Apple Muffins
These Cinnamon Apple Muffins are incredibly soft, full of warm cinnamon flavor, and bake up with tall, golden muffin tops. You’ll love my easy trick for a bakery-style rise. Every bite is loaded with tender bites of apple and an irresistible buttery crumb topping. This might become your favorite Fall muffin recipe!
Apple Muffins Video
Easy Apple Muffins Recipe
These apple muffins are my kind of cozy, nostalgic treat, and they make my whole house smell amazing! The combination of brown sugar and sour cream creates an unbelievably moist, tender crumb, while the cinnamon and tender apple chunks make each bite taste like fall.
I love seeing the look on my daughter’s face when she comes home from school to warm apple muffins. It’s seriously hard to stop at just one!
If you’ve been around my blog a while, you know my daughter and I share a love for baking muffin recipes together, especially developing new ones, like this Apple Muffins recipe. Some of our top favorites are Zucchini Muffins, Banana Muffins, Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Mixed Berry Muffins.
Apple Cinnamon Muffin Ingredients
Honestly, the hardest part of this recipe is measuring all the ingredients; the rest is easy. Make sure all the refrigerated items are at room temperature before beginning!
- Crumb Topping – flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and unsalted butter
- Dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. You’ll also need both granulated and light brown sugar (the molasses in brown sugar adds moisture, deeper flavor, and better color).
- Butter – unsalted butter at room temperature. This helps the butter mix evenly and helps to trap air bubbles for a fluffy crumb.
- Wet Ingredients – you can use sour cream or Greek yogurt (at room temperature). You’ll also need vanilla extract and eggs. Bring eggs to room temperature quickly by placing them in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes.
- Apples – Any crisp-tart apples, like Granny Smith, Macintosh, Golden Delicious, Honey Crisp, Gala, Pink Lady, Fuji, Braeburn, etc. will work great for this recipe, so use what you have on hand.
The BEST TOOL for Apple Recipes
If you love apple recipes, this apple peeler/corer/slicer is a must-have! It saves so much prep work, especially if you are making desserts like Apple Crisp, Apple Pie, or Applesauce, where you need a lot of apples. I know I talk about this a lot on social media, but it’s a total game-changer. I even got one for my Mom, and she loves it too.
How to Make Apple Muffins
This recipe is simple and foolproof, but don’t leave out the crumb topping — chef’s kiss!
- Prep – Preheat the oven to 425°F and line the muffin tin (I love these parchment liners because they are super non-stick).
- Make the crumb topping – Mix the crumb ingredients, and then use your fingers to pinch and rub the mixture until crumbs form.
- Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt).
- Mix the wet ingredients – In a separate large bowl, beat the butter and sugars, then beat in one egg at a time. Beat in vanilla, then sour cream and milk. I like using an electric hand mixer to easily mix the batter, but a stand mixer or mixing by hand works (it’s a good arm workout).
- Mix the apple muffin batter – In 3 parts, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing gently. Stop mixing when it just comes together without streaks of flour. Overmixing can make the muffin dense!
- Gently fold the apples into the batter. Scoop the batter into the muffin tin. The apple muffins will be generously filled, but it works. Add the crumbs to the center and lightly press them on.
Isha’s Pro Tip:
Most muffin recipes will tell you to fill the muffin cups less, while this recipe has the batter mounded over the top. Stick with me and you’ll see that this apple muffin recipe creates the most beautiful domed muffin top that looks like it came out of a professional bakery. P.S. (I use a heaping trigger-release scoop, which makes portioning easier with less mess).
- Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a rack. Once cooled completely, store in an airtight container on the counter up to 3 days.
The Secret to Those Tall Muffin Tops
Baking at 425˚F works best for apple muffins to give them a classic, tall, rounded bakery-style top. The high heat creates a burst of steam to quickly activate the leavening, which forces the muffins to rise instead of spreading. You also get a deeper golden brown color on top while the center stays moist, which is perfect for muffins with fruit pieces.
My apple muffins taste and smell just like Fall, and so they are irresistible to anyone passing by the serving plate. Make a batch of these muffins for a sweet, nostalgic treat everyone will love.
Cinnamon Apple Muffins
Ingredients
Method
- Prep – Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with liners and set aside.
- Make the crumb topping – In a small bowl, whisk together the 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Add the butter and use your fingertips to rub the mixture together until pea-sized crumbs form throughout and the mixture is no longer sandy. Set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients – In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, and 2 tsp cinnamon. Set aside.
- Mix the wet Ingredients – In a large bowl with a hand mixer (or in a stand mixer), cream together both sugars and butter on high speed for 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate between each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup milk and beat on medium speed until well blended.
- Combine the batter – Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 additions, gently mixing on low-medium speed. DO NOT OVER MIX- stop when it comes together and there are no dry streaks- the batter will be thick. Scrape down the bowl.
- Add the apples – Use a spatula to gently fold the diced apples into the batter until just combined. Divide the batter evenly between the lined muffin cups (a trigger-release scoop is helpful). It will seem like too much batter, but it works. Top each muffin with about 1 tablespoon of the crumb topping, keeping it toward the center. Lightly press the crumbs down.
- Bake at 425°F for 15-18 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the muffins cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and enjoy.
Notes
To freeze – Wrap cooled muffins individually in plastic wrap and pack into an airtight container. Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw on the counter or in the fridge overnight.
