I am quite certain that there is nothing in this world that compares to apple pie. But a warm, freshly baked muffin to wake up to in the morning is a close second.
Typically, most muffins you find in bakeries are cupcakes in disguise, relying heavily on oil, butter, and cups of sugar for their sweetness. When I’m craving a healthier muffin, I like to make them at home. These applesauce muffins and healthy apple muffins are two other favorites I often turn to.
These homemade apple pie muffins are soft, fluffy, and full of good-for-you ingredients like whole oats and fresh apples. In lieu of butter and oil, I use yogurt and applesauce to give the muffins some moisture.
What I love most about these muffins is that they are SKY HIGH. It’s taken some practice, but I finally found a few tricks to bake up mile high, fluffy muffins—no more flat muffins here. How to bake high-domed, fluffy muffins:
- You need a very, very thick batter. Much thicker than cake or cupcake batter—you want “spoonable” batter, not “pourable.”
- Do not over-mix the batter. This will create tough + flat muffins.
- Fill muffin pan cups all the way to the top, even a bit higher. Filling only 1/2 or 2/3 of the way to the top is not enough batter to produce a high-domed muffin.
- Start off with a very oven hot temperature, then lower it down. Doing this lifts the muffin top up quickly and creates a tall crust. Typically, muffins are baked at 350F – 375F the whole time, but set the oven to 425F initially, then bring back down to 350F or 375F.
I also love these apple muffins with blackberries and apples. Replace 1 cup of the apples with 1 cup of fresh or frozen blackberries. In the pictured apple blackberry muffins below, I skipped the oat streusel made with butter and simply mixed 3 Tablespoons of oats + 1 Tablespoon brown sugar. Sprinkle that over each muffin before baking.
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Sky-High Apple Pie Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 14-16 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Homemade sky high apple pie muffins are soft, fluffy, and full of good-for-you ingredients like whole oats, fresh apples, and white whole wheat flour!
Ingredients
Oat Streusel Topping
- 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 Tablespoons old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, melted
Muffins
- 3 cups white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or any dairy or nondairy milk)
- 1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup plain or apple-flavored yogurt
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce*
- 2 large eggs
- 2 heaping cups chopped apple (peeled or not peeled—your choice)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- Prepare oat streusel topping by mixing everything together until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
- Prepare the muffins: In a large bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the milk, sugars, yogurt, applesauce, and eggs. Whisk wet ingredients into the flour mixture, mixing until *just combined*—do not over-mix. Gently fold in the apples.
- Spoon the batter into 12 lined muffin cups, making sure each one is filled to the very top. Lightly press a heaping spoonful of oat streusel into the tops of each muffin.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C), then immediately reduce the oven temperature to 375°F (191°C) and bake for another 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cover leftover muffins tightly and store at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Muffins may be frozen, up to 2-3 months.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Silicone Spatula
- Applesauce: The unsweetened applesauce gives these muffins moisture—just as oil would—without the added fat. Feel free to use vegetable oil instead of applesauce.
- Yogurt: In my muffins, I used Chobani 0% Apple Cinnamon flavor. If you can’t find an apple flavored yogurt, plain or vanilla yogurt would work as well.
I really hate saying this because I usually love Sally’s recipes! But these just did not taste good. I bake muffins every weekend. I spooned and leveled the flour, did not over mix, and these still came out very dense and dry. They were sky high though. The streusel was weird too, I would have added more flour but I like to follow recipes exactly as written the first time I make them. There wasn’t enough streusel to cover all the muffins and it got really hard in the oven. Worst of all they just didn’t have much good flavor to them. I’ll try Sally’s other apple muffin recipe next time.
Hi Jenny, I so appreciate this feedback and I’m so sorry you were disappointed in the results. This is a fairly old recipe and could probably use an update. Let me take a look at it.
Great recipe. I used 2/3 cup sour cream instead of yogurt and applesauce. Added 60 grams raisins. Great texture. I like weighing fruit so 2 heaping cups was about 280 grams.
