Our vegan apple muffins combine freshly harvested apples’ sweet and tart flavor with a satisfyingly soft and moist crumb.
The recipe is with simple everyday ingredients, it’s packed with apple pieces, and is excellent for a quick breakfast, brunch, or as a healthy snack.
Table of Contents
You’ll love these vegan apple muffins because they are packed with apple flavor, and you can make them with simple everyday ingredients and no effort.
Our muffin recipe doesn’t use specific vegan ingredients like flax eggs or vegan butter; you can make it with pantry staples.
We flavor the vegan muffins with grated and chopped apples.
The grated apple binds the muffin batter, making it flavorful and perfectly moist.
The apple pieces get soft and juicy, making these muffins wholesome, tasty, and nutritious.
Ingredients & Substitutions
Quantities are in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.
Apples
You’ll need three medium apples for 12 muffins. You can use whatever apples you have at home without worrying too much about the variety.
We recommend Pink Lady, Fuji, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, Rome Beauty, and Gala apples. They make lovely, sweet muffins.
If you like a tarter muffin, try Granny Smith apples, Winesap, or Cortland apples.
Other varieties that you can use are Braeburn, Melrose, and Jonagold.
In our family, we have a slight preference for sweet apples.
Flour
All-purpose flour makes lighter and fluffier muffins.
For more wholesome muffins, use 50% all-purpose flour and 50% whole wheat flour.
We have not tried gluten-free flour for this recipe, but a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend should work fine.
Oil
Avoid melted butter or coconut oil to make muffins; opt for neutral vegetable-based oil instead.
Butter is excellent for making cupcakes with a flat top, but vegetable oil is your best choice if you want a tall dome with a light and soft texture.
We use olive or avocado oil, but canola and sunflower oil also work well.
Substitute applesauce for oil.
Sugar
White or brown sugar is both okay. Optionally, you can add a pinch of salt to bring out the flavor from the other ingredients.
Milk
You can use any non-dairy milk. We prefer unsweetened soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk.
Baking powder and baking soda
Baking powder is essential to make the apple muffins light, airy, and with a tall top.
Make sure your baking powder hasn’t been open for too long. It’s always best to use unopened and recently bought baking powder.
Baking soda is optional. However, it makes the crumb more tender and gives the muffin a lovely brown color as they bake.
Cinnamon
You can add cinnamon to the batter or add it to the muffins mixed with sugar or with a streusel topping.
We prefer adding it on top because adding it to the batter gives the muffins a brown color that looks too healthy for most people.
Add vanilla extract or the grated zest of half an orange for even more flavor.
How to make vegan apple muffins
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line a 12-muffin pan (or two 6-muffin pans) with muffin liners.
Chop two apples into 1/3-inch dice. Grate one apple with the large holes of a box grater. Set aside while you make the batter; it’s okay if they get a little brown.
Add milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract to a large bowl and whisk well.
Sift in flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and whisk for a few seconds until combined. Don’t overmix the batter.
Add the grated and chopped apples and fold them with a spatula until fully coated and without overmixing.
With the help of a spoon or ice cream scoop, transfer the mixture to the muffin pan, ensuring the batter sinks fully into the muffin liners.
You can fill the muffin liners to the brim; the apple pieces can pile up on top.
Optionally, you can top them with cinnamon mixed in sugar.
Bake at 350°F or 180°C for 27 minutes, until the muffins are golden-brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.
Let the vegan apple cinnamon muffins cool down on a cooling rack for 15 minutes before removing them from the muffin tin.
Then, let them cool down and enjoy them as a breakfast, snack, or dessert.
More Vegan Apple Recipes
More Muffin Recipes
Storage
Make ahead: Vegan apple muffins are excellent to make ahead because they keep well for several days, and you can also freeze them.
Room temperature: You can store the muffins in a dark corner of your kitchen in an airtight container or plastic bag for up to 4 days. Warm them up in the microwave for 15-30 seconds if they get dry.
Freezer: Let the apple muffins cool down completely, transfer them into a freezer-friendly bag, and freeze for up to 3 months. Then, thaw them in the microwave.
Tips
Muffin liners: If you don’t have muffin or paper liners, use 5-inch squared pieces of parchment paper.
Don’t overmix the batter: Overmixing develops the gluten in the batter, making the muffins tough and compact, not fluffy and airy.
Thick batter: It’s going to look like there are a lot of apples, and that’s how it should be. Also, the batter should be thick, as the apples will release water as they bake.
