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Apple Oatmeal Muffins make a great breakfast or quick afternoon snack. Filled with apples, cinnamon, and oatmeal, then topped with an easy oat streusel, these apple muffins are an easy grab and go breakfast.
If you love muffins for breakfast, be sure to also check out our Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, The Best Double Chocolate Muffins, and Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins.
I'm having a hard time deciding what my favorite thing is about these muffins. I'm torn between the chunks of sweet apple, the perfectly moist and gently spiced muffin batter which gets a texture boost thanks to the addition of oatmeal, or the crumbly oat streusel topping.
I have another muffin recipe on the site that calls for apples that I adore (my morning glory muffins, which are loaded with grated apples, carrots, zucchini, pecans, and coconut), but in the fall when apples are abundant I want to focus on their flavor even more. Enter these apple oatmeal muffins.
My family devoured these and while I normally have leftover muffins that I stick in the freezer to have on hand for busy mornings, these almost never last longer than a day in our house.
Why this recipe works
- It uses fresh, real apples for the apple flavor.
- The wholesome, hearty texture of the oatmeal gives them a satisfying chew factor.
- The muffin batter comes together with just a bowl, whisk, and spoon, requiring minimal effort. Even beginning bakers and kids can make these!
- Applesauce replaces some of the oil, resulting in a lighter muffin with more apple flavor.
Recipe Ingredients
- Apples: Use your favorite baking apple here! Many varieties work, but some of our favorites are Envy, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Jazz, and Honeycrisp.
- Oatmeal: You can use old-fashioned oats, quick oats, or even instant oats for these muffins. The old-fashioned ones will have a chewier, heartier texture. The quick cooking oats and instant oats are rolled thinner to cook quicker, but they still work. This article has a great explanation of the differences.
- Applesauce: I used applesauce in these easy apple muffins, even though the recipe doesn't rely on the applesauce for most of the apple flavor. Apple muffins with applesauce are a little healthier than other muffins because the applesauce takes the place of some of the oil that would otherwise be required for moist, tender muffins.
- Apple juice/cider or milk: Most apple oatmeal muffin recipes call for milk as the liquid, but I decided that as long as I had plenty of apple cider in the fridge for apple cider donuts, pumpkin juice, and a creamy apple cider chicken skillet, I might as well use it in the muffins to see if I could get even more sweet apple flavor. It was one of those duh moments and I'm so glad I made the switch. But you can just use milk if you don't have any apple cider or apple juice on hand.
How to Make Apple Oatmeal Muffins
- Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together the flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, apple cider (or apple juice or milk), applesauce, oil, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir just until combined and no streaks of flour remain.
- Stir in apples. Use a spoon or spatula to gently stir or fold in the diced apples. The chunks should be small so there are some in every bite of muffin and the muffins don't fall apart when torn open.
- Fill the muffin pan. Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray, then fill all 12 muffin cups full of batter - it should pretty much go almost right to the top and divide perfectly into 12 muffins.
- Make the topping. In a separate bowl, make the oatmeal streusel topping by stirring together the oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, melted butter, and cinnamon. Then sprinkle a spoonful over each muffin.
- Bake the muffins in a 400 degree F. oven for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the muffins comes out clean with just a few crumbs sticking to it.
Recipe FAQ's
The muffins will stay fresh on the counter in an airtight container for about 4 days, if they last that long in your house. Ours never do.
Yes, you can freeze any leftover muffins for 2-3 months and just thaw them in the microwave for 30 seconds or so for a quick and easy breakfast. I will sometimes double the batch to make sure to have extras on hand.
Yes! The muffin base would be excellent with pears, cranberries, blueberries, and other fruits.
Recipe Tips
- You can use paper muffin liners or baking spray on the pan. Personally I like muffins made directly in the pan best, but either way works.
- Don't overmix the muffin batter. You will get lighter, fluffier, more tender muffins by just mixing everything together but not stirring too hard. It's why you should always mix muffins by hand with a spoon rather than using a hand mixer.
- You could even concentrate the apple cider by reducing a larger amount in a small saucepan for a bit, just like I do when making apple cider donuts. But unlike apple cider donuts which are a sweet, once-a-year treat that we enjoy on weekends, apple oatmeal muffins are something that I will whip up in 10 minutes in the morning on a school day while my girls are still waking up and have them ready for breakfast, so I like keeping things easy here.
- Try adding some chopped walnuts or pecans to the batter or streusel topping for extra crunch!
More Apple Recipes
- Apple Pie Ice Cream
- Apple Salad with Candied Walnuts and Poppy Seed Dressing
- Homemade Apple Fritters
- Secret-Ingredient Baked Apples
- Apple Crisp
- Crockpot Apple Butter
Did you make this recipe? Let me know what you thought with a comment and star rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
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Apple Oatmeal Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk or apple cider
- ½ cup applesauce
- ¼ cup oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup finely chopped apple
Streusel Topping
- ¼ cup quick cooking oatmeal
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons melted butter
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 12 count muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper liners and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, applesauce, oil, and vanilla.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients, stirring just until combined. Fold in the chopped apple, then divide evenly between the 12 muffin cups.
