These delicious apple cinnamon muffins are so soft and stay moist for days! A one-bowl recipe, they can easily be made with whole grains.
A simple, homey muffin, these apple cinnamon muffins are lightly sweet and perfectly spiced with cinnamon making them the quintessential fall muffin.
One-Bowl Muffin Batter
The apple cinnamon muffin batter is a classic case of wet ingredients meets dry ingredients.
After which: the apples enter the picture and are stirred into the batter.
Pro Muffin Tip: don’t over mix the batter. Stir just until ingredients are incorporated. Over mixing can mean death to a light and fluffy muffin. So don’t do it, ok?
Best Type of Apples to Use
These muffins taste best when the apples are firm and crisp, sweet and tart.
I prefer using Granny Smith or Honeycrisp apples for this recipe. The best batch ever included half of each! The muffins are adaptable to any number of apple varieties, but stay away from mealy-textured apples or apples that don’t have a lot of natural flavor.
The size of the chopped apples is a matter of personal preference.
In the batter picture above, the size of the apples is a bit deceiving – the pieces look bigger than they are, because the bowl is small. I prefer a small chop/fine dice for this muffin recipe. You might even try grating the apples if you want a more subtle texture.
Whole Grain Option
The apple cinnamon flavors work very well with whole wheat flour for a slightly heartier and nuttier taste and texture.
If using whole wheat flour, stick to a white wheat variety (for a lighter texture). Adding half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour is a great place to start. The muffins will be more dense and a bit heavier if using 100% whole wheat.
It’s important always, but especially with whole wheat flour, not to pack too much flour into the measuring cup or over measure the flour. Fluff the flour really well before measuring. Then scoop and level off (or better yet, use a kitchen scale {aff. link} to weight the ingredients!).
These apple cinnamon muffins stay soft and moist much longer than other muffins thanks to the fresh apples in the batter. And they freeze great, too.
They are perfect for breakfast, packing in school lunches, for an after-school snack and everything in between.
Even though apples often get pigeon-holed into fall baking, these muffins are a fantastic quick baking option all year round.
Welcome to the world, little apple cinnamon muffins. You make life better (and a lot yummier). 😍
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Apple Cinnamon Muffins
- ½ cup (113 g) butter, melted (see note for using oil)
- ⅓ cup (71 g) granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup (71 g) packed light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup buttermilk (see note for regular milk)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ⅔ cup (237 g) all-purpose or white whole wheat flour (see note)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 1 ½ cup (160-170 g) small-diced apples (see note)
- Coarse, turbinado or brown sugar, for sprinkling (optional)
Prevent your screen from going dark
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
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In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, buttermilk, egg and vanilla until well-combined.
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Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Whisk until just combined (it’s ok if there are a few dry streaks).
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Add the apples and stir until evenly combined – don’t over mix.
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Divide the batter evenly among the muffin tin, filling the cups 2/3 full.
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Sprinkle the top of each muffin with a bit of coarse, turbinado or brown sugar, if using.
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Bake for 17 to 18 minutes until the tops of the muffins spring back lightly to the touch.
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Remove the muffins from a tin to a cooling rack to cool completely. These muffins are tasty warm, but even more delicious as they cool and the flavors have time to deepen.
Buttermilk: regular dairy milk (or possibly a dairy-free milk) can be substituted for the buttermilk – the muffins may not be quite as light and fluffy (the buttermilk helps with that!). If you don’t have storebought buttermilk, an easy substitution is using 1/2 milk + 1/2 sour cream or plain yogurt (for this recipe, that would be about 3 tablespoons of each).
Flour: if using whole wheat flour, stick to a white wheat variety (for a lighter texture). I prefer using half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. The muffins will be more dense and slightly heavier if using 100% whole wheat (still yummy).
Apples: use apples that are firm and crisp, sweet and tart. I prefer using Granny Smith or Honeycrisp apples for this recipe (half of each!), but they are very adaptable to any number of apple varieties.
Serving: 1 muffin, Calories: 195kcal, Carbohydrates: 28g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Cholesterol: 37mg, Sodium: 183mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 14g
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