These Apple Muffins with Cinnamon and Brown Sugar are a great Fall inspired dessert. Because they’re not overly sweet, they’re perfect for breakfast too! What I love the most about this recipe is how easily it comes together.
What Apples to Use in these Muffins?
I love using honeycrisp apples in these muffins. I don’t use a lot of artificial flavors and extra flavors for these muffins, so the apples I use really have to shine and bring in lots of flavor on their own. I really think that honeycrisp apples make a great difference for these muffins.
If you can’t find honeycrisp apples, feel free to use Fuji or Gala apples.
If you love apple recipes like I do, feel free to check out my apples oatmeal breakfast, apple cake and apple bourbon cocktail. I even add apples to blueberry jam to thicken it up without pectin:).
Let’s talk Ingredients:)
So there are some ingredients I keep constant for this recipe and some others that I tend to vary depending on what I have available.
- Apples – I tend to use about 2 apples for this recipe, usually honeycrip variety when available.
- Eggs – I use 2 large eggs for this recipe.
- Brown sugar – I use brown sugar for the batter as well as for the muffin top.
- Cinnamon – same as with brown sugar, I use it in batter and muffin top.
- Butter – butter makes these muffins soft, I tend to use about 1 stick of butter. You can also do half stick of butter and 4 tbsps of avocado oil if you want to minimize butter quantity.
- Vanilla extract – adds such depth of flavor, it’s always a must ingredient for me.
- Yogurt – whole milk yogurt is best.
- Flour – I use (affiliate) All Purpose Flour for this recipe.
- Baking powder – it helps the muffins puff up.
- Sea salt – just a pinch but it makes a difference.
- Optional – 1 to 2 ounces of Rum or Apple Juice, it helps give batter the right consistency.
Please note that I used regular yogurt which is thinner than Greek yogurt. If you only have Greek yogurt, then batter will be thicker but you can thin it up by using an extra egg or extra apple juice.
Step by Step Process – Baking Apple Muffins
Now these apple muffins are kind of rustic on purpose. I usually bake them as I’m handling lots of other things, so they’re meant to be non-complicated.
Step 1 – peel apples, remove the core, chop them roughly and then add brown sugar and cinnamon. Mix them and set aside. Natural juices from the apples will start pooling in the bottom and that will add more flavor to the muffins.
Step 2 – Mix dry ingredients, AP flour, baking powder and sea salt. Set aside.
Step 3 – Use a whisk or hand held mixer to mix eggs until creamy. Add vanilla extract slowly as you mix, yogurt and finally softened butter. Add 1-2 ounces of either apple juice or rum (either option works great with this muffins – alcohol evaporates when baking).
Step 4 – slowly spoon in the dry ingredients as you mix.
Step 5 – fold in the apples/cinnamon/brown sugar mix.
Step 6 – scoop the batter with ice cream scooper and place it in the baking tray over muffin liners. Distribute evenly to 12 slots.
Step 7 – Mix brown sugar and cinnamon and add it over the batter to create muffin tops.
Step 8 – Bake muffins in a pre-heated oven for 5 minutes at 400 degrees F and then for 16 to 17 minutes at 350 degrees F. (At least the first time you bake them do the toothpick test to ensure they’re done and toothpick comes out clean – each oven is different so once you know how long it takes to bake in yours, then you can stick to that).
Apple Muffins with Cinnamon and Brown Sugar
Equipment
- 12 muffins liners
Ingredients
Muffin Batter
- 2 apples
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup whole milk yogurt
- 1 stick butter 113 grams butter
- 2 oz apple juice or about 1 ounce rum if you like the taste
Muffin Top
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Muffin Batter
- Peel, core and roughly chop apples. Add cinnamon and brown sugar, mix and set aside.
- Mix all purpose flour, baking powder and pinch of salt. Set the dry ingredients aside.
- Using a handheld mixer or whisk, mix the eggs in glass mixing bowl until creamy. Slowly add vanilla extract as you mix. Then add yogurt, followed by softened butter. Also add apple juice or rum and mix thouroughly.
- Slowly spoon in the dry ingredients mix. When you have incorporated all the dry ingredients, use a spatula to add the apples mixed with brown sugar and cinnamon. Make sure to scrape and add to the batter any juice released from the apples as they sat as that is full of flavor and aroma. Fold the apples into the batter.
- Set up the baking tray with liners. Using an ice cream scooper, dispense the batter into each slot. Make sure you fill up the baking liners evenly with batter.
Muffin top
- Mix brown sugar with cinnamon and cover the top of the batter that is already distributed in muffin liners inside the baking tray.
- Bake muffins at 400 degrees F for 5 minutes, lower temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for another 16 minutes until the muffins are done. Use a toothpick to perform the toothpick test, insert it in and if it comes out clean, the muffins are done. Rest for about 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Feel free to add pecans or walnuts to this recipe as it comes out fantastic as well.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this recipe for later please pin one of the pictures of these muffins in your boards in Pinterest. It’ll make it easy for you to retrieve this recipe later. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know in comments. Any feedback is appreciated!
Thank you for reading my blog, it means a lot to me and my family!
More Muffin Recipes
Here are some more muffin recipes you might want to check out:
- Blueberry muffins with Meyer lemons
- Cornbread muffins with cheese
- Pumpkin muffins with white chocolate chips
Leave a Reply