Pumpkin apple muffins are delicious moist muffins with all the comforting tastes of fall. Made with pumpkin puree and shredded apples and a streusel topping.
These muffins are perfect for breakfast, brunch or even dessert!
Pumpkin muffins
I don't know why pumpkin recipes are limited only to pumpkin season. Pumpkin season isn't an official season, but it tends to begin when the first signs of fall arrive.
I think I could really enjoy pumpkin all year long. Although maybe I enjoy it so much because it is only around for a few months. Nevertheless, it is time to fully embrace pumpkin season and make as many pumpkin apple muffins as possible.
These muffins are made with pumpkin puree, shredded apples, and warm spices including cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. To make these muffins even more delicious, they are topped with a streusel topping with even more cinnamon.
If you love these muffins, you'll also want to check out my pumpkin banana muffins!
What type of apple can I use?
Almost any type of fresh apple works well in these muffins. You could use a granny smith, fuji, Braeburn, or your favorite apple. Just peel and grate the apple and you're good to go!
How to make pumpkin apple muffins
In this section, I share step-by-step photos, cooking methods, techniques, and a general overview. For detailed instructions, temperatures, and timing, check the printable recipe card below.
- Mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, spices and salt.
- In another bowl, combine eggs, oil and pumpkin.
- Add apples, pumpkin mixture into flour mixture and combine.
Make the streusel topping
- Mix streusel topping until small crumbs are formed.
- Place muffin batter in greased muffin tins and top with streusel.
- Bake in a 350-degree oven for 25 minutes. Cool muffins on a baking rack before eating.
Recipe Tips
- Fully preheat your oven - I use a separate oven thermometer in my oven to make certain my oven has reached the proper temperature. My preheat light often turns off before the oven has reached full temperature so I always give it extra time.
- Do not overmix batter. Just stir until everything is mixed in. Over-stirring can cause tough muffins.
- Use an ice cream scoop for even-sized muffins. Plus it makes putting the batter in the tins easy peasy!
- The topping is optional and can be left off if desired
More muffin recipes
I love making muffins. If you are looking for other muffin recipes, you might want to try some of these recipes:
More from Beyond The Chicken Coop
If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment below and snap a picture and tag me on Instagram @beyondthechickencoop
Check out all my muffin recipes here!
Pumpkin Apple Muffins
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Grater
Ingredients
Muffins
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup grated apple (peeled and cored apple)
Topping
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 Tablespoons butter (melted)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
Muffins
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda and salt together in a bowl.2 ½ cups flour, 1 ½ cups sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ½ teaspoon salt
- In a separate bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin and vegetable oil.2 eggs, 1 cup pumpkin puree, ½ cup vegetable oil
- Combine pumpkin mixture with flour mixture.
- Fold in grated apples.1 cup grated apple
- Scoop mixture into muffin tins lined with paper liners or sprayed with a non-stick spray.
Topping
- Combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and melted butter together. Mixture will be lumpy, but all flour should be incorporated into mixture.½ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup flour, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, 2 Tablespoons butter
- Sprinkle topping on top of muffin batter.
- Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 - 25 minutes.
- Allow muffins to cool slightly before removing from pan. Continue cooling muffins on a baking rack.
Notes
- Fully preheat your oven - I use a separate oven thermometer in my oven to make certain my oven has reached the proper temperature. My preheat light often turns off before the oven has reached full temperature so I always give it extra time.
- Do not overmix batter. Just stir until everything is mixed in. Over stirring can cause tough muffins.
- Use an ice cream scoop for even sized muffins. Plus it makes putting the batter in the tins easy peasy!
- The topping is optional and can be left off, if desired
Nutritional Disclaimer:
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and should only be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee. To obtain the most precise nutritional information in a provided recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the exact ingredients you are using when preparing the recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Nutrition
Recipe adapted from Taste of Home.
This recipe was originally published in October 2019. The images and post have been updated.
Debby Rabin says
I'm actually looking for direction. It says it makes 15 muffins but has a link to a standard tin, with room for 12.
Kathy says
Hi Debby,
This recipe does make 15 muffins. You'll need to use two muffin tins or bake two batches, one with 12 and then another with 3. Most muffin tins come with just 12.
I hope you enjoy the muffins,
Kathy
Harmonie says
Great recipe, but a lot of sugar in the original recipe. I didn't add any sugar and sweetened with 1/3 cup of maple syrup. The muffins turned out great! Thank you for sharing.
Kathy says
Thanks for your suggestion. 🙂
Elaine says
Hi! Thank you for this recipe. Based on earlier comments I made a few adjustments too. I used 1 c. Whole wheat flour + 1 1/2 c. AP flour, 1 c. coconut sugar (instead of the 1 1/2 c. White sugar), also doubled the nutmeg & ginger, omitted the sugar topping and replaced it with pumpkin seeds.
They were so yummy!
Kathy says
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing your adjustments! 🙂
Patricia says
Had left over pumpkin purée and came across this recipe. Delicious! Moist, and crumble topping made it extra special. Made it twice this week as my neighbors are my first batch 😂. A keeper for sure.p
Kathy says
Thanks so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed them and how nice of you to share with your neighbors! 🙂
Sadie says
Was looking for an apple & pumpkin recipe specifically and this hit this spot. Thank you!
