These paleo apple muffins are fuss-free and completely maple sweetened. They get extra apple flavor from grated and diced apples. Thanks to Pure Canada Maple for making today’s post possible! Pictures updated on 10/1/18.
I’ve been wanting to post a paleo apple muffins recipe for a long time. At first I tried adapting the paleo blueberry muffins I posted recently. They’re my favorite muffin recipe, by far, but that didn’t work out. The cinnamon and spices just made them weird.
So then I tried adapting my paleo apple butter cake but I wasn’t in love with those muffins, either. I tried some other apple muffins with almond flour and then figured that it’d be easy enough to adapt my grain-free carrot cake cupcakes, which is one of my most popular recipes. People seem to love them and I hope you all will enjoy these just as much. :)
The carrot cake recipe uses 1/2 cup of grated carrots and I subbed that with 1/2 cup of coarsely grated apples. I’ve only made these muffins using this extra coarse grater to grate the apples so if you want to use a fine grater, I have no idea how that’d work out.
I’d be afraid that the muffins would come out too wet. These muffins are already super moist so I don’t know if they could handle even more moisture!
Another change was the sweetener. I use a lot of lighter colored maple syrup throughout the year as a sweetener in all kinds of different flavored goodies, like these paleo key lime pies or these paleo lemon cookies.
And now that I’m baking with cinnamon, apples and in a few weeks – pumpkin – I go through about 1 1/2 liters a month! I’m in the mood for maple everything. :)
The carrot cake recipe uses honey but 100% pure maple syrup seemed like a much better choice for these autumnal muffins. I used the exact same amount! It’s an easy sub and I think it blends better with the apple + cinnamon + nutmeg combination than honey does.
You can use any grade of all-natural maple syrup in these. You can’t really taste it through all the cinnamon flavor so I went with the standard Grade A Medium Amber kind that’s usually sold in grocery stores around here. I save the darker, stronger tasting and slightly more expensive Grade A Dark Amber kind for dishes where I want the maple taste to shine.
One tablespoon of cinnamon may seem like a lot for 8 muffins (it’s 3/8 teaspoon per muffin) but I’ve tried these with less cinnamon and they just weren’t very exciting. You need the cinnamon!
I’ve also tried these with a bunch of different apple types and we could hardly detect there were apples in the muffins – until I made them with Granny Smith. Their tartness helps them stand out more and together with the cinnamon and maple syrup, creates a truly awesome apple muffin.
Thanks again to Pure Canada Maple for sponsoring today’s post! As always, all opinions expressed are my own.
One of the old pictures for reference for those of you who have made these paleo apple muffins before!
Paleo Apple Muffins (grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 8 muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups (125 grams) blanched almond flour
- 2 1/2 tablespoons (20 grams) coconut flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 large eggs (50 grams each, out of shell), room temperature (2 eggs is correct!)
- 5 tablespoons (70 grams) refined coconut oil, melted (if you use unrefined coconut oil there may be some coconut taste to the muffins)
- 1/3 cup (106 grams) pure Canadian maple syrup
- 2-3 tablespoons coconut sugar, optional (see note)1
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (90 grams) coarsely grated Granny Smith apples
- 1 1/4 cups (155 grams) Granny Smith apple chunks (about 1/4")
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a muffin pan with 8 muffin liners.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (almond flour through nutmeg). Set this aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, oil, pure Canadian maple syrup, and vanilla.
- Add the dry mix to the wet and mix just until combined.
- Gently fold in the grated apples and then the chopped apples.
- Divide the batter evenly among the liners, filling them almost full, and bake for 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for 1 day or refrigerate for up to 4.
Notes
- I added the coconut sugar to the recipe in October 2018. Before that, no coconut sugar was listed and the reviewers loved them that way! Only add the coconut sugar if you like things to be on the sweeter side.
- The video shows 3 eggs because the beginning part of the video that shows mixing together the ingredients is taken from the video I did for my paleo apple cake (which uses this same apple muffin recipe, but 1.5x all the ingredients - which is why it shows 3 eggs instead of 2). Sorry for the confusion! I didn't realize it until it was too late.
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243 comments on “Paleo Apple Muffins (grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free)” — Add one!
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Made these for the hubby to have for breakfast. These are amazing! I have been making paleo muffins for him and most of them are just meh. I am so glad I found this recipe! Do you think you can use this recipe and switch out the apples for other things? Maybe carrots, coconut, zucchini, banana?
I’m happy you finally found a recipe that’s better than meh. ;) I totally agree with you. So many paleo muffins have such a funky texture! Here are my other two favorite paleo muffin recipes: paleo chocolate banana muffins and paleo carrot muffins. And the blueberry muffins I linked to at the beginning of the post! This apple muffin recipe is based off of the carrot muffin recipe so I know you can use carrots, but I haven’t had luck with any other subs I’ve tried. If you try something out, I’d love to hear how it goes! Thanks for your comment. :)
Usually baked goods that are grain, paleo,and dairy free = taste free, but soooo glad I decided to give these a try! They were moist and flavorful and best of all hubby and kids approved. They were gone in a day thanks so much for such a flavorful recipe 😀
I’m so sorry for just now seeing your comment, Melanie! I don’t know how I missed it. And haha. I agree with you on most paleo sweets recipes being taste-free. I try not to post paleo recipes unless they’re reaaally good. ;) Thanks a bunch for your nice comment and sorry again for my slowness!
I started a new program 6 weeks ago called 8WW (8 Weeks to Wellness). The first two weeks is without any carbs or sugars. Once I passed the first few days without carbs, my taste buds changed as well. The “no taste” feeling you get when going without sugars and carbs goes away. I actually found once I reintroduced carbs that even popcorn was naturally sweet. If you are not used to going without sugars and carbs that could be why some of the recipes you have tried seem tasteless. Know I am not an expert and this is just my observation from my point of view ;)
Hi there! I did the intro stage of the GAPS diet for a while (which is a whole lot of broth, meat and some veggies) and was in ketosis for a few weeks. It was a long time before I added back fruit and was bummed that it still tasted the same. I was expecting it to taste extremely sweet! That’s awesome that even popcorn tastes naturally sweet to you now. When I said taste-free, it was my attempt at not being rude in saying that there are a whole lot of awful paleo recipes out there. ;) Even when I make something that’s not sweet, like bread, I find a lot of paleo recipes to have such an unpleasant texture and not much taste. Things don’t pop as much as I’d like! But maybe I’m just picky and have eaten too much processed junk. Definitely a possibility. :)
These were amazing!! Do you possibly have the nutrition facts? I was mostly wondering about carbs and calories.Thanks!
So happy you liked them! I don’t have that info but you can copy and paste the recipe here for the nutritional profile, if you’d like. :) Thanks for your comment!
I am very new to paleo and thought I’d have to give up baking (which I enjoy) and sweets. I am very appreciative of the effort you put into experimenting to find just the right ingredients. I was very, very impressed with the results! Iam picky, and I’d eat thses even if I weren’t trying to stick to paleo. THANK YOU!
Aww, yay! I’m so happy to hear that. And oh my – you most definitely don’t have to give up on baking! I have loads of paleo recipes that I think are just as delicious as these muffins. :) Thanks a ton for your feedback!
I made these yesterday and they were fabulous! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome! So happy you liked them. :) Thanks for your comment!
These were absolutely amazing! I added a little coconut sugar to give it a little kick bu!t without it it was fine! My dad couldn’t even tell that these were paleo! I used your recipe for the maple frosting to add on top of these and everything together was delightful. Thanks for the healthy but great recipes.
Hi Camille! I’m so sorry that I somehow missed your comment. I LOVE that you added the maple frosting on top! I’m totally going to try that and make a cake out of this. :) Thanks for the tip and for your feedback!
I tripled this recipe and subbed sunflower seed “flour” that I ground in the Vitamix dry blade container and cassava flour for the coconut flour. I used some kind of Gala-type apple that I’m guessing has more moisture than Granny Smith, so they were pretty moist, not cakey at all. So, so good!! The family really loves them. This is the second of your recipes we’ve made and liked. We’re going to try more. Thanks so much!!
What an interesting sub! Thanks so much for sharing. :) I’ve been meaning to try sunflower seed flour. Did you do a 1:1 sub with the cassava? I’m so happy that your subs worked out and that you all enjoyed the muffins! And that’s great that you’re going to try some more of my recipes. Thanks a bunch for your feedback!
AMAZING! I’m new to the paleo scene but who knew just by altering a few ingredients these would be so good!
Excellent! I’m so happy that you liked them. :) I have lots more paleo dessert recipes here if you’re interested. Thanks for your comment!
