Healthy Apple Muffins
Amazing, healthy apple muffins made with maple syrup and whole wheat flour! No one will guess that this simple cinnamon apple muffin recipe is healthy, too.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
It’s apple muffin time! You all really seem to love my banana muffins, pumpkin muffins and carrot muffins and the blueberry muffins in my cookbook. Today, apple muffins are joining the club.
Like the others in the bunch, these muffins are made with 100 percent whole wheat flour and naturally sweetened with maple syrup or honey. They are nice and fluffy, with just enough sweetness to be irresistible.
Granted, I already have an apple oatmeal muffin recipe on the blog from four years ago, but I have significantly upped my muffin game since then. These muffins are the better of the two, by a long shot.
I based these healthy apple muffins off my carrot muffins, replacing grated carrots with fresh apple, and replacing half of the Greek yogurt with applesauce.
These muffins contain apple, three ways: freshly grated and chopped apple for the perfect texture, and applesauce for infused apple flavor. They’re the best apple muffins I’ve ever had.
Healthy Apple Muffin Notes
- These apple muffins taste even better after resting for a few hours, if they last that long.
- I particularly enjoy them with a spread of peanut butter.
- Check my recipe notes for how to use honey instead of maple syrup, and some ideas for how to make the muffins vegan.
I think it’s time for another! Please let me know how you like these muffins in the comments. I love hearing from you.
Baking Tips for Success
How to Measure Flour
How you measure your flour is important. Why? If you measure incorrectly, you could end up with up to 50 percent extra flour, which will make your muffins dense, dry and flavorless. Use the spoon and swoop method:
- Gently stir your flour to loosen any clumps.
- Spoon your flour into the measuring cup with a big spoon or a flour scoop. Do not scoop up the flour directly into the measuring cup.
- Level off the top of the cup with a knife. Repeat as necessary.
Baking Powder & Baking Soda Are Not the Same Thing
…and they are not interchangeable. Both are leaveners that help your baked goods rise (baking powder contains some baking soda, but that’s a long story).
This recipe relies on a combination of baking powder and baking soda to produce light and fluffy muffins. For ideal results, always follow the recipe and measure carefully.
How to Stir Your Batter
This muffin batter is super simple to stir together by hand, and that’s how I recommend making these muffins. Why? Whipping your batter will make the flour’s gluten protein too strong, yielding tough muffins.
I know it can be tempting to use a stand mixer or hand mixer when it’s within reach. Please don’t! Follow the instructions below and you’ll end up with light, fluffy muffins.
Watch How to Make Apple Muffins
Healthy Apple Muffins
Amazing, healthy apple muffins made with maple syrup and whole wheat flour! No one will guess that this simple cinnamon apple muffin recipe is good for you, too. Recipe yields 12 muffins.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup grated apple
- 1 cup apple diced into ¼” cubes
- ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ cup maple syrup or honey*
- 2 eggs, preferably at room temperature
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt (I used full-fat but any variety should do)
- ½ cup applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (also called raw sugar), for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. If necessary, grease all 12 cups on your muffin tin with butter or non-stick cooking spray (my pan is non-stick and doesn’t require any grease).
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Blend well with a whisk. Add the grated apple (if it is dripping wet, gently squeeze it over the sink to release some extra moisture) and chopped apple. Stir to combine.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oil and maple syrup and beat together with a whisk. Add the eggs and beat well, then add the yogurt, applesauce and vanilla and mix well. (If the coconut oil solidifies in contact with cold ingredients, gently warm the mixture in the microwave in 30 second bursts.)
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix with a big spoon, just until combined (a few lumps are ok). The batter will be thick, but don’t worry! Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with turbinado sugar. Bake muffins for 13 to 16 minutes, or until the muffins are golden on top and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
- Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool. If you have leftover muffins, store them, covered, at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Freeze leftover muffins for up to 3 months.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my healthy carrot muffins.
*If you are baking with honey: Honey tends to brown quickly, so to avoid overdone muffins, bake muffins at 325 degrees Fahrenheit until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 23 to 25 minutes.
Make it vegan: Replace the eggs with flax eggs and replace the yogurt with vegan buttermilk—try mixing 1 ½ teaspoons vinegar with a scant ½ cup non-dairy milk. Let it rest for 5 minutes before adding it to the other liquid ingredients. (You could also try using more applesauce in place of the yogurt but I’m not sure it’s acidic enough to counteract the bitter taste of the baking soda.)
