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 followed all instructions exactly as written, but found these Apple 🍎 muffins to be dryer than they should have been. Flavor wise, they are delicious. I think I will increase the milk if I make these again.
Lorraine, I’m sorry your muffins were dry. One of the major causes of dry muffins is leaving the muffins in the muffin tin to cool. The muffins continue to “cook” from the heat in the muffin tin and will become dry while cooling. Leave the muffins in the pan no longer than about 5 minutes before removing them and placing muffins on a cooling rack to cool so they do not overbake. Also, overmixing can cause muffins to be dry.
I made this today but with 1/2 cup Greek yogurt instead of the eggs, and added the zest of 1/2 lemon. YUM!!!!!! These were so delicious! great texture too. I made only half of the cinnamon topping and even that was too much leftover. I also only needed to cook them for 25 mins 🙂
Thanks, Christie. I’m glad you like these muffins.
Absolutely delicious. I decided not to do the cinnamon sugar topping, although they would look nicer with it. I prefer a less sweet muffin!💖
I want to sub the milk and sugar for Private Selection Apple Pie A La Mode Milk, from Krogers. It’s a sweetened milk, kind of like chocolate milk, but apple flavored. How should I go about replacing the ingredients so that the texture stays the same? There are already 19g sugar in one cup of the flavored milk, so I was wondering if I can eliminate the added sugar?
I have never used this substitution so I can’t tell you how to make the changes to maintain the same texture as the recipe.
Just made these muffins. Delicious! After the last step, I drizzled on what was left of the butter and springled on the remaining cinnamon sugar. I also added a little chopped walnuts (just my preference). The muffins were nice and moist with a light crust on top. This recipe is a keeper. Thx Robyn!
Thank you, DeeDee. I will have to try these with the walnuts. That sounds delicious.
Robyn,
I want to add a cup of pecans, so should I adjust anything so I can add them
I haven’t made these with added nuts, Cat.
these are delicious!! I didn’t do the topping and I’m glad I didn’t because they have the perfect sweetness level that I like.
I used 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of oats flour, and used coconut sugar as that’s all I had. They didn’t rise I guess because of the flour substitution… but overall, this is a keeper. Thank you!
Nicole, I’m so glad you like these muffins. They won’t rise as much with oat flour as they do with just all-purpose.
It would have been nice to put the update on the sugar cinnamon recipe for topping the muffins at beginning of the recipe.
Have you made these muffins in a jumbo muffin tin? Wondering how that may change the baking time.
Carrie, I haven’t made these as jumbo muffins but I would use same 375º F. heat and bake just a few minutes longer. I would start checking them at 30 minutes. Hope you enjoy them.
How do I cream the butter and sugar properly? I have followed the instructions. Left butter on the counter for a day to get to room temperature. However the sugar would not combine with the butter. Unfortunately I have wasted a lot of butter because of this. Do you have any tips?
Morgan, in a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer), cream together the butter until light and fluffy with an electric mixer. Slowly add sugar (one-half cup at a time) making sure to fully incorporate each before adding another. Mix together until light, fluffy, and white, about 3 minutes. I hope this helps.
Could I make these in foil baking cups?
Glenda, you could use foil baking cups instead of cupcake liners if you want. I hope you enjoy the muffins.
These are so good! They have the right amount of sweetness and cinnamon. I baked them in a donut pan, so they only took about 20 minutes, and they turned out so fluffy and tender. I’m definitely keeping this recipe.
Thanks, Kim. I’m happy you enjoyed these muffins.