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
That brush of brown butter is the magic ingredient! The best apple cinnamon muffin I’ve ever made. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks so much!
This came out great! I substituted the sugar in the topping for brown sugar because I lurve it. And I added a bit of nutmeg to the batter. It was delicious!
Thanks, Kate!
These are wonderful! I actually got 16 muffins out of this. I would recommend upping the amount of milk from 1/2 C to 3/4 C. The batter was so thick. I noticed with the first 12 I baked that they didn’t seem to rise well. When I added a little bit of milk for the other 4, they rose beautifully. Also, mine only needed about 25-27 minutes to bake, and maybe could’ve pulled them even sooner. However, YMMV. Flavor was amazing and my children raved over these! Will definitely be making again.
Thanks, Brenda! I’m so glad your children loved the muffins.
These are the best tasting apple muffins I’ve ever made! Great flavor and the cinnamon topping gives an extra sweet crunch <3
Thanks, Beth!
Simple and delicious, I have made these before for my family and coworkers and they love them. sometimes I put the topping as in the recipe and sometimes I use a crumble topping either way they love them.
Thanks. I bet these are good with a crumble topping.
Baked these this morning. They were excellent!! Made small tweaks like added pecans to the mix and added a pinch of ground cloves, nutmeg, and sea salt to the topping mix and swapped the granulated sugar for brown sugar. Since I had the oven on during prep time I didn’t need the full 30 minutes, only about 22 or 23 minutes. (About to bake the leftover batch from this morning❤️) Excellent instructions too. I don’t follow instructions well typically but these were right on. Thank you!
Thanks, Patty. I’m happy you enjoyed this recipe!
Nicely baked even I used ½ cup Greek Yogurt instead of butter, as I just finished them. We enjoyed with lemon icing on top as well.
Thank you for the beautiful recipe!
This recipe is one to hold on to! These muffins were a hit at my son’s swim practice. The boys gobbled them up in a hurry; asking for more!
Kimberly, I’m so glad the boys enjoyed them. Thanks!
Do these keep? How do you store them? Can they be frozen?
You can store these in an airtight container a couple of days or freeze to keep longer. You can freeze them after you add the topping, Caryn. You can either let them thaw at room temperature or heat 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.
These muffins turned out amazing!! I used gluten free flour and you would have never known they were gluten free. Everyone in my family loved them. I would love to turn this into a bread. Any suggestions on if baking would be different as far as temp or time?
Jackie, I haven’t made these muffins as a bread. However, several have said they have baked this recipe in a loaf pan and then sliced it as a bread. Reduce the temperature to 350ºF and bake about 45 – 50 minutes.
This Recipe was the first ever muffin recipe everyone in my family could agree on. I hate apples but loved these! My son loves apples and said that the apple flavor should be bumped up a bit. My other 2 kids and husband loved them and were even sneaking them. Thank you so very much for this recipe! It may be a new normal
Thank you, Amy. That is awesome. So glad everyone loved them.
Absolutely delicious. Just made them for my family, they loved it. Will definitely be keeping this recipe.