These easy-to-make vegan Apple Muffins are moist, soft, and delicious! They are loaded with apple pieces and topped with a mouth-watering crumble and sugar-free icing! Not only are these vegan muffins gluten-free, but they are also much healthier than regular apple crumb muffins! Furthermore, they are freezer-friendly and also perfect for meal prep!
Healthy Vegan Apple Muffins
Are you looking for a quick and simple muffin recipe for breakfast?! Look no further because these vegan apple muffins are perfect for you if you love apples and cinnamon as much as I do. The crumble and the sugar-free icing make them even more delicious. You can, of course, also eat these apple pie muffins for dessert if you like! They taste best with a cup of tea or coffee, in my opinion!
Gluten-Free Apple Oatmeal Muffins
As mentioned before, the recipe is 100% plant-based, and also gluten-free. You can use regular oats or certified gluten-free oats if you have a gluten allergy. I haven’t made these muffins with any other flour, but I believe they would also turn out great with buckwheat flour, which would even make the recipe grain-free. Feel free to experiment, and please report back to let me know how the grain-free version turned out.
Buttery Crumble Without Butter!
Most regular crumble recipes contain butter, sugar, and all-purpose flour which isn’t very creative in my opinion, and also not healthy! But I have good news for you because you can make the streusel (crumble) for these vegan apple muffins without butter!
I used a combination of oat flour, tapioca flour, ground shredded unsweetened coconut, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and a little coconut oil. Simply mix everything together in a bowl with a fork, and ready is your vegan crumble without butter! It still tastes buttery and delicious, and it’s healthier than regular streusel.
Sugar-Free Muffin Glaze
I topped these apple streusel muffins with a sugar-free glaze, made from ground Erythritol and plant-based milk. Simply mix these two ingredients together in a small bowl and ready is your icing!
Is Erythritol a healthier alternative to regular sugar? I will copy and paste what I wrote about it in my Vegan Carrot Cake blog post:
Erythritol is a sugar substitute that looks and tastes almost as sweet as regular sugar, yet has basically zero calories. Erythritol naturally occurs in some fruits and fermented foods. It’s important however that you buy a brand which contains 100% pure Erythritol and which is furthermore GMO-free.
Erythritol is relatively safe to consume, but since it’s a sugar alcohol it may cause digestive issues in some people, especially if eaten in high amounts. I never experienced any digestive issues though and I use a GMO-free brand with a USDA Organic label.
If you don’t mind regular sugar you can use that instead of Erythritol, but in my opinion, sugar can cause more harm (blood sugar spike, tooth decay) than Erythritol.
Can I Freeze These Vegan Apple Muffins?
Absolutely! Place them in an airtight container or freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw them at room temperature (or overnight in the fridge). Reheat them in the oven for a couple of minutes as soon as you want to eat them. These healthy apple muffins are perfect for busy mornings or meal prep!
But you could also store leftovers (if there are any!) in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.
Helpful Recipe Notes
- Oat Flour: To make your own oat flour, simply process oats in a blender or electric coffee/spice grinder until the flour has a fine consistency.
- Sweetener: You can use organic sugar, brown sugar, Erythritol, Xylitol (birch sugar), coconut sugar, etc.
- Shredded Coconut: You can use ground nuts (e.g. finely ground almonds/almond flour) instead of shredded unsweetened coconut.
- Dairy-Free Milk: You can use any dairy-free milk in this recipe. The higher the fat content, the better the muffins will taste. I used canned coconut milk. If using boxed milk (e.g. almond milk, or oat milk) I would recommend adding 2 tbsp of oil to the batter.
- Aquafaba: It’s the liquid that is in each can of chickpeas. It acts as an egg replacement, but you could use applesauce instead.
More Tips:
- Double the batch and keep some muffins in the freezer.
- For a grain-free version, you can experiment with buckwheat flour.
- Or use regular flour or spelt flour instead of oat flour, if you aren’t gluten-free!
- Add even more cinnamon if you love apple cinnamon muffins.
- Want to make apple pie cupcakes? Simply add the apples into the muffin batter, stir with a spoon, and fill the muffin mold with the batter, but skip the topping. Bake the muffins in the oven, let cool, and top with your favorite vegan buttercream frosting!
Should you try out these vegan apple streusel muffins, please leave a comment and rating below, and don’t forget to tag me in your Instagram or Facebook post with @elavegan #elavegan because I would love to see how they turned out!
