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
would it be possible to bake this as a coffee cake??
I have not made this as a cake, Marsha, but other people have commented that they have.
Perfect little treat! My granddad’s partner gave me some cooking apples she had grown to bake with so I made this recipe and it is amazing! thank you 🙂
Isabelle, how sweet that she gave you the homegrown apples for your muffins. I’m glad you loved them.
Absolutely love these muffins nice and moist and a good way to use my apples from my apple tree..
How lucky you are to have an apple tree, Lisa. I know these muffins taste even better with fresh homegrown apples.
I am so excited I couldn’t wait to leave a comment. We are swimming in fresh eggs from our new backyard chickens and we took an early fall trip to an apple orchard and I always pick far more than I ever should lol that being said, I’m so excited to make this recipe over and over to use up all of our new goodies! Also a great recipe for my preschooler to help with. She loved mixing the diced apples by hand with flour and cinnamon!
Caitlin, this muffin recipe is perfect for little ones to help make. I always loved for my son to help me when he was small. You are making such sweet memories.
I made these without the sugar topping. I usually love muffins without coating. I greased my muffin tray with butter like you said but usually i would use paper cups. I could not find them today. I tried what you described and it was amazing they came out perfect and looking like muffins. They came out easily of the tray. All went fine and was thoroughly baked. I kept the peel of the apples because they are from my yard and without pesticides and the eggs from my dear hens . I am pleased with the discovery as i am not very good at cooking usually. I did not ruin it this time. I was impressed at myself. Thank you for your tasty and easy to do recipe. From Gigi in Canada Quebec
Thanks, Gigi. I’m happy these muffins were a success for you. I love these plain without the topping at times as well.
This is a wonderful recipe! They were awesome!
So glad you enjoyed the muffins. Thanks, Susie.
Can glutenfree flour be used instead ?
You can use gluten free flour in this recipe. Hope you enjoy.
Just made these gorgeous muffins! I adore these, I ended up using a big Cosmic Crisp apple and also half of a Granny Smith apple, how delightfully flavorful! Thank you for sharing this recipe <3
Thanks for the tip on the apples, Mike. So glad you loved these muffins.
these were so good. made them for my cooking class today and everyone that had one liked them. I will definitely be making these again someday.
Thanks, Sally. I’m so glad everyone loved these muffins.
Absolutely love these. Super easy to make and delicious. Bringing some to a meet-up with my friends! It took a little longer for me to prepare because I don’t bake often but it was still easy and fun. (I added some ingredients like raisins to the batter and crumbled pretzels to the topping)
So happy you love these muffins, Moth. I’m sure they were great with the raisins and the crumbled pretzels.