These super moist gluten-free apple muffins have the most amazing texture and are super simple to make! Grain-free and gluten-free.
If you’ve ever tried grain-free recipes before, you’ve probably run into some funky textured baked goods. But these?! These apple muffins are nice and moist but not at all getting into soggy territory. They’re just perfect. They’re like little grain-free miracles.
At first I tried baking these as donuts. The instructions for the apple muffins say to bake at a high temperature first and then lower it. I wasn’t sure if I should do that when making the donuts, but I went with it anyway. That did not work. So if you feel adventurous and want to make these as apple donuts, make sure to bake them at 350°F the entire time! Even though they stuck, they were the best grain-free donuts I’ve ever had.
I found this recipe while browsing FoodGawker. This apple muffin recipe comes from Cooking ala Mel. Mel used almond meal in her muffins, which you can find at Trader Joe’s and is a lot cheaper than almond flour. Almond flour and almond meal are the same price over here (only about $4 / pound!) so I used almond flour, which is made up of blanched almonds (unlike almond meal) and is finer ground than almond meal.
I got 14 muffins out of this recipe but Mel got 12. I guess I didn’t fill mine as full as I could have, but I was happy with the result! Also, if you prefer a mostly Stevia sweetened version, check out the original recipe.
I’m not a big fan of grain-free streusel in general and I think I would have preferred these without the topping but the recipe is there, just in case you want to try. The muffin batter and streusel just seemed to blend together, so it didn’t seem worth the effort. Next time, I’ll just toss some nuts on top.
If you ever bake grain-free, you have to try these muffins! And by the way, they don’t taste their best on the first day. They taste good, but not nearly as good as on the second day. It’s kind of odd but I often find this is often true of grain-free goodies!
Apple Muffins (grain-free, gluten-free)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 14 muffins
Ingredients
- 200 grams (~2 cups) almond flour or almond meal
- 1/4 cup (28 grams) coconut flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (make sure to use grain-free baking powder, if necessary)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 large eggs
- 2/3 cup honey
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (120 grams) plain Greek yogurt
- 1 1/2 cups (170 grams) peeled and diced apples
- 1/4 cup (25 grams) almond flour
- 1 teaspoon coconut flour
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon (14 grams) coconut oil, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup (36 grams) chopped pecans or walnuts (about ¼" in size)
Muffins:
Streusel:
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (218 degrees C). Line 14 muffin cups with muffin liners.
- First, prepare the streusel topping by mixing everything together, except for the pecans, in a small bowl. Add the pecans and stir until well combined. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the dry muffins ingredients (almond flour through nutmeg).
- In a large bowl, mix together the wet muffins ingredients (eggs through Greek yogurt).
- Add the dry mix to the wet and stir just until combined! Do not over mix. Fold in the apples.
- Pour 1/3 cup of batter into each muffin cup. Sprinkle the streusel on top.
- Bake at 425 degrees F for 5 minutes and then lower the temperature to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C) and for another 8 - 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. My smaller muffins only needed 8 minutes but larger muffins may need up to 15.
- Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.
- These are super moist and need to be kept refrigerated in an airtight container after the first 24 hours.
Adapted from Apple Streusel Mufffins (Gluten-free) – Cooking ala Mel
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164 comments on “Grain-free Apple Muffins” — Add one!
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Can these be frozen?? I would like to make a batch for my toddlers lunch box. Thanks
They can! I hope your kid will enjoy them. :)
Hi Erin, this recipe is absolutely amazing!!! It is super moist and delicious. Could I make it as a loaf recipe instead of muffins?
Hi! I’m so glad you like it! I, unfortunately, don’t think it’d work as a loaf. I’ve never had a good experience using grain-free muffin recipes in loaf pans. They don’t rise properly and have a funky texture. If you try it anyway, I’d love to hear how it comes out!
Hi Erin!
I made these this morning – VEGAN version. Used 1 flax egg and 1/2 c soda water for the 3 eggs (1/4c soda water per egg)
Used Allulose syrup instead of honey. with a couple drops of monkfruit extract
Chopped the walnuts much smaller and added 1 more teaspoon coconut flour.
Coconut yogurt for the dairy version.
Outcome: Not too sweet, moist, light and tasty! I’d add more cinnamon next time and dice smaller the apple bits. REALLY good!
My yield was 18 regular size muffins with streusel topping and 9 mini muffins no streusel cuz ran out. Would definitely make MORE of the streusel!
Wondering if these could be frozen. It’s just the 2 of us…and hubby not a big fan of vegan, grain free baked goods. :)
Are you saying a flax egg means 1 tbsp flax + 3 tbsp water, and then you added 1/2 cup of soda water? Or are you using the soda water as the flax egg liquid?
I’m not Maria but I’m also unsure what she meant. I’ll ask her! I’m just now seeing her comment. She didn’t check the box saying she wants an email notification if someone replies, so I’m not sure she’ll see it, but I’ll try.
Hi Maria! I’m so sorry for just now seeing your comment. Thanks a ton for sharing your vegan version! Can you please clarify how you made it – did you really use 1 flax egg in addition to 3/4 cup of soda water? I’m really glad that you all enjoyed the muffins. And yes, they freeze great. :) I’m not sure about your vegan + keto sweetened version, though. They often don’t act the same in the freezer. Sorry I can’t give you a more definite answer!
This recipe is so good. I’ve made them twice! Delicious texture and flavor, and yes I’ve made them with plant-based yogurt (CoconutLab brand). De-Lish!! Now I can’t wait to try more of your recipes :D
I’m so glad that you enjoyed the muffins! It’s great to know that they worked well with CoconutLab yogurt. :) I hope you’ll enjoy the other recipes just as much! Thanks for your feedback.
I made these and they are amazing. I want to make them for my niece who just had a baby but she can’t have dairy, can I leave out the yogurt or what can I use to substitute?
I’m so sorry for just now seeing your question! You can use dairy-free yogurt. There are so many kinds and they should all work. :) Thanks for your feedback!
Amazing. Tasted exactly how I imagined they would. I kept the recipe pretty close to the original. I omitted nutmeg as I didn’t have any!
I’m so glad that you enjoyed them! Thanks for your comment. :)
Erin, thank you! This is a great recipe! I’ve tried recipes that use almond and coconut flour that turn out too wet and mushy …. the combination in this recipe results in a beautiful finished product! I followed your recipe exactly with only three exceptions – used only 1/2 cup honey, grated the apple instead of chopped, and doubled the streusel topping! :) So delicious!
I’m so happy that you liked them! And yes, there are so many wet and mushy paleo muffin recipes out there. :( I’m happy you tried this one and it wasn’t a disappointment! Thanks a bunch for your feedback.
Very good – I did reduce to 1/2 cup of honey, grated a small apple instead and added blueberries and raisins (my husband has to have raisins…) They were still a tad too sweet to my taste but delicious, especially with the slightly salty streusel crunch. Thanks
I love that your husband has to have raisins. :D Maybe omit them next time since they add quite a bit of sweetness? I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for your feedback. :)
Best apple muffins I ever made! Very moist, and very tasty! I substituted coconut flour for gluten free flour, and i used left over strawberry and plain coconut yoghurts, still turned out amazing! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe ♡
I’m so sorry for just now seeing your comment! It landed in spam for some weird reason. I’m so glad that the recipe worked well with your changes! Strawberry yogurt sounds delicious. :) Thanks for your feedback and sorry again for my slow reply!
Wow!They came out great!My daughter and husband love them. So I baked them today again!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with us.
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you all enjoyed them. :) Thanks for your feedback (and sorry for my slow reply!).
Loved these!! I used 1/3 cup agave, instead of the honey because I’m feeding them to kids under 1. I also skipped the streusel for the same reason, though it sounded delicious. Everyone loved them! :) Thanks for sharing!!
You’re welcome! I’m really glad everyone liked them. :) It’s good to know that they work well with agave! Thanks for your feedback.
Can you tell me how many carbs each muffin contains ?
I don’t have the calories but you could use this recipe analyzer for the nutritional profile.
What have you found to be the best substitute for coconut flour? We don’t tolerate it well :)
I’m sorry for just now seeing your question! There isn’t really a good sub for coconut flour. :( It just absorbs so much more liquid than other types of flour. Sorry about that!
