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Want to eat oatmeal on the go for breakfast? Try these apple oatmeal muffins, made with rolled oats and maple syrup (no flour!).
Want oatmeal for breakfast but you’re running out the door? Make up a batch of these apple oatmeal muffins! Alex and I used to not be muffin people. You see: most muffins are just an excuse to eat cake for breakfast. Right? They’re chock full of lots of sugar and all purpose flour: which are not bad in themselves, but lead to a major crash hours later! If you’re anything like me, you want to save your sugars and flours for dessert instead. (Like this decadent chocolate cake.) Breakfast is all about hearty, wholesome choices: which is where these apple oatmeal muffins come in!
Want another apple muffin? Our apple muffins with streusel have a crunchy streusel topping that’s to die for.
What’s the secret? Oat flour + rolled oats.
So, what’s the secret to making apple oatmeal muffins healthy and breakfast friendly? Oats. Rolled oats! Instead of using all purpose flour, you’ll use a blend of rolled oats and oat flour. And while they’re not quite as fluffy as a standard muffin, the texture is beautifully moist and perfectly spiced! The cinnamon and allspice are the perfect combination with the sweet tart apple. And instead of sugar, we’ve used maple syrup: it’s a more gentle sweetener and makes them refined sugar fee.
How to make oat flour? These days, it’s pretty easy to find oat flour in the store. But Alex and I never buy it because we like to make it at home! It’s so simple if you have a food processor or high speed blender. Here’s how to make it:
- Place 1 cup oats in a high speed blender or food processor.
- Turn it on and blend for a few minutes until ground into a fine flour! 1 cup oats will make 1 cup oat flour. (Yep, it’s 1 for 1.)
- Here are lots of oat flour recipes if you want to make more!
Notes on how to make apple oatmeal muffins
There’s not a lot of technique involved in making these apple oatmeal muffins. If you’ve ever made a muffin or pancake or waffle, you’ll know the drill: mix the dries, mix the wets, combine. Then bake! Here are a few more notes about this apple oatmeal muffins recipe:
- Use organic apples if you can. Apples are one of the top produce items to buy organic. This is a great place to use them! (PS head to our apple recipes for more ways to use them.)
- For vegan, use a flax egg. This oatmeal muffins recipe is dairy-free. If you’d like to make it totally vegan and plant based, you can use a flax egg in place of the egg.
- For the oil, use any neutral oil. We like using oil in muffins because it’s easier than melting butter or coconut oil (yep, we’re lazy!). You can use grapeseed, sunflower, or vegetable here. You also can use melted coconut oil, and if you eat dairy you could use butter for a more savory flavor.
Nutrition benefits of oats
There are lots of great things about eating these apple oatmeal muffins! Since they are made mostly of oats, they bring all the benefits of eating a big bowl of oatmeal. According to the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, oats:
- Are high in fiber
- Can reduce the risk of heart disease
- Can be helpful for weight control
More oatmeal muffins
Alex and I are a little obsessed with oatmeal muffins! They’re perfect for healthy breakfasts and snacks, smothered with a little peanut butter or almond butter. Our son Larson loves them in his lunch box at school! And we love them for snacks. Here are a few more of our oatmeal muffin recipes:
- Healthy Banana Oatmeal Muffins A fan favorite, these oatmeal muffins are super moist and come together quickly in a blender!
- Applesauce Muffins The batter is whizzed in a blender and they come out fluffy and perfectly cozy spiced.
- Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins Similar to our banana muffins, these oatmeal muffins feature bananas and tart blueberries!
- Healthy Zucchini Muffins These zucchini muffins are another take on the oatmeal muffins: this time using shredded zucchini. Add chunks of apple as an optional filling.
This apple oatmeal muffins recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan, dairy-free, and plant-based, use a flax egg.
Apple Oatmeal Muffins
Want to eat oatmeal on the go for breakfast? Try these apple oatmeal muffins, made with rolled oats and maple syrup (no flour!).
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups oat flour OR rolled oats processed in a food processor into a flour consistency (see below)
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup milk (non dairy milk, for dairy-free), room temperature
- 1 egg, room temperature
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup neutral oil (sunflower, vegetable or grapeseed)
- 1 cup diced apple (1 medium apple)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Place muffin liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.
- To make the oat flour, place 1 ½ cups rolled oats in a food processor and process until it is very fine. (Note: Do NOT try this with steel cut oats, as they are a very different texture from rolled oats!)
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the oat flour, oats, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, baking powder, and kosher salt.
- In another bowl, mix together the milk, egg, maple syrup, and vanilla, then gradually whisk in the oil.
- Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until smooth. Allow to sit for 10 minutes while the oats rehydrate.
- Meanwhile, dice the apple. After 10 minutes, gently fold in the apples to the batter. Then use a ¼ cup measure to spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until puffed and golden.
Can these be made as mini muffins?
Yes, just bake until done — the timing will be a bit shorter.
Winner. Literally perfect. You guys are awesome. Excited to try more from you now!
This recipe never fails! I bake this often as is for
I just adapted it into a birthday cake for my daughter. Omitted the apples, and upped the vanilla to 1 TBS.
Poured all the batter into a buttered cake pan, and baked at 325 for 40 min.
Topping with homemade whipped cream and fresh berries.
It’s a little crumbly, but definitely passes as a toddler’s cake! Nice and moist. No refined sugar or gluten, and no sugar crashes for this party!!
I have made these muffins several times and they are a huge hit in my house if you make two adjustments: 1/4 cup oil instead of 1/2 cup and bake for 35 minutes. I find that with more oil and shorter bake they come out heavy and overly moist. But everything else is perfect! Thanks for the amazing recipes!
I made some of oat flour using oatcakes and followed the recipe for your apple muffins exactly. The only problem was that the muffins fell apart as you took them out of the patty cases. Tasty but seemed a bit ‘heavy’ in flavour. Where did I go wrong?
We would let the muffins cool longer in the pan next time! About how long did you cool them?
Hi, I came across your site when I googled oat flour. I am also based in the UK and would love metric measurements at some point in the future. Thanks!
I made these muffins this morning with buttermilk and they were absolutely delicious.
Thank You!
Sorry to say I did not like this recipe. Too much salt. Not sweet at all (and I usually find everything too sweet) and the muffin is horribly crumbly.
So sorry you didn’t enjoy it!
Just made these muffins and found them to be too salty. Also too moist. Perhaps I will try making again with 1/2 tsp kosher salt and less milk.