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 am a novice baker and always check “Add a Pinch” when I’m looking for a recipe. As a super-thrifty baker, I wanted to take advantage of the season and bake with applies. These muffins turned out perfectly. thank you for the tip on less cinnamon option. Thank you thank you thank you for all your great tips, recipes and information! PS – I always hear your adorable accent in my head when i read your writing. 🙂
Awww! Thank you so much, Shona. I’m so glad you loved the muffins. They are perfect for right now! (and bless on the accent!!!). xo
Apple Cinnamon Muffins….1/4 cup .cinnamon in the topping. Really?
Hi Carole,
This ratio of cinnamon, sugar, and cinnamon is the one my family loves. As I tell you in the post and also in the Notes section of the recipe, if you don’t like that much cinnamon, you can either omit the topping or reduce the cinnamon. Thanks.
Is it normal if the batter is thick
The batter will be thick for these muffins. Hope you enjoy!
Do these muffins freeze well? I want to make a big batch to have on hand for lunches and I’m wondering if they will taste the same after being in the freezer?
Hi Diana,
These muffins do freeze well. Just cool them completely, wrap securely so they are airtight, and freeze for up to 3 months. You can either let them thaw at room temperature or heat frozen, unwrapped in the microwave or wrapped in foil in the oven. Hope you enjoy!
Hi!
Love your recipes, and thank you for sharing. We have a couple of family members that are celiac. Have you every made this recipe with GF flour? Or can you recommend another one of your muffin recipes that would hold up well with a GF flour mix?
Really appreciate the help,
Dawn
Thanks, Dawn,
I have used Cup 4 Cup Gluten Free Flour in recipes as a substitute for flour. Hope this helps!
These are my go-to muffins for lunch boxes. We all LOVE them!! I am just about to do my usual Sunday baking and shock horror am almost out of flour. I have one cup left, but also SF flour in the cupboard. If I used one cup plain and one cup SF and ditched the baking powder I wonder if that would work!?
Thanks,
Rosie
Ps. We all love your site. My 11 year old son loves cooking and only ever uses recipes from your site because they always turn out for him and are easy too follow 🙂
Rosie,
I love that your son makes my recipes when cooking and that your family loves these muffins! I haven’t tried this but I think you can use one cup self-rising flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Let me know how it works! xo
Do you think this recipe could be baked in round cake pans?
Carolyn,
I’m sorry but I’ve never made this muffin recipe in round cake pans.
Hi Robyn, thank you for sharing this recipe! I would like to know if I can make this without using an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar? Is it possible to beat the egg first and add it to the mixture? Please let me know, I would love to try this recipe out! (
Hi Jenny,
You can make this recipe without an electric mixer. Make sure your butter is at room temperature and cut it into small pieces. That will make it easier to mix with the sugar. Put your butter and sugar into a large bowl and use a fork or a pastry blender to cut the butter and sugar together until they are well blended. I would not beat the eggs first. Just add one egg at at time into the batter and stir until each is mixed into the batter well. Hope you enjoy this recipe!
I made these muffins this afternoon to take to my step daughter. She has an egg allergy, so made these using the ground chia/water combination. Therefore the milk (non dairy almond milk) was increased to one cup. I also prefer to taste the apple so chopped them versus dicing. It’s nice to taste the chunks of apple in the muffin. Because the batter was dense, the muffins baked in 20 minutes.
For the topping, I used coconut sugar versus white sugar as I felt there was enough sugar in the recipe, and also added some nutmeg with the cinnamon in the topping.
This was an excellent recipe – as posted. The changes made were only for the purpose of allergies to eggs/milk.
I’ve just found this website and will be trying many more of the recipes.
Welcome to Add a Pinch, Valerie!
Your changes for your stepdaughter’s allergies sound delicious!
Hi. I used nutty wheat (whole wheat flour) and it came out great. Thanx for sharing the recipe. My family loves it.
Thanks, Anette, for sharing your way of making this. So glad your family enjoys these muffins.