These apple oatmeal muffins are so quick and easy to prepare. They're enriched with nutty brown butter, fall spices and dotted with chunks of apple to make the best autumn snack or breakfast. And they only take 20 minutes to prepare!
There's one thing well associated with fall and that's baking. And these beautiful apple oatmeal muffins are an ideal fall baking project! They're perfectly light and fluffy with complementing nutty flavours from the brown butter.
We LOVE brown butter. Come on, who doesn’t? We’ve got some other recipes you may want to check out that use brown butter too. Check out this pumpkin gingerbread or this plum and blackberry crisp; they're both perfect at this time of year too. Or, if you're after alternative snacks, why not try our chocolate sweet potato muffins or cherry sourdough muffins.
These apple oatmeal muffins are so reminiscent of apple pie! Warming spices and crisp apples are the perfect combo, right? Now just imagine apple pie flavours drifting from the oven and then topping these divinely scented muffins with a brown butter caramel drizzle. UNREAL.
We know you'll love this apple oatmeal muffins recipe, be sure to let us know in the comments and don’t forget to leave a rating on the recipe too! Follow these links to get exactly where you need to.
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⭐ Why you'll love this recipe
These are the reasons you need this apple oatmeal muffins recipe in your life right now:
Easy - these cinnamon oatmeal muffins are super easy to make, they're a one bowl wonder. Preparation only takes about 20 minutes.
Cozy spices - what better than to bake with cozy spices during the fall and winter season? You'll love how they smell as they bake!
Moreish - these muffins are light and totally moreish, they're also perfectly balanced and not too sweet, making you want to grab another.
Caramel - technically not a caramel but it looks like it and is very quick to whip together. You have to drizzle this over the top of the muffins for sure!
Apple pie - these muffins taste as close to apple pie as you can get without eating apple pie. Totally delicious.
📋 Ingredients
These apple oatmeal muffins only need simple ingredients which are easily available in most grocery stores, you’ll need the following:
Oats - we love to use jumbo old fashioned rolled oats for these oatmeal muffins as they give the best texture to the muffin.
Sweetener - the muffins get a bit of sweetness from soft brown sugar which also adds a caramel flavour. You can use coconut sugar as a substitute if you like.
Spices - you’ll need your apple pie inspired ground spices: cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and cardamom.
Applesauce - we use smooth applesauce. In the UK this is available in the condiment aisle at most supermarkets but make sure it's smooth. Use unsweetened applesauce if you prefer.
Apple - to make these apple oat muffins we use a nice crisp, sweet but tangy apple, such as a Pink Lady, or you can use a Honeycrisp or similar. Anything will do, just steer clear of any floury apples if you can.
📖 Customizations
We know you love mixing it up and customizing your bakes, so here are some suggestions for these apple cinnamon oatmeal muffins.
Change the fruit - Pears are lovely at this time of year too and you can switch out directly for the apple. We would highly recommend using a crisp pear though, not one that will disintegrate when cooking as it might knock off the moisture content of the muffin.
Make it gluten free - you can make these apple oatmeal muffins gluten free if you like by directly substituting out the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour. Just ensure your oats and baking powder are also certified gluten free friendly.
Glaze - make a simple powdered sugar glaze with cinnamon and apple juice to drizzle over the top instead of making the quick caramel.
🔪 How to make apple oatmeal muffins
These apple oatmeal muffins take no time to throw together. Once you’ve got all your ingredients ready, this step by step guide will help you have a successful fall baking session.
- Brown your butter by constantly whisking the butter in a pan over medium heat until it foams and turns brown, then set aside to let cool slightly.
- Whisk together the flour, oats, soft brown sugar, baking powder, spices and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Whisk together the eggs, milk, applesauce, slightly cooled brown butter and vanilla extract until combined.
- Add your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
- Stir to combine it all together, don’t overwork it though, some streaks of flour are just fine.
- Gently fold the cubed apple throughout the muffin batter.
- Divide the batter evenly between 12 muffin cases and top with extra oats and apple slices if using.
- Bake the muffins at 180oC/350oF for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
How to make brown butter caramel
This topping is optional but certainly makes these apple oatmeal muffins irresistible!
