Healthy Apple Muffins – Gluten Free

This healthy apple muffin recipe is so easy to make and is made with almond flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and apples that are moist and packed with flavor. They make the perfect healthy breakfast or snack that you are going to love! Plus, they are gluten-free!

You are going to absolutely love these healthy apple muffins! Any recipe that uses apples is usually so delicious since they are naturally sweet and add a wonderful flavor to so many recipes. Some of my favorites are apple crisp, apple pancakes, and of course, baked apples.

These apple muffins are one of my top apple recipes that I make all year round! They are just so simple and quick to make. Plus nobody will even be able to tell that they are gluten-free because they come out so fluffy and moist. It’s AMAZING!

Why you’ll love this apple muffins recipe

• Healthy: these muffins are low in sugar, and are full of protein and fiber.
• Easy to make: they bake up pretty quickly in about 25 minutes.
• Simple ingredients: you only need a few healthy ingredients that you probably already have.
• Versatile: they make the best quick breakfast, snack, or sweet treat that even kids will love!
• Gluten-free: this muffin recipe, as written, is already gluten-free!

What makes these apple muffins healthy?

These muffins are made a little healthier by swapping whole wheat or white flour with almond flour to help keep them fully gluten-free. We also replaced white sugar with brown sugar and used much less butter and no oil in this muffin recipe. Shredding the apples helps to keep the muffins nice and moist while they bake without having to add any extra fat to the recipe.

Adding oats adds more fiber and nutrition to them as well!

Ingredients you will need

• Almond flour – fine-blanched almond flour.
• Oats – preferably rolled oats that are gluten-free. Steel-cut oats will not work in this recipe.
• Brown sugar – I like to use light brown sugar but dark brown sugar will also work. You could also use coconut sugar if you prefer.
• Baking powder
• Ground cinnamon – to give the muffins that warm apple cinnamon flavor.
• Salt – to help enhance all of the flavors.
• Applesauce – unsweetened or sweetened if you prefer your muffins on the sweeter side.
• Eggs – 2 large eggs.
• Vanilla extract – pure vanilla extract works best.
• Butter – I used unsalted butter.
• Apples – like gala or pink lady for that nice hint of sweetness.

How To Make Healthy Apple Muffins

1. Mix up the dry ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl.
2. In a separate mixing bowl combine the wet ingredients.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine into a smooth, yet slightly chunky batter.
4. Then fold in the shredded apple.
5. Divide the batter between 12 greased muffin cups. Top with oats and sugar if desired.
6. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-29 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Remove them from the oven and top them with more oats and raw sugar, let them cool and enjoy!

These healthy apple muffins are so delicious and literally our favorite fall muffin recipe right now. Also, a great way to use up all of those apples from apple picking. Plus the kids will go crazy for them and they won’t even notice that they are healthy! That’s the best part!

Substitutions for apple muffins

• Almond flour – you can also use other gluten-free flour like walnut flour, oat flour, or coconut flour if you do not have any almond flour on hand.
• Apples – any apples will work in this recipe but I found that the sweeter apples like pink lady, gala, orhoney crisp apples worked the best.
• Sugar – I chose to use brown sugar since I found that it really paired well with the other ingredients but coconut sugar will also work fine in this recipe.
• Butter – this muffin recipe works best with the use of butter but if you prefera to use melted coconut oil then that will also work.
• Applesauce – this is a pretty important ingredient in this recipe so I don’t recommend substituting it since it really brings out the apple flavor in these muffins.
• Eggs – if you need to keep this recipe egg-free then flax egg will likely work in place of the eggs, although I have not tested that variation yet.

What are the best apples to use for baking?

All types of apples work well in baked goods although they have different levels of taste, such as some are sweeter and some are more tart. Here are some different varieties of apples that work very well for baking.

• Sweet apples: Honey Crisp, Gala, Golden Delicious, and Fuji apples are great in muffins, pancakes, cookies, or apple bread.

• Tart apples: Cortland, Pink lady, Braeburn, McIntosh, and Empire apples work well in apple crisp and apple pie.

FAQs for apple muffins

Recipe Tips

• To reduce the sugar even more, you can swap the brown sugar with coconut sugar + 1 tablespoon of maple syrup.
• You can use 4 tablespoons of coconut oil melted and slightly cooled in place of the melted butter.
• It is important that you let these muffins cool after baking since they will continue to bake after you take them out of the oven. Place them onto a cooling rack while still in the muffin pan for 10-15 minutes after baking. Then dig in.

Other Healthy Muffin Recipes

• Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Muffins
• Healthy Zucchini Muffins
• Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

You may also love these apple chips for another quick and healthy snack that my kids just love!

Did you make these healthy apple muffins? If you did, then please leave a comment and rating below. I would love to hear from you! You can also tag me on Instagram @pinchmegoodfood or pin this for later on Pinterest.

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