These easy apple muffins are studded with juicy chunks of apple and toasty nuts. I love enjoying them with tea or coffee on a cool fall morning.
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My mom made these apple muffins for us last week while she was visiting. And I made them again for breakfast this morning. These muffins aren’t too sweet, and they’re not too indulgent. Rather, they’re the perfect pick-me-up to start a slow morning or a great healthy snack on a cool fall afternoon.
They’re on the healthy side, made with spelt flour or whole wheat flour, coconut oil, and almond milk. My favorite part of them is the juicy chunks of apple on the inside that make them wonderfully moist.
Change Up These Apple Muffins!
I love this apple muffin recipe as-is, but you could definitely play with the mix-ins or spices to vary your morning muffins. Here are some suggested variations:
- Use dried cherries, cranberries, or raisins in place of the nuts, or try a combination of the two.
- Add 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, cardamom, or ginger.
- Make them apple crumble muffins by brushing the tops with butter and sprinkling them with brown sugar!
If you love this apple muffin recipe…
Try this cinnamon apple crumble, an apple pie, or apple crisp next!
Apple Muffins
- 1 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat, or if gluten free use oat flour*)
- ¾ cup gluten-free blend (or all-purpose flour)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 large apple, peeled, cored and chopped
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 egg
- ⅓ cup sugar, white or brown
- ¼ cup coconut or canola oil
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, chopped apple and nuts. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, egg, sugar, and oil. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir just until combined. Divide batter into the muffin tins and bake for 18 minutes or until tops spring back when touched. Don’t overbake.
- Cool for ten minutes before removing from the tins. Lightly sprinkle coarse sugar on tops of muffins. The second time I made these (not pictured), I brushed on a little melted butter and sprinkled some brown sugar on top.
*make sure your oat flour is gluten free, some brands are not because they process their oats alongside other grains. (ie. the Bob’s Red Mill brand is gluten free).
Not my favorite.. the batter was so liquid I had to add a lot of flour. The muffin came out not sweet at all. It was better with melted salted butter on top (but what doesn’t hihi!)
Thanks for the recipe. I made this, with dates instead of sugar, coconut cream in stead of oil, and coconut milk instead of almond milk. I also baked it in a round pan. I liked it, but it was “mealy” I used bobs redmill gluten free baking mix. Does anyone have advice for how to make it better? Do i need to use oil? I’m trying to cook as clean as possible but struggle all the time with baking…
Hi Alisha, I recommend finding a recipe that specifically uses those ingredients – swapping flours, oils and sugars while baking does not always yield the same results. You might also want to experiment with a few different types of GF flour – some brands are more gritty than others. I’ve had the best luck with Pamela’s flour. Hope that helps!
Hey Jeanine! These muffins were delicious. Thanks for all of your awesome recipes. Do you think this recipe would turn out well if I baked it in a loaf pan?
I had some apples to use, so I googled Apple Muffins and you popped up. Then I got clicking around and printed several recipes. The muffins were the bomb!
do you have to add xanthan or guar gum in with the GF flour?
I made these yesterday, and they were delicious! My family agreed that the muffins strike the right balance between savory and sweet. I might add a splash of vanilla extract next time to add additional flavor.
So glad you liked them! Great idea with the vanilla 🙂
Just to clarify your gluten free tag….
Spelt flour is not gluten free. I hope that you will make note of this in your recipe so that people looking for gluten free recipes do not mistakenly use spelt flour and assume that they are not getting gluten. If oat flour is substituted, it needs to be from certified GF oats, like Bob’s Red Mill brand.
thanks, I clarified that in the recipe a bit more. I can see how that might have looked confusing especially since I used it with the gf all purpose flour.
They look and sound delicious to me!! And how sweet that your mom made them for you first 🙂
Looks delicious! I love apple muffins but have never made them myself. Might have to add this my brunch menu this weekend!
they look really yummy. i would be interested to try your recommendation of half oat flour and half almond flour. i usually bake with all almond flour which yields good results, but they’re always very moist. thanks for the suggestion!
Loved all your posts, this is one of the most beautiful webpage i have seen with so much variety. Kudos! 🙂
thanks Renu!
simple, homemade food is the best medicine:) take care.
Muffins always make me feel better. I hope you feel better too!
These look amazing! Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well…hope you get better soon!
I baked these this morning for my family. The recipe was easy to throw together (it helped that I have all ingredients on hand). For a gluten free recipe (I used oat flour and a mix of gf flours), the muffins were really moist and, as advertised, not too sweet. Thank you!
Hi Victoria,
So glad you liked them!
These look absolutely wonderful! 🙂
This sounds wonderful! I am making these this weekend.
They look like just the thing to brighten up any morning. Lovely. x
These sound great! I will be making tomorrow along with your vegan banana bread recipe. It’s beginning to warm up here in AZ so I am trying to get all of my baking urges out before it gets too hot! I did have a question about the muffin recipe. In the ingredients you list 1/3 cup of sugar, but then you mention agave nectar in the instructions. If I use agave nectar do I still use 1/3 cup? Thank you.
Hi Rebecca, that was a mistake, I just fixed it. You can use either or (not both). I tend to like baking with organic sugar rather than agave, but I’ve done both.
Hope you had a great time at SXSW! And I hope you feel better very soon.
These muffins look wonderful. I’ve been craving muffins lately, so I think these better go on the list for this week. Thanks!