Make it dairy free: See “buttermilk” option above.
Make it egg free: Use flax eggs instead of regular eggs.
Make it gluten free: Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur Flour make gluten-free all-purpose blends that work well.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Lovely muffins, well worth making! Firm favourite with my daughter!
I only used ¼ cup of maple syrup & no apple sauce & they were perfectly sweet enough. Thank-you
(My next batch I’m going to use oat flour)
AMAZING!!! So soft, so fluffy, with just the right amount of sweetness.
I read some of the comments beforehand, so I made the following adjustments.
All the apples I shredded and cooked up with a little butter and cinnamon until all the water was absorbed. (son doesn’t like texture, so I wanted the apples soft)
I subbed the applesauce for 1 medium banana, since I didn’t have any.
And I added a little shredded carrot, just for fun.
I left them in the oven a little longer, till the tops we just golden.
A HIT!
I religiously make these at least once a month and they just walk out of the kitchen before I even have a chance to put them away!
Love this recipe, thanks so much for sharing it.
You’re welcome, Lauren!
Hi
Where is the buttermilk option? I can’t find it anywhere!!
Thanks
How to Make Buttermilk I hope you love them!
Kate, you have turned me into a confident Baker. I really enjoy your recipes, they never fail. I made these w cubed apples and 1 c dried cranberries and used some buttermilk I had. I crossed my fingers, as I had no applesauce.
As I was already baking your banana bread, the oven was on 325F, and I decided to add the muffins, 35 minutes worked out perfectly. Yummy! And thanks again.
That’s wonderful, Saskia! Thank you for your review.
Hello! Would I be able to use oat flour for these muffins? I’ve always found that gluten free flour has a weird texture. I love your banana muffins, banana bread, and coconut banana pancakes, all with oat flour! I am making my way through your cookbook :)
Hi! Oat flour should work for this. Just be sure to follow my How to Make Oat Flour for proper measurements. I love that you are cooking through my cookbook!
Thank you for the response! I followed your oat flour substitution guide and they turned out great!! I thought I would freeze some for back to school but nope, all gone :)
Wonderful to hear! Thank you for your review, Meg.
OMG your muffins are amazing. I now have a huge choice of which muffin I would like to bake on a weekend afternoon. I first started with your banana muffin, then blueberry. Last weekend it was your carrot and walnut and today was your apple. Tomorrow I will try your lemon and raspberry. I like to have at least 2 varieties in the freezer at any one time.
The texture of these muffins is everything – So light and fluffy! I may have squeezed too much liquid out of the grated apples as I didn’t find the flavors super bold so I’m going to try again along with and mixing up the types of apples I used for more flavor. Can’t wait to make these again with autumn on the horizon!
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thank you for sharing, Eliza.
Hi!
Would you please provide the nutritional information for the apple muffins?
Thanks so much and GO CHEIFS!!
Hi Laura, the nutritional is below the recipe notes. You need to click to expand. Let me know if you have questions!
Have made this recipe exactly as is and we absolutely love it but this time I wanted to add some flax seed to the recipe and not sure how to as I’ve never baked with it before. Any suggestions??
Delicious! I love baking with my 3 yo grandson and these were fun. Used non fat yogurt. I mixed some struesel (flour, brn sugar and butter) and put a scant teaspoon on top of each muffin before baking – slightly less healthy but so so good!
These are incredible! My family likes lots of spices so I used 1 T cinnamon and added 1/2-1 tsp each of nutmeg, cloves and allspice. I made a double batch but I seriously doubt any will last long enough to cool.
I love it! Thank you for sharing, Jeni.
Really nice and moist. Another winner!
Thank you, Janine!
My son’s Geography teacher inspired him to try more meatless meals in our home and directed him to your website. We have liked a good number of your recipes – but this is by far my favourite/most valued one. A batch of these muffins are gone within a day in our home – so moist and flavourful. And so much apple in one muffin!
I just made these and they are amazing! I used granny smith apples, regular whole wheat flour, melted butter, maple syrup and unsweetened apple sauce. They are as light and fluffy as promised.
:)
I’m excited you loved them, Karen! Thank you for sharing.
Best apple muffins ever! My 3 year old daughter and I went apple picking today and then made muffin tops. Love that there’s so little sugar and they actually taste heathy! Yum!!
