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Delicious and Healthy Apple Muffins filled with oats, bran, and cinnamon. These muffins are not only simple, but are great for breakfast and after-school snacks.
Muffins make for a great breakfast or snack, and we especially love muffins with a hint of fruit! Some of our favorites include Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins and Banana Crumb Muffins.
Apple bran Muffins
Jenn here from Clean and Scentsible, and I’m so excited to be here today on Kristyn’s amazing blog sharing one of our favorite breakfast recipes for Healthy Apple Muffins.
We’ve always loved muffins (like Banana Muffins and Blueberry Muffins), and today’s recipe is one the family loves because they’re filled with apple, oats and bran.
We always have apples on hand, which means we are always up for making these muffins. They are more on the healthy side and don’t have much sugar, but also include honey and apple pie spice which adds the perfect amount of sweetness. The kids like to eat them plain or topped off with butter or honey. They aren’t only great for breakfast, but for an after-school snack as well.
How to Make Healthy Apple Muffins
Making these muffins takes a bit of time, but they are also very simple. Begin by preheating the oven and adding liners to your muffin tin.
BATTER. Mix the eggs, oil, milk, honey, yogurt, and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl until well blended. Add 1 cup of the rolled oats and the crushed bran. Let soak for 10 minutes.
In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, apple pie spice (or cinnamon), and salt. Add the wet ingredients in and mix until blended {the batter will be quite thick}. Stir in the grated apple.
BAKE. Scoop the batter into the muffin tin and fill up almost to the top (they don’t rise too much). Mix brown sugar and the remaining oats together and sprinkle on top. Bake for 18-22 minutes {until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean}.
We like to serve these warm with butter, jam or honey.
recipe TIPS AND STORING info
Which apples are best for muffins? Really, this is more a preference thing, but there are some apples that are better for baking. We always use Granny Smith for this muffin recipe, but other favorites include:
- Fuji Apples
- Golden Delicious Apples
- Pinata Apples
To store the muffins, we like to place them (completely cooled) in a Ziploc bag or air-tight container and keep them in the fridge for up to a week. We like them best when they are warm, so to reheat, we typically pop them in the microwave for just about 20 seconds. These are great for busy breakfasts or running out the door on the way to soccer practice.
To FREEZE, place the muffins in a freezer-safe Ziploc bag or air-tight container and place in the freezer for up to 2 months. We typically let them thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat them before serving.
These apple oat muffins are the perfect snack. Enjoy them warm, and with a little honey and you’ll agree. 🙂
For more healthy breakfast recipes, check out:
Healthy Apple Muffin Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 2/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt or vanilla yogurt
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup rolled oats + 3 tbsp for topping (quick or old fashioned)
- 1 1/4 cup crushed bran cereal
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large Granny Smith apple peeled and coarsely grated
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F and line your muffin tin with paper liners.
- Mix the eggs, oil, milk, honey, yogurt, and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl until well blended. Add 1 cup of the rolled oats and the crushed bran. Let soak for 10 minutes.
- In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add the wet ingredients in and mix until blended {the batter will be quite thick}. Stir in the grated apple.
- Scoop the batter into the muffin tin and fill up almost to the top {they rise very little}.
- Mix brown sugar and the remaining oats together and sprinkle on top.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes {until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean}. Makes 16.
- Serve warm with butter or jam. We just refrigerate these and warm them up in the microwave for 10-20 seconds in the morning.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can you use bob’s red mill wheat bran instead of the crushed bran cereal! Would you use the same amount since this is already crushed?
Family approved, they came out so beautiful and delicious. It seems like a lot but those rose just a little bit. They came out picture perfect.
Oh so glad to hear that!! Thanks for giving the recipe a try!
Why can’t I “pin” this recipe?
Hmmm, you should be able to… If you have the pinterest extension in your browser, it should show up to pin when you hover over the image. Otherwise, you can just click on “Jump to Recipe” at the top of the page and it will take you to the recipe card. There is an image of a pin that you can click and that should let you pin to pinterest too. Hopefully that helps!
Great recipe! By far one of the best muffins I’ve had. Consistency is excellent. Substituted maple syrup for the honey because I didn’t have any on hand. Absolutely delicious!!
Thank you! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the muffins!
Any chance you can use crushed Cheerios and GF flour for a GF muffin? If so any adjustments or is 1:1 ok?
I’m not a baker but this was an easy recipe to follow. I will admit that I was nervous when adding the honey (thought it would be too sweet) but it turned out AMAZING! I made them with the intention of having them as a quick grab-and-go breakfast option but couldn’t help myself from snacking on them throughout the day.
Loved it! Thank you so much! These have changed my mornings.
You’re welcome! So glad you enjoy the muffins!
These muffins are my new favorite breakfast treat!! So yummy!
Hi Krystin: I like this recipe especially that you are using yogurt the plain or vanilla the re my favorite ones. I shall be doing 2morrow as I have a bag full of apples I m always looking for new recipes.
Wonderful!! Sure hope you enjoy this muffin recipe too!
My kids loved these muffins! I can’t wait to make it again!
I love that this is something I can make and eat throughout the week as a breakfast item, thank you!
What a treat! I was looking for an apple muffin and this one is amazing!
These muffins are amazing! I love these apple muffins and the flavor it has! thank you for sharing this recipe
These muffins are super moist and delicious. They make a great breakfast, especially on busy mornings.
GREAT RECIPE! LOVE IT!
Not sure about the “healthy” part though as it contains sugars, flour, and lactose, which is a no go for many people nowadays. It’s also got 44% of the daily saturated fats. I suggest advertising this as very tasty, but not necessarily as very healthy. The ingredients are easy to replace though to make a version that’s avoids gluten, sugar, lactose, and cholesterol issues.
Love these apple bran muffins. Making them agsin, cause my husband lives them as well
These are so good! I wasn’t sure how my kids would feel about them but they ended up devouring the whole batch in a couple days. I’ve made them a few times now!
I’m going to try these…can I use oat bran instead of crushed bran cereal?
I personally haven’t tried, but I am sure you could. It might turn out a little different though in texture.
Love this RECIPE can thiS be done with bananas?
Sure could 🙂 Enjoy!!
These are delicious! They’re moist and just the right amount of sweet. I doubled the batch so I could freeze half for later, and I’M so glad I did! Only change I made was I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil
Thank you for sharing what you did! Great idea about freezing half!
Definitely a good snack to have on hand. I like to keep them frozen to throw in my kids lunch boxes.
A great way to start the year with these healthy tasting muffins. Very satisfying!
Delicious- All my favorites in one muffin! Great recipe, very easy to follow!
Quick question what can you use inpalce of the Bran cereal?
I would say oats (which are already in the recipe) or cream of wheat, using whole wheat flour…I’ve never left it out & I’m not sure if you are because of allergies, but google has lots of suggestions 😉
I used digestive bran instead of crushed bran cereal. Worked perfectly.
I also found that honey was very expensive so I swapped out half for brown sugar which is cheaper (although not exactly as healthy).
The oats and honey are so yummy and i love all the extra fiber in these!
WE love keeping our freezer stocked of muffins! These are so good!
Love apple & cinnamon together! These muffins are delicious! They are nice & filling!
Such a yummy and healthy alternative to all those sugary cereals for breakfast!
I love finding a healthy recipe that also tastes great!
We LOVE bran muffins at our house but this is the first time we tried them with apple too- delicious!