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
Haha I’ve definitely done some early morning baking at times when I couldn’t sleep too. It’s perfect because then you have something freshly baked just in time for breakfast!
These look super delicious! And I just so happen to have leftover applesauce from a recipe I just made, so I can see these being made in the near future.
These look SO yummy, definitely normal to need to get up and make them in the middle of the night 😉
Since I get up at 4:30 to workout before school, I actually haven’t had trouble sleeping in a loooong time. I crash early and I crash hard! But I think in the past I’ve always just tried to wait it out and hope that sleep would come eventually.
Muffins and cookies are my top 2! These look soooooo good.
http://www.youtube.com/sparklesandsuch26
Yum those look amazing plus I love apples and streusel topping…double win!
I think I like the small muffin thing vs. cookies too and a good bread-like with no frosting like carrot cake or gingerbread (:
Ha, ha…I often bake a kabocha and/or steam veggies in the middle of the night but usually keep trying to go back to bed then get up do something else and go back and forth…yep that’s my life!
Whenever I cannot sleep, I usually reach for my Kindle in hopes to just mindless read into a deep sleep. Otherwise, I toss and turn for about 5 minutes then get up to make coffee (always) and read blogs. Leh sigh. If I’m feeling REALLY chipper, I’ll go right into a workout or something.
My favorite baked good is probably a fresh from the oven warm and gooey chocolate chips cookie with walnuts. I’m weird with nuts in desserts, but this one wins my heart. And carrot cake (weirdly) has been on the top of my list lately.
Dude, when that happens to me I just stay in bed! But next time maybe I’ll make muffins, because baking at 3 AM actually sounds kind of fun. I’m totally with you on loving to bake muffins. I think they’re so much more fun than cookies, but whenever I ask people for requests, everyone always wants damn cookies. These look delish. Dense (and moist, haha) muffins are the best!
I live in South Africa and I am struggling to find applesauce. Do you think I could use apple baby food?
Definitely! Pureed apples are basically applesauce 🙂
Well done you – I would just normally watch netflix but yours sounds more productive. Love the sound of these just need to batch make me up some apple sauce and then I will be good to go!
My hubby loves anything that is cinnamon apple, so these might just have to go down. Plus, these just look super yummy.
Hotdiggitydog – applesauce and almond butter in ONE muffin – with not just any streusel topping but a “cinnamon sugar streusel topping”!!! AND they are flourless!!!
So – are you taking muffin orders for the next time you are suffering from a case of the post vacay blues? 🙂
Cannot wait to see photos of your trip and hear -read- about it!
I toss and turn and tell myself in my head to just go the heck back to bed…Sometimes it works! 😉 I would have to say my favorites are cake and muffins. I love the icing on cakes and crispy edges on muffins. Hope you can get a good night sleep tonight!
Wow! At least you were super productive! If I cannot sleep I’m usually stubborn and toss and turn hoping and praying I will fall back to sleep. If I give up then I’ll usually pick up a book or I might make coffee and blog read!
you’re a baking culinary genius. and I also loved that you apologized for saying the M word.
😆 I had to! It seems to be one of those words that people are super passionate about disliking…
Muffins seem to always find a way into my house…as for sleeping, that’s another story. I rarely ever have a night where I am not tossing and turning. I am not really sure why?
I couldn’t sleep at all last night! I tossed and turned, then said I would just wait until it was appropriate to go to the gym. Then I finally fell asleep, so the gym didn’t happen haha.
Apple cinnamon muffins would go perfectly with the coffee I’m currently sipping!
i could take a whole batch right now..you have captured all the fall flavor into one delicious muffin.
i could take a whole batch right now..you have captured all the fall flavor into one delicious muffins.
You know, I just read an article about how historically people slept in two parts, going to bed for 4 or 5 hours, getting up for a few hours, and then returning to sleep for another few hours. Sleep specialists posit that sleep disorders are so common because getting one long block of sleep is still unnatural for our bodies. Kinda interesting to ponder how life’s routines would change if we went back to sleeping in two smaller blocks! http://www.livescience.com/12891-natural-sleep.html
Thanks for sharing that, Paula! I’ve actually found that, given the opportunity, I’ll wake up around 4 or 5, stay up for a couple of hours, and then go back to sleep around 7 or 8. It’s especially nice in the winter when the sun doesn’t rise until around 9 AM.
You and I arr a lot alike I think. The major difference is in working out at 5am and usually sneaking a peak at blogs in between weight sets. I usually bake in the mid morning but have had those moments were in the morning I want to whip something up. There’s just something enchanting about muffins. They’re easy, good and make you feel warm and homey inside.
Easiest recipe ever! I’m trying to think of a healthy treat to make for Thanksgiving weekend – these might be it! Everyone usually makes/brings the typical things so I’d like to contribute something different! I don’t know if you saw on Instagram but I’ve tried your pumpkin breakfast bake and your pumpkin chocolate chip cookies over the last couple of weeks – both a hit!
