These oat-flour based muffins are filled with applesauce, shredded apples, and cinnamon, and they make an easy, healthy Fall breakfast that are perfect for chilly Fall mornings!
Have you ever made Apple Cinnamon Muffins?
The scent of apple cinnamon filling the air throughout your house is nothing short of heavenly.
Filled with applesauce, sweet apples, and warm cinnamon, Apple Cinnamon Muffins are one of the best Fall breakfasts, in my opinion, that I look forward to every year. 🙂
This year, I’m sharing the recipe for my oat-flour based Apple Cinnamon Muffins, for a healthy version of the classic Fall breakfast.
Made with only one flour: oat flour, these muffins are an extra filling breakfast with extra fiber.
These Apple Cinnamon Oat Muffins are also made with applesauce for less sugar, and a moist and easy way to make muffins a little healthier.
Filled with shredded (or finely diced) apples, these gluten-free muffins are easily made dairy-free too so everyone can enjoy them!
Sprinkle your muffins with a little cinnamon sugar on top for the finishing touch, my absolute favorite part that I think MAKES these muffins the BEST! 🙂
So, what do you need to know to make these Apple Cinnamon Oat Muffins?
First, what kind of apples to use. I recommend using Granny Smith, my favorite apple to bake with in muffins and breads. The extra tart flavor in Granny Smith comes across beautifully in baked goods.
You can also use Fuji and Gala apples, but I don’t think they give you quite as much of a sweet and tart apple punch as Granny Smith do. So, if you can, go green, if not pick Fuji or Gala!
Now about those apples: To shred or dice, is the question? 😉
I like both, but the texture eater in me prefers shredded apples over diced apples. I think I’ve eaten one too many Apple Cinnamon baked goods that had apples that were not finely diced enough, that now I prefer shredded apple just to be safe.
A food processor will quickly shred your apples, too. Easy, peasy!
If you prefer apple chunks, I recommend dicing them as finely as you can get them. That way you get more apple chunks in each bite, and more of a correct apple texture inside your muffins.
For the sake of ease and to ensure your baked goods turn out and aren’t a crumbly mess, I recommend buying oat flour for muffins. Unless you have a high powered blender and can get your oats blended up as fine as the oat flour you can buy in a store. For example, my blender does a great job blending up oats, but my food processor does not blend my oats up fine enough.
You can also substitute the oat flour with an all purpose gluten-free flour blend, if you’d prefer.
Last but not least: Cinnamon.
Be sure to look for a high quality cinnamon at your supermarket to use in these muffins.
I like to splurge a little on my cinnamon, instead of buying store brand (which I do with a lot of things!) I actually recommend buying name brand. You don’t need to spend $20 on cinnamon, but a couple more bucks than the store brand does make a big difference.
Other than that, don’t forget the cinnamon sugar topping that really takes these Apple Cinnamon Oat Muffins and sends their flavor through the roof!
I hope you make these Apple Cinnamon Oat Muffins and your family enjoys them as much as mine does!
These muffins are great for kids and adults, healthy, and filled with spiced Fall flavor deliciousness! What more could you want?! 🙂
Need more Fall flavors in your life? I love these Soft Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, Apple Cinnamon Oat Pancakes, and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Granola (all gluten-free)! And don’t forget these gluten-free Snickerdoodle Cookies too. 🙂
- 1 3/4 cup oat flour (certified gluten-free)
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted (or butter)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup applesauce (plain, unsweetened)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup apples, shredded or finely diced (Granny Smith, fuji or gala)
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
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To begin, preheat your oven to 350 and spray a muffin tin with no-stick spray.
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In a small mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients and stir them together (oat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt).
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In a large mixing bowl, add your coconut oil, sugar and applesauce and whisk them together till well combined. Now add in your vanilla and eggs and whisk lightly till combined.
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Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir them together till you have a smooth, even batter. Add your apples to your batter and gently fold them in. Fill each muffin tin about 3/4 way full with the muffin batter.
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In a small bowl, add your cinnamon sugar topping ingredients and stir them together till well combined. Sprinkle the topping evenly across the tops of your muffins.
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Bake in the oven for 15-17 minutes, or till the tops of the muffins are springy to touch and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Store these muffins in an airtight container in the fridge, and they taste best within the first 5 days.
Just made these and they are delicious. I made my own oat flour using a magic bullet to pulse the oats. I followed the recipe exactly as written. Baked for 17 minutes. I used silicone liners and no issue getting them out. They did not crumble. I needed to do a trial run as I am baking them for my daughter’s bachelorette weekend and 1 guest is celiac and one is lactose intolerant. Thanks for a great recipe.
This is a great recipe. I used melted butter and mcintosh apples and they were absolutely delicious.