- Get all your caramel ingredients ready as this is a very quick caramel to make.
- First brown the butter like above over a medium heat, until foamy and brown. Don’t let it cool.
- Quickly add and whisk the brown sugar through the browned butter.
- Immediately pour in the cream and whisk together. Keep whisking, it will bubble up and thicken, take it off the heat when thickened and stir through the vanilla extract.
👩🍳 Expert tips
Follow these tips and tricks to ensure success every time with these apple oatmeal muffins.
Brown butter - keep an eye on the brown butter as it can catch and burn quite quickly. Once browned, pour into a separate bowl to stop the browning process.
Mixing - Over mixing the muffin batter will lead to a tough muffin crumb as the gluten starts to build. We want light muffins!
Caramel - the caramel is extremely quick to make, so have everything measured out ready to throw in the pan.
Muffin cases - if you want an even easier time removing the muffin from the case spray with some non stick spray before filling the cases and baking.
💭 Recipe FAQs
We would recommend storing these muffins in an airtight container for up to 3 days. If you have drizzled over the caramel we’d recommend transferring them into the fridge, but ideally we would recommend storing them without the caramel drizzle.
We have not tried freezing these, but imagine they would be fine for up to 3 months stored well wrapped in an airtight container. Just make sure to freeze without the caramel on top and then defrost before eating.
🧁 Related recipes
Love these apple oatmeal muffins recipe? Then you definitely want to check out more of our baking recipes. Here are some suggestions to get you started:
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📖 Recipe
Apple Oatmeal Muffins with Brown Butter Caramel
Ingredients
For the muffins
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¾ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup soft brown sugar, packed
- 2 medium eggs
- ¾ cup milk
- ½ cup applesauce
- ½ cup butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 medium apple, peeled and diced into ½ cm/¼ inch pieces (1 cup)
Toppings (optional)
- 2 tablespoons old fashioned rolled oats
- sliced apple
Brown Butter Caramel
- ¼ cup salted butter
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons double cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the muffins
- Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
- To brown the butter; heat the butter in a saucepan or small frying pan over medium heat and whisk continuously until the butter begins to foam and darkens and smells nutty. Be very careful not to burn it! It changes very quickly - so it is worth only focusing on this one thing whilst doing it. Set aside and allow cool for a few minutes in a bowl.½ cup butter
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the plain flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, baking powder spices and sea salt.1 ¾ cups all purpose flour, 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon, ¾ teaspoon ground ginger, ¾ teaspoon ground allspice, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom, ½ cup soft brown sugar, ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and apple sauce until smooth and well combined. Mix in the brown butter from step 2 and vanilla extract.2 medium eggs, ¾ cup milk, ½ cup applesauce, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until just combined - some streaks of flour are good. Add the chopped apple to the bowl - and gently stir in. Do not overwork.1 medium apple
- Divide the mixture between the liners in the muffin tin. Top the batter with the apple and old fashioned oats if using.2 tablespoons old fashioned rolled oats, sliced apple
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden and a cake tester comes out almost clean. Leave to cool in muffin tin for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle the muffins with brown butter caramel and enjoy!
Brown butter caramel
- Brown the butter for the caramel; heat the butter in a small frying pan over medium heat and whisk continuously until the butter begins to foam and darkens and smells nutty. Be very careful not to burn it! It changes very quickly - so it is worth only focusing on this one thing whilst doing it.¼ cup salted butter
- Pour in the brown sugar and stir together, quickly. Immediately pour in the cream - it’ll bubble and come together and thicken. Add vanilla and pour into bowl to save for later.4 tablespoons brown sugar, 3 tablespoons double cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Notes
- We will always recommend using digital scales for baking as you will get more consistent results due to better accuracy.
- Keep an eye on the brown butter as you make it to ensure it doesn't burn.
- Have all of the caramel ingredients measured out ready to cook as it comes together quickly.
Martin Cray says
Love apple - these look really good with caramel sauce. Definitely one to add to the cooking list!
Emily says
Great recipe I tried these at the weekend as I had some apples lying around. The recipe was definitely easy to put together! Loved the caramel on top. 🙂 Will make again
G says
Wonderful creation - thank you