Ahh, apples! One of the most beloved fall fruits! Thanks to Johnny Appleseed, apples top the charts as one of the most popular fruits in the U.S. In fact, today, there are more than 2,500 varieties, making it easy to find an apple to tickle just about anyone’s fancy!
My favorite place to find fresh fall apples is right where the Lord placed them – on an apple tree! There’s nothing as delicious as a fresh-picked ripe apple, which is why I recommend taking a fun family outing to go apple picking at a nearby orchard. This not only helps to support a local farmer in your area, but also ensures that your apples are truly fresh. Or if apple picking isn’t an option, it fairly easy at this time of year to find some fresh-picked organic apples at your local farmer’s market.
What’s a family to do with myriad baskets of fresh ripe apples? Well, that’s exactly why I’ve created this little gem of a recipe to share with you. It’s truly one of my family’s favorites – Cinnamony Apple Pie Muffins – oh, yeah. What’s not to love!
This delightful recipe is just one of more than 100 irresistible grain-free, dairy-free recipes in my new cookbook – Everyday Grain-Free Baking!
From breads, biscuits and muffins to savory snacks and decadent treats, you’ll find step-by-step instructions, beautiful color photographs and helpful tips & tidbits to make all of your GF baking adventures a delicious success!
Click here to get a SNEAK PEEK of the book!
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup plain whole milk or coconut milk yogurt
- 1 tbsp honey (or pure maple syrup)
- 1 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp coconut flour
- 2 1/4 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp honey (I prefer sage honey due to its mild flavor)
- 1 tbsp butter, melted (or coconut oil
, melted)
- 2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup diced organic apple (about 1 small or medium apple)
- 1/2 cup crispy walnut pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 315 degrees. Place 8 parchment muffin liners
in a 12-cup muffin tin; set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, honey, lemon juice and vanilla until well blended. Then whisk in the coconut flour until blended.
- Using a spoon, stir in the almond flour, baking soda and salt until well incorporated. Set batter aside.
- In a small bowl, add the streusel ingredients (except for the diced apple and walnuts) and whisk together until well combined; set aside.
- Add a spoonful of the muffin batter to each of the lined muffin cups making sure to fill no more than 1/3 of the muffin liner. Using both hands, lift the muffin tin evenly tap the bottom on the counter to evenly distribute the batter in the bottom of the muffin cups.
- Then, using a small spoon, place a dollop of the streusel in the center of each muffin and top with a little sprinkling of diced apple and walnuts.
- Next, place another spoonful of batter on top of the cinnamon-apple-nut layer, making sure to evenly distribute the remaining batter among all the muffin cups.
- Top each muffin with the remaining diced apple and nuts. Then, drizzle the remaining cinnamon streusel over the top of each muffin.
- Bake for approximately 25 minutes, until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then serve. Mmm!
One bite and we’re ready to go apple picking all over again! Three cheers for Fall!
Joyfully serving HIM, Kelly
could one use a different flour? maybe oat? spelt? If I don’t need to GF?
Hi, TJ. If you would like to use a gluten based flour, you’ll need to use a recipe formulated for gluten flour, since the ingredient combination used here is specific to blanched almond flour. So if you have a good simple muffin recipe using your favorite flour, you can take my cinnamon streusel topping listed here and use it with that recipe. Here’s a simple honey-based wheat muffin recipe, as an example (http://www.food.com/recipe/honey-wheat-muffins-72964). Please note: I haven’t tried this recipe (since I’m GF) but it’s just an example of what I mean by finding a basic gluten-based muffin recipe to use the base and then you can incorporate my cinnamon-apple streusel into it. Hope this helps. Lots of blessings, Kelly
These muffins look so delicious!
Thank you so much, Vicky! 🙂 Appreciate you taking the time to leave a kind note! Blessings, Kelly
What is blanched almond flour? I bought organic almond flour but it does not say blanched on it. Does it need to?
Hi, Kristie. Blanched almond flour is made from finely ground blanched almonds (almonds that have had their skin removed). It produces much lighter and fluffier baked goods than almond meal (sometimes also called almond flour). Almond meal is ground almonds with the skins left intact. You can tell if you have blanched almond or almond meal by the color. Blanched almond flour is pale yellow. Almond meal has dark flecks throughout it (due to the ground skins). If you have almond meal, you can use it. But the results will not be the same as with using blanched almond flour. Hope this helps. Lots of blessings, Kelly 🙂
Is one can go coconut milk enough to get 1/3 cup cream off the top?
Hi, Angela. Good question! I haven’t measured the total amount of coconut cream in a can, but it’s somewhere around 1/2-3/4 cup. I think I’ll put a can in the fridge tonight and measure it. 🙂 Enjoy! Blessings, Kelly
I made these yesterday and they are DELICIOUS! I did not sway to the left or right on the instructions or ingredients and they turned out perfect! They almost taste like a coffee cake…
Thanks, Byrdie! So glad you enjoyed them. I agree – they are so similar in taste to coffee cake. I make these a lot for fellowship meals and get-togethers because they do go so well with coffee and tea. I appreciate you taking the time to leave a kind note. Lots of blessings, Kelly 🙂
Could this be made into a cake instead of muffins?
I haven’t tried it with this recipe. But I do have a really delicious apple cake recipe you can find here: http://thenourishinghome.com/2012/10/apple-pie-cake-gf/ Lots of blessings, Kelly 🙂
I’m allergic to walnuts and pecans, so I was wondering if the walnuts add a lot to the recipe? Can they be left out?
