Moist pineapple muffins are packed with a full cup of crushed pineapple in this delicious homemade muffin recipe!
Table of Contents
The best pineapple muffins you’ll try
Soft, fluffy texture. One bite of these buttery pineapple muffins and you will immediately want to stock up on more pineapple to make a second batch.
Tastes like pineapple cake. Imagine a slice of sweet summer pineapple upside down cake, in the convenient form of a muffin. They taste so rich and decadent, no one can ever believe the healthy ingredients!
Easy to prepare. It’s a great breakfast or snack option with simple ingredients. And leftover muffins freeze well, so the recipe is perfect for meal prep.
A great way to use up canned pineapple. Whenever I add pineapple to a recipe, I always find myself wondering Why do I not bake with pineapple more often?
After whipping up a batch for the first time, this recipe quickly went into our monthly rotation at my house, and I hope your family will love it too.
Also try this Pineapple Dole Whip
Step by step recipe video
Easy pineapple muffin ingredients
The recipe calls for crushed pineapple, vanilla extract, milk of choice, vinegar, flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, sugar, and optional oil.
No eggs are required for the naturally vegan pineapple muffins, which can also be soy free, added sugar free, and gluten free.
Flour – I love whole grain spelt flour, because it gives you extra fiber and yields a lighter texture than using whole wheat flour. Loosely measured all purpose white flour, oat flour, or all purpose gluten free flour are all good options for the muffins.
If you prefer baking with almond flour, I recommend this recipe for Almond Flour Muffins.
Milk of choice – Choose any milk in your refrigerator, including high protein soymilk, skim milk, dairy free oat milk, or low calorie almond milk. For an incredibly soft texture and rich flavor, coconut milk makes the muffins taste amazing.
Sweetener – This can be traditional white sugar, unrefined sugar (turbinado or raw cane sugar), or sugar free xylitol or granulated erythritol. I have never tried substituting pure maple syrup or honey so cannot vouch for that swap.
Baking soda, baking powder, and salt – The baking powder gives lift and a tender crumb to the eggless muffins, while baking soda encourages caramelization and a golden brown hue. Salt adds depth of flavor.
Pure vanilla extract – One and a half teaspoons of pure vanilla extract compliments the natural sweetness of the pineapple.
Vinegar – White vinegar or apple cider vinegar will react with the baking soda to promote a higher rise and weaken the development of the gluten, resulting in softer muffins.
Oil – Coconut oil is my preference, because the flavor profile pairs so well with pineapple. You can use vegetable oil, avocado oil, or unsalted butter if you wish. Or omit the oil and add three tablespoons of extra crushed pineapple to make up the difference. The oil free muffins are surprisingly tasty!
What type of pineapple do you use for pineapple muffins?
Fresh or canned pineapple both work well here.
If using crushed pineapple, I like to buy pineapple in 100% pineapple juice at the grocery store, because it is a healthier option than pineapple in heavy syrup.
Or make your own crushed fruit from a fresh, ripe pineapple. The easiest way to crush fresh pineapple is to chop the tropical fruit into cubes, discarding the tough outer skin. Then pulse in a food processor.
Add leftover pineapple to a Piña Colada Smoothie
Katie’s favorite variations
Tropical Piña Colada Muffins: Use coconut milk as the milk, and stir half a cup of shredded coconut into the batter for pineapple coconut muffins. Add a teaspoon of lime zest if desired.
Pineapple Orange Muffins: Swap the two tablespoons milk for three tablespoons of orange juice. Omit the vinegar since OJ is already acidic. Stir the zest of one orange into the batter.
Pineapple Banana Bread Muffins: Substitute half a cup of crushed pineapple with an equal amount of ripe mashed banana. They are absolutely fantastic this way! In fact, I might love the banana version even more than the original.
Blueberry or Strawberry: Toss up to a fourth cup of diced fresh strawberries or small blueberries with a teaspoon of flour. Just before transferring to the pan, gently fold berries into the muffin batter with a spoon.
Pineapple Cake: Want to be super fancy? Serve each muffin topped with a slice of hot grilled pineapple, and place a maraschino cherry into the centers of the slices.
