Autumn is the perfect season for apple cinnamon muffins! This recipe uses both applesauce and fresh apples. These muffins are incredibly easy to make in just a few simple steps.
Those are so delicious and perfectly moist that nobody will notice that they are gluten free, vegan, paleo and AIP compliant!
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Each time I eat one of those delicious and moist apple cinnamon muffins, I struggle a lot to resist the temptation to eat more than one! Personally, I think it is my best recipe so far.
This apple cinnamon muffin recipe uses my all-star grain free, coconut free and cassava free muffin batter. This batter can be used to create endless muffin varieties. You can see it again in my very popular banana blueberry muffins, banana carrot muffins, pumpkin muffins and more.
⭐ Why you'll love this recipe
- These Apple Cinnamon Muffins are quick and super easy to make.
- This recipe is super simple.
- This recipe can be made without any added sugar.
- These muffins are gluten-free, grain-free, vegan, AIP compliant but also coconut free and cassava free to be the most allergy friendly as possible.
📖 Ingredient notes
- Fresh Apples. I recommend using sweet apples like Fuji or Gala.
- Apple sauce. Make sure to use unsweetened apple sauce.
- Tigernut flour (or almond flour for those who are not on AIP nor nut free). If you don't know what tigernut flour is and want to learn more about it, you can read my complete guide to tigernut flour.
- Arrowroot. It is starch. See below for substitutions.
- Oil of your choice. I either use extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
See recipe card for quantities.
💭 Substitutions
- Arrowroot substitutions. If you are not cassava intolerant, you can substitute it with tapioca starch (also called tapioca flour). If you are not on AIP nor Paleo diets: you can use potato starch or corn starch instead of arrowroot.
- Cinnamon. It is high in histamine. So if you are looking for other spice options to replace cinnamon I suggest a pinch of ginger (no more than ⅛ teaspoon) or 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
🔪Step by step instructions
In a large bowl, combine the tigernut flour, arrow root, baking soda and cinnamon. Stir.
In another large bowl, combine the apple sauce, maple syrup, lemon juice (or ACV) and olive oil. Mix until combined.
Peel and cut the apples in small pieces.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until well combined. Then add the apple pieces and mix again.
Line or lightly oil a muffin pan. Fill each muffin cup with batter, you should get about 6-8 muffins depending on your pan.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes. To make sure that they are cooked, insert a thin bladed knife into the centre of one muffin, the knife should come out clean. And voilà! Let them cool down before removing them from the pan. Bon appétit!
👩🏻🍳Top tips
- Tip #1. Never ever open the oven door before the end of the baking time (unless, of course, in case of a danger or problem with your oven). If you open the oven door during the baking time, just to "check how they look", they will fall down or won't rise.
- Tip #2. As you can see on the picture above, in order to create tall muffin tops, I fill my muffin tins all the way to the top.
💬 Frequently Asked Questions
Unfortunately there are no possible substitution for the tigernut flour if you are on AIP and still in the elimination phase. Why? Because all the other AIP compliant flours have very different texture and they all need their own amount of liquid. So it is not possible to replace the tigernut flour with another flour without altering the entire recipe.
Yes! If you want to make no sugar apple muffins, replace the maple syrup with the same quantity of oil or coconut milk.
Good news if you have a nut allergy and need a nut-free version, you can make these muffins with tigernut flour. Because tigernut is not a nut!
Yes! If you don't have a muffin pan or simply don't feel like having muffins, you can make this as a loaf instead of muffins. Just follow the instructions in the recipe card for the bread.
Yes! They freeze extremely well. Which is so convenient!! So nice to have a delicious snack or dessert that is ready to be eaten in the freezer (ok just need to be defrost). About defreezing one of these delicious muffins, you can either take it out of the freezer a few hours ahead or pop it in the microwave oven (if you still have one, like me, and yes I know that they are very controversial health wise but nobody's perfect lol) for 1 minute or pop it in the oven for a few minutes.
🍪Other recipes you might like
Did you like this recipe? Please leave a 5 star rating on the recipe card and leave a nice review below! Tag @gohealthywithbea on Instagram and hashtag #gohealthywithbea! Also, let's stay connected on social media and continue to cook together! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.
