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I really enjoyed these muffins. So many breakfast muffins are overly sweet but these were just right. I used Honey Crisp apples in mine and they were delicious!
Shawna
MUFFINS FOR EVERYONE!!!!
Shouting is necessary because we’ve got good news over here: last week I took my most simplest and favoritest old fall-time cinnamon sugar apple cake recipe and made it into little – okay fine fine fine – HUGE whole wheat muffins. These pillowy beauties are not only mostly-good-for-you thanks to the whole wheat flour, coconut oil, less sugar, and deliciously sweet apple niblets in every happy bite, but also, and more importantly, they include a crunchy, delicate cinnamon sugar layer that is baked right into their adorable puffy tops.
In my dream life, you would walk over here this morning because 1) fall morning walks are everything, and 2) you’d be my neighbor, obviously, and we would sit on my couch in only the most comfiest jeans and sweatshirts with messy bun top knots (okay okay, you can do your hair, but I’ll be having a messy bun top knot because I don’t know any other way) and we would ravenously eat warm cinnamon sugar apple muffins and slurp on big mugs of strong coffee + cream and talk about life, because talking about life means more long stories which means more time to eat muffins. Right from the start, there would be absolutely zero pretense about eating just one muffin- no way no how. But there would be lots of good feelings and generally delicious, cinnamon sugary muffinery going on up in the howwwwwse.
This weekend I’ve been a muffin-making-machine because tomorrow (ahh! too soon!) Bjork and I are going on a local TV station to talk about things like pumpkin muffins and Pinch of Yum and Food Blogger Pro. Annnnnd I’m totally nervy because as much as I want to be kewl and brave and don’t-care-relaxed-all-the-time, the word Anxious with a capital A probably best describes how I am about life things in general. So I’m stuffing my face with muffins to dull the feelings, er, no no no, I meant practicing making the muffins so I can be a completely confident muffin-maker and normal person on live television. But maybe it’s a little of both.
When we were at the State Fair this year, we tried to get on TV by standing behind the evening news anchors during their live broadcast. We were so far out of the literal spotlight that we were just dark blobs floating around in the nothingness of the background and absolutely no one could have seen us if even they tried. But you guys. They did the count down and then the news started and we just stood there in the pitch black and no one could see us in a million years and I COULDN’T EVEN BREATHE. Like, sweaty palms, racing heart, acting a little too goofy to overcompensate for the inner nervousness of just being within 20 feet of a live TV broadcast.
I am honestly laughing right now. Am I really this person?
Just… ugh. Gimme a muffin.
When get our five seconds of TV fame on the local news tomorrow, I’ll be making some nice fallish pumpkin muffins, but it will be a tie for the muffins that I’ll be dreaming about in my mind: the pumpkies or these apple muffins. Because as much as I love pumpkin, sometimes the internet just overwhelms me with everything pumpkin ever. And at that point, a girl just needs some sweet and juicy fall apples in her life.
Every fall we try to go to the apple orchard at least once to get apples and do all the cutesy stuff like ride around on the hay rides as adults with no children, stuff our faces silly with warm, fresh apple donuts, and take a series of selfies while safely hidden in the Honeycrisp row – hashtag appleorchard. This year we haven’t orcharded yet and I’m hoping it’s not too late because it’s one of my fave times of the year, and besides, it’s also usually the catalyst for the annual fall dream to buy a big house out in the country and let all of our little overall-wearing chilluns run free in the fields and live off of apples from the neighbors orchard. And I sort of love that dream.
Even though this year’s apples were bought in a pre-packed large plastic bag at the closest possible chain grocery store and there have been no charming or romantic fall visits to the apple orchard, the yummy apple muffin smell was still the same as usual and the good feelings (cozy // fall // Christmas! never too soon.) still completely stopped me in my work-from-home tracks when I opened the oven and let that cinnamon sugar apple muffin wonderfulness just completely permeate every corner of our house.
I could give you a whole long list of times and reasons and places that would be appropriate for making these muffins, but really, what needs to happen is you walking into the kitchen right now and scrolling down to see the recipe and experiencing the joy that is cinnamon sugar apple muffins in your mouth a-s-a-p. We don’t even need to discuss that any further.
Sweet, wonderful, homey, cinnamon apple FALL swirling through your house today. That’s what I’m talking about. ♡
Healthy Cinnamon Sugar Apple Muffins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 regular-sized muffins (or 6 jumbo, as pictured) 1x
Description
These Healthy Cinnamon Sugar Apple Muffins use whole wheat flour, coconut oil, and less sugar to make for a healthy, cozy fall treat!
Ingredients
For the apple muffins:
- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped apples (I used Pink Lady // with peel is great!)
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (I used double acting)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon allspice
For the crunchy topping:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- To prep ingredients: Microwave or heat the coconut oil until it’s liquified. Repeat the same process for the milk to bring it to room temperature. (If you don’t do this, the coconut oil will clump together when it mixes with the cold milk.) Add the vinegar to the milk and let it sit for a few minutes to turn into “buttermilk” – or just use real buttermilk instead!