So nice to see a recipe use maple syrup to sweeten! I’m also Canadian, so even better! :) Please would you have an alternative to the almond flour as my son has a nut allergies?
I love using maple as a sweetener! :) Unfortunately, nuts flours aren’t interchangeable with non-nut flours. I’ve heard of people using sunflower seed flour as a sub but I’ve never tried it and have no idea if it’d work here. Sorry about that! If you give it a go, I’d love to hear how it works. If you don’t need a GF version, I have some delicious whole wheat apple muffins. You could use maple instead of honey in those!
Hi Erin, these look wonderful. Do you think using Chia eggs can work in place of regular eggs? If so, so you use ground Chia or whole seeds? Thank you!!
Hi Debi! Thanks. :) I haven’t tried chia eggs in this recipe but I think it’d probably work. I always use ground chia seeds to make the eggs. I’d love to hear how they come out if you try it!
Thanks Erin! I’ll let you know how they turn out :-)
I replaced the eggs with a flax egg and they were really good!
That’s great to know that they came out well with flax eggs! Thanks for your comment. :)
These were delicious – Can they be frozen and if so, how long!
I’m happy you enjoyed them! I haven’t frozen them but I’m pretty sure they’d freeze well for a few months. Thanks for your comment!
Last night, I was looking for a yummy, wholesome grab and go breakfast that I could make by the batch for the week. I came across your muffins and made them right away. Can I just say, these are AMAZING! I am pretty sure from this moment on, I am addicted. This is the first of your recipes I have tried, but because of this yumminess, I will be coming back…A LOT.
Thanks!
Yay! I’m so happy that you enjoyed the muffins and that you’re going to try some other recipes, too. :) I hope you’ll enjoy them just as much. Thanks a bunch for your comment!
My daughter would LOVE these but, she can’t have maple syrup. Any suggestions?
Honey would work well. :) Hope she’ll enjoy them!
These look amazing! Can you use agave syrup instead of maple syrup you think?
Thanks! And I haven’t tried it but I think that’d work. :)
How did you go about grating the apples? Who ch kitchen gadget/trick did you use?
Check out the second paragraph after the first picture. :)
Looks good, I’m always looking for a good apple cake recipe
Thanks! I hope you’ll enjoy them if you get the chance to try them out. :)
Do you know the nutritional value of these muffins? Can you tell me?
I don’t have that info but you can copy and paste the recipe here for the nutritional profile, if you’d like. :)
Any suitable paleo subs for almond flour? I can never seem to get any feedback when i find the perfect paleo recipes but they call for almonds! My bf is allergic. Chickpea flour, oat flour, coconut flour are all things i keep around, any suggestions?
Unfortunately, nuts flours aren’t interchangeable with non-nut flours. :( I’ve heard of people using sunflower seed flour but I’ve never tried it and have no idea if it’d work here. Sorry about that! I wish there were a better alternative. But wait – you just mentioned almonds. So you could try cashew meal or hazelnut meal!
I’ve found that Otto’s cassava flour can be used in place of almond flour in some recipes. I like it in some recipes and not in others because of the distinct flavor.
I’ve had my eye on making these for a week (ok, so not that long, but it felt like longer because they look so good)! We went apple picking yesterday and I came home and immediately made these muffins. They were amazing! I used ghee instead of coconut oil because I only had unrefined and wasn’t feeling the coconutty vibes :p I’ve made so many of your recipes and I can honestly say that every one of them has been amazing. I have to follow a specific diet and I love that I can make so many of the recipes on your blog – and they always taste GOOD, not like ‘alternative’ versions of the real thing! I’ve served them to others who can eat anything and they always eat them up too. I lived in Germany for a year and was so grateful for your recipes because as I know you live in Germany too, they called for flours and ingredients that I could actually find over there (no recipes with 5-7 different unique gf flours that I only use now that I can get them whenever I need ;). Anyway, the purpose of my long winded comment – thank you for sharing all your amazing recipes!!
Thanks a bunch for your comment! It totally made my day. :) I’m so happy that you liked the muffins and the other recipes! I’m also impressed that you made them immediately after coming home from apple picking – I normally nap. ;) I’m super jealous of you being back in the US with access to whatever flours you want (but at least I discovered Vitacost last year, so I can’t complain too much!). Thanks again for your really nice comment! :)
These sound like such a wonderful treat! I love apple muffins!
Thanks, Miranda! :)