📋 Recipe / Recette
Apple Cinnamon Muffins (gluten free, vegan, paleo, AIP)
Ingredients
- 240 grams (1 cup) unsweetened apple sauce
- 180 grams (1.5 cups) apples (once peeled and seeds removed which makes about 2 apples)
- 150 grams (1 cup + ⅓ cup) tigernut flour (if you are not on AIP nor nut free, you can use almond flour instead of tigernut flour)
- 50 grams (¼ cups + 1 Tbsp) arrowroot (see notes below for substitutions)
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup (see notes if you want to reduce quantity)
- 60 millilitre (¼ cup) oil (I either use extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 360° F (180° C)
- In a large bowl, combine the tigernut flour, arrow root, baking soda and cinnamon. Stir.
- In another large bowl, combine the apple sauce, maple syrup, lemon juice (or ACV) and olive oil. Mix until combined.
- Peel and cut the apples in small pieces.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until well combined. Then add the apple pieces and mix again.
- Line or lightly oil a muffin pan (or a rectangular 4x8 inches baking tin if you are making a bread). Fill each muffin cup with batter, you should get about 6-8 muffins depending on your pan.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes for the muffins (or about 35 minutes for the bread). To make sure that they are cooked, insert a thin bladed knife into the centre of one muffin, the knife should come out clean. And voilà! Let them cool down before removing them from the pan.Bon appétit !
Cheryl
Can you clarify the maple syrup amount? The recipe lists one thing and the notes list an astronomical amount. I'm confused.
gohealthywithbea
Oops! I'm deeply sorry. It is now fixed. the right amount or maple syrup for this recipe is 2 Tbsp.
Sam
Great recipe! Both the texture and taste of these were amazing!
gohealthywithbea
Bonjour Sam. Thank you for taking the time to tell me this. I'm so happy to hear that you liked my recipe!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Kathryn Sanchez
Could pear be substituted for apple?
gohealthywithbea
Hello Kathryn. I'm afraid that pears might be too watery to replace apple in this recipe. If you can't or won't have apples you can try my banana blueberry muffin recipe which is pretty similar to this recipe. Or if you want a dessert with pears, you can try my pear and carob tart or my pear and chocolate tart.
Leslie Johnson
These look great! I'm wondering if you can use this recipe to make bread as well?
gohealthywithbea
Thank you for asking. I usually add the answer to this question to the recipe notes but apparently I forgot. 😔 Yes you can make this as a loaf instead of muffins. Just cook it 10 minutes more. I will update my recipe notes right this minute.
Carrie
These were just what I needed!! Thanks for sharing the recipe! I have troubles finding AIP recipes without ANY types of sugar and without gelatin. I took your suggestion of subbing the syrup for coconut oil and it's plenty sweet for someone who has to curb a sweet tooth with fruits that aren't high-glycemic. I have to avoid cinnamon, so I used a few shakes of mace (because I learned a little goes a long way with that).
I should probably check out your other recipes to see if they fit my sensitivities+AIP combo. I'll be making this on a regular basis though. Thanks again!
gohealthywithbea
Bonjour Carrie! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a nice comment! ❤️❤️❤️ I'm glad that you love this recipe! It's one of my own favorites. And yes, all my baking recipes are gelatin free because in French cuisine we use gelatin in patés. So I can't bring myself to use it in sweet baking. I hope that you will find other recipes on my blog that fit your sensitivities. Do not hesitate to reach out if you need any help finding what you're looking for.
Mary
I recently developed histamine issues and react to just about everything now. Finding snacks have been a real challenge. Thanks so much for this recipe!!! Turned out great. Please create more like these ❤️
gohealthywithbea
Bonjour Mary. Thank you so much for sharing that you enjoyed them! That makes me so happy!!!❤️❤️
Crystal
Delicious flavour but I could not get these to cook on the inside. Disappointing because the flavour is so good.
gohealthywithbea
I'm so sorry to hear that this recipe didn't work out for you. Without having been there, it's really hard to know where you went wrong that you didn't enjoy the same success as many others who have made and loved this recipe.
Tricia
I had the same experience. I’ve cooked them for much longer and they still aren’t cooked all the way through.
melissa
I got 24 Mini Muffins out of the batter, baked for about 18-20 minutes. They are so good! Thank you for this recipe.
gohealthywithbea
Bonjour Melissa. Thank you so much for sharing that you enjoyed them!❤️❤️❤️ That makes me so happy.
