These fluffy and easy Apple Spice Muffins with applesauce are filled with pieces of apple and deliciously spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. The perfect breakfast to start a chilly Autumn day!
I highly recommend eating one of these muffins warm out of the oven smeared with a generous pat of butter. It's just so good! My banana gingerbread muffins are also delicious with a smear of butter.
Pumpkin recipes sure get a lot of airtime in the Fall months. I love pumpkin recipes (like these mini pumpkin cupcakes or this delightful moist pumpkin bread) but I also really appreciate apples in baking during this season. A beautiful apple crisp, apple pie, or this amazing caramel apple cake - all such cozy recipes!
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⭐️Why You Need to Make This Recipe
- Fast + Easy. These apple cinnamon muffins are super quick and simple to bake!
- Perfect for breakfast or snacks. A batch of these muffins for the week make for yummy grab-and-go snacks!
- Full of comforting spices. These apple muffins are spiced with a blend of cinnamon, cloves, and allspice which compliment the apples well.
🧈 Ingredients for Apple Spice Muffins
- Salted Butter - I like to use salted butter in most of my baking recipes. See the substitutions section below in the post if you are using unsalted butter.
- Brown Sugar - Dark or light brown sugar both work for this recipe.
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Buttermilk - Helps make the muffins moist.
- Applesauce - A wonderful source of additional moisture and a little more apple goodness.
- All-Purpose Flour - I have not tested this recipe with gluten-free flour or any other kind of flour. Let me know how it goes if you try this recipe with a different flour!
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda - A combination of baking powder and baking soda achieves a perfect rise and texture in these muffins.
- Cinnamon - Apples and cinnamon go together perfectly!
- Cloves
- Allspice - The classic apple spice.
- Salt - Helps bring out the flavour in baked goods.
- Apples - Peeled (or unpeeled if you prefer) and chopped thinly.
- Raw Sugar - Also called turbinado sugar. Sprinkle on top of the muffins for a sparkly crunchy topping.
See recipe card for measurements.
🥣 Instructions
Step 1: Whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, buttermilk, and applesauce.
Step 2: In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and salt.
Step 3: Add the peeled and chopped apples to the dry ingredients and fold in.
Step 4: Fold the dry ingredients and apples into the wet ingredients. Don't overmix!
Step 5: Scoop the muffin batter into a muffin tin lined with parchment paper liners (or greased).
Hint: Be super careful to not overmix your muffin batter! Just mix until no streaks of flour remain.
💡 Substitutions
- Salted Butter - You can definitely use unsalted butter instead. Just add an additional ¼ teaspoon of salt to the recipe.
- Brown Sugar - You can make homemade brown sugar by mixing white sugar and a bit of molasses.
- Buttermilk - Mix 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice into milk, if you don't have buttermilk.
❄️ Storage
Store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
💡Top tip
Crunchy apples are good, but not inside a baked muffin. Slice the apples nice and thin so that they soften while baking.
❓FAQ
The top secret to making good muffins is: do not overmix the batter! Mix just until the dry ingredients are incorporated with no streaks of flour remaining. A few lumps here and there are completely okay, they will work their way out during baking.
Granny Smith, Gala, Honeycrisp, or Ambrosia apples are all good options.
🍎 More Muffin Recipes
Looking for other muffin recipes? Try these:
📖 Recipe
Easy Apple Spice Muffins
Equipment
- 12-count muffin tin
- parchment paper muffin liners
- mixing bowl
- measuring cups & spoons
- whisk
Ingredients
- ½ cup salted butter, melted *
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup buttermilk **
- ¼ cup applesauce
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups peeled & finely chopped apples
- 1 tablespoon raw turbinado sugar, to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Line a 12-count muffin tin with parchment paper muffin liners.
- Whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, buttermilk, and applesauce in a large mixing bowl.
- In another bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Fold in the chopped apples. Add to the wet ingredients and stir just until no streaks of flour remain.
- Fill each muffin liner to the top with batter and sprinkle a little bit of raw sugar on top of each muffin. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!
Liz Franklin
Such a lovely, soft muffin recipe! Very straight forward and easy to follow. They were wonderful to eat for breakfast and they would make great snacks as well! 😀
Naomi
Thanks, Liz! I'm glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Naomi
Kaleigh Stroink
The applesauce and apple pieces keep these muffins soft. Perfect baking time too. A great breakfast food!
Naomi
Thank you! I'm happy to hear you loved the muffins!
Naomi
Taryn
I think I'm getting addicted to your recipes. 😂 These muffins are amazing in my books because they are (1) super easy and fast, (2) use basic ingredients that I already had in the kitchen, and (3) so yummy and fall-ish tasting! (If that's a thing. 😂) Keep 'em coming!
Taryn
Oh, and they get 5 stars all the way! 😉
Naomi
Haha! Thank you so much, Taryn!
Naomi