Last week Isaac went to Carter Mountain Orchard with his class and brought home three big bags of local apples.
Despite the fact that I eat a ton of apples and could have easily plowed through the bags in no time flat, I felt compelled to use a few in some sort of delicious baked good. Apple muffins were the first thing that popped into my mind so I made a batch and brought them for the ladies that attended my bachelorette party. Everyone loved them!
Isaac tasted one and said they were his favorite baked good I’d made in a while!! With a comment like that, I pretty much had to make another batch for him this week.
These muffins are hearty, moist and have with the perfect amount of sweetness from the brown sugar and apple chunks. As with most muffins, they’re great paired with a cup of coffee on a chilly fall morning.
In addition, they’re much healthier than your average muffin with all-natural ingredients like quinoa flour, whole wheat flour, plain Greek yogurt (Chobani), fresh apples and flaxseed. I also used canned pumpkin in the recipe so I could cut back the amount of butter. You could certainly use 3/4 cup applesauce or go the decadent route and use the extra 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of Earth Balance or butter instead of the pumpkin. You all know I love my pumpkin so obviously it makes sense that I like the pumpkin version best – even if you can’t really taste it in this recipe.
Healthy Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) Earth Balance Buttery Stick or butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sucanat or dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt
- 3/4 cup pumpkin (roasted or canned)
- 2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed + 6 Tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup quinoa flour or all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups peeled and finely chopped apple pieces (about 2 apples)
Topping
- 2 Tablespoons sucanat or dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners or coat with cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed with the 6 Tablespoons of water and let sit while you start preparing the other ingredients.
- In a small bowl, mix together the topping - 2 tablespoons of sucanat with 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the quinoa and whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
- In a large bowl, mix the ¾ cup sucanat with the softened butter until combined. Add the flaxseed/water mixture, pumpkin and vanilla. Stir in yogurt.
- Fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture. Gently stir in the apple chunks.
- Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the brown sugar topping. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.
- Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Store any leftover muffins in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
by Brittany Mullins
Believe me when I say that the tops are the best – so sweet and cinnamony. Hopefully you all love them as much as we do here at casa de EBF.
These look incredible – I can never get enough cinnamon!
Apple + Cinnamon is probably my favorite flavor combination!
Me too!!
These look delicious! I love anything with apple 🙂
I love, love, love all of your healthy substitutions! I have a bunch of apples that need to be used up and I will definitely be using some in this recipe. Can’t wait to try!
Yay! I hope you love them!
LOVE that these don’t have eggs in them 😀 I’m so not a fan of eggs lol apples and cinnamon are prob the best combo in my book, I’ll totally try these out 🙂
apples + cinnamon = <3
I am a sucker for muffins and anything apple or pumping during autumn, so count me in. I want to try these asap!
These look great, lady!
Thank you dear! We need to catch up soon – I feel like we haven’t seen each other/emailed in ages.
These look so good Brittany! Way better than mine. 🙂 I need to take baking tips from you girl.
can you send some my way 😉
I would, but they are gone already. 😉
these. look. delicious.
We went out to Carter Mountain last weekend and grabbed some of our own. So far I’ve done an apple pie baked oatmeal for breakfast, and HomeMan made a dessert pizza like the ones on pizza buffets with his homemade crust! Whatever we have left will go into crock pot applesauce on Saturday, but I might have to try this recipe out first!
Oh yum – everything you all made sounds awesome. I think I need some apple pie baked oatmeal in my life!
http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2012/10/apple-pie-baked-oatmeal-476-recipe-060.html here’s the recipe I adapted from 🙂
I went to UVa so I feel very fondly for that entire area. The hiking, apples, mountains. Sigh. And I also can’t wait to try this recipe!
So cool! I grew up in Orange, VA so I’m pretty fond of that area too. 🙂
The the information you are providing is really helpful to me .keep posting.
This is PERFECT!!!!! I have been scouring Pinterest for a yummy Apple Cinnamon muffin, and here it is! Will be making these sometime soon! Maybe tomorrow?! To celebrate Halloween + being done a midterm! 🙂
I need to bake me some of these!
So glad you shared this recipe. I’ve been looking for new ways to add a little extra fiber to my diet and these are so delicious. I was cutting them in half and reheating with a little bit of olivio on them but they don’t even need that…they are great on their own. Love them! Thanks!! 🙂
So glad you like them Kristie!
Can I use Oat flour instead of wheat?
I think that would work fine.
Could I leave the pumpkin out? Or use something else instead? Maybe butternut squash?
Anyone wanna take a stab at how many calories might be in these muffins? Roughly?
Hi Tara. Just added the nutritional stats to this recipe! They have about 185 cals per muffin.