Sneak one of these Apple Cinnamon Muffins into the kids or your lunch box for a delicious tea time snack.Filled with chunky apple pieces, flavored with cinnamon and topped with a crunchy oat streusel, these make a pretty good breakfast too, don't you think ?
I really do love these Apple Cinnamon Muffins. In fact, I love all muffins. They are so easy to prepare and since most can be baked and frozen, they are a great make-ahead breakfast idea.
Another great thing about muffins is the minimal work required to make these delicious treats. As with most muffins, the recipe almost always states DO NOT OVERMIX. A fork is sufficient to combine the ingredients. So less washing up too.
These apple cinnamon muffins are everything of the above and more. Easy to prepare, great make-ahead breakfast and snack, no special equipment needed and just sooooo delicious.
The aroma that fills your home while this bake is absolutely amazing.
MAKING THE APPLE CINNAMON MUFFINS
There are 3 parts to the recipe to create these delicious muffins
The streusel or crumb topping
The muffin and
The glaze.
The Streusel or Crumb topping
The streusel is a combination of flour, sugar oats and COLD butter. The butter must be cold, not room temperature, not melted. COLD!!! A good crumb topping should have a few big chunks, like granola. The best way to achieve this is to use cold cubed butter.
Using room-temperature or melted butter will cause the topping to spread out and flatten when it bakes. Prepare the streusel first and keep in the fridge while you make the muffins.
The Muffin
Dry ingredients
Start by combining The dry ingredients, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and cornstarch/cornflour.
Wet ingredients
In a jug or saucepan mix the wet ingredients, which includes buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and sugar. Although sugar is not a wet ingredient, it's part of this because it needs to be dissolved before being combined with the dry ingredients.
Then combine both wet and dry ingredients with a fork. Do not OVERMIX. Over mixing will result in dry textured muffins. You want soft and fluffy muffins.
I love using apple chunks instead of little pieces of apple in these muffins. In that way, you get a bite of the apple with the muffin.
Fold in the apple chunks and then just divide the mixture between 12 muffin cups. Top each with about ½ a teaspoon of streusel and bake for 15 minutes.
The glaze
After baking allows the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes ( I know, pure torture right ) before removing and cooling on wire racks.
Mix ¼ cup icing sugar with ¼ teaspoon boiling water and 1 teaspoon of maple or golden syrup. Mix to a slightly thick pouring consistency and just drizzle over each muffin.
The glaze is totally optional, so feel free to leave out this step if you prefer.
So whether you are grabbing these muffins as a quick breakfast or tucking one into your lunch box, I can guarantee that you are going to love this recipe.
Enjoy ♥
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Ingredients
FOR THE STREUSEL:
- ⅓ cup / 43 g all purpose/ cake flour
- 1 tablespoon oats
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons / 25g brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons / 28g cold butter
FOR THE MUFFINS
DRY INGREDIENTS:
- 1 ½ cups / 180g all purpose / cake flour
- 2 tablespoons / 18g cornflour /cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
WET INGREDIENTS:
- 1 ¼ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup oil
- 2 tablespoons maple / golden syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup / 66g brown sugar
- 1 cup / about 3 small apples peeled, cored and chopped
TO MAKE THE GLAZE ( OPTIONAL)
- ¼ cup powdered / icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon maple / golden syrup
- ¼ teaspoon boiling water
Instructions
TO MAKE THE STREUSEL:
- Combine flour, oats, cinnamon and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Rub in the butter until crumbs form. Keep refrigerated while you make the muffins.
TO MAKE THE MUFFINS:
- Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Whisk together all wet ingredients in a jug, mix until the sugar is dissolved.
- Fold the wet into the dry ingredients just until combined, do not overmix .
- Fold in the apple chunks.
- Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups
- Sprinkle over with ½ to 1 teaspoon of the cold streusel.
- Bake in a preheated oven of 350°F/180°C for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing from the muffin pan and cooling on the rack completely.
- Drizzle with glaze ( optional)
FOR THE GLAZE ( optional )
- Mix powdered / icing sugar with boiling water and maple or golden syrup. Mix to a slightly thick pouring consistency and just drizzle over each muffin.
2pots2cook says
So glad you announce autumn ! Thank you !
Kelly Lynns Sweets and Treats says
Mmmmmmm....this is my kind of breakfast muffin! That added glaze looks PERFECT! I'll take a dozen please!!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com says
When you said "filled with chunky apple pieces" in your introduction Ashika you already had me hooked to read more! And I wasn't disappointed. Great pictures with lots of chunks of apple inside and a delicious glaze too. What a wonderful delicious and tantalising recipe. I love it!
Kelsie | the itsy-bitsy kitchen says
These are just PACKED with apples! YUM! I love a good muffin, especially one that doesn't skimp on the mix-ins 🙂
Maria | kitchenathoskins says
Fall is in the air!! These apple muffins are packed with so much apples, which is exactly how an apple muffin should be in my opinion, great recipe Ashika 🙂 Perfect for school lunch box too.
Ron says
Fall has certainly arrived up this way. We were walking in the forest today in our sweaters as the golden leaves were falling. What a perfect muffin to enjoy with my morning coffee and one even a non-baker like me might be able to master. Thanks for a lovely recipe.
Thao @ In Good Flavor says
These look delicious!! I love a muffin with streusel! Right now I'm all about apples. I need to keep a stash of these in my freezer for a quick grab and go in the morning 🙂