Healthy Gluten Free Apple Muffins with Cinnamon

These delicious gluten-free apple muffins have less sugar than most and they're packed with healthy ingredients like apples, applesauce, oats and maple syrup! Easy to make and perfect for a healthy breakfast or snack on-the-go!

In the fall, it's Apple Season! And we've got apples🍎

Lots and lots of 🍏APPLES🍎

So what better way to use up these fresh apples than with a delicious gluten free apple muffin recipe?

Paired with a cup of coffee in the morning these gluten free apple cinnamon muffins are the perfect fall breakfast.

Of course, if you have bushels of apples to use up, check out this recipe for Easy Baked Apple Recipe with California Strawberry Oat Filling.

Or turn your breakfast up a notch on the healthy scale with this recipe for Apple Cinnamon Chia Pudding!

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Is there such a thing as a healthy muffin?
• Equipment
• Storage
• Top tip
• More Gluten-Free Muffin Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to make these apple muffins:

• Gluten-free flour - I like Bob's Red Mill 1:1 baking flour You could also use almond flour
• Rolled oats - gluten-free, like these Only Oats
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Cinnamon
• Apple sauce, unsweetened
• 1 Egg
• Milk
• Maple syrup
• 1 apple

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Like a lot of muffin recipes, this apple muffin recipe is pretty easy-peasy:

1. You combine the dry ingredients in a bowl - the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
2. Then combine the wet ingredients in another, larger bowl - the applesauce, egg, milk and maple syrup.
3. Add the dry ingredients into the larger bowl of wet ingredients and stir until almost combined.
4. Then add the diced apple into the muffin batter and stir a couple more times until combined fully.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees F until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 13-15 minutes.

Substitutions

Change up the applesauce

Because these muffins have no oil, you need the applesauce to help hold the batter together and give some moisture.

If you don't have plain, unsweetened applesauce, you can use a flavoured one.

I've used mango and apple applesauce or the berry variety too. Both are fine to use. And the individual container of applesauce is the perfect amount (½ cup).

Just be sure that the applesauce you buy is unsweetened.

Change up the milk

Instead of regular milk, buttermilk or making your own "sour milk" is also great to have in muffins.

It gives a little tangy flavour and helps to use up buttermilk that otherwise can easily go expired in your fridge.

Use buttermilk or "sour milk" 1:1 for regular milk in this recipe.

To make your own sour milk, put 2 tablespoon of plain white vinegar into a cup of milk. Stir and let stand for about 10 minutes. Use in the recipe as normal.

For a dairy-free version, you could also use almond, soy or oat milk. Results will be similar to regular cow's milk. Of course, some milk vanities will change the flavour of the muffins. Just to keep in mind if using milk alternatives.

Best to avoid flavoured milks in this recipe.

Variations

These apple muffins are already gluten-free.

If you needed to, here's how you could make them dairy-free and/or vegan:

• Dairy-free - if you don't want the milk, you can substitute an oat milk or an almond milk instead to make them dairy-free. But avoid ones with extra sugar or flavourings
• Vegan - to make these muffins vegan, you'd have to take out the egg. Instead, use an egg substitute like "aquafaba" which is the liquid in a can of chickpeas. You need about 3 tablespoon of aquafaba for 1 large egg. Add the aquafaba into the wet ingredients and follow the recipe as written.

And if you want to UP the sweetness factor, add vegan chocolate chips (or regular chocolate chips if you're not looking for vegan muffins.)

Is there such a thing as a healthy muffin?

Yes! There is. But to get a healthy muffin, it's best to make them at home. When you make your muffins at home, you can load them up with healthy ingredients like applesauce, mashed bananas, greek yogurt, oats, nuts and seeds, ground flaxseed and even beans!

Check out this recipe for Healthy Banana Bread with White Beans for a delicious example.

You can also control the portion size to what an actual muffin should look like (snack-size vs meal-size).

Most store bought muffins are more like cake, from a nutrition perspective. Typically, they're loaded up with way to much fat, white flour, sugar, salt and other not-so healthy things.

Equipment

All you'll need for this muffin recipe is a 12 - cup muffin tin.

Have 2 - 12 cup muffin tins in your kitchen cupboards? Why not double the recipe to make an extra batch and freeze the extra apple muffins for another time.

Storage

These muffins will keep well on the counter in an air-tight container for about 3 days.

They freeze really well. Just make sure they're wrapped well or in that air-tight container.

You can freeze them for up to 3 months.

Top tip

Don't over-mix the muffin batter! Stirring and stirring and stirring that batter is not a good idea.

You'll get a tough muffin in the end if it's over-mixed. Best to stir together ingredients until just combined and there's no flour streaks left.

More Gluten-Free Muffin Recipes

The ingredient list for these healthy apple muffins is a great start a bunch of other muffin recipes on the blog!

Check out these recipe for gluten-free muffins too:

• Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins with Coconut Flour
• Healthy Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins
• Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Muffins with Quinoa Flakes
• Best Ever Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

📖 Recipe