Other flavors: Try adding a pinch of ground ginger or chopped fresh mint, or replace the milk with shredded zucchini or carrot. Or press a spoonful of cream cheese into the centers before baking for bakery worthy stuffed cream cheese pineapple muffins.
The healthy pineapple muffins are perfectly sweet enough to serve unfrosted. Or spread on a layer of softened cream cheese or Coconut Butter.
How to make pineapple muffins at home
- In a medium or large mixing bowl, whisk the crushed pineapple, milk of choice, vinegar, vanilla extract, and optional oil.
- Set this bowl aside for about ten minutes, or cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit or 176° Celsius. Line a standard, large, or mini muffin tin with liners, or grease very well. Alternatively, you may use silicone muffin cups.
- Stir the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and sugar into the wet ingredients until just evenly mixed. Tip: to avoid dense, gummy muffins, do not overmix the batter.
- Using a spoon or cookie scoop, portion the batter evenly into the prepared muffin tin.
- Place the pan on the center rack of the preheated oven. Bake twenty minutes, or until the pineapple muffins are domed and light gold in color. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out mostly clean.
- Let cool, then serve and enjoy. Or if you can wait, I recommend very loosely covering the pan and letting the muffins sit overnight (either on the counter or in the refrigerator). The taste and texture are even better the next day, and liners peel off easily as well.
- Store any leftovers after a day in a covered container in the refrigerator or freezer. Thaw frozen muffins before serving.
More healthy muffin recipes
The recipe was adapted from my Healthy Banana Bread and this Pineapple Bread.
Pineapple Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup crushed pineapple (240g)
- 2 tbsp milk of choice (30g)
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (15g)
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (7g)
- 3 tbsp oil (36g) or additional crushed pineapple for fat-free
- 1 cup flour (120g) (White, spelt, or oat flour work well. For keto, see note below)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar or granulated sugar free substitute
Instructions
- 1. Whisk the pineapple, milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, and oil in a large mixing bowl. If time permits, set aside for about ten minutes.
- 2. Preheat the oven to Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit (176° Celsius). Line a muffin tin with liners, or grease very well.
- 3. Add all remaining ingredients to the pineapple mixture, and stir until the batter is just evenly mixed.
- 4. Portion into the prepared muffin tin, then place on the center rack of the oven.
- 5. Bake 20 minutes or until the pineapple muffins are domed and golden in color. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out mostly clean.
- 6. Let cool before serving. If you can wait, the muffins taste even better the next day and liners peel off easily.
Video
Notes
Simple healthy snack ideas
I love your recipes and follow you on Pinterest. I was wondering if I sub maple syrup for the sugar how that would affect the texture? Would I need to add more dry ingredients?
We haven’t tried replacing the sugar with a liquid so honestly can’t say if it will work, but be sure to report back if you experiment!
Jason (media relations)
Leave out the milk.
This might be helpful. I started to make cookies last week and I found that my sugar had become a hard lump, so I couldn’t use it for that recipe. I used maple instead. It was a recipe that required me to use an electric mixer so I did that. There was an egg in there so it helped with the emulsifying, but the cookies turned out amazing. Hope your muffins turn out great.
My son will love these–he is a big pineapple fan! Do you drain the pineapple?
Keep up the good work!
I didn’t, but it would be fine either way 🙂
If one uses the white flour and white sugar options, these are not even healthy, no less “super” healthy, as claimed. Also, canned pineapple is not all that healthy, either, since enzymes are destroyed with the high heat of canning. Some of Katie’s recipes are healthy, but many of them, if not most—not so much.
Don’t make them then !! Gosh , some people just like to complain.
Lol I thought the same thing. It always surprises me how riled up people get in the comments of the big food blogs I follow. Read through this page Sandy to answer your questions, and then take your negativity down a notch if you can. There’s enough of it in the world right now without having to be upset over a muffin recipe. https://lett-trim.today/faq-page/recipe-questions-and-troubleshooting/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Oh, Sandy. You don’t need to make them if you are so concerned about how healthy they are. There are alternate ingredients listed and you can modify in any way to fit your needs. Maybe chill out a bit?? It’s just a muffin…
Sometimes healthy is relative. If you are way past this then great for you. If you were eating muffins that were full of oil and gobs of sugar like most of my grandmother’s delicious recipes then this is a much healthier route.