The flavor of these muffins was great! They kind of fell apart on me. Didn’t really hold together. 😢 only changed the coconut oil to melted butter. I used Bob’s Red Mill oat flour. Some are saying the flour might be the problem? I’ll still eat them but will need a spoon!
Did you make your own oat flour, or buy from the store? Homemade will be less binding unless you get it super fine! Other fixes to tryIf you first mix more than you think the proteins need more activating than wheat proteins and also let the batter sit for at least 10 min before baking. The grains need time to hydrate.
Made these today. They were very delicious! I added a handful of raisins to mine and my husband loves them. Definitely a go-to healthy, gluten free recipe!
Hello- my husband and I are on a yeast cleanse which means no sugar of any kind (we can use the coconut oil and unsweetened applesauce) but in place of sugar we use vegetable glycerin and they taste wonderful. They’re quite fluffy and not so dense but that’s just fine. Thanks for the recipe.
Absolutely love these! I discovered them during a no sugar/sweetener month. I use a coffee grinder to make the oat flour, leave out all the sugar and nuts, reduce the baking powder to 1.5 tsp, and use diced pink lady apple. Soooo yummy!! Thanks for sharing!
Hey Tara, so are you saying you made these without ANY sugar? You said you left out the nuts but I’m not seeing any nuts listed in the recipe…? Did the reduction in baking powder have to do with eliminating the sugar in the recipe?
I’m trying to drastically reduce or eliminate sugar in my family’s foods so any feedback would be so great!
I don’t eat any cane sugar so I use Coconut sugar in a 1:1 ratio when i make these and instead of store bought applesauce i cut up an apple, add a splash of water and put it in the blender. I also don’t eat eggs so i make “flax eggs” to substitute! Everyone always loves when i make these 🙂
These were really good! Thank you!! Based on other comments I used one cup flour made from BRM GF rolled oats and 3/4 cup KAF Measure for Measure. I also cut the sugar in half and used 2 TBSP maple syrup. Because we like big muffins I made eight muffins so I had to increase baking time a few minutes. I will definitely keep these in rotation and make them again and again. Next time I will try more oat flour and less KAF just to keep them more nutritious but not falling apart.
these muffins are amazing. hard to tell they are gluten free. my husband loves them as well. i have to tell you they will be enjoyed often at our house. thanks for sharing your recipe with us. i will be signing up for more delicious recipes! Judi
Just checking to make sure 2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of baking soda is correct. The muffins tasted terrible. I had to throw them away which didn’t make me happy.
Hi Dianne. I’m so sorry to hear that! Yes, that is the correct amount of baking powder and baking soda. What was off about the flavor? I’m curious to know if it tasted baking powder-ish or what, if you could describe it.
I’ve experienced that certain baking powder gives baked goods a metallic or fishy flavor, only in gluten free baking. If you use Argo Baking Powder (Double Acting), it’s certified gluten free annnd it doesn’t leave a weird taste. This has fixed our pancakes too.
I love making these. I’ve made them a few times. The flavors are amazing! However, every time I make them they just crumble. I’m using store bought oat flour. Swapping the sugar for coconut sugar. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Josie. What brand of oat flour are you using? Some are more crumbly than others. You could also try using 1 cup of oat flour and 3/4 cup of a gluten-free all purpose flour blend. The blend of the two will help hold them together better!
Agree with that combo of flours!
I’ve had some difficulty finding pecans that haven’t been processed in a facility free from wheat. Any recommendations? Or can I sub them out for something else?
Hi Michelle. Yes, you can definitely leave out the pecans or maybe you can find walnuts? I’d recommend a softer nut like that.
Hello from the Eastern Panhandle of WV!
Followed recipe as instructed but did two things different. I used monk sugar in place of regular sugar and I used paper muffin liners in my pan. They are moist and delicious. They did not fall apart. Definitely will keep these on my menu.
Great to hear, thanks Tammy!
Thank you for your comment using Monk fruit, I use swerve and think I might use half and half granular and brown, I can’t wait to make these!
Thanks for posting that you used the monk fruit sweetener. That’s what I am planning to use as well. I’m glad to hear it turns out so good!
Do you think these would freeze well? Hoping to make these and freeze them for after baby comes
Hi Alanna. I think they would freeze great! Congrats on baby 🙂
We froze ours and it is great!
We’ve been using this muffin recipe for over a year and can’t thank you enough. I had to make adjustments such as honey for sugar (1/3 cup honey) so added a touch of xanthum gum. I am trying more of your recipes and finding out how far I can go in adapting them and it is a pleasure to find them delicious and easy. Small amounts of raisins or chocolate chips are such a treat for my son with a limited food choices.
Thank you for making my son’s life happier. You are our “find” of 2021!!
(Also love all the comments as I learn so much from others)
Such a great comment Janice, thank you so much! I love love love hearing all of this. I’m so happy I can help.
