These deliciously soft and moist homemade applesauce muffins will quickly become a staple recipe at your breakfast table. And the recipe can be completely oil free!
My new favorite muffin recipe
Five out of five stars
I could eat these every day
There’s no way these muffins are so healthy!!!
As some of the reader reviews above show, people seriously cannot get enough of the secretly healthy applesauce muffins!
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Above, watch the step-by-step applesauce muffin recipe video
Easy applesauce muffins
The wholesome muffins are great for packing into a lunch box, and they can be vegan, gluten free, egg free, dairy free, whole food plant based, and oil free.
It’s possibly one of the most delicious and healthiest muffin recipes you’ll ever make, and they pair well with savory recipes too.
Try the muffins for dinner alongside my favorite Lentil Soup or Mushroom Stroganoff, or this easily customizable vegetarian Coconut Curry.
You can also double the recipe if you want and freeze leftovers for a rainy day, to always have a nutritious snack or healthy breakfast on hand any time you’re in a rush or don’t feel like cooking.
Kids, toddlers, teens, and adults all love these clean eating muffins, because they taste like apple pie and are packed with nutrition at the same time.
Also be sure to try these healthy Pumpkin Muffins
Applesauce muffin ingredients
Soft and cinnamony, these classic muffins are made with just a few basic ingredients.
They have no butter or eggs, and you can customize the recipe by adding in a handful of raisins, chopped walnuts, flax seeds, or shredded coconut, or by pressing a few blueberries into the top of each muffin right before baking.
To turn them into oatmeal applesauce muffins, simply use oat flour as your flour of choice, or they can be whole grain with the benefit of extra fiber if you use spelt or whole wheat flour.
The muffins can be refined sugar free if you use date sugar or coconut sugar. Or to make them lower in carbs and completely sugar free, you can use xylitol or granulated erythritol.
For low fat or weight watchers muffins, the oil can be substituted with additional applesauce, pumpkin, mashed banana, or even peanut or almond butter.
The photos in this post are actually of the oil-free version made only with applesauce!
Leftover applesauce? Use it to make Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
How to make applesauce muffins
This healthy snack recipe is super quick to throw together.
Start by whisking all of the liquid ingredients together and greasing or lining a muffin pan with muffin or cupcake liners.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir all of the dry ingredients in a bowl, then combine with the liquid mixture to form a muffin batter.
To ensure everything is evenly mixed, I like to use different bowls for the liquid and dry ingredients. However, it can be a one bowl muffin recipe if you prefer.
Portion the muffin batter into the lined muffin pan. It should make about eight or nine regular size muffins. Only fill each tin about two thirds of the way up, because they will rise while baking.
Place on the oven’s center rack, and bake for twenty minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out mostly clean. Let cool.
If you want to make applesauce mini muffins, follow the instructions above and bake them for only ten minutes. I recommend this mini muffin pan.
Muffin storage tips
My favorite muffin trick is to cover them overnight on the counter or in the refrigerator. The liners peel off easily the next day, and their flavor and texture will be even better the next day.
After a day, store leftover muffins in an airtight covered container. Due to the perishable ingredients, I recommend refrigerating for optimum freshness.
You can also freeze the applesauce muffins for up to three months. Thaw before eating, and reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop if desired.
They will make your entire house smell like cinnamon sugar!
Applesauce Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup applesauce
- 3 tbsp oil OR applesauce or mashed banana
- 2 tbsp milk of choice
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp white or cider vinegar
- 1 cup spelt, white, or oat flour (for flourless, try these Keto Muffins)
- 1/4 cup sugar or unrefined sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp each: baking soda and baking powder
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- optional handful raisins, crushed walnuts, shredded coconut, etc.
Instructions
- *If you want to make mini muffins, bake only 10 minutes. I recommend this mini muffin pan.Whisk all liquid ingredients together. Preheat oven to 350, and line a muffin tin. In a new bowl, stir remaining ingredients very well. Pour dry into wet, and stir until just evenly mixed. Fill each liner about 2/3 of the way, leaving a little room because they will rise. Bake on the center rack, 20 minutes or until muffins have domed and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out mostly clean. Let cool. (If you loosely cover overnight on the counter or refrigerated, the liners peel off easily the next day and flavor and texture are even better.) Leftovers can be frozen if desired. Be sure to rate the recipe below if you try it!View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Healthy Muffin Recipes
Or these healthy Bran Muffins
Easy Whole Wheat English Muffins
Recipe in the Hello Breakfast Cookbook
I made these muffins today. They were super easy and tasted remarkably delicious! I was a little skeptical due to the minimal ingredients, however, my granddaughter came for coffee and she really liked them as well!! I will definitely make them again! Thanks, Katie!
I made the muffins this morning. Delicious! I am making mine for grand babies so I made mini muffins. The first batch I went
100% by the recipe. I found it took about 12 minutes to bake. I may have overfilled the tins. Second batch, I had to use 1/2 oat flour and 1/2 spelt. I was low on spelt. Also I made my own applesauce which was a bit chunkier than “store bought.” These had to cook 13 minutes. The first batch made 24, the second batch (chunkier applesauce) made 36.
