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
This recipe looks delicious! I’m just curious if you think the same recipe would work for mini muffins? Just a change in cook time or a change in ingredients, as well? Mini muffins are more practical for my little ones 🙂
Rebecca, several have commented that they made mini muffins from this recipe. Here is a comment from Rose: “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.”
Perfect, thank you Robyn!
Made this yesterday and they were delicious. Used 3 cups of apples instead of just 2 and they still came out great! This recipe is a keeper!
Thanks, Venia!
These seemed dry to me. Maybe I didn’t put in enough apples (2 cups chopped). I also used 1/2 white & 1/2 brown sugar. Topping wasn’t the best. Probably won’t save this one. I’d say it is 90/100.
Made these with Bob’s Redmill gluten free flour (my daughter is celiac) – turned out awesome! All disappeared in 2 days. Thanks so much for the recipe 🙂
Just made this today with my 11 year old son who wanted to bake something from scratch. He chose your recipe and did most of the work himself. The muffins are delicious! We ended up with too much melted butter and cinnamon sugar topping; I think next time we will cut that in half and add more apples (we have a u-pick orchard right behind our house!). Definitely making again! Thanks for a great recipe and a wonderful memory! 🙂
What a treat to bake with your son. I always loved the times that my son and I baked together as well as when I baked with my mother. Those days make such sweet memories. So glad you loved the muffins!
Made these muffins yesterday. So easy and sooo yummy! Saving recipe as one of my go to’s!
Thanks, Sherry!
Without any specialty ingredients like buttermilk etc, this muffin is excellent. Very moist and flavorful, the proportions in the ingredient list are spot on. Will make on repeat.
Thanks, Lisa!
If you were doing mini loads what temp and time would you do?
These are so yummy! I didn’t think they would be sweet enough, but the apples really make them super sweet! I piped these into a donut pan instead of muffins, so fun!
Thanks, Kristi!
These were great! Made them as written except I subbed one teaspoon of the vanilla extract with almond. Only used 1/4 cup of butter for the topping. The topping is definitely necessary. So good!
Thanks, Rachel.
I’m going to try these using a GF blend. Can you use Grapeseed oil instead of butter ? Has anyone tried that yet ? And would you use the same ratio ?
Thanks
Melissa, I haven’t tried making these substituting the butter with grapeseed oil. Maybe someone else on here has.