Apple Muffins
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These wholesome apple muffins are packed with spice and everything nice—think warm cinnamon, tart apples, and crunchy brown sugar tops.
Adapted from King Arthur Flour, these delicious apple muffins are made partially with whole wheat flour, which gives them a wholesome, nutty flavor and toasty-brown color. They’re also chockfull of tart apples and enriched with yogurt, so no one could ever accuse them of being cupcakes pretending to be muffins. A full tablespoon of cinnamon, plus a hint of nutmeg and cloves, fills your kitchen with the most amazing smell as they bake. But the best part might just be the muffin tops: the brown sugar topping bakes up into a crunchy, irresistible lid.
If you’d prefer something that you can slice and share, my apple bread has similar flavors and is equally crave-worthy.
“A perfect muffin recipe! The house smelled marvelous, too!”
What You’ll Need To Make Apple Muffins
- Butter: Adds richness and flavor, giving the muffins a tender, delicious crumb.
- Granulated Sugar & Brown Sugar: Sweeten the muffins and keep them moist. A little extra brown sugar gets sprinkled on top before baking for that irresistible crunchy lid.
- Egg: Helps bind the batter together and gives the muffins structure.
- Plain Low-Fat Yogurt or Greek Yogurt: Adds moisture and richness while reacting with the baking soda to give the muffins a nice lift.
- Whole Wheat & All-Purpose Flour: Using a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour gives you the best of both worlds—nutty flavor and a pretty, toasty color from the whole wheat, plus a light, tender texture from the all-purpose. (Pro tip: all whole wheat will make the muffins a bit dry. However, if you have white whole wheat flour, you can use that in place of both flours.)
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: These work together to help the muffins rise and stay fluffy.
- Cinnamon, Nutmeg & Cloves: Warm spices that pair perfectly with apples and make your kitchen smell amazing.
- Apples: Add moisture, natural sweetness, and little pockets of apple flavor throughout. Use firm baking apples that hold their shape—Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Gala, Jonagold, Jonathan, and Golden Delicious varieties are all great options.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Cream the butter and sugars. Combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Step 2: Add the egg and yogurt. Beat in the egg followed by the yogurt, scraping down the bowl as necessary. The batter may look a little curdled at this point—that’s normal.
Step 3: Mix in the dry ingredients. Add the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Beat on low speed until everything is just combined. The batter will be quite thick at this point—that’s exactly how it should be.
Step 4: Mix in the apples. Add the diced apples to the batter and fold them in.
Step 4: Prepare to bake. Grease a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Then scoop the batter evenly into the muffin cups (it’s easiest to use an ice cream scoop with a wire scraper). Sprinkle the tops generously with brown sugar.
Step 5: Bake. Bake the muffins for about 25 minutes, until golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely. Because the apples help to keep them moist, the muffins will keep nicely for several days, or you can freeze them for longer storage.
More Muffin Recipes You May Like
Spiced Apple Muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (packed) dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup plain low-fat yogurt or Greek yogurt
- 1 cup whole wheat flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled off
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled off
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 cups peeled cored, and finely chopped baking apples (you'll need 2 large apples)
For Topping
- 6 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 12-cup muffin pan with butter or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Add the egg and mix well, stopping to scrape the bowl if necessary.
- Beat in the yogurt. The batter will look a little curdled—that's okay.
- Add the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Beat on low speed until just combined. The batter will be very thick.
- Add the chopped apples and mix until just combined. Do not over-mix.
- Use an ice-cream scooper or large spoon to divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. The cups should be full. Sprinkle the 6 tablespoons of brown sugar evenly over top.
- Bake the muffins for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Remove the muffins from the oven, cool them for 5 minutes in the pan, then turn them out onto a rack to finish cooling completely.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions:The muffins can be frozen in an airtight container or sealable plastic bag for up to 3 months. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours on the countertop before serving. To reheat, wrap individual muffins in aluminum foil and place in a preheated 350°F (175°C) oven until warm.
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Made these the other night. The finely chopped apples were so tasty in the muffin and added another layer of sweetness. I substituted spelt flour and they turned with a nice and light texture. I was generous with the cinnamon and other spices as well. Well-liked by the family!
