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 was looking for a recipe to use up some granny smith apples I had lying around. (I was getting burnt out on apple pie) I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest and I can say I have used this recipe twice and it’s a big hit in our family. I used about 1/4 cup of cinnamon, but it was still amazing. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Sara!
What would I have to do to add oats to this? Would I have to add or subtract anything??
I love these soooooo much!! My nieces came to stay with and instead of pancakes or cereal, I made these for breakfast and snack time! Love, love, love!!!!!
If you want to sub oats in, I’d replace some of the flour with them. I have not tried it in this recipe, but I’ve made an apple crisp that called for 1 1/2 cups flour, and I used 1 cup flour and 1/2 cut oats and they turned out great!
These are excellent muffins! I changed a few things up, substituting in about 3/4 c whole wheat flour for the white, and choosing to use 1/2 c each of white and brown sugar. They also only took about 25 minutes to bake for me, but my oven notoriously runs a bit hot. I’ll be writing this recipe down though!
Has anyone tried making this in a 9×13 pan instead of baking them in individual muffins? Wondering how that would work? They sound divine! 🙂
Made them today with granny smith apples.. the notation says 15 minutes. can anyone tell me how they chop the apples and get everything ready in 15 minutes? They Very good not sure I will make them again because of the time involved. Also not diet friendly- 1 cup butter and 1/2 cup sugar. I’m sure after having one with coffee tomorrow morning I’ll be ready to make them again.Cutting the cinnamon in the topping would also be good. I like the suggestion brushing the butter on. Also would like 9 x 13 pan. to try baking it in a 9 x 13 pan.
I don’t think there would be enough batter for a 9×13 pan. An 8×8 pan would probably give you good size bars/cake.
My 11 year old daughter loves making these and my husband son pace the kitchen waiting for them to be ready. They are so delicious. She finds that the topping mixture is enough to sprinkle on top of three batches of muffins and keeps it in the larder in a sandwich bag between baking sessions. She also brushes on the melted butter with a pastry brush rather than dipping.
These are fantastic, I made them first with sprinkled cinnamon sugar and they were lovely. But this time I made them with the suggested topping and they’re fantastic, I used just over 1/4C cinnamon because I didn’t have enough but it was perfectly lovely. I have added raisins to my mix and also make it with dairy free spread. This is a keeper.
I just made these with my 8 year old daughter. She loves apples and cinnamon! We omitted the topping and replaced it with a cinnamon sugar sprinkled on when they were hot out of the oven. These are heavenly! I will definitely be making them again and will try the topping next time! Thank you!!
Hello there,
I tried making your muffins yesterday and they were glorious. I modify the toppings by replacing it with some caramelized walnut instead to give it more crunch 🙂
I don’t have a website/blog on my food yet. But you can see my cooking/baking/eating adventure on my Facebook page 🙂
Thanks for such simple & great recipe again!
Is there really 1/2 cup of cinnamon in the topping? Sounds excessive to me.
Hi Nancy,
That’s what I use. Of course, you can make it however you think you’d prefer it. Hope you enjoy them!
I reduced the amounts to 1/4 cup each of cinnamon and sugar. I had LOTS left over (great for cinnamon toasts at a later time). I think I would reduce even further though so that it was more sugar and less cinnamon in the ratio – maybe 2 to 1.
Still, they were DELICIOUS. This is my new apple cinnamon muffin go-to recipe!
I made these yesterday for a group of friends coming for coffee this morning. I made a second type from another website so they’d have a choice between 2 kinds. However, ever single person saw the sugar/cinnamon topping and chose yours over the other kind! Compared them to a combination of apple pie and cinnamon sugar toast! Yummm!
Thanks for not being a “secret recipe keeper”.