I’m glad she loves them! Thank you for your review, Hannah.
The SMELL these muffins filled my kitchen with… absolutely divine! I followed the directions as is, only I let my 4 year old sprinkle some rolled oats on top. The whole family devoured them up! Bookmarking and sharing with all my mom friends!
Mine doesn’t taste good :( I was so excited for this recipe. I did made a mistake – added 1/3 cup honey instead of 1/2 cup. But the taste of muffin is bittery. I have to trash all. . I will try again to see why it’s not tasting good.
I’m sorry to hear that! Please let me know when you try again, Neeti.
I also never comment on blogs but I am so excited I found my new go-to apple muffin recipe. These came out fantastic appearance-wise with a nice muffin top, nice texture and flavor. I know that with Cookie and Kate recipes, you cannot go wrong if you follow the recipe. We have their black bean enchiladas and homemade enchilada sauce in our dinner rotation often!
The only thing with this recipe that I did differently was use whole wheat pastry flour. They are soft and fluffy! I used a Granny Smith for the chopped apple part and a ginormous honey crisp for the grated apple part. I really had to wring out the fluid in that apple. I may try apple pie spice next time to experiment.
Thank you for sharing, Kendra!
Any guess as to the bake time for muffin tops only? My 2-year-old has requested apple cookie muffins and my best guess as to what that would be is muffin tops. :)
I’m not sure Erin, sorry!
I have deeply enjopyed so many of my tries. The last one being the bean bowl woth such goodness I have nt had much succes with the breakfast breads but made the apple muffin into a 9by 11 no muffin tins.it came out quite good. Theothers were of myown making. Wishing you a healthy way forward carrying that precious little soul daring to come to earth at this time. Smiles and love
My batter was not thick like in the pictures but everything still tasted amazing, it was hard to stop eating them. I used the non-dairy option so I am wondering if that could have affected the consistency? I am hoping to figure out how to make the batter thicker so I can bake on a cookie sheet to fulfill a request from my two year old for “apple cookie muffins.” If anyone has any tips aside from squeezing the apples more I would appreciate suggestions.
I’m glad you were still able to enjoy them, Erin! I appreciate your review.
I have 3 apple trees and I am always looking for apple recipes. Made these muffins as per the recipe and “They’re Great” (said with Tony the Tiger voice). Now you have a good idea of my age!
Thanks.
I tried the recipe and muffins came out moist and delicious. The only substitution I’ve made was swapping out apple sauce for same amount of finely grated carrots. Highly recommend! Thank you for this delicious recipe.
You’re welcome, Anastasia! I appreciate your review.
Delicious muffins. They were nice and light and baked in no time.
A forgiving recipe, too lazy to make applesauce, much easier to mash a ripe banana as well added some chopped walnuts and half a cup of almond flour. Will definitely make again
We have tons of apples from out apple tree so this was a great, guilty free sweet treat for my daughter’s 2nd grade class. I didn’t have what flour, so I substituted Pamala’a Glutin free pancake mix. I left out the baking powder, baking soda and salt since they were in the baking mix, praying that the proportions were correct. They came out perfect. We will be baking these again and with the Pamala’s. Highly recommended.
I’m glad you loved it, Stacey! Thank you for your review.
Are the apples peeled?
Hi Billie, For reference, check the process photos. No need to peel the apples.
Hello Kate,
Congrats from June in Toronto. How is Cookie feeling ?
June
Thank you, June! Cookie is settling into her new role :)
I have 20 cups (!) of sliced apples in the freezer, and don’t think I will be able to grate them. Would it work to use all diced apples? Thanks!
Hi Judy, I found it worked best with both variations. But, you could try it. Let me know!
Your baby is beautiful! Congratulations! The muffins look delicious and I can’t wait to try them.
Thank you, Frances!
Hi Kate,
I can’t wait to make these, I love apple muffins! I have peanut oil, I assume that is okay to use instead of the coconut or olive oils? Thanks!
Congratulations on the birth of your daughter, she’s beautiful!
Hi Maria, I can’t say for sure without trying it. Oils can vary some on how they react in baking. Thank you for the congratulations!
I have been a vegetarian for 40 years, but only started really cooking five years ago. I love your recipes and this one is fabulous, AGAIN! Just one request, please…can you display the ingredients in grams?