- Combine all of the streusel ingredients together in a small bowl, then sprinkle over each muffin. Bake the muffins for 15 to 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published in September, 2018. The photos and content were updated in September, 2021.
Wendy Klik says
I'll go with the topping. Not that the other components don't sound awesome. It's just......streusel!!!
Lydia says
I love muffins and these so easy and amazing! Can't wait to try them...they'll make the perfect breakfast for us to grab on busy mornings!
georgie says
i don't eat enough muffins! these look so delicious and i love your step by step process photos! they're so helpful!
Sues says
These are so beautiful!! The perfect way to start a nice cool fall morning... especially alongside a cup of hot coffee 🙂
Brandi says
I can’t wait to make these in the morning! Scrolling Pinterest and these caught my eye! Can I just say though, thank you so much for having a nutrition label with carb count? I have a type 1 diabetic 6 y/o and that makes it frustrating when I want to make new baking recipes. The wonderful sounding recipe along with that just won me to be a follower of your blog!
Amy says
I'm so glad you found my site and find the nutrition labels helpful!
Kalyani says
hey Amy: I adapted this recipe to suit our dietary requirements and found this to be a great recipe. Thanks much for a wonderful recipe, and here's a linkback to your post from my blog ! Keep them coming 🙂
Amy says
Glad you enjoyed the recipe and adapted it to your dietary needs!
Tonya Snow says
Amy,
I love muffins, anytime of the day!
I have made your one bowl Banana muffins. They are super delicious! My family and I eat them up.
I have a question for you about theses apple oatmeal muffins. Do you think it would be ok to use old fashioned oats? I am not a fan of quick oats.
Amy says
Yes, you can use old fashioned oats. They will just give a bit more of a chewy texture than the quick oats.
Lesley says
Could I use applesauce to completely replace oil? Thanks!
Amy says
Yes, technically. I've tried it before and they were fine, but not great. It affects the texture of the muffins, making them a little rubbery and not as soft and moist if using all applesauce instead of oil.
Felicia Carter says
I love this recipe. The muffins came out deliciously yummy. I did however, add two small boxes of raisins in the mix for my husband. I absolutely love that they are not too sweet; just sweet enough. This is my favorite muffins recipe so far.
Nancy says
Those look delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Bonnie says
We just made this gluten free. It was stunning! Looked fabulous and tasted even better. The texture was delightful - and that's a big deal cooking gluten free. At this point I just want to add at least 15 more exclamation marks!
Amy says
I'm glad to know this recipe worked well with gluten free substitutes! Can I ask what you used?
Tina says
I made these. Replaced butter with date syrup and added walnuts& pecans. They turned out delicious!
Barbara says
Can I use all oil instead of applesauce??
Amy says
Yes, absolutely!
Suzanne says
This looks so good! Apple and oatmeal go hand in hand. What a great breakfast meal prep for the whole family!
Vanessa says
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
Amy says
They will keep for a few days in an airtight container, but you can freeze them too and that works great! I just pull out however many I want and warm them in the microwave!
Choroby says
These muffins look insane! My children love them, thank you for the recipe.
Rebecca says
Can you substitute sugar with maple syrup or honey? How much? Thanks!
Amy says
I haven't tried it, but typically you can substitute 3/4 cup of honey for every 1 cup of sugar when baking.
Sunshine baker says
These were good and flavourful. I used 1.5 tsp of cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg. Next time I would use 1/8 tsp of nutmeg. I lowered the brown sugar to 2/3 cup and they were still sweet enough.
Ginny says
Muffins were good, but not a fan of the streusel topping. Made it per the directions, but it was so wet after adding butter, it sank in each muffin I put it on. It was not to a consistency you could sprinkle it over the muffin tops.
Misheel Batkhuu says
Can I replace oil with butter?
Amy says
Yes - the muffins won't stay quite as moist, but it definitely works.
Karin says
This is hands down the BEST apple oatmeal muffin recipe and I’ve tried MANY. I felt like baking as we were in the midst of a snowstorm and I found this recipe. Trouble was, I was missing applesauce (and couldn’t go out on the roads due to the storm)so I substituted whole berry cranberry sauce that I had leftover in the fridge from the holiday. It worked out great and these are delicious!!!!! My husband stated three times while eating his first one how good they were. Perfect with a cup of tea!!! It’s a keeper!
Lynann says
These were delicious! I loved how easy they were to make and the flavor. Usually I always reduce the sugar because I don’t like overly sweet desserts but this was perfect the way it was. I did add two tablespoons of finely chopped walnuts to the streusel mix but that’s a personal preference. Thanks you for a recipe I will definitely make again!