Apple Cider Muffins
These apple cider muffins are perfect if you want apple cider donuts, but with no donut pan. These are super soft apple cider muffins topped with apple cider butter and cinnamon sugar. They will replace your favorite apple cider donut as your go to apple cider treat.
These apple cider muffins are delicious, moist, and most importantly, give you the feeling of being at an orchard eating fresh apple cider donuts in muffin form. If you have fresh cider use some to make these muffins before you drink the rest of the cider. You will be excited to go apple picking and get more cider, just so you have an excuse to bake this perfect muffin again.
Tips for making muffins
Here are my tips, so yours turns out like this recipe!
- Tip 1: Flour- Make sure the flour is spooned and leveled. If you stick the measuring cup into the flour, it will compact it. Compacted flour will dry out the muffins.
- Tip 2: Bake 6 muffins at a time, to get a bigger rise and larger dome. A bigger rise also gives them a better texture.
- Tip 3: It is easy to over mix muffin batter. As soon as it is combined, stop mixing.
- Tip 4: Muffins are baked at a high heat first to activate the rising agents and get a taller muffin.
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For more apple recipes, try my Apple Pie Cheesecake and Apple Cider Coffee Cake.
Make sure to leave a star review if you loved this recipe! Make sure to tag me on Instagram @stephaniesweettreats. To get more ideas follow me on Pinterest.
Recipe Video
Apple Cider Muffins
Ingredients
Apple Cider Muffins
- 2 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
- 2 tsp Ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 cup Oil, canola or vegetable
- 1/2 cup Apple cider
- 3/4 cup Brown sugar, packed light or dark
- 1/4 cup White granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup Unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
- 2 Large eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup Buttermilk, or milk room temperature
- 1/4 cup Sour cream, or greek yogurt room temperature
Apple Cider Butter
- 4 TBSP Unsalted butter, melted
- 1 TBSP Apple cider
Cinnamon Sugar
- 2/3 cup White granulated sugar
- 1 TBSP Ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg
Instructions
Apple Cider Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 425℉. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with 6 muffin liners, alternate the muffins liners in the holes. This will help give the best rise.
- In a large bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.2 1/4 cups All-purpose flour, 2 tsp Ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg, 2 tsp Baking powder, 1/2 tsp Baking soda, 1/2 tsp Salt
- In a separate bowl, mix the oil, apple cider, brown sugar, sugar, apple sauce, vanilla, eggs, buttermilk, and sour cream using a whisk.1/2 cup Oil, 1/2 cup Apple cider, 3/4 cup Brown sugar, 1/4 cup White granulated sugar, 1/2 cup Unsweetened apple sauce, 1 tsp Pure vanilla extract, 2 Large eggs, 1/4 cup Buttermilk, 1/4 cup Sour cream
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.
- Use a large cookie scoop to scoop the batter into the liners. It should be full to the top.
- Bake at 425℉ for 8 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350℉. Bake for another 6-8 minutes. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Let the muffins sit in the hot pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely.
- In a bowl, melt the butter and add the apple cider. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.4 TBSP Unsalted butter, 1 TBSP Apple cider, 2/3 cup White granulated sugar, 1 TBSP Ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg
- Dip the top of the muffin into the butter, then dip into the cinnamon sugar. Make sure the muffin is fully coated. Do this to all the muffins, then dip the muffins again in the cinnamon sugar.
I make muffins for my grandkids’ daily school snack. I’ve made a lot of different muffins for them over the years and these are their favorite. They love these muffins and give them 5 stars. Thank you for the recipe.
These apple cider muffins are really good. They taste just like the apple cider donuts you would get at the orchard but you can use your preferred brands of ingredients without preservatives etc. They are the same density of donuts. We have made these on repeat this fall and everyone loves them! Â
I’m not sure what went wrong, other than maybe my homemade applesauce is wetter than store bought? The batter was clearly too wet, so I added another half cup of flour, a quarter cup at a time. For some reason, the batter overflowed onto the oven floor and caught on fire! I am an experienced baker, so was surprised this went so poorly.
6 months pregnant and have been craving apple cider donuts for months. This recipe cured that craving and will be a fall staple from here on out. They came out beautiful and delicious! I also used avocado oil instead of vegetable/canola (it’s what I had) and they came out great. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!
My family was crazy for these! I was making homemade apple butter and had the ingredients to do these too. I made them at my daughter’s home as a surprise I had to use both metal and ceramic muffin bakers and I don’t recommend the ceramic. The muffins rose perfectly in metal but sort of slumped in ceramic. Mind you they were delicious and disappeared as quickly! The dipping with cider and butter was genius—they had a nice coating of cinnamon sugar but moist and beautiful. I’ll makes GF ones next for me!
These were so moist and delicious! I especially loved the cinnamon sugar topping.
Oh man these are delicious!!! I make a LOT of muffins because I find they’re great for breakfast especially for hubby and these are for sure in the top of my all time favs. Love the topping, love how moist they are and loved how easy they were!! Hubby loved them too. (He cannot know there’s sour cream in there 🤣 ) I plan to make a batch and bring them to my daughter and her college roommate’s. I will be making these again.
These are phenomenal. They are light and soft and delicious. My recipe made 18 instead of 12. I will be making these again. I didn’t have applesauce so I pureed a small apple and it worked just fine.