Thanks for your help and keep bringing these marvelous recipes to us.
I followed this recipe as directed. I used Gala apples which diced and grated perfectly. Similar to one comment, I reduced the maple syrup to just-under 1/2 cup. (If I used green apples, I would have used the full 1/2 cup). I used King Arthur GF flour. This recipe is outstanding in every way – texture, flavor and ease of making!
Thank you for sharing, Liz! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
OMG!!!!
This recipe is incredibly amazing! I am making these delicious muffins for the second time right now; the muffins are in the oven and they smell SOOOOOOO good. I decided to comment to pass the time until they finish LOL- they are that good!
I’m glad you loved it, Olivia! Thank you for your review.
Hi,
I enjoy your recipe tremendously. When measuring flour, wouldn’t it be better to just use a scale? There wouldn’t be any question then that too much or too little flour was being used, which might affect the quality of the end product. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes.
These muffins are great. Not to sweet (which I really appreciate). I followed the recipe to a tee, but it seemed to cook too fast so the apples didn’t get soft enough. I also live at altitude so I’m not sure if that impacted it. I may try lower the temperature next time.
Hi there!
I had been excited to try these, but they didnt work out too well for me. I’m from Belfast, so I had googled each ingredient for the metric conversion, and obviously something wasnt quite right, as they didnt cook through and my batter was a bit runnier than yours (judging by the pictures)
Any chance you could post a metric version for us people in the UK? Maybe its just me, but I find it so hard not working in metric!
Thanks a mill :)
I’m sorry to hear that! I don’t provide metric measurements at the moment, sorry!
These are perfect! I’ve made them countless times and my family loves them. I freeze half the batch after they cool as they spoil after a few days. They freeze great.
TIP: definitely use coconut oil over olive oil. I could taste the bitterness of the olive oil the first time I made them. Refined coconut oil leaves out the coconut taste as well.
Thank you for sharing, Cierra! I think it can depend on your brand of olive oil. But coconut oil is delicious too!
I just made these delicious muffins. I made them gf and vegan and cut the maple sugar in half. The muffins turned out perfectly moist and tasty. On one, I drizzled almond butter over the top once out of the oven and on the other, I slathered with apple butter. SOOOOO good. Thank you!!! And welcome to the world baby Grace!!!
Texture is great. Baked in 13 minutes. Could be that the apples I used weren’t sweet enough, but I found that the muffins could have used another half cup of sweetener.
Hello. On the October 8, 2021 entry, what is the recipe at the top of the page? It looks like a bowl of some kind. Looks yummy. Also…congratulations on your new little one! Thanks in advance!
Hi Ann, I’m not sure what you are referring to. Is it Mediterranean Roasted Sweet Potato & Farro Salad?
Yummm!! I made these this morning and it was really simple. We had red apples from a friends tree, and they’re err so sweet that we didn’t need to add the turbinado sugar. Thanks again for another AWESOME recipe!
I made these yesterday and they came out beautifully, so delicious, fluffy and moist! (I had no applesauce so used 2% Greek yoghurt instead; also, I used a combination of maple syrup and honey and baked at 190C for about 20 mins).
Thank you so much for all your amazing recipes, Kate – they always come out perfect and are so healthy and easy to make!!
You’re welcome, Olivia!
So delicious! I didn’t have applesauce, so I substituted with some leftover canned pumpkin purée. I couldn’t taste the pumpkin at all. I will definitely make this muffin recipe again. It was also a hit with my 1 yo & 3 yo. Thank you for a great recipe.
Can I add peanut butter directly into the muffin mix? If so, how much should I add, and how else should I adjust the recipe? Thank you!
Hi Tami, I recommend to top them with peanut butter once baked.
Hi Kate. Should the grated and chopped apples be peeled first?
Hi Jim, see the process photos. No need to peel first. I hope you love them!
Hi, I don’t see where the buttermilk option is. Can you tell me what it is. Thanks!
Hi Jody! See the notes for the vegan option.
We don’t like apples, now we do!
Hooray!
While not being a fan of “healthy” muffins, the recipe is great. Easy to follow instructions and some variations can be made, but I only changed the applesauce to mashed banana I needed to use …. still good. Thanks.
The best muffins I ever had or made!
Thank you!
Hooray! That’s great to hear you loved them, Martine.