Fresh baking powder: If you are not a regular baker, it’s possible that your baking powder is old and has lost its rising properties. We always recommend using new, unopened, or recently bought baking powder for the best results.
Questions
There is no need to mix the milk and the apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice) to make vegan buttermilk. It’s an extra step that doesn’t make a difference in this vegan muffin recipe.
We don’t add cinnamon to the batter because the cinnamon adds a brown color to the muffins that are not visually appealing.
This is especially important if you are serving the muffins to kids or non-vegan adults who might not be used to food with brown, earthy colors.
Vegan Apple Muffins
Equipment
- 12-muffin tin or two 6-muffin tins
- 12 muffin (paper) liners or twelve 5-inch squared pieces of parchment paper
Ingredients
- 3 medium apples 2 apples chopped and 1 apple grated
Wet Ingredients
- ¾ cup non-dairy milk any
- ¾ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil or other vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour or 50% all-purpose and 50% whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda optional
- 1 pinch salt
Optional Topping
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line a 12-muffin pan (or two 6-muffin pans) with muffin liners.Chop two apples into ⅓-inch dice. Grate one apple with the large holes of a box grater. Set aside while you make the batter; it's okay if they get a little brown.
- Add ¾ cup non-dairy milk, ¾ cup sugar, 3 tablespoons olive oil, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract to a large bowl and whisk well.Sift in 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and 1 pinch salt and whisk for a few seconds until combined. Don't overmix the batter.
- Fold in the grated and chopped apples.
- Spoon the batter to the muffin pan, ensuring the batter sinks fully into the muffin liners.Fill the muffin liners to the brim; the apple pieces can pile up on top.Optionally, you can top them with 1 teaspoon cinnamon mixed in 2 tablespoons sugar.
- Bake at 350°F or 180°C for 27 minutes, until the muffins are golden-brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.Let them cool down on a cooling rack before eating them.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
If you liked these apple muffins, you might also enjoy:
I have made these muffins several times and they always turn out very well. This is my new go to apple muffin recipe. Love that you provide metric measurements. Thank you for this great recipe.
Amazing, Fatima!
I’m so happy you enjoy these muffins.
Thank you for your kind feedback, and for taking time to comment here.
Kindest,
Louise
thank you for sharing recipe willl lookforward very much to trying. I am new to baking.
I’m so happy you feel like the muffins, Nessa 🙂 Let us know what you think 💪
/Louise
I’m always happy with the way your recipes turn out, and these were no exception. They rise beautifully and taste delicious. The only change I made was to add a teaspoon each of almond and vanilla essences. Thank you once again!
Hi Rachel, that’s wonderful, it sounds like a delicious idea with vanilla and almond extract in the muffins.
Thank you for taking time to leave a comment. Kindest, Louise
Muffins are in the oven and smell so good! My husband isn’t big on cinnamon so i used 1tsp but decided to add half tsp of apple pie spice. Cant wait to taste, and bring them on our 12 hour road trip. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Ramah,
That’s a great idea for a road trip-snack. I’m curious about the apple pie spice, do let me know what you think, please 🙂
Enjoy your trip, and thank you for leaving a comment here.
Kindest,
Louise
Ciao Nico e Louise, i muffin alle mele sono buonissimi! I cant believe they are vegan! So easy to make!!! My husband is from Napoli and I am Mexican American from Texas and I love cooking Italian dishes. And now with all the vegan recipes that you share, sweet and savory I will be cooking and baking a lot!!!! My husband is on a strict no cholesterol diet so you have made it so simple for me to make him happy!!! Grazie mille per aver condiviso le tue meravigliose recette!!!!
Ciaoooo Elsa, grazie a te.
We are so delighted that we can cater to you and your husbands’ needs, that is simply fantastic!
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a message, we are grateful to have you here.
Warmest regards,
Louise
When I found this recipe, I only had tin apples. So guessed what quantity 2 apples looked like, and chopped them into small pieces.
I also added chopped walnuts.
Shame there is no option to add photos. They look and taste
so ooooo good. Thank you for sharing, they are now added to my favourites. ❤️❤️ PS, I did drain the can of apples of any extra juice.
Hey Denise,
Super happy to hear you liked this recipe – and great idea to add walnuts to the batter!
Thanks so much for your tips and tricks, and for leaving a comment here. We’re working on adding the photo option for our readers, it would be so useful for others, I think 🙂
Have a wonderful rest of your day. Kindest, Louise