These soft and sweet flourless apple cinnamon muffins are made without flour, oil, or refined sugar. Loaded with apple, raisins, and cinnamon, they make the perfect fall treat!
Please don’t ask me what time I woke up yesterday, because then I would have to admit that I was wide awake at 3 AM (2:52 to be exact), and that’s just embarrassing. But it’s not my fault. I suffer from something called post-vacation insomnia, which is a condition where, upon returning home from a pleasant trip, the body protests and throws the whole system out of whack… usually resulting in an inability to sleep and the occasional digestive complaint. It’s like being jet lagged when you didn’t even leave your timezone. And no, that’s not an actual condition — just work with me here.
So yeah… 3 AM. I tossed and turned for a good hour before finally throwing in the towel and heading to the kitchen to make… muffins. What’s that? You were expecting something different? Something like coffee, breakfast, and blog reading? Me too. That’s how things usually go down, but not this time, apparently. This time, we made muffins…
And by “we” I mean I; and by “muffins” I mean Flourless Apple Cinnamon Muffins… with a cinnamon sugar streusel topping because, well, why not?
I think muffins may just be my favourite things to bake [and eat]. I used to be all about the cookies when I was younger, but the older I get, the more I appreciate a good muffin. And these? These are good muffins –in both the body and soul sense.
Because they’re made without flour, oil, or refined sugar, they’re a little denser and more brownie-like in consistency than your typical fluffy bakery-style muffin, but I have to admit that I may actually like this kind better. Why? First, because they have a melt-in-your-mouth doughiness… which might just be a fancy way of saying that they’re incredibly soft and moist (I know… sorry). Second, they’re ridiculously easy to whip up — we’re talking 5 minutes and 1 blender. Third… I just lost my train of thought… but you’re going to have to forgive me for that one seeing as I’m only running on about 4 hours of sleep here. The bottom line is that you need to add these muffins to your recipe lineup — they really do make a perfect fall treat.
I’d love to know if you make this recipe! Leave a comment and rating down below to let me know what you think, and subscribe to our mailing list to receive new recipes in your inbox!
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Flourless Apple Cinnamon Muffins
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 8–9 muffins 1x
Ingredients
For the muffins:
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 6 Tbsp. honey
- 1/4 cup creamy almond butter
- 1/2 cup oats
- 2 Tbsp. ground flax
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/3 cup raisins
For the streusel topping:
- 2 Tbsp. quick oats
- 1 tsp. coconut palm sugar (or brown sugar)
- 1 tsp. coconut oil
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F and prepare a muffin pan by spraying 9 cavities with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Prepare the streusel topping by combining all ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Add all muffin ingredients except for raisins to a high-speed blender in the order listed and blend on high until oats are broken down and batter is smooth and creamy. Stir in raisins by hand.
- Pour batter into prepared muffin pan, filling each cavity until it is about ¾ full. Sprinkle with a small spoonful of streusel topping.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until the tops of your muffins are set and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in pan for ~10 minutes before removing. Store in an air-tight container for up to a week.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
Looking for more flourless muffin recipes? Try one of these!
Flourless Pumpkin Pie Muffins
Flourless Banana Bread Muffins
Flourless Chocolate Chip Almond Butter Muffins
Banana Oat Greek Yogurt Muffins
Flourless Vegan Banana Muffins
I made these lovely looking muffins, but they fell in and looked nothing like yours, unfortunately. It may be due to my substitutions – I used almond flour plus oil for the almond butter and a bit of oat bran in place of flax since I didn’t have either of these. I was unsure about the latter as I’ve heard flax can be used as an egg-substitute (is it flax or something else, chia?). Anyways, I thought it would work but they look pretty sad and don’t want to come nicely out of the pan. Taste good though! 🙂
The substitutions are definitely the reason that the muffins didn’t work out, Julianne. The oats are what help make the muffins fluffy, and the almond butter is what gives them shape and bulk. Regular oil is too oily and would cause the muffins to fall apart.
These look amazing, I’m really looking foward to trying them! Can I skip the streusel topping though? ^-^ I’m sure the muffins would taste great without it but what do you think?
You can definitely skip the streusel if you want, Sam! The muffins are fine on their own.
Thank you for these wonderful recipes. I’m one of the coaches for 90/10 nutrition and we are ALWAYS looking for clean recipes to share with our followers. Thank you for providing that! This is a great recipe, and right in alignment with our program!
These muffins are so good! My husband and all 3 of my girls including my one year old love them!! would you happen to have the nutritional value on them?
Sorry Jamie, but I don’t calculate the nutritional value for my recipes. If you need to know it, you can enter the ingredients into a calculator like this one to figure it out — http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator
Do you know what the calorie count is per muffin? They are wonderful!!
