Apple Crumble Muffins

What kind of apples are good for apple muffins?

Did you know that there are more than 2,500 varieties of apples grown all over the world? However, there are specific qualities you want to look for when picking apples for cooking or baking.

Apples for baking should be firm and able to keep their shape and consistency during baking as much as possible. Top candidates are Granny Smith Apples, Honeycrisp, and Golden Delicious!

Moist apples like Red Delicious, Gala, Fuji, and McIntosh apples are great options for snacking, but I do not recommend them for baking. They get a bit soft and mushy when baked.

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Your family and friends will think you’re an expert once you serve them these bakery-style cinnamon muffins. Or, they’ll think you got them from a fancy cafe!

• The ingredients are all baking staples—you probably already have them on hand. If not, they are all easily accessible at your local grocery store.
• The instructions are straightforward. Even beginners can whip up a batch of these muffins.
• They will fill your house with a delicious aroma!
• You can make these muffins ahead.
• They’re ready in 30 minutes prep time and baking time combined.

I recommend you also check out these lemon blueberry muffins, especially if you’re a fan of fruits in your pastries! And try these salted caramel pumpkin muffins if you are making these in the fall.

🥘 Ingredients

The ingredients you’ll need to make these apple crumble muffins are all easy to find at your local grocery store.

• All-Purpose Flour: This type of flour gives just enough hold to the muffins. Bread flour would make it dense, while cake flour would make it crumbly and lighter.
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda: The main leavening ingredients of the muffins. Make sure that they are still good and have not yet gone past the expiration date, especially if you don’t bake a lot. If they’re expired, they won’t make the muffins rise.
• Ground Cinnamon: A little goes a long way so don’t be tempted to add more than what the recipe recommends.
• Eggs: Want to know how to spot fresh eggs? Place an egg in a bowl of water. If it sinks and lies on its side, it’s fresh. Old eggs will float.
• Butter: Try to find good quality butter such as Land O’Lakes.
• Greek Yogurt: It adds moisture and a creamy and tangy taste to the muffins.
• Brown Sugar: It has more moisture content compared with white sugar, so it’ll make your muffins more moist and also adds a beautiful brown shade to it.
• Vanilla Extract: Just a tad bit to serve as a base for the cinnamon flavor.
• Apples: Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Honeycrisp are great choices for this.

See recipe card for quantities.

🔀 Substitutions

Greek Yogurt: Aside from the added protein, yogurt gives baked goodies and cakes a delicious creamy tangy flavor. But in case it’s not available, you can easily replace it with buttermilk. Use only 3/4 of the amount of yogurt needed as buttermilk is moister than yogurt.

🌈 Variations / Options / Add-Ins

What’s great about making baked goods at home is that you can customize them to your liking. Here are some suggestions:

• Nuts: For added texture throughout the muffin, you can toss in some nuts like pecans, walnuts, and sliced almonds. I recommend toasting them first to help bring out their delicious aroma.
• Caramel: If you put a caramel candy in the middle of each portion of muffin batter before baking, you’ll have a delicious caramel surprise later. Or, you can drizzle your favorite caramel sauce over these muffins instead.
• Vegan: Make vegan apple crumble muffins by replacing the eggs with flax egg, yogurt with vegan yogurt, and butter with vegan butter.

Looking for something easier? Check out my apple pie bites recipe. All you’ll need to make them are wonton wrappers, apple pie filling, cinnamon sugar, and oil.

🥄 Equipment Needed / Helpful Tools

• Mixing bowls
• Wire whisk or electric mixer
• Muffin tins – preferably jumbo like what I used

🔪 How to Make Apple Crumble Muffins

This version of Apple Crumble Muffins comes together in about 30 minutes total time. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you:

Step 1: Preheat and prepare

Preheat the oven to 400F. Preheating the oven is necessary to achieve a good rise on the muffins, so be sure not to skip this step.

Meanwhile, line your muffin tin with muffin liners so that they’re ready to be filled later. Set aside.

Step 2: Combine dry mixture

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cinnamon until well-combined. Set the flour mixture aside.

Step 3: Combine wet mixture

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy (this should take about 2 minutes). Then beat in the eggs, Greek yogurt, and vanilla extract until well-combined.

Step 4: Put batter together

Add the dry ingredients to the batter, then stir in the chopped apples. Be careful not to overmix, otherwise your muffins might be dry, tough, or gummy.

Step 5: Portion the batter

I recommend using an ice scream scoop to make the job easier. Distribute the muffin batter evenly among the prepared muffin liners, filling them as close to the top as possible.

Step 6: Make streusel

Simply combine flour, melted butter, cinnamon, and both sugars together. I recommend not mixing it all the way through to really achieve that beautiful crumbly texture.

Step 7: Assemble and bake

Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly on top of the muffin batter. Bake at 400° F for 8 minutes, then reduce heat to 350° F and continue to bake for 15-20 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Serve and enjoy your homemade apple crumble muffins! 

🍽️ Serving Suggestions

These apple muffins are already delicious on their own! But if you want to amp it up, you can serve them with Make Ahead Breakfast Casserole Cups.

👩‍🍳 Pro Tips

Here are some must-know tips for making these streusel muffins:

• Start with room temperature ingredients. They will be easier to combine and will give the best texture when baked.
• Use an ice scream scoop to portion the batter. 
• Weigh the ingredients using a kitchen scale for more accurate measurements. This would be helpful especially for beginners.
• You might also want to use an oven thermometer to ensure that your oven is at the correct baking temperature.
• Do not overmix the batter. Never ever overmix any batter for any baked goods that you’ll make. Otherwise, they’ll turn out tough, dry, and gummy. Mix them just until combined.

❓ Recipe FAQs

🙏 Pairing

I love serving my Apple Crumble Muffins with these: