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Apple Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

Like apples, oatmeal, and cinnamon? This Apple Oatmeal Muffin recipe is a yummy, healthy, quick breakfast or midday snack with a hint of cinnamon that stays nice and moist even days after you bake them.

Apple Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

Where Did This Apple Oatmeal Muffin Recipe Come From?

II love cinnamon and incorporating fruit into my breakfast options whenever I can, and I’ve also learned through the years that adding oatmeal into a breakfast bread or muffin recipe helps keep them super moist. And who doesn’t like a moist muffin, right?

That was the start of this apple cinnamon oatmeal muffin recipe. I actually combined two different delicious recipes that I loved and made them one. 🙂

I had two recipe cards in my house: one recipe was from Baker’s Secret called Apple Autumn Loaf, and the other is an Oatmeal Cinnamon Bread from the Grandma’s Kitchen recipe cards that used to come in the mail, once upon a time.

Merging the two, I tweaked the recipe over time and came up with what I’m sharing with you today. I must admit, this has become one of my all-time-favorite muffin recipes, whether I’m using it with apples or pears. I hope you and your whole family enjoy these healthy apple muffins.

What Do I Need to Make Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins?

The list of simple ingredients you’ll need is as follows:

  • Butter
  • White sugar
  • Brown sugar
  • Eggs (room temperature)
  • Grated Apple or applesauce
  • Vanilla
  • Quick Oats
  • Water
  • All-purpose Flour
  • Baking soda
  • Baking powder
  • Salt
  • Ground Cinnamon
  • Chopped pecans or walnuts (if desired)
  • Muffin pans
  • cupcake liners
  • Large mixing bowl
  • Small mixing bowl or large cereal bowl
Apple Oatmeal Muffins Ingredients
Sorry, I forgot the apples in the pic. 🙂

You’ll find a full printable recipe card with ingredients and instructions at the bottom of this post for this great recipe.

How Do I Make This Yummy Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Muffin Recipe?

How do you make it? With lots of love. 😉 No, really all you need is a little bit of time and a handful of easy steps.

First things first…preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and ready your muffin tin. You can line your pan with paper liners, grease them with butter or oil, or use silicon muffin cups. This recipe yields 24 muffins, so if you have two 12-count muffin pans, prep them both.

Next, measure your quick rolled oats into your small mixing bowl and place on a hot pad. Then measure your water in a microwavable measuring cup and heat to boiling, approximately 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Pour your hot water over your oats, making sure all oats have been submerged, and set aside.

Oatmeal before and after hot water addition

Now, using a separate large bowl, combine your stick of softened (or melted) butter with your granulated sugar and light brown sugar until well combined.

butter before and after sugar addition

Next, add your eggs and beat until creamy.

wet ingredients before and after egg addition

Then stir in your vanilla extract (or real vanilla).

Add vanilla to apple mixture

Apples are your next ingredient.

What kind of apples should you use?

You’ve got multiple options here. You can either use:

  • Fresh apples that you’ve peeled and grated. Most any kind of apple here will do:
    • granny smith apple,
    • gala,
    • pink lady,
    • red delicious,
    • Fuji…
  • Plain unsweetened applesauce
  • Cinnamon apple sauce or apple butter. If you use one of these, leave out the cinnamon in the recipe.
  • Fresh, peeled, and grated pears also work.
  • Pear sauce (like applesauce but pears instead)
  • Pear butter. Again, leave out the cinnamon if you use this option.
  • Canned apples or pears, drained and mashed.

My folks have a Bartlett Pear tree, which we often can the produce from, so we’ve also taken home-canned pears and drained and mashed them for this recipe or used our homemade pear butter.

Any of these options listed here are super scrumptious.

Adding homemade applesauce to wet ingredients

Add Your Dry Ingredients

Once you’ve stirred in your fruit, add in your all-purpose flour (this can be substituted with gluten-free measure for measure flour), salt, soda, cinnamon, and baking powder.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients

Stir your dry ingredients together before combining them into the fruit mixture. You can do this in a separate bowl, or do like me and cheat by mixing them together on top of the wet ingredients before blending them in. To each his own.

Apple cinnamon batter

Next, fold in your oatmeal, which should have soaked up all (or almost all) of the water as it sat.

Oatmeal added to apple cinnamon batter mix

Lastly, if you choose to include nuts, fold them into your muffin batter.

Now you’re ready to pour the batter into your prepared pans. If you don’t have muffin pans, you could also grease a 2-quart casserole dish or baking pan and adjust your cooking time.