Other Vegan Muffin Recipes And Apple Recipes You Might Like:
- Vegan Chocolate Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Sweet Potato Muffins
- Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Vegan Blueberry Muffins
- Apple Cinnamon Crepes
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Vegan Apple Pie With Streusel
- Caramel Apple Cheesecake
- Easy Apple Strudel
Vegan Apple Muffins
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups (150 g) oats ground into flour (gluten-free if needed)
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sweetener of choice
- 2/3 cup (56 g) shredded unsweetened coconut ground into flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 Pinch of salt
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Wet Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) plant-based milk
- 3 tbsp aquafaba (chickpea brine)
- 1/2 tbsp vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups (180 g) apples chopped into small pieces
Crumble/Streusel:
- 1/3 cup (30 g) shredded unsweetened coconut ground into flour
- 1/3 cup (30 g) oat flour (gluten-free if needed)
- 3 tbsp (23 g) tapioca flour
- 1 tbsp (14 g) coconut oil melted or vegan butter
- 3/4 tbsp (15 g) maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Icing/Glaze:
- 1/2 cup (60 g) Erythritol (powdered) or powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp plant-based milk
Instructions
- You can watch the video in the post for visual instructions.I recommend using a kitchen scale for this recipe.
- Process oats and shredded unsweetened coconut (separately) in a coffee/spice grinder or in a blender.
- For the crumble/streusel topping: Simply mix all crumble/streusel ingredients in a small bowl with a fork. Set aside.
- Next, peel and chop 1-2 apples (for this recipe you will need 1 1/2 cups of small apple pieces).
- Now make "vegan buttermilk" by mixing the plant-based milk with vinegar and aquafaba (chickpea brine). If you don't have a can of chickpeas at home, you can use applesauce instead. Set aside.
- Line a muffin tin with liners or grease the inside of each cup with coconut oil (or use a silicone muffin mold as I did) and preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
- In a bowl or food processor mix/process the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and whisk/stir/process until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the muffin mold (only 2/3 full). Then add about 1 tbsp of small apple pieces on top. Carefully press the apples into the batter and top with the streusel.
- Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out almost clean (can still be crumbly but not wet!).
- Let the muffins cool completely.
- Meanwhile, you can make the icing by simply mixing the two ingredients in a small bowl until you have a runny glaze.
- Drizzle the icing on top of each muffin and enjoy your delicious apple streusel muffins!
Notes
- Oat flour: To make your own oat flour, simply process oats (regular or gluten-free) in a blender or electric coffee/spice grinder.
- You can try using buckwheat flour for a grain-free version. Also, regular flour or spelt flour (for a non-gluten-free version) should work in this recipe (I haven't tried it myself, though).
- Granulated sweetener: You can use brown sugar, Erythritol, Xylitol (birch sugar), coconut sugar, etc.
- Coconut: You can use ground nuts (e.g. finely ground almonds/almond flour) instead of shredded unsweetened coconut.
- Milk: I used canned coconut milk. You can use any other dairy-free milk in this recipe. The higher the fat content, the better the muffins will taste.
- Aquafaba is the liquid that is in each can of chickpeas. It's an egg replacer, but you could use the same amount of applesauce instead.
- Don't forget to check out my other muffin recipes, like these Sweet Potato Muffins and these Vegan Chocolate Muffins.
- The recipe makes 8-9 muffins. Nutrition facts are for one muffin made with coconut sugar and Erythritol (for the icing).
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
Simple and Delicious Vegan Cookbook by ElaVeganCLICK HERE to order!If you are using Pinterest, feel free to pin the following photo:
Just made these. The instructions and video lead one to think it makes 6 muffins. I had left over ingredients and after rereading the instructions I noticed that on the recipe information it says it serves 8. That would explain the left over batter,, apples, and streusel. Perhaps it should state in the paragraph to place 8 liners in muffin tins.
I did weigh the ingredients as you suggested.
I assume I could bake this in a loaf pan too?
That should be fine, but it will need longer in the oven. 🙂
so tasty looking, want to do them immediately can I make them without the icing to reduce the sugar intake?thank you so much for all the great recipes
Of course. I haven’t used sugar, though.
Hi
I would love to make these for my granddaughter however she cannot have oats and hates coconut!
I made your blueberry muffin recipe yesterday and substituted almond four for the oat flour and they turned out amazing and were a big hit.
Would it be possible to alter this recipe to make it work for her?
Thank you!
Hi Brigitte, I don’t think these would work with just almond flour, but you could try using buckwheat flour or sorghum flour, or quinoa flour instead of oat flour. And use almond flour instead of shredded coconut. Please report back if you give it a try. 🙂
Thank you! I’m wondering if I could use a gluten free flour mix of rice flour, potato starch, pea hull fibre, tapioca starch and xanthum gum? Robin Hood Brand…
It will most likely work! 🙂
Thank you! I’ll let you know😊