There are apple muffins, then there are these irresistibly moist and tender Apple Crumb Muffins! My simple recipe is packed with apple pieces and piled high with a buttery streusel topping. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Easy Apple Muffins
This isn’t just an apple muffin recipe, this is possibly the best one you’re likely to stumble across on the internet. Bold claim, I know, but I really love this recipe and am excited to be re-sharing it with you today.
This recipe is super simple and comes together easily by hand (no mixer), including the streusel topping. Unlike many recipes that use a pastry cutter to cut in cold butter, my recipe uses melted butter and a fork to create that sweet, crumbly top. It’s the perfect way to welcome Fall, or just use up a surplus of apples from apple picking. Overall, it’s a game changer!
With fall just around the corner, you’re going to want to save this recipe for those soon-to-be chilly autumn mornings. These apple muffins will cozy up your kitchen real quick!
Why I Love These Apple Crumb Muffins:
- Springy-soft & fluffy interiors
- Punctuated with tart apple pieces
- Thiiiick layer of cinnamon/brown sugar streusel on top
- No fuss, no electric mixer, no headache
- Almost like an apple crisp in muffin form, only a bit less work.
What You Need
Here are the key ingredients you’ll need to make my apple muffins:
- Apples. I talk a little more about what type of apples to use in the video and FAQ section below. Whichever you use, make sure to peel and chop them into small pieces before adding them to the batter.
- Buttermilk. Buttermilk makes these apple crumb muffins beautifully moist and tender. If you don’t have any on hand, you can use my easy buttermilk substitute.
- Butter. Use unsalted butter in the streusel and make sure it’s cooled down after melting. If you only have salted butter, you can omit the salt.
- Brown sugar. A combination of light brown sugar and granulated sugar in both the apple muffins themselves and the streusel topping adds a noticeable depth of flavor.
SAM’S TIP: If you have extra streusel, you can store it in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days or in the fridge for longer. It’s great for adding to my banana muffins and pumpkin muffins! Personally though, I never have extra–the more crumb on my apple crumb muffins, the merrier 😊
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Apple Crumb Muffins
- Whisk together the dry ingredients.
- Combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then stir them into the dry ingredients until everything is about 50% combined.
- Gently stir in the apple pieces until just incorporated. Don’t over-mix your batter or the muffins will be dense and dry!
- Evenly divide the batter into a lined muffin tin and set aside.
Preparing the Streusel & Baking
- Whisk together the sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon (and try to break up any large clumps of brown sugar), then drizzle in the melted butter. The butter should be melted, but it shouldn’t be scorching hot to the touch!
- Use a fork to work the butter into the streusel until you have a clumpy mixture.
- Sprinkle streusel over the apple muffins, then bake for 24-25 minutes. One thing I love about this recipe is that, unlike with my chocolate chip muffins or my new and improved lemon muffins, you only need to bake these on one temperature instead of changing mid-way through baking!
- Let the muffins cool in their tin for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely (or to enjoy still warm!).
SAM’S TIP: Don’t overwork your streusel, or you will end up with a paste that will be impossible to sprinkle over your muffins. Just toss/claw together with a fork until it’s combined and clumpy!
Frequently Asked Questions
I always recommend using an apple you enjoy eating, and for me that’s Gala or Golden Delicious (also my apples of choice for apple turnovers recipe and apple butter). Keep in mind that firmer apples are best for baking, so I don’t recommend McIntosh or anything similar in your apple crumb muffins. You could use Granny Smith apples, but I prefer to save them for apple pie since they’re so tart.
Dry muffins are typically a result of over-mixing your batter. These apple crumb muffins are a quick bread, much like apple cider donuts or pumpkin bread, and they should be mixed as little as possible. Use a gentle hand next time and make sure to mix until just combined. Over-baking the muffins can also cause them to be dry, so if you think you didn’t over-mix them, your oven may be running a bit hot and you may need to pull them out of the oven a minute or so sooner next time.
Yes! You can wrap and freeze your apple muffins for up to one month. Be careful when wrapping and make sure you don’t knock off too much of the streusel!
SAM’S TIP: If you’d like your apple muffins to have a bakery-style look, follow my tutorial for how to make muffin liners out of parchment paper. They’re surprisingly easy and instantly elevate the look of your muffins!
I know some of you will want to make this recipe in a loaf pan, and while you certainly could do that, I personally think you should try my new apple bread recipe instead!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Apple Muffins
Ingredients
For Muffins
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- ½ cup (120 ml) avocado oil or vegetable oil or canola oil may substitute vegetable oil or other neutral cooking oil
- ½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (215 g) peeled chopped apples
For Crumb Topping
- 1 ¼ cups (156 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 6 Tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter melted but cooled so no longer warm to the touch
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and line a 12-count muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour, ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon table salt
- In a separate bowl (or large measuring cup), whisk together oil, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla extract until well-combined.½ cup (120 ml) avocado oil or vegetable oil or canola oil, ½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk, 2 large eggs, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a spatula or spoon to gently stir ingredients together until approximately 50-75% combined. Add apple pieces and continue to stir until ingredients are just combined (over-mixing may result in dense, dry muffins).1 ½ cups (215 g) peeled
- Evenly divide batter into prepared muffin tin. Set aside while you prepare your crumb topping.
Crumb Topping
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt.1 ¼ cups (156 g) all-purpose flour, ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon table salt
- Drizzle melted butter over the flour mixture and use a fork to toss/claw the mixture together until all of the dry ingredients are moistened and you have a crumbly streusel.6 Tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter
- Evenly divide streusel over the muffins.