- For the muffins: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk the coconut oil, buttermilk, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Add the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and allspice. Stir until just combined. Fold in the apples. Scoop the mixture into a greased or lined muffin tin – mini, regular, or jumbo sizes will all work.
- For the topping: Melt the butter for the topping. Add the sugar and cinnamon; spoon over the tops of the muffins. You only need a little bit to get the crunchy top effect, but if you love those crunchy cinnamon sugar tops, I’d suggest making twice or three times as much topping as what’s listed here.
- Bake the muffins for 15 minutes, more or less by a few minutes depending on size. The muffins should be golden brown with big round tops that spring back when you press them.
Notes
These are intended to be less sweet than a traditional muffin and very simply flavored. There is one teaspoon of allspice (which carries some cinnamony flavors) in the batter, but if you are looking for more flavor, add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: cinnamon apple muffins, cinnamon sugar apple muffins, apple muffins
These muffins look absolutely delicious! I love how you’ve made them healthier with cinnamon and sugar. Can’t wait to try this recipe and bring some warmth to my kitchen! Thank you for sharing!
These Healthy Cinnamon Sugar Apple Muffins look absolutely delicious! I can’t wait to try this recipe and enjoy the warm, comforting flavors. Thanks for sharing!
can I use oat flour instead of whole wheat?
We haven’t tried it with a non-wheat flour so can’t say if it will work!
Here for all of the yummy, healthy recipes
I made these this morning for neighbours coming for a cup of tea. The batter seemed really thick and not the right consistency. But they baked and were so good! Definitely a keeper!
Hello,Can you put new comments at the beginning and old comments st the end?I asked you a question last week.Do I let the melted butter mix with buttermilk?
Hi, Eileen! Are you using butter in place of coconut oil? If so, the butter and buttermilk get mixed together in step 2. Hope this helps!
Can I use butter instead of coconut oil?Do I mix butter with buttermilk on stove?
Super excited to try these Healthy Cinnamon Sugar Apple Muffins, seems unique and delicious. My kids love these kinds of cookies, thanks for sharing with us.
These muffins turned out perfect!
Love this Healthy Cinnamon Sugar Apple Muffins, this recipe seems so delicious and unique. Will love to try this one. Thanks for sharing this one.
I made these and they were great! Love how healthy they are! I added a bit more apple so they are pretty dense especially with the whole wheat flour but sooo moist. Would definitely make again!
I don’t have coconut oil. What can I use in substitution?
Butter or olive oil should work instead. 🙂
Random ? Is the batter supposed to be more like a dough consistency. They baked great… just checking. So yummy.
Hmm that sounds like it might be too thick. It should be the same consistency of banana bread.
What do you think about using all whole wheat flour instead of the all purpose flour? I usually don’t keep all purpose flour around. Thank you.
Kelley
That should work – the muffins just might taste a bit more dense. Let us know how this goes for you, Kelley!
How much coconut oil do I use to make the “buttermilk”?
It’s actually just vinegar and milk to make the “buttermilk” – here’s a post on that!
Best recipe ever!
Can you make these with flax eggs? My husband is allergic 🙁 love ALL of your recipes! You never let me down!
We haven’t tested these out using flax eggs yet, but we’re guessing it would work just fine. Let us know how this goes for you!
We really enjoyed these! My 7 year old was excited to do most of it himself. We have been trying to use home ground flour again and this was a great recipe for it. Loved the topping.
So awesome to hear your kiddo helped make these, Julie! Glad you enjoyed the muffins!
Hi!
These look delicious!
Can they be frozen?
Yep! Other readers have had luck freezing these muffins. 🙂
i try lately to make good things for my great grandchildren, but I live on a fixed income som can I replace the coconut oil with canola or something cheaper. Please reply to eami as soon as possible not computer savvy. thank you and GOD BLESS
Yep, canola oil should work just fine here. Enjoy, Dorothy!
I added the teaspoon of cinnamon like mentioned in the note. This made 14 very full regular sized muffins for me. Cooked for 17 minutes. Left the skin on my apples too. These came out wonderful! Finally a healthy muffin my boyfriend likes too!
So glad to hear you and your boyfriend enjoyed these, Nikii!
These look amazing! Working hard on being gluten free…is there a whole wheat flour substitute you’d recommend that I could use instead?
Hi, Angela! We haven’t tested out a gluten-free version of these yet, but we think it could work. We’d recommend looking for a gluten-free flour that’s a 1:1 conversion.
What can I use beside coconut oil. Ty
Could J substitute apple sauce for the milk? Lactose intolerant child in my granddaughters class and I want to make these with a cream cheese icing instead of cake to take to school on her birthday this Friday for her class.
The lactose intolerant one will have no icing on hers, just the sugar and cinnamon dusting…
Have my hair up in a messy bun, wearing comfy jeans waiting with a hot chocolate for the oven to beep. Looking forward to trying the muffins.