Can these muffins be frozen?
Sure, Bonnie – they freeze well.
Good morning! Have you ever made these as mini muffins? I always prefer mini muffins to regular (calorie count always spoils the fun!!). Would you provide the adjusted baking time and temp, if so? Thank you!!
Hi Lorrie, I haven’t but no reason it won’t work. I’d keep the temp the same but start checking for doneness at 12 to 15 min. Please LMK how they turn out!
Hello! Quick question- can I use a stand mixer instead of a hand mixer?
Yep – hope you enjoy!
With a stand mixer, the wire beater or the paddle?
(Love your recipes, so clear and easy to follow and very tasty results!)
Hi Leigh, I’d use the paddle (and so glad you like the recipes)! 🙂
This recipe was so easy to execute! I had to substitute light sour cream for the plain non-Greek yogurt (didn’t have plain yogurt). They baked up just great and we thoroughly enjoyed “taste-testing” them. Thank you!
Can I use all white flour as I don’t have whole wheat flour in my house right now. Do I need to change any liquid amounts if using all white? Thx
Sure, Susan, it’s fine to use all white flour here with no other adjustments. Hope you enjoy!
Hi Jenn- I love the Fall and I especially love recipes that use apples (reminds me of being at my grandparent’s home in Michigan where they had apples galore!). These Apple Spice muffins are super good! The only modifications I made was that I used 1/4 c. granulated sugar instead of 1/2 cup, and I used 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon in the batter instead of 1 tablespoon (decided to use some cinnamon for topping)…and, I topped them with 3 T. brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 c. walnuts (I’m a nut lover! 😀)
I made these muffins today and they came out perfect! So moist and delicious. Love your blog and every recipe I’ve made from your collection comes out great!
Hi Jenn, the muffins are awesome. I used all AP flour and reversed the sugar (1/2c brown & 1/4 cup regular) as we love the taste of brown sugar in baked goods. Muffins were moist & delicious!!! I’ve made a handful of your recipes and we have enjoyed them all. To this day, my wife tells anyone who will listen about how good my (your) bolognese sauce is. You make me look good and I am not a cook/chef by any stretch of the imagination!!! One last comment: I commend your measured & considerate responses to some of the questionable reviews….the one on the French apple cake comes to mind where your metric measurements are called into question. I believe the concept of weight vs volume was lost on the reviewer, however your response was one of CLASS and consideration. Bravo! It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, however some need a thousand words to generate the “mental” picture. Logic and critical thinking are great life tools, and what a world this could be if all possessed them! Thanks for all of your efforts to make us look good! Scott (Notachef)
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Absolutely wonderful muffins! I had to make some changes, because I didn’t have a couple of ingredients on hand. I doubled the recipe to make 24 muffins without any problems. Since I had only Greek yogurt, I measured about 3-4 tablespoons of water in my measuring cup and added the yogurt up to a cup and mixed in order to get the consistency of regular yogurt. Additionally, I only had 1 cup of yogurt, so I swapped in the same amount needed of unsweetened applesauce. At the same time, I reduced the sugar too, since that added some sweetness. Finally, since I woke up early to make these for a meeting, I quickly peeled my apples and grated them on the large side of a box grater in order to save time that I would have spent coring the apples and chopping finely. They turned out beautifully.
These were absolutely delicious! My only modification was that I diluted greek yogurt with milk to get the consistency of a low fat non-greek yogurt. They were perfect, and didn’t last long!
I can’t believe the original recipe called for more brown sugar for the topping; it was plenty sweet as is. One could probably get away with using even less, if desired.
Hi Jenn! Could you possibly add the metric measurements to this recipe?
I feel like I must have measured something wrong. The taste was wonderful, but the consistency wasn’t great, and they fell apart when I picked them up. I did add maybe 1/4 cup too many apples, and the pieces where probably not quite as finely chopped as yours. The problem was likely that I used a coarse whole wheat flour, as that was what I had available. I would love to try the recipe again with these changes, and hopefully they will turn out better!
Hi Elise, I just added the metric measurements for these. Perhaps you measured something incorrectly, but the coarse flour may have had a bit of an impact. Hope the metric measurements help the next time you bake these!
Thank you, Jenn!