- Transfer to center rack of 375F (190C) oven and bake for 24-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Allow muffins to cool in muffin tin for 10 minutes before carefully removing to a cooling rack (I use a butter knife to gently pry them up and then lift them from the pan) and allow to cool a bit before enjoying.
Notes
Apples
A firm apple that you enjoy eating on its own works best for this recipe. I prefer Golden Delicious or Gala apples. Granny Smith are a bit too tart for my taste here.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. These muffins may also be carefully, tightly wrapped and frozen for up to a month.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Related Recipes
This apple muffin recipe was originally published September of 2015. I have updated the photos, added a how-to video, and updated the post to be as helpful as possible. The recipe itself has been slightly updated; I’ve slightly re-written it to help with the flow of the recipe and have cut down slightly on the amount of streusel, as some readers complained it was too much!
Janet
Absolutely heavenly. Followed your recipe to a T. Love the “fluffy” texture you described them as. And the crumbles 💗 My kind of muffin! Can’t wait to try more of your muffin recipes!
Thank you!
Sam
I hope you love all of them! ☺️
Michelle
I make apple crumb muffins a lot, but this was a new recipe. As Sam had stated in her recipe, this makes a lot of crumble. Unfortunately, though, the crumble was drier than past recipes I have used which made the crumbs flake off quite a bit even though I pressed the mixture on top of the batter. Also, as another commenter stated, I found that they were finished baking at 20 minutes. I always set the timer for less than what is suggested because I figure it doesn’t take much to bake it for longer, but you can’t do anything with burnt but toss it. We enjoyed the muffins! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Sam
Glad you enjoyed them Michelle! 😃
Chloe Burjak
This was amazing and came out good. My only problem is that it was a little dry.
Rebecca anderson
Wow these apple crumble muffins are amazing 😍 thankyou for the reciepe
SUPRIYA
The cupcakes turned out soft and moist and delicious. The crumble was great.
My baking time was 20 mins and it turned out good.
Geena
Fabulous muffins! I wanted more muffins to share with our friends, so I made 1.5 x the recipe, and added 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg to both the muffin batter and crumb topping (which I only made a single size batch of – thank you for the note about crumb portion preference).
Delicious and moist, perfect amount of sweetness and tart (I used royal gala apples). Thank you so much for the recipe, looking forward to trying more! You inspire me to bake 🙂
Geena
5 stars!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed them so much! Thank you so much for coming back and commenting to let me know how they turned out for you, Geena!! <3
Elsie
Loved how the classic, basic ingredients came together to make something really special! Changes I made:
– half the crumble
– added chopped walnuts
– used half unbleached white flour and half white whole wheat
– used a little less sugar than called for
– did not peel apples first
Next time, I plan to press the crumble into the batter, just slightly, so it doesn’t fall off the finished muffins as readily.
Very delicious! Thank you!
Sam
Glad to hear that you enjoyed them, Elsie!
Bria
Turned out great! I tweaked it a bit to suit our household. I doubled the muffin recipe and left the crumble so it made two dozen muffins. I used whole wheat flour, half applesauce and half oil, added walnuts, and about three times the amount of cinnamon. Still yummy but a little healthy. Lol.
Sam
I love the healthier substitutions! Glad to hear they were such a hit!! 🙂
tina fox
what kind of paper did you use for your liners? is it just parchment paper cut into squares? thank you tina.
Sam
Exactly right. I hope you love the muffins! 🙂
Amylee
I almost never leave comments but these were SO tasty and came out so perfectly that I just had to leave a note. The only thing I did differently, was I added blueberries as well as apples. Oh my, what a perfect and delicious recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Veritable Senior Housing Seattle website
Loved the: it’s not at all a boring health-food kind of muffin.
I know those too well… 😉
great post, Sam!
Maria
Tried it today and I overly trusted the recipe. I followed the recipe exactly, but I wish I read the comments beforehand. First the crumble mix was too much and I hate wasting. Second, 1/3 of the bottom of the muffin was burnt after checking it at 20 minutes less than 5 minutes of the suggested baking time. I baked them in the middle rack on recommended oven temp. I guess, I can lower the oven temp, but I’m hesitant to try this recipe again. Giving it 2 stars just because the muffins top look really nice and the muffins are kind of moist, but not moist enough for a keeper recipe. Sorry.
Sam
Sorry they didn’t turn out for you! Yes, it does make a lot of crumble! They definitely shouldn’t have come out burnt, if you used significantly less crumble they may have needed less time than the suggested baking time, or it’s possible that your oven may be running hotter than it’s reading. Did you use paper liners when baking? If not the baking tin may have also contributed to the burning.
Judy
Crumble topping is excellent crisp, crumbly, bits of sweet sugar and biscuit like bits. The muffin very moist and tasty. I wanted a muffin and apple crumble so this hit the spot. Thanks excellent recipe particularly the crumble. Normally I rub butter into flour but this melting butter first then mixing is much better.
Sam
So glad to hear that you enjoyed, Judy! 🙂
Alyson
We loved these, Sam!! Thanks so much for this recipe. I used the extra crumble topping on banana bread. Fantastic!
Sam
I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed! Thank you for coming back and letting me know that you liked them, Alyson! 🙂
Carolyn
Just made these and they were really tasty. Easy to follow instructions, thanks for the recipe!
Sam
So glad you liked them! Thanks for commenting, Carolyn! 🙂
Tammy
Excited to try your recipes thank you for sharing
Tammy