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!
You may also like these Overnight Oats – 15 New Recipes
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 love Katie’s recipes so was super excited to find this…Added 2 tsp psyllium for extra fiber but they were still a bit moist and didn’t rise much af—Didn’t add any extra items (raisins etc) to see what the baseline flavor was. Will reheat them in oven to see if I can get the texture a bit more muffin-like. Used pumpkin spice flavored applesauce so the flavor was lovely.
Hi! Can I substitute for coconut or almond flour? trying to stay grain free.
For grain free, I would just make Katie’s keto muffin recipe instead: https://lett-trim.today/keto-muffins-recipe/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Made the Applesauce Muffins yesterday. I did the with Gluten-free flour. In my typical fashion I accidently did differently. Added the mashed banana, along with oil and applesauce, and got heavy handed with homemade required applesauce which added to the moistness. Then cut back on sugar.
They are delicious. I was able to get twelve muffins thanks to my heavy handedness. Lol
Thank you for recipe, already sharing it
Would brown sugar work the same as white?
Sure that’s fine to sub!
Unfortunately, I have to agree with the many others comments that these muffins did not rise at all. They are completely flat, and even sunken in the middle. I followed the recipe exactly as written (used spelt flour). Bummer.
Hi! If you look at the photos, they are not really supposed to rise a lot. If you were to decrease the applesauce then they’d weigh less and rise more, but they’d be much less moist. We prefer them extra moist, and a lot of the comments on here like them this way as well, but perhaps that’s just not your taste preference, which is totally ok – different tastes for different people! But I don’t think you did anything wrong 🙂
Pretty sure I’ve left a comment before, but it would’ve been back when I first made them. Y’all, I’m still making these YEARS later! I often double and even triple the recipe, and I’ve yet to try out the “better the next day” part because they never make it past lunch. I’ve also never managed to ruin them, no matter what I do. I’ve replaced the sugar with maple syrup, date paste, and even bananas all with success. I’ll use whatever flour I have on hand and it never makes a difference. I usually use oat, but wheat or white has all turned out great. One thing about Katie’s recipes I love is how forgiving they all are, and this one is no different. I have a daughter with sensory issues on top of other picky eaters, and Katie’s recipes make it so much easier to sneak healthy foods into everyone’s diet. But these muffins are top knotch for easy, filling, healthy, and DELICIOUS. So Katie, if I failed to say it before, thank you for an awesome recipe. It’s gonna be in our regular rotation for a long time to come.
These were amazing!!! I can’t believe they have no eggs. Definitely a keeper. I felt like being decadent and made the version with all of the oil. They were delicious and very moist! Not dense feeling like several healthy muffin recipes I’ve tried. Next time I will try half oil and half applesauce to cut down on the fat. I think this will be a great recipe to experiment with different flavors and add-ins. Thank you!
Thank you so much for making them. So glad you liked them!
Sooo good! I didn’t really know what to expect when I was making them because I’ve made healthy applesauce muffins before and they did not turn out that good. Turns out these are probably the best applesauce muffins I’ve ever made healthy or not!
Thank you so much for trying them. This made me so happy 🙂
(Katie)
delicious low calorie muffin! I used 1/4 cup stevia, regular ap flour, almond milk, and extra applesauce instead of oil. When using stevia, my baking tends to come out chewy. I usually sub it 1:1 for regular sugar. Any suggestions on how to keep my desserts softer while using stevia? Thanks:)
These muffins are delicious, very moist and so easy and quick to make. I used banana instead of oil or additional apple sauce. And since I have to be careful about sugar I did not put the sugar in. Still very tasty because of the banana.
Thank you so so much for trying them 🙂
I just added another staple recipe for me with this recipe – along with vegan peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies. So yummy!
Thank you so much!