I agree, it’s not healthy but possibly healthIER? Good that you pointed this out.
You know you will catch more flies with honey than with lemons. Let’s see your healthy dessert blog that’s been around for years and years. I didn’t think so. Nobody likes a Debbie Downer…
Great recipe! I added ground cinnamon and made them in a mini muffin pans they turned out fantastic.
Sandy, I could not agree with you more. I think people are confused as to what is healthy and what is not. For instance, oats contain high levels of glyphosate. I also don’t think grains are our biologically appropriate food. I think she calls these healthy because they do not contain animal products, artificial preservatives, palm oil, etc. Please do not listen to anyone trying to silence your voice. The second the truth comes out, many people try and crush it and use fake positivity and gaslighting to censor others. I appreciate what you said. Continue being a truth teller and standing up for the truth.
I’m about to make them, u think it depends on what your body can handle – low fat for pancreatitis and gluten free for celicac, so for me these are perfect
Thus the healthy alternatives are given. Life is short, don’t spend it trying to one-up others by trying to be a know it all. I plan to make the full-fat, white sugar version cause if I’m making dessert it’s going to be delicious!
The link for the nutritional information is not working it says the page cannot be found.
Hi, I am so sorry! The page was all written; I’d just forgotten to hit publish. It should be fixed. Sorry for the delay!
I wonder if you can use almond flour for this recipe?
The nutritional info link isn’t working today for the pineapple muffins – I get this message: Not found, error 404. I tried going to the website and was able to get the recipe, but again, the same error message above.
Hi, I am so sorry! The page was all written; I’d just forgotten to hit publish. It should be fixed now. Sorry for the delay!
Thank you so much for this easy pantry recipe! I followed it exactly, using almond milk, canned pineapple (which had been in my pantry forever and I was ready to donate!) and white whole wheat flour. I was skeptical they’d be good without oil, but they were moist and delicious with the extra pineapple. Used a combination of regular and brown sugar swerve for sweetener and they were 66 calories each. So good!!!! Thank you for making my Monday better!
Thank you so much for making them!
Tried these last night. So good!!!! I cut the oil to 2 Tbsp, used almond milk, and divided into 10 servings. That made them exactly 100 calories each. Had one this morning with some yogurt. Great way to start the day!
Just made them and they’re delicious!
I made these for breakfast today and we all enjoyed them very much.
These look wonderful. I think I’m going to add toasted coconut to the mix, top with some coconut whipped cream, and serve with grilled pineapple rings to make it a dessert! Thanks for the recipe!
These were a hit! Such a quick and easy recipe. Thank you!
I don’t own cupcake moulds. Can I make this in a loaf tin? Would the proportions remain the same?
It should be fine, just leave it in the oven for a little bit longer. 30-45 minutes. Just check on it every 10 minutes or so.
I made these TWO times in the past week! SO GOOD! They remind me of a pineapple cake my grandma used to make! Thank you for this delicious recipe!
Thank you so much for making it!
Can I make these using coconut sugar? Also can I omit the vinegar? Allergic.
Yes to the coconut sugar. Can you have lemon juice? That can be a sub for the vinegar!
Yes!! Thank u 😆
I left out the vinegar accidentally, and they still turned out beautifully. 🙂
Hi!
The muffins turned out great. I just feel some bitterness towards the end while chewing. Could it be because of the apple cider vinegar?
I’m also curious to know as why we use vinegar here.
PS: My 3 year old loves these muffins a lot. Thanks for sharing this wonderful and easy recipe.
You can sub lemon juice if you wish! Just need some acid for the reaction to take place :).
Mixing vinegar with milk creates buttermilk. Makes the muffin more moist and decadent.
Vinegar is for the baking soda to react to.
Wow these blew my mind! I made a double batch with 1/2 mashed banana, 1/2 canned chopped pineapple (drained), coconut milk, coconut oil, and maple syrup. I used less syrup bc the pineapple had sugar. They are golden brown on top, perfectly moist, SO BUTTERY! Thank you for another family favorite 💛