Soft and fluffy apple crumble muffins are stuffed with apple pieces and piled high with a buttery crumble topping.
Of all of the different dessert recipes that I make for this site, my favorite thing to make (as of late, anyway) is a batch of muffins.
I think it’s because I’ve sort of developed a knack for making them. A while back, after a lot of trial and error, I developed the perfect basic muffin recipe. Perfect in my opinion, anyway, which means soft, fluffy and flavorful muffins every time.
My basic recipe is just that: the plain, basic fundamentals for a light and fluffy muffin, so each time I set out to create a new muffin recipe, I spend some time tweaking it to best suit the ingredients I’m trying to highlight that day, changing a few things here and here to properly develop the taste and texture I’m looking for.
Not once has my muffin base let me down.
What’s To Love About These Muffins:
- Soft & fluffy inside
- Punctuated with tart apple pieces
- That thiiiick brown sugar streusel on top
- No fuss, no electric mixer, no headache.
These muffins–these springy-soft and fluffy muffins (one of which I’m devouring as I write this) were inspired by a surplus of apples on my countertop. I’ve made apple fritters, apple butter and apple dumplings, but this morning I was craving apple muffins.
So, to use up the pile of apples sleeping on my countertop, I chopped them up and tossed them into my slightly altered muffin base. This time, I added a generous addition of cinnamon to complement and draw out the apple flavor, and a buttery, irresistible, sky-high pile of brown sugar and cinnamon crumbles (which are nice and gently crunchy against the soft apple base). The contrast of the crisp crumble and the soft muffin reminds me of my favorite apple crisp.
They are the ultimate breakfast muffin. The ultimate misty Monday morning pick-me up muffin. The ultimate anytime muffin.
Now excuse me, I think I’ll go have another.
More Muffins to Try:
- Banana Muffins (hundreds of 5 ⭐️ratings!)
- Chocolate Chip Muffins (bakery style!)
- Blueberry Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
A few of you asked how I made those paper liners for my muffins, so I recently shared a tutorial on making parchment paper liners!
Apple Crumble Muffins
Ingredients
Crumble*
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (125g)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark is fine, I usually use light) tightly packed (150g)
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 6 Tablespoons salted butter melted
Muffins
- 1/2 cup canola oil vegetable oil would also work (120ml)
- 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (100g)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (50g)
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice stirred into 1/2milk and allowed to sit for 5 minutes) (120ml)
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cup peeled and chopped apples (215g) I prefer my apple pieces chopped smaller rather than larger. You can use your preferred apple, I like to use a sweet/tart kind like Golden delicious or Gala.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F (190C) and line a 12-count muffin tin with paper liners (or grease and flour).
Crumble
- Prepare the crumble first by whisking together flour, sugars and cinnamon.
- Pour the melted butter into the mixture and, using a fork, stir until crumbles form. Set aside.
Muffins
- In medium-large bowl, whisk together oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and buttermilk. Whisk well until all ingredients are well combined (about 1 minute).
- Add eggs, whisking until combined.
- Stir in vanilla extract.
- In separate, medium-sized bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
- Gradually stir flour mixture into wet mixture until just combined (do not over-mix!).
- Gently fold in apple pieces.
- Divide batter into prepared muffin tins (filling each about 3/4 of the way full).
- Top with crumble topping, splitting evenly among muffins.
- Bake on 375F (190C) for 25 minutes (toothpick inserted in center should come out mostly clean with no wet batter on it).
- Allow muffins to cool before eating.
Notes
Nutrition
ARIANNE says
THESE MUFFINS ARE GREAT!!! I just had one freshly baked muffin a minute out from the oven coz I just can’t wait! I lost my sweet tooth probably wen I was a kid, so I halved the sugar as I’m using my homemade chunky apple jam that already had sugar in it. Only used light brown (raw) sugar as that’s what I only have at the moment. Also, I only have olive oil and I’m not sure if that can substitute canola/veg oil, but I know a lot of recipe calls for butter so I made a little less than half a cup of butter:olive oil. I had to less a bit of liquid coz my jam has sauce in it. Despite all of the adjustments MUFFINS CAME OUT GREAT!!!!!! Much love from Singapore Sam <3
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Arianne! For the oil, I really recommend a neutral oil. Olive oil has a little bit of a stronger taste, but you may have been able to mask it with the jam you used. Either way, I’m glad they turned out! 🙂
Angela says
These are the best muffins I think I’ve ever made! I have never commented on a recipe before, but this recipe needs to be praised! It’s a very well-written recipe, every step is laid out perfectly. As for the finished product, it came out exactly the way it should have…the muffin was moist, the topping was crunchy and the taste was absolutely delicious! These will be baked again!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Angela! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate it. 🙂
Simone Cheong says
Muffins came out awesome! I doubled the muffin recipe and added one bag of dark chocolate chips to the batter. I made only one recipe of the topping, and it was enough for the 27 muffins the double muffin recipe yielded.
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Simone! 🙂
Sandra Gay Duffey says
These muffins were easy to make and lovely and moist but they just were not sweet enough. Don`t think I will make them again
Simone Cheong says
Sandra, I added chocolate chips and it brought the sweetness level up without being too sweet. You could also try semi-sweet chocolate chips.
ARIANNE says
Uh-oh… I made some chunky apple jam out from left over apples. Thot of making them into muffins and so I found this recipe. I even Halved the sugar as the apple jam already has a bit of sugar in it. But generally I’m not a huge fan of sweets. Updating later once the muffins are done.