I was thinking about using dried cranberries, thought they would pair well with the apple
I made these muffins today and they looked and tasted great. Unfortunately they did not hold together and I had to spoon them out of the parchment muffin cups. Any suggestions? Thank you.
Hi Johanna. Did you use a certain brand of oat flour or did you make your own? Some brands are more crumbly than others.
Based on other’s comments about muffins tending to be crumbly, I added 2tsp of psyllium husk to the dry ingredients. Turned out delicious while being neither crumbly or gummy. Thanks for a yummy recipe.
Great idea Kim! It definitely depends on the oat flour you use, but psyllium husk is a great way to help combat that. Love it!
Can coconut sugar be a replacement?
Yes!
Love these muffins. First time I have used oat flour. I am very pleased. I, for some reason, can’t just follow a recipe. I cut the sugar in half and added 2 tbls of maple syrup. I also added nutmeg and some walnuts. Flavor is humming. Thanks for introducing me to oat flour!
Sounds delicious! Great to hear, Renee, that you love oat flour now too 🙂
Great additions!
These were amazing! Perfect by following the recipe. They need to be refrigerated. Once you do, they firm up. I warm them just a little and add a few sprays of butter and go in with a fork. But I can just as easily grab a cold one out of the fridge! I’m allergic to wheat so this recipe made me SO happy! Thank you for sharing!
Awesome! Thanks for letting me know Rebecca!
Fabulous muffins!! I made using GF flour 1 to 1 flour and flax eggs. My husband is gluten intolerant and just loves them! He has already asked me to make more batter to have ready. I think next batch I will add shredded and cubed apples. 😀
Love it!! Thanks for the comment Roxanne.
Could you please supply carb count? I can’t wait to make this!
They are roughly 200 calories per each muffin.
Taste (and smell) is amazing. However, I agree with other posters that they tend to just fall apart as I pick them up. I used store-bought (Bob’s Redmill) finely ground oat flour.
Thanks for the recipe.
I agree… I used Bob’s too… I wonder if that’s the problem. The only other time I used oat flour I made my own with oatmeal and they came out perfect. It was a different recipe. They tasted great but I nneded a spoon to eat them!
These are seriously crazy delicious and my new favorite recipe! I shredded the apples as suggested. So so good!
Awesome!! Thanks Mandy for the comment. Love it!
Hello, is there any changes I should make for high altitude? I saw you have taken baking powder out for other recipes but I didn’t see anything about that on this recipe.
Hi Libby. Great question. I bake these muffins at about 5000 ft in altitude and do not do any adjustments. If you are a lot higher, say maybe 8000 ft, you may want to decrease the baking soda to an overflowing 1/4 teaspoon and add in a little more flour (maybe 2 tbsp). Hopefully this info helps 🙂
I thought this was a dairy free recipe…..It has eggs!!! This is NOT a DAIRY FREE recipe!! So frustrating!
Hi Tabitha. Technically, eggs are not considered dairy, which is why this recipe has a dairy-free option that still includes eggs. However, you can make this recipe with flax/chia eggs or an egg replacer if you prefer. I’m sorry you felt misled.
Eggs are not dairy! They are only FOUND in the dairy section for the refrigeration. Dairy products come from milk.
Hi! I want my toothless baby to be able to enjoy these… thinking of leaving out the Apple chunks. Will that mess it up?
Hi Becky. I don’t think so – I think the muffins will be great still. The applesauce and spices will still shine through! I hope you and your little one enjoy them 🙂
I mixed part AP flour and oat flour (first time using oat flour so I wanted to try it first!). The texture was amazing, not too wet/moist of a muffin. Though my muffins came out a bit bland — could’ve used more sugar but it’s also probably because my apples weren’t that sweet. Overall, good, healthy recipe will definitely make again
Hey Chelsea, I’m on a very restricted diet & I was very happy when I found your recipe. I cannot use eggs so I used the flax egg instead. That was the only change to recipe. The muffins are very good BUT after removing from oven they caved in. They were cooked adequately too. I have this problem with oat flour in particular. Is there anything I can do for this recurring problem?
Hi Mary. Are you baking at a higher altitude, or no? And if you replaced the eggs with a flax egg, what was your ratio of flax seed to water?
No high altitude & I use 1 Tbsp ground flax To 3 Tbsp water.
Hi Mary. I would recommend making a flax egg with 1 tbsp flax and only 2 1/2 tbsp of water. That’s what I’ve done in the past, and I know 1 tbsp of extra water may not sound like enough but that could be the culprit. I’m wondering though if you typically have this problem with oat flour, are you measuring the amount of oat flour as oats prior to blending it, or as oat flour? And I guess, are you using homemade oat flour or store bought? You may just need to add a bit more flour (too much liquid makes baked goods sink).
