. Mine did not look like yours! The cinnimon covers the top of the muffin in a dark layer. If I didn’t know they tasted so good, I wouldn’t eat one! I am not sure what I did wrong.
Came out great! I used vanilla almond milk (because I did not want it to be dairy) Delish! You did not specify wether the apples should be peeled or not. I assumed yes.
I love these muffins. They have always come out just like your picture and taste as good as they look. I have a question for you, can I use this recipe for other fruits? I have some frozen mixed fruits and would like to use them up, could you give me some suggestion on what other spices I would need? The frozen mix of fruit is strawberries, peaches and mangoes.