Question ~ Did anyone add any of the add-ons that Katie suggested? Grand babies tend to be picker and not like “things” in their muffins. Just asking for adults, what did your tasters like?
I made these mini muffins with unsweetened coconut and they are very nice. (1/4 cup) Gives them a bit more texture and I had a big bag of it to use up.
Oops! I commented above I forgot to say I doubled the recipe both times I mad it.
Can you sub the applesauce with pumpkin and make pumpkin muffins???
Ooo that’s a great idea! I don’t know if it would work, but I like your idea!
I regularly sub pumpkin or banana in place of applesauce in recipes!
These are delicious and simple! I made the oil version with a bit of coconut flour substituted for some added fibre. Both kids and adults enjoyed them. I’ll make these again!
I made these today! I used brown sugar replacement Swerve and added some flax seed and walnuts for more protein. I love them! They aste like apple cider!
Ooh those look awesome!
I made these over the weekend and have been eating them every day this week. I used white wheat flour, Baking Truvia instead of sugar, and banana instead of oil. I was shocked that the texture turned out so well ! It actually made 9 muffins for me because I didn’t want to fill the cups too full. I used Penzey’s Cake Spice which is similar to pumpkin pie spice. Delicious. I love Katie’s recipes!!
So awesome to know it works with whole wheat flour and truvia!
Hi all! I made these muffins and they smelled delicious but when I checked the texture the next day (after a night in the fridge) they were super dense – not light/fluffy/muffin-like at all. The only substitutions I made were using gluten free flour rather than the ones listed and cane sugar instead of white sugar. I live at sea level, so elevation isn’t a problem. Do y’all think it was because of the flour? I’m no expert on flours, so I don’t know how much one affects texture/dryness/flavor over another.
Yup, unfortunately if a flour isn’t listed as an option in a recipe, it either means we haven’t tested it for that recipe or did test it and didn’t have good results. In this case, gf all purpose flour isn’t listed as an option because we weren’t happy enough with the results to include it as an option.
Jason (media relations)
Gotcha, thanks! I’ll try again with oat flour and report back. 🙂
I made these again with oat flour and they turned out much better! However, even after cooking them for an extra almost ten minutes, once they cooled, they were still not quite done inside and sunken down in the middle. The taste was still great though, and with no eggs to worry about being undercooked, I had no problem eating them. 🙂 Definitely a recipe to keep in regular rotation, even if it does take a few extra tries to get them perfect in my oven. Thank you for another delicious recipe!
I have the exact same problem! used the ingredients listed (did not make any substitution).
They taste A-Mazing! But they did sunk in the middle and looked undercooked.
I live at sea level as well…
Any tips?
I had the same problem. They did not rise. I also used oat flour. Also a bit gooey. I was afraid to cook them much more!
I wonder if you need to add some Xanthem to help them rise since you are using GF flour (oat flour). I will try and report back
Call you make them with out the muffin liners
Sure! They will probably only make around 6 or 7 but it definitely still works. Just be sure to grease the muffin cups.
anyone have any recommendations for making these with nunaturals stevia extract drops? 🙂 TIA!
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I made these according to the original recipe – regular flour, sugar, and oil – except I made my own applesauce first and then added some very small pieces of chopped up apple (and increased cinnamon to 1/2 tsp. ). They are fabulous! My husband and I couldn’t leave them overnight because they smelled too good. They are great warm right out of the oven and the next day. I greased the tin rather than using liners.
EMade a double batch today for my husbands office. Everyone loved them and couldn’t believe they are vegan. Recipe is a keeper. I added some cinnamon bits from KAF cause I had them in my pantry and a little vanilla glaze. Easy recipe and simply delicious.
I made this recipe several times now: with oat flour, regular flour, without oil, with coconut oil… and my favorite is with regular flour and coconut oil. The flavor is basically the same for all of them (slightly different with oat thought) except that without the oil, the muffin sticks a lot to the liner even the day after.
Since I make it also for my toddler, I do not add the 1/4 cup of sugar but a handful of raisin. And I don’t know who loves it more, me or her.
Thank you for the recipe Katie, it is definitely a keeper!!
What was the oat flour & no oil one like? I am allergic to wheat and only have oat flour on hand. Also, I have a silicone baking muffin pan so sticking is not a problem for me.
I made these twice already with some modifications. I used a heaping cup of peeled apple chunks instead of applesauce as I don’t have applesauce. Used lemon juice instead of vinegar. Added 3-4 tbsp honey instead of sugar and cardamom powder instead of cinnamon (not a fan). Finally I also added an egg (no baking powder added). Poured the batter onto a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Topped with chopped pecans. Baked at 400 for abt 8-10 mins. This was the best ever sheet pancake. Thank you for the recipe!!!
I made these with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten free flour, and they were delicious. (I read that someone else used a gluten free flour , but they didn’t turn out well. Brand maybe?). Mine were fluffy, cake-like, moist, and flavorful. I added a bit of walnuts, coconut, and raisins. Definitely a keeper! Thank you for all your great recipes?
Yay! This was the comment I was searching for. I am going to try this recipe with the same GF flour!
I did the same but mine didn’t turn out. They were gummy. Used Bob’s 1:1 gf flour.