Hi, Amber. They simply add crunch. You could use chopped almonds or omit entirely. Blessings, Kelly 🙂
I Just tried this recipe. These muffins are delicious!! I will definitely be making these agin. Thank you for the recipe!!
Hi, Maureen. Thank you for your kind words. So glad you enjoyed these! Blessings, Kelly 🙂
Kelly, are all the recipes on your site GF? I have some friends tgat are GF and would like to find other recipes that I can take for them. Thanks you for sharing.
Carolyn
Hi, Carolyn. 99.9% of the recipes here are Gluten-Free and most are grain-free as well. There are a small number of recipes that contain whole grains that were original to my site before I went GF. So please feel free to share my site with your GF friends. Thank you and blessings, Kelly 🙂
Dear Kelly,
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I’ve made it dairy free, and my family loves it! I was hoping to make it for a friend, but I would need to make it with Stevia rather than the maple syrup. Would that work, and could you tell me what the substitution ratio would be?
Thanks so much! 🙂
Shanna
You are so welcome, Shanna. Not sure about the substitution with Stevia, as the maple syrup doesn’t just add sweetness, but moisture as well. So you will need to experiment a bit. Also most brands have conversion charts on their packaging or weskits, as Stevia can vary in it’s sweetness depending on the brand. I recommend using pure green variety Stevia, if you’re going to use it, because many brands can be highly processed and contain additives. Hope this helps. Blessings, Kelly 🙂
Can these be frozen? I have a small family and I love the idea of making these on the weekend and then freezing them for use throughout the next week or two.
Hi, Randi. Yes, but do note almond flour can become quite moist upon thawing. We don’t mind but some do. If you plan to eat the muffins within 4-5 days of baking, I recommend placing in the fridge instead. That helps to reduce the moisture issue that occurs with thawing. Blessings to you, Kelly
Kelly,
First off, I made these muffins tonight and they were delicious! I didn’t have walnuts on hand so I used pecans from my grandparents tree 🙂 I have found myself on a journey lately for healthy meals for my family. I wanted to say Thank You so much for the resources on this site! It has made this transition much easier to have ideas for a weekly menu and shopping lists too! What at first seemed like such a daunting task is becoming easier every week! God Bless You for sharing your hard work with all of us!!
Fresh pecans! Well, nothing can beat that! I love it that your grandparents have a pecan tree. It’s so wonderful to be able to share good healthy food as a family! You are so welcome and I thank you for your kind words and encouragement! Many blessings to you, Carey! 🙂 Kelly
My favorite! I can’t wait to eat them for breakfast!
Thanks, Larissa! Appreciate your kind words! 🙂 Blessings, Kelly
I am reading this while hungry! Oh my! Will make this for a breakfast treat tomorrow. Thanks!
ENJOY! Thanks for saying hi. 🙂
If we are not concerned about being gluten free, can we substitute all-purpose flour in your recipes that call for almond or coconut flour? These just look so good I want to make them today, but have no gluten free flours except for tapioca flour on hand…
Hi, Carol. Thanks for your kind note. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to sub with gluten flours because gluten-free flours require much different measurements of liquids and eggs in order to bind and rise properly since they do not contain gluten. However, you could do a search for a basic muffin recipe using whatever you flour of choice is and then make the streusel in this recipe and use it in your gluten-flour muffin recipes of choice. 🙂
Ok, that’s what I was afraid of. Thanks for the quick response! Had your carrot and cheese sandwich for lunch and the crockpot green chicken with cilantro rice for dinner today and my son (2) ate like he hasn’t in days! Even my husband liked the new foods, though he did add ham to his carrot/cheese sandwich. Excited about trying the rest of this week’s menu!
Thanks, Carol! I love the idea of ham with the carrot and cheese sandwich. Tell your hubby, he’s a genuis! And so glad your little guy enjoyed the green chicken. My friend Debra is a wiz with the slow cooker – that’s my kids favorite too! Okay, so about that muffin recipe, here’s a recipe from my sweet friend Kristin that you might want to try – haven’t made these myself, but I trust Kirstin completely. Her recipes are wonderful. And I really think this muffin would work well with the cinnamon apple streusel from my recipe – just leave out the blueberries in her recipe of course, and use the streusel instead. Or just make Kristin’s exactly as is. 🙂 Hope this helps! Blessings to you and your precious family! 🙂 Kelly
It would help if I actually gave you the link. LOL! that’s what I get for answering notes after my bedtime 🙂
http://livesimply.me/2013/04/22/homemade-whole-wheat-blueberry-muffins/
These muffins are delish!! My favorite GF dessert recipe yet.
Can these be frozen? Do you have any long term storage tips?
Thank you!
Hi, Sandra. So glad you enjoyed these. I haven’t had good results in freezing almond flour muffins, as they become overly moist once thawed. However they do store nicely in the fridge for about 4-5 days. 🙂
I saw above how to make it dairy free, which I would have to do, but what about egg free? I can not use soy, flax, or beans, lentils.
Hi, Celia. Since we’re not egg-free, I am not well-versed in the best way to sub eggs (which can be especially tricky in grain-free recipes). I would recommend finding a muffin recipe that works for your dietary restrictions and then using the streusel from my recipe along with it. That way, you are certain to have a success rather than attempting to replace the eggs in this recipe and perhaps not having good luck. 🙂
Hi, would greek yoghurt work in this recipe?
Yes, it will work just fine. 🙂