Muffin pan filled with apple oatmeal muffin batter

Spoon batter into the muffin liners until they’re about 2/3 full.

Then place your pans in the oven and cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes or until the muffins are lightly brown and spring back when touched.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins fresh from the oven

Serve Up Your Apple Oatmeal Muffins

Once removed from the oven, let your muffins sit for a couple of minutes to make the papers easier to remove, then serve up this delicious treat for breakfast with some fresh churned butter, sausage, bacon, and/or eggs.

Serve up apple oatmeal muffins

If you want to serve up these warm muffins in a bowl, line the bowl with a lint-free towel or paper towel to absorb any excess moisture. I normally pick a bowl with a sealable lid, for easy storage once they’ve cooled.

Feel free to meal prep with this healthy muffin recipe on the weekend and then pop them in the microwave for a few seconds on those busy mornings when you need an easy grab as you run out the door.

These also make a great midday after school snack or are a perfect complement to a cup of coffee or tea when you need a break. They’re also great for a family get-together, church brunch, or office parties.

Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Muffin Recipe FAQs

“My apples weren’t sweet enough. What should I do?”

I’ve had this happen before. You pull those steaming special treats from the oven and discover the muffins aren’t as sweet as you’d like. You’ve got a couple of options:

  • One, make a glaze of powdered sugar, butter, and milk and pour it over the muffins.
  • Or two, split them open and drizzle in some pure maple syrup.

Either way works great to add a hint more of sweetness.

“How do I store my apple oatmeal muffins? How long will they keep?”

Once your muffins have cooled completely, store your leftovers in an airtight container. If you don’t plan to eat them all in the next day or two, put them in the refrigerator, and they’ll keep for about a week.

These also freeze well for about 3-4 months. Be mindful, if you leave them too long in the freezer, they can start to absorb the freezer tastes and smells.

“How do I reheat my apple cinnamon muffins?”

I normally just reheat these in the microwave, but you could also use the air fryer. If the electricity is out or the microwave is on the blink, you can also reheat these in a double boiler.

“Can I alter these for someone who is lactose intolerant?”

Absolutely. Simply substitute the butter with vegetable oil or shortening.

“I need to make these apple oatmeal muffins gluten free. Is that possible?”

Sure thing. Simply substitute the all-purpose flour with your favorite gluten-free measure for measure flour. You might also consider oat flour, although I personally haven’t tried that one yet.

“I have more apples leftover. What can I do with them? Do you have more apple recipes?”

During apple season, when you have an abundance of such yummy fruit, feel free to take some of your extra apples and blend them up to make your own homemade applesauce or apple butter.
If you like cobbler, here’s a recipe for some mini fruit cobblers. (This recipe uses peaches but works great for apples too.)
My friend Janice has a collection of 9 easy apple desserts you can find here.

“I don’t have muffin pans. Can I cook this apple cinnamon oatmeal muffin recipe in a casserole dish?”

I’ve done it many times. You’ll just need to grease the pan and up the cook time a little to approximately 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center and the bread has begun to pull away from the sides.


I hope that answers all your questions. If not, please drop me a line or leave a comment below. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you and yours enjoy this heart-healthy apple oatmeal muffin recipe.

Happy Trails.

Yield: 24 muffins

Apple Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

Apple Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

This Apple Oatmeal Muffin recipe is a yummy, healthy, quick breakfast or midday snack with a hint of cinnamon that stays moist days later.

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsalted Butter
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs (room temperature)
  • 1 cup grated apple or applesauce
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup quick oats
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (if desired)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Line or grease muffin pans.
  3. Measure quick rolled oats into small mixing bowl and place on a hot pad.
  4. Heat water in microwavable measuring cup to boiling, approximately 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Pour hot water over oats, making sure all oats have been submerged, and set aside.
  5. Using a separate large mixing bowl, combine softened butter with granulated sugar and light brown sugar until well mixed.
  6. Add eggs and beat until creamy.
  7. Stir in vanilla.
  8. Stir in grated apples or applesauce.
  9. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon into apple mixture and stir until combined.
  10. Fold oats (water should be all/mostly absorbed) into muffin batter.
  11. Fold in chopped nuts if desired.
  12. Spoon batter into muffin tins until their about 2/3 full.
  13. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 20 minutes or until lightly golden and tops spring back when touched.
  14. Serve warm for breakfast or sweet treat during the day.

Notes

  • For gluten intolerant, substitute all-purpose flour with gluten-free measure for measure flour or oat flour.
  • For lactose intolerant, substitute butter with vegetable oil or shortening.

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