Apple Crumble Muffins

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These apple crumble muffins are incredibly soft and moist. This Fall treat is so delicious and easy to make with simple ingredients.

Apple muffins with crumble topping, apple in the background, cinnamon sticks in front of the muffins.

You’ll love these delicious and easy to make muffins. These apple cinnamon muffins with crumb topping are moist and light.

The crumble to muffin ratio is so right that even the crumbles don’t prevent these muffins from being light. They are loaded with apple cubes, you can feel the apples in each bite.

Half of the apple crumble muffin is placed in front of the whole apple muffin.

These muffins look so cute with a nice crunchy dome. They are a delicious treat for breakfast, snack or dessert.

This recipe is as delicious as my easy apple crumble recipe but these muffins take less than 40 minutes from start to finish(less than apple crumble’s baking time). So if you are looking for a very quick sweet apple dessert, you can make these muffins.

The ingredients you’ll need

Ingredients for apple crumble muffins on a white surface.

All-purpose flour-provides structure
Cinnamon and nutmeg-perfect spices for Fall, great with apples
Baking powder-works as a leavener
Apples-I use 270 grams peeled and chopped (3 small but not extra small) Gala apples, in each bite, you can feel the apples.
Lemon juice-I use just a little for flavor(lemon juice also prevents apples from turning brown).
Eggs-gives structure as well
Melted butter and milk-provides moisture
Sugar-I use white granulated sugar

Apple muffins in a muffin pan with crumble topping.

How to make crumbles

There are two ways; you can either cut the cold butter into flour or you can use melted butter.

When I cut the cold butter into flour, it usually gives me tiny crumbles that I use in my apple crumble. Please note that from tiny crumbles you can make big crumbles by squeezing the crumble mixture in your hand. This is how I make big crumbles in my Apple Pie Bars and Strawberry Crumble Bars.

Lately, when I want to make big crumbles, I use melted butter.

The steps are easy;

First mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon in a small-medium bowl. Then add the melted butter and gently mix with a spoon/fork until the mixture is crumbly.

A two-photo collage showing the process of making crumbles.

If you mix too much, it will form a whole dough but that’s fine. You can either take small or big pieces from the dough with your hands to create the crumbles or use a fork to separate the dough into pieces.

You can separate as much as you want, depending on how big, small crumbles you want. If you want to get some tinier pieces, you can gently rub the separated dough between your fingers.

Collage showing crumble dough that is separated with a fork to make big and small crumbles.

Once the crumble is ready, set aside the bowl until ready to use and continue with muffins.

How to make apple streusel muffins

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First, peel, core the apples.

Peeled and cored apple on a wooden chopping board with an apple corer and a peeler.

Then chop the apples no smaller than 0.25 inch (0,6cm) and no larger than 0.5 inch (1,25cm). Mix the chopped apples with lemon juice. Set aside.

Adding lemon juice over the chopped apples.

Next mix the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl and set aside.

Collage of mixing flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg with a whisk in a bowl.

Then, whisk the egg and sugar in a medium bowl for a minute until combined well.

Collage of whisking the egg and sugar until combined well in a glass bowl.

Add in the butter, milk and vanilla extract and mix well with a whisk.

Collage for mixing in the butter, milk and vanilla extract.

Finally, add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Then gently fold the apples into the batter. Don’t overmix the batter so you’ll have light muffins instead of dense ones.

Collage for adding wet ingredients into dry ingredients and folding the apples into the batter.

Fill 12 nonstick paper liners that are placed in a cupcake/muffin pan to the top with the batter. This makes just a little bit more than a large cookie scoop for each cup. Sprinkle the crumbles on top. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Don’t overbake so the muffins will be moist. Check your oven after 18 minutes as baking time may change from oven to oven.

Placing the apple muffin batter into the cupcake liners that is lined in a cupcake pan and cover the top with crumbles.

After removing the muffins from the oven, keep in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring on a wire rack to completely cool.

Half of an apple muffin with crumbles on top.

Enjoy!

Apple crumble muffins with nutmeg and cinnamon sticks on a wooden surface.

Frequently asked questions

How to store crumble muffins at room temperature

After the muffins are completely cooled, you can place the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days but instead of using the lid, you should loosely cover the top of the muffins with plastic film. So, the crumbles will get some air and keep their crunchiness.

If you like you can use your muffin tin for this purpose; you can keep the muffins with their liners in the pan and once they cool, you can loosely cover the top with plastic film.

How to store muffins in the fridge/freezer

After the muffins are completely cooled, you can place them in a ziplock bag or in an airtight container and keep in the fridge up to a week or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

You should thaw the muffins overnight in the fridge or on the counter for almost an hour before serving. You should warm them in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for almost 10 minutes.

Other muffins recipes you should try!

Other apple recipes you may enjoy!

Update Notes: This post is originally published on 09/27/2019 and today I update with extra photos.