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A family favorite fall apple muffin recipe – apple crumb muffins made with applesauce and brown sugar crumb topping. Every time we make these spice muffins, we get tons of compliments! Made with everyday ingredients from your pantry!
How many times have I said that muffins are my love language?!
It’s 100% possible to have a food love language. Ribs and mashed potatoes would be another top contender.
I think I love muffins so much because in my book they are an anytime food. Breakfast. Morning snack. Afternoon snack. Dessert. It covers all the bases!
We’ve been swimming in muffin land since I started working on this recipe. For almost every recipe I’ll make a regular batch and a gluten free batch. Then I was testing out different crumb toppings.. 48 muffins later we have the perfect apple muffins with crumb topping!
Total Time Required
- 10 minutes to make the batter
- 7 minutes at 425ºF
- 12-14 minutes at 350ºF
- 10 minutes to cool
There is no way Ryan and I can consume all of the food I make & test, so a ton of it goes to work with Ryan on a pretty regular basis.
But this week I dropped some muffins off at our church and they were a bit hit! I should make that a regular thing.
Do I have to use unsweetened applesauce?
No. That’s what I choose to use, but you could use regular applesauce or even cinnamon applesauce. I wouldn’t suggest using chunky applesauce as it will change the texture of the muffins.
Do I have to put the crumble on top?
Nope! Crumble is gooooood, but sometimes I want a less sweet muffin so skip the crumble if you want to! The baking time will be about the same.
Why should I bake the muffins at 425ºF for 7 minutes then turn the temperature down to 350ºF?
Baking the muffins at an initial higher temperature helps the muffins rise quickly, creating more of a domed muffin top – which everyone loves!
How to freeze apple muffins
Allow the muffins to cool completely. I like to wrap two muffins together (the bottoms of the muffins touching) in plastic wrap, then place all the wrapped bundles in a ziplock bag.
To thaw, either let them come to room temperature on the counter or place as many as you need in the microwave for 15 second intervals.
More apple recipes
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Applesauce Crumb Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
Muffins
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
Crumb Topping
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted, 1/2 cup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Line a regular sized muffin pan with liners.
- Make the crumb topping: In a small mixing bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter. Mix together with a fork until crumbly and wet. Set aside.
- Make the muffins: In a smaller mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- In a separate larger mixing bowl, combine the applesauce, brown sugar, and vegetable oil, whisk together. Add in the eggs, whisk again. Using a spatula, gently mix in the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Fill each muffin cup almost to the top. The 12 muffin cups will be full, but that’s good! Using your fingers, crumble a generous amount of topping on each muffins.
- Bake at 425ºF for 7 minutes. Then keeping the muffins in the oven, turn the oven down to 350ºF and bake for 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow the muffins to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the muffin pan. Once the muffins cool, you can add a powdered sugar glaze (powdered sugar + milk) if you’d like!
I made these yesterday. I used King Arther measure to measure gluten free flour and my own homemade unsweetened apple sauce. They turned out amazing. Nice and moist yet not too sweet. I didn’t add the glaze but I might next time.
My boyfriend loved these! He said they tasted like doughnuts.. I’m guessing because of the glaze? I love how high they rise, and they look beautiful, and I like the ease of using applesauce rather than chopping and peeling apples.
I made this today after getting off from work, I added chopped apples for the topping. Its super good 👍🏻