I made these last night and they are INCREDIBLE!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for your comment.
They tasted great but they were very crumbly? Also, I didn’t know if I measure honey with a liquid measuring cup or a dry measuring cup?
They definitely shouldn’t be crumbly so maybe something went wrong. Did you use a scale? If not, try that next time! It could be that you packed the cups too full. And you just use a regular measuring cup. :)
These are good, not too sweet at all! I actually would like them to be a little sweeter. I used 1\2 applesauce instead of honey because it seemed like a lot. I will make them again with more honey! They smell wonderful too when baking.
I’m glad you liked them! And yes, they’ll be sweeter when you use honey instead of applesauce. :) Thanks for your comment!
I made these this morning and they turned out wonderfully! I subbed non-dairy yogurt (a container of dark chocolate coconut almond-milk yogurt was all I had on hand) and it worked just great (and I can’t taste the flavoring at all). I didn’t have the coconut flour so I just left that out and the muffins baked up fine, and I did a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar instead of the streusel. I’ll definitely make these again – thanks for the great recipe!!
You’re welcome! Thanks for sharing your changes. It’s great that that chocolate coconut yogurt worked well! I would have never even attempted that one. ;) Thanks for your comment!
These are the adaptations I did & they were so delicious! I didn’t do the streusel but instead put nuts in batter as previous writer. I omitted the honey in batter, replacing it with 1/2 c sweetener & 1/3 c unsweetened applesauce. I also added 1 tsp maple flavouring to the batter. I left apple skins on, just diced fine.
Maple flavoring sounds delicious! I’m so glad that you enjoyed the muffins. Thanks for sharing your adaptations! They sound great. And sorry for my slow reply! I just got back from vacation.
Have you frozen these and had them later? I doubled the recipe and got 33 muffins. I subbed maple syrup for honey and they are delicious…almost too sweet. I also left off the strudel topping and added walnuts into the batter. Kid approved (5 & 7), too!!!
Also, I used Icelandic Skyr plain yogurt instead of Greek.
I’m so sorry for just now seeing your question! Without the streusel, they should freeze just fine. :) I’m really glad you and your kids enjoyed them! Thanks for your comment.
Just made these, my family and I thought they were really good.
I’m glad to hear that! Thanks for your comment. :)
Love this recipe! I doubled the recipe and made this in my hamburger bun pans. They turned out like individual coffee cakes. Delicious as written,, however, I needed to change the sweetener for my diabetic hubby.
Individual coffee cakes sound amazing! I’ll have to look into hamburger bun pans. Thanks for the tip! I’m so glad you liked them. Can you share what sweetener you used (in case some others are wondering how to make these low-carb)? Thanks a bunch for your feedback and my apologies for my very slow reply!
I used Splenda, and adjusted the liquid slightly to make up for not using a liquid sweetener.
Good to know! Thanks a bunch for letting me know. :)
These muffins are delicious! They turned out perfectly. I decreased the honey a bit and they are still plenty sweet.
I’m glad to hear that! And it’s great that they’re still tasty without all the honey. :) Thanks for your feedback and I’m sorry for my very slow reply!
Is there anything i can use to replace the eggs?
I haven’t had much luck in subbing eggs in these. Sorry about that!
I would love to bake this but my darling grand daughter is allergic to eggs. Any substitution for eggs is appreciated. Thsnk you
I haven’t had good luck with egg subs in this recipe. Sorry. :(
I substituted kite hill unsweetened yogurt , and cut the honey to 1-3 d 1-3 monk fruit they were perfectly sweet but not too sweet. Making again and cut honey 1/4 snd monkfruot aloytle mote then 1/3 haven’t tried theyvate in the oven. First batch was amazing! This will be my go-2 recipe!
Woohoo! Glad to hear that. Thanks for sharing your low-carb version with us! I’m happy they worked out well. :)
Hi. I’m dairy free at the moment. What can I sub the greek yoghurt with?
Hi! Some of the commenters have used coconut milk or cream but I haven’t tried it.
Kite hill unsweetened yogurt
Can you sub applesauce for the sliced apples?
Unfortunately not. Applesauce is a lot more liquidy and I think the muffins would be soggy.