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
Love these! Really moist!
Just wanted to tell you these were an amazing hit! I have a young girl in my youth group With soooo many food allergies- I made this and she loved them! Even asked for the recipe! I did oil and a bit of mashed banana, and a little extra flour! I used the white vinegar and almond milk. They were a hit. Adding to my home cook book!
Thank you!
Mine was a flop. Mixture was dry and crumbly. I used coconut flour and stevia and the rest the same as listed using oil and applesauce. Bummer
I’m confused – this recipe doesn’t list coconut flour OR stevia as options. Coconut flour is absolutely not the same thing, not even close to working the same in recipes… and using stevia would completely change the amount/weight of dry ingredients. So basically it’s like you made a different recipe entirely. Unless you meant to leave this comment on a different recipe?
Adding to Jason’s comment – coconut flour is much, MUCH more absorbent than wheat, oat or other flours and can’t be substituted easily without either adding a lot more liquid or really cutting down on the amount of flour. If you used a stevia mix specifically made for baking, that should be okay, otherwise just subbing a small amount of pure stevia won’t work well because sugar generally acts more like a wet ingredient – it dissolves really easily and carries moisture well, and skipping sugar makes it harder to mix the ingredients together AND impacts the final texture.
Joan, if you prefer to use coconut flour I highly recommend looking for a recipe specifically formulated for that! I’ve subbed some oat and almond flour for part of the regular flour, so if you’re Just interested in gluten-free those may be a little safer to experiment with in this recipe.
These muffins are so delicious! I could not stop eating them! Thank you for this recipe.
I made the recipe like this:
1 cup no sugar applesauce
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1 mashed banana
2 TBSP almond/coconut milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp white vinegar
1 cup almond flour
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each: baking soda and baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
I also added but did not measure:
Pecans
Shredded unsweetened coconut flakes
Chia seeds
Golden flax seeds
I baked in a mini muffin tin for 15-20 minutes, 10 minutes as was not enough (I’m in Houston)
sounds delicous! i am trying to modify this recipe to use almond flour, but don’t have any bananas on hand. do you think I could forgo the banana in your revised recipe?
I’m allergic to bananas and nuts so I wonder if this will work, I’ll use JN. Applesauce instead of banana and I can’t have almond flour, do you think oat flour would work
This is an excellent recipe! I made some changes: I wanted to use up a half cup of homemade pumpkin puree, the same consistency as the applesauce, so I used that.
I used all whole wheat flour, and because of that flour ‘s tendency to absorb liquids I added an extra tablespoon of almond milk. I added a scant half cup yellow raisins. The raisins add sweetness so I went with a bit less sugar. A sign of a good recipe is the ability to sub ingredients, and I expect to use this recipe a lot!
I loooove the taste of these muffins!!! Unfortunately, I find them a little dense, so I was thinking about trying to increase the oven temperature to 425 at first and decreasing to 350 after the first minute or so. Normal muffin recipes often recommend this, but I was wondering if you know how it would work for these muffins?
By the way, I followed the recipe exactly, trying both oil and applesauce, using apple cider vinegar, and testing my baking soda and powder for freshness.
Holy cow we love these! I make them once a week!
These were delicious! Thank you 🙂 Added recipe to my permanent recipe book, yummy!
These are lovely little muffins. I made them with 3TB of pumpkin purée instead of oil and with regular APF. It’s a nice little low- cal treat. The kids love them!
My kids love them too! I’ve used spelt flour and oat flour when I make them.
I made these for the first time today. They are a little heavy but I think I’m going to like them.