I made these with no adjustments at 6900’ elevation and they are wonderful! I used the white whole wheat flour, nonfat Greek vanilla yogurt, and peeled Envy apples that were well past their prime. Wonderful texture for a “healthy” muffin. This recipe is a keeper!
If I do t have whole oats, can I sub with old fashioned oats or quick oats?
Hi Laurie, old-fashioned oats are the same as whole oats, so that’s great!
Hi. Do you think frozen sliced apples would work in this recipe? I inherited a 25 pound box of beautiful peeled & sliced frozen granny smith apples. I’ve already made apple butter and my stove is a mess
Any baking suggestions would be appreciated!
Hi Deb! We haven’t tested this with frozen apples. Fresh fruit is best, but for best results with frozen, thaw the fruit first. Blot dry as much as you can before using in the filling. Let us know if you give it a try!
Hi – can we do this technique with the lemon blueberry muffins?
Hi Alix, yes! We also bake those for 5 minutes at 425°F, then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C).
Very flavorful muffins with good texture. I made mini muffins at 375° for 11 minutes and got 48 minis plus two small bundt pan muffins. Only concern is that the muffins stuck to the paper liners. I suggest spraying your liners with Pam.
Decided to try this for a baby shower to place around the Koala cake that we used for decoration (and for new mummy to take home!!). I did not have applesauce around and did not want to substitute with oil, so I used 2/3 cups of Greek apple yogurt instead of 1/3. Recipe came our great and with high top muffins!! Will try this oven trick with my banana bread muffins.
Just like the name itself, SKY HIGH APPLE PIE and you will definitely have the sky high muffins. It’s a very interesting recipe, quite surprised with how thick the batter is. But don’t worry, you’ve done nothing wrong (as long as you follow the recipe closely). It’s definitely great muffins, very fluffy, aromatic, and fulfilling. Perfect muffin for breakfast with your favourite coffee uhh yeaahhh *closing my eyes* My heart beats for this recipe, feels like falling in love (butterflies in my stomach).
Absolutely delicious! Especially enjoyed the sweet apples with the tart blueberries and the crunchy streusel on top.
My family really loved these muffins!
A regular in your amazing baking group just made these so I came to get the recipe. I only have semi jumbo muffin tins for now (not the wide ‘big box store’ style, I have Wilton tins). Have you any idea how to adjust bake time & temp for these made in the larger tins? Thanks!
Hi Elizabeth, If we have tested a different size pan it will be listed in the recipe notes. For any shapes/sizes that are not listed, you can use our handy Cake Pan Sizes & Conversions post to help calculate how much batter you would need for different size pans.
I was wondering if I could make this into mini muffins, because I don’t have a normal sized muffin tin. Is there a conversion for mini ones? Thank you!
Sure can! For mini muffins, the bake time will be around 8-10 minutes at 375. No need for a higher temp with such small muffins.
Thank you! Would I have to half the recipe?
You can, but you don’t have to – you will just have more mini muffins 🙂
Absolutely in love with your blog! I was actually wondering if we would be able to sub half of the oil for applesauce for this recipe? (or most of your muffin recipes; they all sound phenomenal!) Thanks a ton 🙂
Hi Faren, There is no oil in this recipe – only applesauce and yogurt!
Made these muffins on a snowy and cold morning up in Canada. They are delicious! Thank you for ALL the great recipes.
I usually never even think about adjusting any of Sally’s recipes, but this time I needed a gluten free muffin. I substituted a gluten free all purpose flour in these and the muffins turned out fantastic!!!
I was hoping to find nutrition information to go with your recipes?
I’m unsure of the nutritional info of this recipe, but there are many great online calculators like this one: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
Excellent rise. Wow. Made blackberry apple version. They stick to the wrap though- do you suggest no wrap?
Hi Sureese, these muffins can be quite moist so a little sticking is normal. If you want, you can store them in a tupperware container or a large zip topped bag instead of individually wrapping.
Could I make these using granny smith apples? I have a ton to use up
Definitely.
Hi Sally,
Will quick cooking oats do instead of old fashioned oats?
Thanks 🙂