Sorry, Carolina. I don’t calculate the nutritional info of my recipes, but you can plug the ingredients into a calculator like this one to figure it out — http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator
These were very good! My picky toddler gobbled them up, too. I didn’t have quick oats for the topping so I just pulsed a handful of rolled oats in my food processor for a few seconds to break them up. Worked great. Thanks again for the yummy recipe.
Can we use apples instead of applesauce? If so, how much do you think?
Unfortunately not, Chloe! The applesauce is needed to add moisture to the muffins, so apples wouldn’t work.
don’t have a blender… Would a food processor work? These sound amazing!!!
Hi Kaytlynn! A food processor should be fine. All you really need to be able to do is break the oats down so that they’re almost a flour consistency, and then mix everything together.
These look delish! Im dying to know what kind of muffin tin you use – my muffins never look this good!
Flourless muffins for the win! I am totally digging this train you’ve been on so feel free to keep at it (moistness and all). I have a few apple stragglers on my counter begging to be used up and now I know just where to put them!
Sound so good! Can’t help but to pin them. =)
Sometimes, you just have to go with it and wake up early; accept what happens! I had this happen when I couldn’t fall asleep before having to make it to a 6am shift (3 naps + coffee at 5 = not a good mix). But the day ended up not being so bad after I accepted it. Sometimes I wish it would happen on weekends now…just so I can maybe get all.the.things.done.
Oh wow! These look really great!!! I need to try some flour free muffins one of these days 🙂 Thanks so much for linking with us at #FoodieFridays! Hope to see you again next week!
These look great!! Thanks for linking up with SNF! Pinned to our party board!
These muffins look delicious and shockingly healthy!!! Found you through the Saturday Night Fever link up! I can’t wait to look at everything else you have!
How perfect!! I think I am having asthma issues from white flour and was looking for baking ideas without flour and came across your website on SITS girls!!! I am bookmarking your website and will be back. Thank you so much for posting these recipes. I have already peaked at the pumpkin and banana ones!! Yummy. I will give these a try, especially since I already have all the ingredients in my cupboard!!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, Cheryl! I hope you enjoy them 🙂
Yum these look delicious! Muffins might just be my favorite type of baking and I am all about raisins in my muffins. I have to try these!
I’ve found that flourless desserts almost always taste better than their gluten-filled counterparts. I go crazy over a piece of flourless chocolate cake. You’re right these do look brownie-like and “moist” haha but I think that makes them sit longer in your stomach
Amanda, these look great! I sat and looked at apple cider at Trader Joe’s yesterday thinking I wanted to make apple muffins… but didn’t buy it. Also, I totally agree – I used to be all about the cookie, but now I LOVE muffins. I just pinned these, I can’t wait to try!
muffins are my fav too!!! so fun and cute, hehe. plus i am totally digging this flourless cooking theme you got going on… um —> BRILLIANT for my tummy, so thank u
I like anything with a streusel topping. It elevates it to a whole ‘nother level, one which appeals to my taste buds and my tummy. Apples are actually a Fall flavor I can happily embrace, which might have something to do with the two bags currently resided on my counter. Yes, I am apple-fying all the things, which is a thing. Go with it.
Never apologize for making moist muffins. It’s a baked good, it’s supposed to be moist and the rest of the moist haters will just have to get over it.
Can I substitute the apples for koalas?
If you do, don’t tell PETA…
Must try very soon!!! Thanks for the recipe!!!
Omg!! These look amazing. Going to try them this weekend. Thanks for sharing.
These look incredible! Can you feed them to me, please?
You should probably go on vacation more often, because then when you come home and wake up early you can bake more treats. I love me some muffins! YUM!
Quick question! Why do you only make 9 muffins? Do you just use 9 cups of a 12-cup pan or is a 9-cup pan standard in Canada…? I’m curious because I’ve only seen 6 and 12 cup pans in stores! Great recipe.
6 and 12 are standard here too. I use a 12 count pan and just leave 3 of the cavities empty. And I only make 9 because that’s how much batter I get from the recipe 🙂
Sleepytime tea is my secret when I can’t sleep! Seriously I can’t keep my eyes open after I drink it.
Honey Vanilla Camomile is my fav flavor.
I am sooooo craving something doughy and flourless now! I want to make all your muffin recipes when I get back home.
When I can’t sleep, I just chill with my eyes closed for as long as it takes. My body can sometimes recharge a little if I just lay still and go into a more day-dreaming state. Pesky insomnia though. Hope you have a good night’s rest soon, girl!
I choose muffins! The perfect vehicle for nut butter 🙂
Where are the raisins in the recipe?
Oops! Totally forgot to write them in — thanks for bringing it to my attention!
These look like the definition of ‘homely’ and ‘fall’ to me! So delicious!
Will your flourless blender muffin creativity ever fade? I doubt it and am continously amazed by the great flavour ideas you come up with. And I’ll have to ignore the fact you even came up with these in a state of exhaustion/ lack of sleep/ post-vacay insomnia. Not my most inspired times …
I’m loving all of these flourless recipes you’re posting!!