Small batch apple crisp muffins that are super moist and fluffy, filled with cinnamon & apples, and topped with a cinnamon oat streusel.
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small batch apple crisp muffins
Take all your classic delicious apple crisp flavors, and put them in muffin form – that’s these muffins! It starts with a super moist and fluffy vanilla muffin batter filled with diced cinnamon-coated apples, then it gets topped with a cinnamon oat streusel. If your favorite part about fall baking involves all things apple, then these are perfect for you.
why you’ll love these small batch apple crisp muffins:
- They’re small batch: meaning it makes the perfect amount to have fresh muffins for a few days to yourself.
- They come together in less than an hour. If you’re craving muffins NOW or want to bake them off in the morning, there are no worries here! These come together in about 40 minutes.
- Apple crisp in muffin form: the apples, cinnamon, and oats all combine to give you all the delicious flavors and textures of apple crisp in a muffin!
expert baking tips
Weigh your ingredients:
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale.
Use room temperature ingredients:
It’s important that your ingredients are at room temperature so that they can easily incorporate with each other. Take out your cold ingredients about an hour before starting the muffins.
Mix the batter carefully
It is super important to not overmix the muffin batter. Overmixing the batter leads to more gluten development which is not desirable in these muffins. Not only will you get those pointy tops on the muffins, but you will end up with tough and chewy muffins.
keep a close eye on the muffins while they bake
Muffins like to go from under-baked to over-baked super quickly so it is important to keep a close eye on them. Start checking at 14 minutes with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out wet, check them again in 2 minutes and so on until only a few moist crumbs stick to the toothpick.
how to get bakery style muffin tops
One trick to getting those nicely domed muffin tops is (mostly) all in your oven’s temperature! Bake the muffins at 425°F / 220°C for 5 minutes. Then, without opening the oven, reduce the temperature to 350°F / 175°C and continue baking until done. The super high heat will make the muffins rise nice and tall! You will also want to bake them lined in every other tin on the muffin pan, and fill them to the very top. This recipe makes the perfect amount of batter to fill every muffin liner straight to the top for those perfect muffin tops!
Another trick, that’s optional, is resting the muffin batter. After making the muffin batter, let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour before baking. This will give time for the starches in the flour to absorb the moisture in the batter and will give you more flavorful, higher-rising muffins. Most baking powder is – but – just make sure your baking powder is “double acting” if you try this method.
how to evenly distribute your muffin batter
My favorite way to evenly distribute muffin batter is to use cookie scoops! Works perfectly every time. So long are the days of eyeballing which muffin may need a little more batter.
A note on oven temperature:
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature and might not always actually be at the temperature they claim to be at. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
ingredients for small batch apple crisp muffins:
cinnamon oat streusel:
- Unsalted butter: the base of the streusel, really what makes it buttery and delicious. You can use salted butter here as well!
- Light brown sugar: sweetens and adds flavor to the streusel. In a pinch granulated sugar will work here as well, just note that the topping will be lighter.
- All purpose flour: adds structure to the streusel.
- Rolled oats: give some texture to the streusel to make it like classic crisp topping. I really recommend using rolled oats here and would advise against instant oats for the best texture.
- Ground cinnamon: for flavor!
cinnamon apple muffins:
- All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness.
- Baking powder: for helping the muffins rise.
- Baking soda: for helping the muffins rise.
- Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the muffins.
- Ground cinnamon: for flavor.
- Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the muffins.
- Granulated sugar: for sweetening and helping lock in moisture.
- Egg: for binding and for moisture.
- Vanilla: for flavor. I use and love this vanilla extract!
- Kefir: I would consider this the *secret ingredient* to these muffins, if you will. It makes these muffins super light, fluffy, and moist. I recommend plain whole milk kefir but you can also substitute in buttermilk here, or greek yogurt.
- Apple: use your favorite baking apple here! I used honey crisp because they are my personal favorite, but you can also use fuji, pink lady, gala, jonathan, granny smith, honey gold, or braeburn!
how to make small batch apple crisp muffins
Here are a few images of the process of making these apple crisp muffins. You can find the full recipe at the end of this blog post.
- Combine all of the cinnamon oat streusel ingredients in a small mixing bowl.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients for the muffins.
- Fold in the dry ingredients, and then fold in the apples.
- Distribute the muffin batter between six parchment liners, then top them with the streusel. Bake, serve, and enjoy!
small batch apple crisp muffins recipe q&a
What type of apple should I use?
I rotate between using granny smith, pink lady, and honey crisp apples (when they’re on sale, of course.) You could also use fuji, gala, jonathan, or braeburn apples.
can I double this recipe?
Of course! Obviously they will not be small batch anymore but small batch isn’t always what we need. Simply double all of the ingredients in the recipe to make 12 delicious muffins. I even more strongly recommend measuring by weight if you are going to double the recipe for the best results.
how to store muffins
Like most baked goods, these muffins will definitely taste the best on the day that they are baked. They will keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days.
tools and ingredients:
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
other recipes you might enjoy:
did you make this recipe?
I’d love to see and know your thoughts! please leave a comment and review below, and tag me on instagram @freshbeanbakery. #freshbeanbakery
Small Batch Apple Crisp Muffins
Ingredients
Cinnamon Oat Streusel
- 41 g unsalted butter (3 tbsp.)
- 50 g light brown sugar (¼ c.)
- 60 g all purpose flour (½ c.)
- 20 g rolled oats (¼ c.)
- ¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
Cinnamon Apple Muffins
- 100 g apple (~1 medium sized apple)
- ¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
- 56 g unsalted butter (¼ c.)
- 100 g granulated sugar (½ c.)
- 1 egg room temperature
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- 120 g plain whole milk kefir room temperature (½ c.)
- 140 g all purpose flour (1 c. + 2 ½ tbsp.)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. salt
Instructions
Cinnamon Oat Streusel
- Preheat the oven to 425°F / 220°C. Alternate lining a muffin pan with 6 parchment liners.
- In a small bowl, melt the butter. Add in the flour, oats, sugar, and cinnamon. Use a fork to mix the ingredients together until you have formed little clumps of dough.
Cinnamon Apple Muffins
- Wash, peel, and dice the apple into small cubes. Put the diced apples into a small bowl, then toss them with the cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, melt the butter. Whisk in the sugar, egg, vanilla and kefir until well combined.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Use a rubber spatula to lightly fold the mixture until just a few flour streaks remain.
- Add the cinnamon apples into the batter and gently fold them in just until no streaks of flour remain.
- Evenly distribute the muffin batter between the six parchment liners. Top each muffin generously with the cinnamon oat streusel, slightly pushing the streusel down to help it stick to the batter.
- Bake the muffins at 425°F for 5 minutes. Without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 350°F / 175°C. Bake for an additional 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that the nutrition facts are only an estimate and may vary based on different brands of ingredients and any substitutions made.
They are incredibly delicious. Thank you for the recipe, I often cook according to your recipes (the youngest eats with delight and it is impossible to feed him)
These came out so delicious! I didn’t have any rolled oats for the streusel, so I used an apple cinnamon oatmeal packet I had and mixed it with some butter to use as streusel. Worked great! The taste, texture, and height of the muffins are incredible! Looks like I got them from a real bakery! This will be my go to when I have some extra apples.
Thank you so much! 🙂 Using the apple cinnamon oatmeal packet is genius!
I made these with a 2 year-old, so I was a little distracted and accidentally used all brown sugar. Used yogurt instead of sour cream because that’s what was in the house , and forgot the vanilla. Skipped the topping, too. Nonetheless, these were exceptionally delicious, so light and crumbly (in a good way)!
Thank you Ellen, I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