This recipe for apple cinnamon muffins is easy to prepare, moist, and comes together with just one bowl.
A few weeks ago I taught a virtual cooking class to help raise money for Huntington’s Disease Society of America and came up with this recipe for apple cinnamon muffins to share. It’s a slight riff on my one-bowl apple cake recipe, so you know that these are easy to prepare.
What are the best apples for muffins?
Any firm apple that you’d use for baking would work well in this recipe. Some common, easily available apple varieties would be Granny Smith or Honeycrisp. Some other more niche varieties of apples that I like to use for muffins (or baking in general) are Cortland, Braeburn, and Winesap. As long as it has a firm flesh, then it is great to use.
How do you make easy apple cinnamon muffins?
Anytime I don’t need to bust out an electric mixer, then I consider it an easy baking recipe. So what sets this recipe apart from some others is that it doesn’t require you to first cream butter and sugar together. Instead, you more less just whisk all of the ingredients together by hand, similar to my banana bread recipe.
To make easy apple muffins, start by whisking together eggs, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. I then like to grate the apple directly into the bowl, but you can also dice it up if you prefer larger chunks of apple in your muffins. Next, whisk in the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Lastly, stir in the melted and cooled butter before transferring the batter to a tin to bake. And in no time, you’ve got fresh, flavorful apple cinnamon muffins.
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
This recipe for apple cinnamon muffins is easy to prepare, moist, and comes together with just one bowl.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup packed (light) brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large firm apple, such as Granny Smith or Honeycrisp, peeled and cut into large chunks
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- Baking cups or nonstick spray
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350˚F.
- Whisk the sugar, egg, and vanilla in a bowl until smooth. Grate the apple (or dice with a knife) and stir into the sugar mixture. Add in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and cardamom (if using), and stir until almost fully combined. Lastly, stir in the cooled melted butter until fully combined.
- Place the baking cups in a muffin tin or coat with nonstick spray. Divide the batter into the tin for 6 (or so) muffins. Bake in the middle rack of the oven until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean or with just a few crumbs, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving. To store, let cool completely and keep in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days.
It dosen’t tell me how many muffins this repice makes
The yield is at the top of the recipe card. This recipe makes 6 muffins.
Best recipe ever.
I love it .
Loved this recipe. Didn’t have milk on hand because we just ran out bur I added extra yogurt and it worked. Did pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon too. These are the best muffins I’ve made in awhile. I also mixed melted butter oats sugar and cinnamon as a topping instead. Worked great. Huge crowd pleaser!!
Love the oat crumble topping idea!
Am I missing the milk or is it a recipe that doesn’t call for milk?
This recipe doesn’t call for milk.
Love these muffins, best EVER.
Yay! Thank you!
Discovered this recipe this past fall and I’m defaulting to it months later for a quick warm breakfast on a snowy morning. Amazing recipe thank you!
I just made these for a quick homemade breakfast. They are amazing! I followed the recipe to the letter. I used a honey crisp apple. I do notice that they fall apart and crumble quite easy. Is there a way to make them more dense so this does not happen?
Sorry, but not sure how to switch up the recipe in that way off the top of my head.
I had leftover granny Smith apples from when I made apple pie and since they are too bitter to eat raw, I decided to make these! I tripled the recipe since I had 3 apples (which made 18 muffins total) and they turned out marvelously! I grated the apples and really like how they turned out. Perfect for breakfast!
My batter came out really thick, heavy almost.
I doubled it…could that be why? Is it supposed to be really thick & heavy?
They’re in the oven now so we will see how they come out..
Hmmm… It’s hard to say. How did they turn out?
These muffins are wonderful! So easy to make and taste delicious! I found it helpful to sift the dry ingredients first so it was lighter. Definitely good advice to make a double batch!
An excellent recipe! Easy and very tasty. I use small chunks of apple. I often double it to get 12 plump muffins. We love the flavor of the apples, brown sugar and cinnamon.