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
We are a “chunk adverse” family, could you advise on an amount of applesauce or Apple butter i could sub for chopped apples?
Try shredding the apples instead if chopping.
Fantastic recipe! It’s true, the flavor is so good you won’t just want to eat the top and leave the rest. We used Honeycrisp apples for ours. Can’t wait to try it with other apple varieties! This is going to be a staple for us.
Honeycrisps are such delicious apples aren’t they, Patricia?! I’m so happy you enjoyed the muffins! I always look forward to the aroma my house gets when I bake them! Thanks! xo
Delicious. Didn’t even need the topping. Found a good use for the apples in the backyard
Wonderful to hear, Jonah! Fresh apples are so great to have! Thanks so much!
I hope you enjoy them, Alex! xo
I made these last night and they were just okay as written. I dipped the warm muffins in the butter and cinnamon sugar as directed but I didn’t care for the results. I made a second batch and put a simple streusel topping on before baking and they were delicious. The muffins themselves were very good last night but today (the leftovers) are very dry. I would like to continue to use this recipe as my guide for apple cinnamon muffins but I will experiment with the addition of another ingredient to try to make them a bit moister. My sister recommended trying some applesauce or maybe a vegetable shortening to replace some of the butter. I will report back.
Hi Donna,
I’m sorry you didn’t care for them as written. I do love the idea of using a streusel topping on these muffins. I bet they were delicious. To add more moisture to the muffins, you can reduce the butter to 1/4 cup and add in 1/4 cup of vegetable oil. xo
These were really good! Thanks for posting 🙂
You forgot to say when you add the milk. I added after the eggs.
Hi Rachel,
Look at step 5 in the Instructions. You fold in the flour mixture, alternating with the milk. Hope you enjoy the muffins.
Wonderfully light and flavourful. I used a silicone brush to spread some melted butter on the tops and then spooned the sugar cinnamon on top. They were great!
So glad you liked them, Susan!
Hello, I’ no baker but thought I would give your recipe a try. I baked a dozen muffins, absolutely delicious !!! That’s a first for me.
Would it work as well if I poured the batter into a loaf pan?
Need a coffee cake for Sunday brunches .
Thank you so very much !
Hi Rita!
So glad you enjoyed the muffins! Aren’t they scrumptious?!
I haven’t tried this recipe as a cake, but I do have several, several cake recipes you may want to take a look at. There are several bundt cakes and coffee cakes there too. I hope you find more recipes that you will enjoy! xo
So easy to make and they’r presently in my oven just now. The smell is divine. Perfect for this time of year!
Thanks so much Evangeline! xo
I’m planning to make these today and have a question. If I want to make these as mini-muffins, how long would I bake them? And if it’s closer to 15 minutes, will the apples get soft enough? Thanks!!
This is probably too late, but in case it’s helpful for anyone in the future, I make these as mini-muffins and I bake them for about 20 minutes (check at 15, but usually they take about 20], and as long as I dice the apples really small, they definitely get soft enough. Delicious! I also always use 2 apples for even more apple-y flavor.