Healthy Apple And Cinnamon Muffins

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Make these healthy apple and cinnamon muffins and show your family some love. These healthy, wholemeal, sweet, soft and filling muffins are awesome for breakfast or mid morning snacks. Total time to make? 20 minutes. Yum!

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Apple And Cinnamon Muffins

They’re easy to make, wonderfully sweet, and packed full of ingredients like apples, cinnamon and wholewheat flour that make them wholesome and full of fiber as well as delicious. So if you want a breakfast muffin or school snack that’s sure to put smiles on everyone’s faces these muffins will be just the ticket.

Get ready for some homemade goodness in every bite!

I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. Kids and muffins are a match made in heaven. If it’s a muffin, my kids will most certainly give it a go. It’s pretty easy these days to have some easy muffins made up ahead of time for easy breakfasts during the week.

More Muffin recipes

• Healthy gingerbread muffins
• Blackberry and apple muffins
• Soft and fluffy vanilla muffins
• Banana Muffins
• 7 Crazy good savoury muffins for kids

Is A Muffin A Healthy Breakfast? 

Muffins have gotten themselves a reputation of being an ‘unhealthy’ food. But the thing is, it’s surely just common sense to think about what’s going ‘into’ the muffin before deciding! I use just ¼ cup of maple syrup and that’s between 12 muffins, so comparable to a whole lot of store bought breakfast cereals and bars, these are a great breakfast.

As for the rest of these muffins? Whole wheat flour, apple, butter….some spices. I’m going to say yes, these are healthy, and I happily feed them to my kids and they are even happier eaters!

Prefer Savoury Muffins? Try These —–> 7 Crazy Good Savoury Muffins

Ingredients

I’ve used wholemeal flour to make these muffins, and while I know wholemeal flour can sometimes be a little heavy in some baking recipes, it works perfectly in these Winter warmer muffins. Cinnamon is really warming and apples, well…. think apple pie, this yummy combo is a total winner.

You can absolutely substitute out the wholemeal flour for Einkorn or Spelt flour, they’ll work equally well. Use a large bowl to make your batter.

The sweetness comes from two places. The maple syrup gives a warm sweetness and caramel flavor to these muffins, I’ve used slightly less than I might otherwise have done as the apples also handily provide the other sweeter source (see below for the best apples to use and prep for the muffin batter).

The cinnamon flavor comes from two heaped teaspoons of ground cinnamon added to the mixture. My lot love cinnamon and I find using two teaspoons gives a good cinnamon flavor without being ‘to much’. Feel free to adapt the amount you use to suit your kids, if yours are very small, perhaps use slightly less until they’ve established a taste for it.

I decorate the tops of these by putting the teeniest bit of maple syrup imaginable on top for ‘stick’ and then sprinkling some oats and grated apple peel on top, just to make them look appropriately appetising!

You could also sprinkle some pecans, walnuts, or another favorite nut on top, they all work really well.  If you really want to jazz these up, you could add a teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste to your healthy apple muffins, but my kids prefer the simple flavor of apple and cinnamon.

*One thing. Make sure it’s baking powder you use and not baking soda. Baking soda will give a bitter flavor and the kids won’t be happy!

The Best Apples To Use & Apple Prep

Firstly and so you know, you can absolutely use applesauce in this recipe. If you decide to go this route, since you’re adding more liquid to the batter, omit the milk and use ½ cup of apple sauce instead. Your batter will be slightly looser than if you use whole apple, but will still bake well and be delicious!

Ok….onto apples! Did you know apples contain potassium, calcium and vitamin C? I know, good, isn’t it! The amounts vary a little between apple varieties, but getting some goodness into the kids through muffins is something I can get on board with!

I tend to use red apples when I’m baking with them. Red apples are sweeter than green ones and it’s for this reason and this reason alone that I pick red. (And they also look quite pretty on the top!). If you’re a granny smiths lover, please go right ahead!

I use only 1 apple in this recipe, and I don’t peel it although you can of course if you prefer. I happen to love the color and my kids don’t object to apple peel so why make more work…?! I core the apple and then dice it into tiny pieces. I then fold the diced pieces into the batter.

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Dicing the apple means you get a little bite when you tuck into the muffin. The time in the cooker helps the apple absorb a little of the wet batter mixture as it cooks and you end up with a texture muffin. If your kids are good with little pieces of apple – try it this way, you’ll be pleased you did!

Storing Your Apple And Cinnamon Muffins

You can make these muffins ahead of time by a day or two. Yay!

This recipe makes 12 muffins and so you can either halve the recipe or store the leftovers. Storing your healthy apple cinnamon muffins is simple, they’ll keep well for 3 days if you keep them in an airtight container. 

I keep these apple muffins  in the cupboard, keeping them in the fridge will make them dry out. 

You can keep your leftover muffins in the freezer, and they can stay there for up to 1 month. However…I much prefer muffins eaten freshly baked and eaten within a few days to thawed muffins. I find the fruit holds onto too much water and the muffin always feels a bit soggy.

Might just be me, see what you think!

How To Make Healthy Apple And Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Wholemeal flour I used all purpose wholemeal flour
• 2 Eggs
• ½ Cup Butter Melted, salt free
• ¼ Cup Maple syrup Could sub honey
• 1 Apple Diced
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 level tsp Baking powder
• Oats and grated apple To decorate after baking, optional

Instructions

• Heat your oven to 190c or 370f and line a 12 whole muffin pan with muffin papers
• In a large mixing bowl add your dry ingredients: The flour, baking powder and cinnamon
• In a separate bowl, whisk the maple syrup and melted butter until well combined and then break your eggs in the mixture
• Whisk the wet ingredients well, and then add it to the dry mixture bowl
• Combine the ingredients together and add the milk 1 tbsp at a time to loosen the batter, trying not to over mix the batter
• Add your diced apple and stir into the muffin batter
• Using 2 spoons, spoon the batter equally into the paper liners and bake for 12 minutes. Check the muffins are cooked through using a skewer or toothpick, poke it into the middle of one muffin and if it comes out clean, your muffins are cooked. If there is still a little batter on the skewer, give the muffins another couple of minutes in the oven
• Leave the muffins in the muffin tin for 20 mins to cool down and then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooking
• Optional You can add a tiny amount of maple syrup to each muffin and then add sprinkled oats and grated apple for decoration

Apple And Cinnamon Muffins Recipe