Amazing Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Crumb Topping

These apple cinnamon muffins are AMAZING! Perfect for any time of year, but especially amazing now at the beginning of fall. They are the moistest, fluffiest muffin with soft diced apples and a cinnamon crumb topping. Basically the most fall-like treat anyone could ever ask for. Not to mention you can eat them for breakfast!

Origins

Unlike most of the other recipes I have written, the idea for these muffins did not come from something I’ve had my whole life. I just came up with the idea for these muffins about three weeks ago. I’m not saying that the idea of apple cinnamon muffins is the most creative thing in the world, but for some reason, I had just never thought of it. I have always loved apple cobbler, and that’s where the idea for these came from. I wanted to make a recipe to celebrate the start of fall, and I figured these could do it justice.

Different Trials

When I first started testing variations of these muffins, I assumed it would be pretty quick. They are just muffins, right? No. This recipe took much longer than expected to make. I think I had a total of seven different tests before I finally made the most amazing muffins ever.

First, they were just terrible. I have never made anything with apples baked into a batter before, so it was an experiment. Over the next two or three tries, they got much better. They were still really gummy though. This was very odd to me. I have never had gummy muffins before. In the next trial, I completely switched things up (shown below). I cannot say for sure what exactly fixed the gumminess because I changed many variables in the recipe, not just one. My best guess would be the oven temperature being too low. After a few more trials, they were perfect!

Trial #3 (on the left) vs trial #5 (on the right).

I also added a crumb topping. What an amazing idea that was! It adds a delicious crunch to work with the moist and fluffy muffins. The crumb topping really sets these muffins over the top.

Measuring Your Flour Correctly

Measuring your flour correctly is always very important, But I find it is especially important in this recipe. Please do not just scoop your flour into the measuring cup. That is the wrong way. That will pack your flour densely into the measuring cup and the muffins will be really dense. Do not worry, measuring your flour is really simple! Here are a few of my favorite tips.

• Using a spoon, scoop the flour into the measuring cup
• Level the scoop with a knife
• Make sure you do not pack the flour into the measuring cup

Why Dark Brown Sugar?

This is one of my favorite aspects of this recipe. The brown sugar adds wonderful texture, but the dark brown sugar adds amazing flavor. Dark brown sugar has an almost caramel-y flavor when baked. Brown sugar is effectively just white sugar and molasses. The difference between light and dark brown sugar is the amount of molasses. Dark brown sugar has much more than light. This is why it provides such an amazing flavor to the muffins.

Final Tips

These muffins are fairly easy to make, but here are a few quick tips.

• Do not pack your flour into the measuring cup. See my tips above on how to measure flour correctly.
• Do not overmix the batter. Just make sure all the ingredients are combined.
• Make sure you dice the apples into smaller chunks. They should not be huge, but definitely not minuscule, just use your own judgment.

That is it! I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. Let me know in the comments, I love hearing from y’all!

Amazing Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Crumb Topping

Cuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Makes

12

muffins

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Total time

1

hour 

Ingredients

• 2 and 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 cup softened plus 2 Tbsp melted non-dairy butter (I use Earth Balance)

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp white sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 fake eggs (I use Ener-G Egg Replacer)

• 1/4 cup sour cream (I use Follow Your Heart)

• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I use Silk’s Soy Milk)

• 1 cup diced apple (about three small apples)

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400°F
• Make the crumb topping by combining the melted butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 Tbsp white sugar, and 1/3 cup all-purpose flour. Set aside.
• Sift the remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium-sized bowl and whisk together. Beat the remaining butter and sugars together until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add in the vanilla, “eggs”, and sour cream.
• Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix. Add in the milk and then the other half of the flour, being careful not to over-mix.
• Toss the diced apples with 1 Tbsp flour and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Fold the apples into the batter.
• Scoop the batter into the prepared pans, filling about three-fourths full. Spoon about one Tbsp of crumb topping onto each muffin, making sure you break it up with your hands to form small crumbs. Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Enjoy!

Notes

• Like all of my recipes, you can choose whether you would like to use allergy substitutes or not.