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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.

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.

Apple Oatmeal 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.

It’s all so delicious and comes together to make one of my favorite muffins I’ve ever had.

An image of an apple muffin with oatmeal streusel topping cut in half and buttered on a plate.

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.

I used to make a similar applesauce based muffin, but it was always lacking something and I haven’t made them in years. So when I revisited the idea of an apple muffin to share during Apple Week, I thought maybe adding oatmeal to the batter would give it a more interesting texture that would complement the apple flavor well. Flahavan’s Irish Oatmeal is one of the Apple Week sponsors and they sent me some of their delicious oatmeal to try in this recipe. It was delicious!

An image of a muffin tin with apple oatmeal muffins next to a box of oatmeal and a buttered apple muffin on a plate.

I also noticed that 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. Obviously you could use apple juice or even just milk instead if you don’t have any apple cider on hand. But it really does make a difference in the flavor that is totally worth it.

I’m sure 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.

I still 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 muffin options because the applesauce takes the place of some of the fat that would otherwise be required for moist, tender 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 didn’t last longer than a day in our house.

An image of a buttered apple muffin with oat streusel topping on a plate with more muffins and whole apples behind it. An image of oatmeal streusel topped apple oat muffins in a muffin tin.

How to Make Apple Oatmeal Muffins

  1. Whisk together the flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, apple cider (or apple juice or milk), applesauce, oil, and vanilla.
  3. 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.
  4. Then 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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 and 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.

An image of the wet and dry ingredients for apple oatmeal muffins just before mixing them together in a bowl. An image of diced apple in a bowl with oatmeal muffin batter for making apple oatmeal muffins. An image of apple oatmeal muffin batter in a bowl. An image of streusel topped apple oatmeal muffins in a muffin pan ready to go into the oven. An image of a dozen apple oatmeal muffins, fresh out of the oven.

Apple Oatmeal Muffins
Yield: 12 muffins

Apple Oatmeal Muffins

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.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes

Ingredients

Muffins

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk or apple cider
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup finely chopped apple

Streusel Topping

  • 1/4 cup quick cooking oatmeal
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Spray a 12 count muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper liners and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, applesauce, oil, and vanilla.  
  4. 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.  
  5. 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

You could swap 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour for 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour.  Adapted from All Recipes.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

12
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 238 Saturated Fat: 2g Cholesterol: 33mg Sodium: 179mg Carbohydrates: 37g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 18g Protein: 4g
© Amy Nash, House of Nash Eats
Cuisine: American / Category: Breakfast
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