Brooke
Your AIP recipes look so amazing! I can't wait to try them. You have no idea how excited I am to find an AIP recipe site that uses weight measurements. I can't believe you manually convert all your amounts! That's amazing. So many of these American bloggers are so lazy, they refuse to spend $10 on a scale and take an extra minute to weigh ingredients so that people will get consistent results. Ugh.
I also just removed coconut from my diet, so I love that you have a ton of coconut-free recipes. Bless you!!!
gohealthywithbea
Hi Brooke. Thank you for your enthusiasm!!❤️❤️ Yes I know, I'm totally crazy, I convert everything manually and I blog in 2 languages... It's probably the reason why I've been so close to burnout many times since I started that blog. Anyway, I hope you will like my recipes. Let me know if you try some.
Marcie
I wanted to thank you for this recipe. It was one of the first I’d tried when I began AIP months ago and this recipe and your pumpkin muffin recipe have been my go-tos for breakfast since the beginning of my journey. Recently with the weather warming I decided I wanted a change and I immediately thought of strawberries. I have now added an adapted version of this recipe, swapping apples for strawberries and cinnamon for vanilla bean powder, to my repertoire. All three versions of this muffin are delicious and I’m contemplating changing out fruits with the season. I am so grateful for this recipe. I don’t think I could’ve stayed on AIP without it.
gohealthywithbea
Bonjour Marcie. Thank you so much for your amazing comment. I'm over the moon, hearing that my recipe has been helping you on your own natural healing journey!! ❤️❤️❤️ And thank you for commenting on your substitutions, I'm pretty sure other readers will also appreciate them!
Joanetta
I loved, loved, loved these muffins. The only reason I did not give them a 5 star rating was that they 'fell' after I took them out of the oven to cool. I left them in the pan for about 5 min or so before removing them to the cooling rack. I wonder if they just had too much moisture from the chopped apple or my Deep South humidity affected them. Please let me know.....I want to use this recipe and its variations soon 🙂
Cathy
These are wonderful, but no surprise, since I really like all of your baked goods that I have tried. I assembled the entire recipe and waited to get the apples out. When I went to the fruit drawer, I was shocked to find that there was only 1 very small apple left. Using your weight measurement, I simply added enough raisins to the diced apple to equal the total amount. I was a little worried that the raisins might dry the muffins out, but they came out fine. And I really like raisins in muffins!
Bea C.
Bonjour Cathy. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! ❤️❤️❤️ Your incredibly nice comment made my day!! I'm absolutely thrilled to hear that you love my baked goods! 😘😘😘
Agnes
Thank you for this recipe.
It is amazing. I omitted the maple syrup (can't have it or any sweeteners) and swapped 1 tbsp of arrowroot starch for 1 tbsp apple flour (which i found on Amazon). It was amazing.
Bea C.
Bonjour Agnes. Thank you so much for your nice comment!!❤️❤️ I'm thrilled to hear that you love this recipe!!
Carla
Hi Bea, I just want to say I am so impressed! Thanks so much for the understandable and also effective recipes ... You can really see you know your stuff! I am new on AIP, not much of a cook, and these were my first ever muffin success (you know, not a gooey puddle of tapioca flour that won't set or a burnt and hardened crisp of coconut yuck). Hurrah! They actually taste like muffins and I can understand what I'm doing finally. Special thanks for the quantity calculator, as I am only one person and it has been so depressing to lose a batch of 12 muffins to my incompetence but then trying to scale myself down for a test batch of 3-4 has also been a fail for me ... Up until now. You really give me confidence and inspiration to continue AIP baking and not cheat on my diet by buying baked goods out because I get cravings and have nothing at home. It's easier now to stay on track. Such a lifesaver! I keep sharing this website with all who'll listen and eventually I think I will make everything here! Thanks again Bea and have a Happy Festive Season 🙂
Bea C.
Bonjour Carla. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment. And what an amazing comment!! I'm absolutely over the moon to hear that my recipes are helping you stay on track. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ This is the exact purpose of this blog: giving you guys easy, simple yet yummy recipes that will prevent you from falling off the wagon because I know how it's like: I've been there too! Thank you, thank you, thank you, your comment was a perfect Christmas gift for me!