Apple Crumble Muffins

Start your morning with apple crumble muffins, the easy breakfast treat or afternoon snack! These apple cinnamon muffins are perfectly fluffy and topped with a buttery crumble topping, then finished off with caramel drizzle. Deliciously fall inspired.

Apple Crumble Muffins Recipe

The secret to any good morning muffin is that it needs to have the perfect balance of moist texture and good flavor. I've always been a big muffin fan --everyone around this blog knows that!

Apple crumble muffins are loaded with the most perfect fall flavor. For this apple crumble recipe, I started with another muffin recipe of mine, cappuccino coffee cake muffins. Both sweet muffins have similar warm spices, but these apple crumble muffins have all of the yummy fall flavor spices.

Baking has often become an experiment for me. Unlike general cooking, you can't just throw things together and hope for the best. I've found that having a solid basic muffin recipe as a start has helped me to be able to make all kinds of muffins by just tweaking ingredients a bit.

Even though it's still too warm in Phoenix to even think about cozying up with a warm sweater and hot cup of coffee, making these tender apple crumb muffins has definitely made me anxious for that drop in temperatures and cozy time of year.

So for now, I'll just enjoy eating some fluffy bakery style muffins and pretend there is fall weather outside. The caramel drizzle is totally optional but totally recommended. It's like an extra touch of goodness that makes these muffins just perfect!

Why You'll Love this Recipe

• Muffins are the best shareable treat, and these are the best apple muffins to bring to friends, parties, and get-togethers. The hit of the fall season!
• Apple crumble muffins are a great way to use up fresh apples during the peak of apple season. So go pick apples at that local orchard or pick them up from the farmer's market. There's no more worries on how you'll use them all up!
• Small-batch recipes like this one are the best way to make fresh muffins. Eat an apple crumble muffin on the go for breakfast, or pair with your afternoon cup of coffee!

Ingredients

It's hard to believe how easy it is to make this apple muffin recipe. Before you go to the grocery store, make a list with the following ingredients:

Muffin Ingredients

• all purpose flour
• granulated sugar
• salt
• baking soda
• baking powder
• cinnamon
• cloves
• nutmeg
• ginger
• eggs
• whole milk
• vanilla or plain Greek yogurt
• coconut oil
• vanilla extract
• granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced

Crumble Topping

• unsalted butter, melted
• all-purpose flour
• brown sugar
• rolled oats
• caramel drizzle

Substitutions and Variations

If you're not a fan of coconut oil or don't have it on hand, you can use another neutral oil in its place. Vegetable oil and even avocado oil can be used to bake these fluffy muffins. Melted butter works great as an oil substitute too.

Skip a step in measuring out each separate spice, and use pumpkin spice instead!

To reduce the amount of refined sugar in this recipe, swap out the granulated sugar in the muffins for coconut sugar. Maple sugar would be tasty with all of the fall flavors too.

Make your apple crumble muffins dairy-free by replacing the Greek yogurt with coconut yogurt or almond-milk yogurt. Swap out the milk for your favorite dairy-free substitute as well.

You can use a gluten-free 1:1 flour substitute, such as King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour, to make this recipe without gluten.

How to Make Apple Crumble Muffins

Here's how to make this easy apple muffin recipe!

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C), then grease a muffin pan or line with 12 paper liners.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, spices, salt, baking soda, baking powder and granulated white sugar.

Then in a separate bowl, mix together the whole milk, Greek yogurt, eggs, coconut oil and vanilla extract. Once combined, gradually pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Whisk gently until well incorporated.

In a small bowl, toss the diced apples with a tablespoon of flour. Add the bits of fresh apple into the muffin batter and gently fold them in.

In a medium bowl, mix together the dry crumble ingredients. Then pour melted butter in a stir together, breaking up chunks as you go.

Using a large cookie scoop or measuring cup, spoon batter into the previously prepared muffin tin, filling the prepared muffin cups about ¾ full. Spoon brown sugar crumble over the top.

Then bake the apple crumble muffins for 20-22 minutes until the muffins bounce back to the touch. The top of the muffins should be slightly golden brown.

Allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve or store for later.

Once cooled, drizzle with caramel sauce and enjoy!

How to Store Leftover Apple Crumble Muffins

Muffins are best fresh, but they can be just as good a day or two later — or even a month later — if stored properly.

I have a whole post about how to store and freeze muffins, but here’s the gist:

Store leftover muffins an airtight container, lined with paper towels to help collect condensation from residual heat in the muffins. Make sure they are completely cooled for best results.

The best way to store muffins depends on how soon you want to eat them: 

• Within 3 days of baking them: Store them on the countertop at room temperature. 
• In the next few days: Store them in the fridge, but with the risk of a change in texture. Alternatively, store what you’ll eat in the next few days using the countertop method, then freeze the rest. 
• Within the next 3 months: Store them in the freezer — reheat when you get a muffin craving! 

Types of Apples to Use in Apple Crumble Muffins

The slight tartness of granny smith apples is a great contrast against a sweet muffin with warm spices. However, you can use any variety of apple that you want.

Pink lady apples, gala, honeycrisp, Fuji -- the list could go on! Use tart apples or sweet apples, whichever you prefer. Buy up a whole bunch of fresh apples and make loads of delicious treats. Make a cast iron apple spice skillet cake as a little indulgence, or even make a some chunky applesauce.

Tips for Success

• Look at your local farmers market during apple season for extra fresh apples. But if you don't find any there, then look at your local grocery store. Be sure to purchase firmer apples so that they are guaranteed to be fresh!
• Do not overmix the muffin batter or you could end up with tough and chewy muffins.
• Wanna make these super kid-friendly? Use a ton for mini muffins and make tons of mini apple crumble muffins!

FAQ

More Apple Recipes

• Apple Zucchini Bread
• Cinnamon Apple Muffins
• Apple Crisp with Oat Topping
• Mini Apple Spice Rum Cakes