Hello again Chelsea, I buy my oat flour & stir it up with a fork & then spoon it into my measuring cup. I will try using less water with the flax egg, that sounds like it might be the problem. I will use 2 Tbsp water instead of 3. I really appreciate your input to help me with this ongoing problem. I can’t use reg GF flours anymore so I’m learning, once again how to use oat, sorghum, millet, tigernut, cassava, quinoa, buckwheat, hazelnut & tapioca flours & its difficult to get the blends correct. I will let you know how things turn out next time I bake with oat flour.
I used hee instead of coconut oil. The muffins came out very crumbly. We had to eat them with a spoon. They tasted yummy. A bit too sweet though…i’d use less sugar. That’s just my preference.
Made it today came out great will be making again.I used less sugar and banana in place of applesauce
Thanks for the comment, Karen! Happy to hear you enjoyed them.
What if I don’t have apple sauce
If you don’t have applesauce you could also use mashed banana, but there will be more of a banana flavor instead of a stronger apple flavor then.
oh my these turned out soooooooo goooood !!!!!! Love this !!!
Thank you !!!!
This will be a great way to use up the extra apples. Kids seem to stop eating them when they get the least bit old.
I get that, Karen!! Hope you enjoy.
This recipe looks great! I only have bobs red mill flour, but I also have flaked oats I could grind in my food processor. Have you or anyone else tried this?
Thanks and be well!
Dori
Hi Dori. I haven’t ever used flaked oats before, so I’m not sure how that would turn out. But, Bobs red mill flour should work fine in this recipe too! Hope this helps.
Actually I grinned my own oats for this recipe and it turned out delicious! They didn’t puff up as much but I still think it turned out well. I’m actually looking forward to adding some shredded up carrots in my next batch!
Great to hear that Mallory! And I like that you ground up your own oats too. Carrot sounds delicious in these!
These were SO good!! I used all purpose flour instead and they turned out great!!!
That’s great to know, Lauren! Thanks for the review 🙂 so happy to hear that!
How much egg replaced did you use?
I followed instructions on the package: one tablespoon replacer and two T water and let stand for 5 minutes. Since this recipe called for two eggs, I used 2T egg replacer and 4T water. Very good for baking!
Hello ! Can we use monk fruit instead of sugar? How many calories per muffin? Thanks
Hi Karime. The muffins are about 200 calories each. I think I have seen a couple other people use monk fruit in some of my muffin recipes with success but I’m not sure how much exactly. I do not use monk fruit so I’m sorry but I cannot say how well it would work with it.
Delicious! I used Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer to make vegan. Very good!
These turned out great. Used 1 1/2 C oat Flour and 1/4 C King Arthur GF Flour and added 3/4 t xanthan gum, I also added 3/4 C raisins, love apples, cinnamon and raisins. Very moist and delicious. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
Awesome, Shari! So happy to hear you enjoyed these.
I love this recipe! I modified by adding ground flaxseed for extra fiber/healthy fat, so also added 1tsp xanthan gum. They have excellent flavor and a delicious crispy topping! My new-mom-daughter thanks you, says the best yet!’
Awesome, thanks for the sweet comment Gerri!!
can i sub almond flour for the oat flour?
Hi Andrea, You cannot, this recipe is specific to oat flour (although I’ve heard all purpose flour works too). Almond flour requires different liquid ratios. Sorry, hope this helps!
Almond flour, I found, varies in moisture, more than other flours do. It also absorbs moisture quickly. It provides a softer more crumbly, cake-like texture & does not hold together, as well.
I love these muffins. They are very tasty and moist. However when you go to eat one they just fall apart, very crumbly. What could I add to help this problem.
Hi Heather – Darn, I hate to hear that! Usually oat muffins are a little more crumbly, but they shouldn’t be falling apart. Did you use store bought oat flour or homemade?
I had this issue too!! I didn’t have prepackaged oat flour, so I made some of my own, which has worked well in other recipes. They fell apart as I was taking them out of the tin. I managed to get a couple out intact, but they also fell apart when I was eating them.
Hi Margaret, I’m sorry to hear that! I’ve started to see a few comments about people having issues with oat flour, and I’m not convinced that homemade oat flour is always the way to go. I know I can get mine very fine with my high powered blender, but not as fine with my food processor. I think it’s hard to judge if it’s fine enough or not, and if it’s not fine enough then the muffins will crumble. I’ve started to recommend purchasing oat flour rather than making your own, and will be editing all of my oat flour posts to reflect that. Thank you for your feedback, it really helps!
Thank you for this delicious muffin recipe! Just found out my daughter is gluten intolerant and these muffins eased her mind that life can still be full of yummy foods. I swapped half of the oil for white beans because she needs fiber snuck in and it was delicious!
So happy to hear that, Amy! Being gluten-free has improved drastically over the last several years (with new products, flours, etc), so while it’s frustrating and confusing sometimes, I hope she continues to learn that you can still have some amazing food that’s gluten free!