I feel bad leaving reviews on recipes because I never follow them exactly, so my review isn’t really for the recipe written. I do, however, find it helpful to read what changes others have made so I can adjust to my preferences.
Here’s my adaptations for this recipe: Used 1 cup of ground oats + 1.5 cups of white flour; only 1 cup of sugar; doubled the spices & added a pinch of ground cloves; added a splash of vanilla; subbed flax eggs; added a mashed ripe banana & reduced the oil. Also didn’t add the optional topping.
Verdict: the batter was thick, but scoop-able. Cook time for 12 regular size muffins was around 28 mins. Flavour was nice, and muffins were plenty sweet. These are dense muffins, just the way I like them - don’t expect light and fluffy. Mind you, that could have partially been due to me using oats.
On a side note, I find recipes written in ‘cups’ instead of actual weight measurements are inconvenient to follow and less accurate, so adjustments are often needed anyway. Not sure why so many recipe creators aren’t using this widely accepted standard.
Kathy says
Hi Sadie,
Thanks so much for your comment and letting us know your changes. Nothing wrong with that! 🙂 Most of my recipes have a conversion built in so you can change from cups to metrics. It looks like I still need to update this recipe so that's available. I'll do that right now!
Thanks,
Kathy 🙂
Naomi Potgieter says
Bake the pumpkin and apples muffins came out very nice.
Thank you from South Africa
Kathy says
Glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Jaylee says
I omitted the nutmeg & ginger and instead added in 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice. They turned out super delicious and were a big hit with my family. I’ll definitely be making these again!
Kathy says
Awesome! Thanks so much!
Jen says
There wasn't enough spice for me in these and they took 32 minutes to cook in my oven... I I use melted butter rather than vegetable oil. I would make these again with a dash of vanilla and a bit more spices maybe add a bit of pumpkin pie spice. Thank you for the base recipe 🙂 the topping was perfect!
Kathy says
Thanks for your comment. 32 minutes sounds like a long time. Did you make larger sized muffins?
Darlene says
I notice there is no baking powder in the recipe, reason?
Kathy says
The baking soda acts as the leavening agent in these muffins.
imelda says
These are a winner!! Like other commenters I used a scant 1c of sugar only, and swapped in a 1/2c of whole wheat flour, and used apple sauce instead of most of the oil. Added a bit of water too when the mixture looked to try, but I didn't have quite a full cup of shredded apple so that may explain it.
Delish!
Kathy says
Thanks! I appreciate all your tips too! 🙂
Kayla says
I used oat flour instead of regular flour and I only used 1 cup of sugar. They turned out great. Next time I will decrease the sugar to 3/4 cup. I can’t taste the pumpkin in the muffins but that is a good thing because my husband would not eat them if he knew it was in there.
Kathy says
LOL!!! So funny that you've got him to eat the muffins! 🙂 Thanks for your tips about the sugar!
Barbie says
Are the apples suppose to be drained?
Kathy says
Hi Barbie,
Use freshly grated apples. There should be minimal juice that comes off the apples when grating. It can be added right to the batter.
Enjoy,
Kathy
Alida says
I added a little almond milk to the batter to make it a little less dry and I made this into a loaf and baked it for like 50-60 minutes. Came out delicious! Thank you for the recipe!:)
Kathy says
Hi Alida,
I'm glad to hear this worked well as a loaf!
Thank you,
Kathy
Katrina Tindall says
I think there is a mistake in the ratios. 2 1/2 c of flour is too much. Should it be 1 1/2 c. I had to add a 3rd egg as the batter was just too thick.
Kathy says
Hi Katrina,
Be careful when measuring your flour and make certain it isn't too compact. Also, add the grated apple right away, it adds a lot of moisture. The recipe has been tested by myself and others several times with positive results.
Thank you,
Kathy
Intisar says
Do you think it would work to substitute butter in for the oil? I am working with a nutritionist to help my daughter who is underweight, and sneaking fats and calcium into her muffins is a win. 🙂
Kathy says
Hi,
Yes, That shouldn't be any problem at all!
Enjoy - 🙂
Anna says
I just made these tonight and they turned out really well! Unfortunately I'd misplaced my grater, so I used my peeler instead to make thin slices and then chop. I think they turned out really well despite the small mishap! I did not add the additional topping due to time constraints but to me the apple and pumpkin flavors were well balanced, I'll definitely be saving more or your recipes! 😊
Kathy says
Thank you and it sounds like you made everything work! Sometimes we have to adapt and you did that exactly! 🙂
DEBORAH says
Can this made into a loaf? If so, how long would you bake it for? Sounds delicious anxious to try
Kathy says
Hi Deborah,
I have not made this into a loaf. However, I think it should work by baking it at the same temperature for 45-50 minutes. Let me know how it works out.
Kathy 🙂
Sarah says
Have you made these with any other flour? Interested in gluten free and keto options of almond or coconut flour. The ratios are slightly different so was hoping you had
Kathy says
Hi Sarah,
I've only made these with a regular, all-purpose flour. I have made other recipes with a 1:1 gluten free flour (like Bob's Red Mill) and I think you could substitute that for the regular flour in this recipe.
Kathy