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
These took me two tries to figure out. The first didn’t rise and were a bit too moist but the second time I made a double batch and filled my cups nearly full and they turned out amazing!! Prolly my new favorite muffin, I would highly recommend!!
Did you do anything different the second time besides double the batch?
Delicious muffins! However, as with most of your muffin recipes, my muffins always rise during cooking, then fall within a couple of minutes after taking them out of the oven. At first I thought it might be because I was doubling the recipes, but I tried a simple batch and same problem. I tried also cooking at 375 for 22 minutes (in case my oven wasn’t as hot as yours) but still falls…. any other ideas I could try? Adding more baking powder? The taste is great and loved by the whole family, I just wish it made prettier muffins 🤷♀️ . Thanks!
Hmmm not sure! Do you live in a humid climate? If so, perhaps the extra moisture is weighing them down and you might try a little less liquid? What flour, sugar, etc. did you use?
I would love to make many of your recipes including this one but I really wish your recipes had the ingredients in metric as well as american like some other sites do as I’m from the UK and find trying to convert cups to grams very confusing.
A full set of American measuring cups and spoons is only 15€ on amazon. I live in France and love baking American recipes and eventually realized the best solution to this problem is just investing in the right tools.
I second this comment. Some ingredients, such as chopped nuts or coconut flakes, I don’t mind using cups. But flours, liquids, and sticky substances like peanut butter and maple syrup, I’d rather use my scale. I think having both metric and cups would be nice, such as it was done for the black bean brownies.
EVERY SINGLE RECIPE I’ve ever tried from your site has been delicious! This is no exception! I was craving the old school Costco apple maple muffin and decided to start with your site for the muffin base and then just added a crumble (brown sugar, butter, flour) and maple icing (maple syrup, hot water, and powdered sugar). They were spectacular! I used all applesauce for my recipe instead of adding the fat and my family really loved the extra apple flavor. Next time I’m going to add bits of apple and some nuts to the crumble. Thank you Katie! Your recipes are so easy and so stinking delicious!
Love, A happy mom with a full-time job during a pandemc and a super happy family that’s finally enjoying some baking again.
Love the Maple Icing , syrup.hot water. Icing sugar, fantastic
Loved these! So moist!
Will definitely make them again.
Thanks. ❤️
Hey 🙂 I’d love to try these, but I’m a little confused— how can they be healthy when the protein and fiber content is so low?
I added chia seed to my batch but would have used hemp hearts if i had some on hand and 2 tsp psyllium husk to help with protein/ fiber content as well. I also increased the almond milk by 2Tbs.
It’s close to 5 grams of fiber and protein for 160 calories (2 muffins), pretty good stats and much better than the storebought kind that have high fructose corn syrup and who knows what else.
I’ve made them with oat flour and spelt flour, both really good and the kiddos love them, so that’s always a plus 🙂
These are the BEST vegan/non vegan recipe! My entire family LOVES them and they are so easy to make. Thank you for the recipe!!
Great recipe! My kids love these. I use raisins and walnut in them to YuMMO!
These are very tasty! Mine didnt rise very much. Typical for my baking endeavors lol.
Hello! Did you check to see if the baking soda and baking powder you’re using are fresh? That can “deflate” a muffin recipe in a heartbeat.
Absolutely delicious fall flavor, or anytime of year! So easy. My new go to muffin recipe