Apple Crumble Muffins
A Crumble Confession
When I was little, I loved when my mom or nana bought muffins from the grocery store. Not necessarily because I liked muffins all that much. It was all about the crumble on top of the muffin. I can picture them perfectly - a plastic container with four large chocolate chip muffins, covered with the perfectly sweet, salty, crumble. My mom kept them with the bread on top of the refrigerator. I would steal one from the container, tell myself I needed to be a grown up and eat the entire thing, only to find myself only eating the top and being disgusted when I had to put any part of that muffin that didn’t have crumble anywhere near my mouth. As much as I wanted to eat the entire thing, the rest of the muffin seemed so boring without the crumble on top.
Today, I’m much more accepting of non-crumbled muffins, though let’s be honest, they are always better. These days, I’m a big fan of making apple muffins. It’s great for this time of year, it keeps the muffin super moist, and the apple flavor goes with so much - other fruits, carrots, nuts, chocolate… the list goes on. Not to mention, apples are one of my top favorite fruits of all time.
Recipe Details
I have to come clean. I’m calling these muffins, but they’re honestly more like a cup cake with crumble on the top. They’re fluffy and moist, just sweet enough, and are perfect for breakfast or dessert (or both)!
The recipe is broken into two parts, first creating a crumble and then mixing up the muffins themselves. The crumble recipe is pretty classic: butter, flour, sugar, and oats mixed together until sandy. Stick the crumble in the fridge while you mix up the muffin batter, so the butter doesn’t melt.
When it comes to the muffin recipe, it’s made extra special by subbing in some applesauce as well as chopped apples. It’s the perfect autumnal bake with a subtle taste of cinnamon. When making the recipe, mix the dry ingredients separately from the wet. Once both are prepared, mix the dry ingredients into the wet, just combining before adding in the diced apple. They’ll bake in a little over 20 minutes and are absolutely delicious served warm. These muffins are best the day of, but will last a day or two in an airtight container.
If you give this recipe a try please tag me on social media or leave a comment! I can’t wait to see you enjoy them.
These apple crumble muffins are almost cupcake-like. So moist and full of autumnal apple cinnamon flavor and topped with a salty sweet crumble. Perfect for a sweet breakfast or dessert.
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup finely chopped granny smith apple (about 1 peeled apple)
In a medium sized bowl, add the flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, and rolled oats. Mix until evenly combined.
Add the butter to the oat mixture. Using a pastry cutter or fork, mix the butter into the oat mixture until it’s the texture of coarse sand and you can no longer see chunks of butter.
Set in the fridge until ready to use.
Preheat your oven to 350° F and place muffin liners in a twelve-count muffin tin.
In a medium sized bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until evenly combined.
In a separate, larger bowl add the butter, sugar, and applesauce. Whisk until well combined and the sugar is fully incorporated into the butter.
Add the vanilla and eggs to the butter mixture, whisking until completely combined.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring to combine. Once the dry ingredients are almost completely mixed in, add the apples. Give the mixture a few more stirs, incorporating the apples evenly.
Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin liners. Take the crumble mixture out of the fridge and sprinkle across the top of each, lightly pushing the crumble into the muffin batter if needed.
Bake muffins for 20-23 minutes, until a toothpick stuck in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Let cool on a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes and then remove from the tin. These muffins are best eaten the same day, but can be saved for 1 to 2 days in an airtight container.