I’m a muffin girl all the way. Cookies come in at a close second but they need to be warm and fresh!
I’ve been completely slacking on the IG front lately (I blame the old phone!!), but I caught up today and loved that you loved the pumpkin-ness 😀 And I’m having trouble deciding what I’m going to bring for Thanksgiving dessert, too 😕
Hey, are you copying me? I’ve just posted my Apple and Pecan Muffins recipe. 😐
Ah, I see yours are flourless. That’s ok we differ then. 😉
Seriously though, these are great pictures and this is a great recipe Amanda. I always look forward to your blog updates.
I’ve still got a lot of practice to get my photography to the level yours is. 🙂
I havent tried many flourless recipes, but the one I did, I loved! It was a flourless chocolate cake 🙂 I always take melatonin if I can’t sleep and I try to do deep breathing.
I’m going to call you the fluffy flourless muffin queen. When I can’t sleep…. that actually hardly ever happens so I have no idea what I do ahhah.
LOLOLOL. Fluffy flourless Queen. Love it. FFQ.
Don’t EVEN think about it…
These look delicious and I think I have everything to make them on hand right now! Yummm!
5 minutes in a blender and they’re good to go in the oven?! i can do that! these look amaaaazing- i just ate not one but 2 lara bars for breakfast (im starving) and i seriously have room for one of the these muffins (or two, lets be real) i have that crazy insomnia too – i like your post vacation theory!! 🙂
Yum!! I love dense muffins and these look great for fall. I think cookies are by far my favorite baked good 🙂
You should’ve called me since I am two hours ahead while you were baking the muffins. I like that I can make these right now since I have all of the ingredients. I love baking cookies but appreciate brownies and blondies because they don’t take much effort once they are in the oven.
YUM!! Those look delicious!!!
MMM i love muffins, these sounds SO fall and up my alley:)
Gosh I love these little muffins you make! So many tasty flavors 🙂 And this one is definitely shouting FALL! Although it doesn’t have pumpkin, I guess I’ll put it on the list of things to make 😉
Can I come over for breakfast please?? YUM!!
As long as you bring coffee 😀
Hahah you are hilarious….and a bit nuts but I love it :-)! Muffins just about get my vote as favorite baked good, even better with this kind of flavor combination…you know I’m sucker for all things apple cinnamon! I love that this recipe calls for only pantry staples- definitely all the more reason to whip up a batch soon!
My dear friend, this may of just taken the first place spot in my favorite recipes of yours! Holy smokes they look and sound friggen awesome!!
LOL @ losing your train of thought in #3. That happens to me all the time when I’m writing and usually results in ADD-like posts. Also, flourless muffins > cookies any day cuz you can pretend you’re having a brownie/blondie for breakfast without feeling guilty.
These look really good and easy. They really look like they popped easily outside of the tin. Your recipes always look so simple but at the Same time easy.
Derp…autocorrect. The easy should say good. There are a ton of recipes I see in the blogging world I think look good but too complicated for me.
I know what you mean! I love a good complicated recipe… but only if someone else is the one making it 😆
I think what you’re experiencing is jetlag! It sucks but your body will soon adjust. Meanwhile feel free to stay up and bake muffins until you’re sleepy. 🙂
😆 But how can it be jet lag when my time zone didn’t change?
It is rare for me NOT to be awake by 3:15 so I hear ya’. I’ve actually come to enjoy this time of the morning before the day really gets started.
I actually made flour less muffins yesterday. I looked at a few recipes but didn’t have all the necessary ingredients so I just went with what I had on hand. Must say, YUM! These may be the best muffins I’ve ever eaten. Your apple cinnamon variety with bonus almond butter sounds like my kind of treat.
I love recipes where I already have all the ingredients!! These look fabulous, and as usual, I could go for one right about now for breakfast! Also, I used to have…I think they call it sleep maintenance insomnia, where I would wake up in the middle of the night every night. When life gets stressful, it comes back, and it is the worst, so I understand your pain. Hope you get some rest!
With way too many apples to go through after apple picking this past weekend, I really appreciate this recipe! I’ve been lacking apple creativity lately so this is great 🙂
Haha! I bake (or clean) whenever I wake up extremely early too! It’s TOO HARD to choose a baked good. I truly love them all equally… don’t make me choose!
Fine. A good, not-too-sweet muffin + coffee.
I’d say baking is always a fun thing to do when you’re up at odd hours of the morning/night. These muffins look FABULOUS! Hope you’re able to get more rest tonight though.
Favorite baked good = Blondies!
I agree! I made a crustless pumpkin pie at 5:30 a.m. when I couldn’t sleep the other day. And it was my birthday too, how lame is that? On 4 hours sleep, I can’t believe that you are writing and functioning as good as you are Amanda! When I’m that out of wrack, well, that’s when I start finding diapers in the fridge. oops!
Oh believe me — it’s not always pretty! I’d probably find diapers in the fridge too if I had a baby around…