Apple Oatmeal Muffins
These apple and oatmeal muffins combine quick-cooking oats, fresh apple, buttermilk and spices to make a simple, tasty breakfast treat.
So many of the muffin recipes you find these days make extra-large muffins, loaded with fat and sugar. While they may be delicious, they really aren’t a healthy choice for breakfast or a mid-morning snack.
These easy apple oatmeal muffins are made with quick-cooking oats, buttermilk, and fresh apples. The apples provide most of the sweetness, making them relatively low in sugar and the buttermilk cuts down on the fat as well.
Buttermilk is a wonderful ingredient for baking as it adds a light, tender texture and mild, tangy flavor to baked goods.
The problem however is that it’s often sold in larger quantities than you need and will go to waste if you don’t use it up. Making your own buttermilk substitute is an easy way to solve this problem.
How to make a buttermilk substitute
The only ingredients you need for a buttermilk substitute are whole or 2% milk (we don’t recommend 1% or skim), and lemon juice or white vinegar. Here’s what you do:
- Measure one tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar into a one-cup measure.
- Fill to the one cup line with milk, give it a stir, and let it stand for ten minutes before using it.
How to serve apple oatmeal muffins
Although they’re delicious just as they are, we recommend serving our apple oatmeal muffins warmed and spread with a little bit of unsalted butter or whipped cream cheese.
More easy muffin recipes
Apple-Oatmeal Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup quick-cooking oats
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar, see recipe notes
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 medium apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped (about 1-1/4 cups)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 °F.
- Prepare your muffin pan by lightly greasing the bottom of each cup.
- Thoroughly combine the buttermilk and oats in a small bowl and set aside.
- Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium mixing bowl.
- Whisk the egg and melted butter together in a large mixing bowl and stir in the buttermilk-oat mixture.
- Add the dry ingredients and combine thoroughly, then fold in the chopped apple.
- Fill the muffin tins about 2/3 full with the batter.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove the muffins from the pan and cool on a rack.
I’m so glad you’ve stopped by. Whether you want to make a quick weeknight meal or special holiday dinner, we’ve got hundreds of wholesome, flavorful recipes for you to try. 
6 Comments on “Apple Oatmeal Muffins”
I made the muffins with a Granny Smith apple and 3 Tablespoons of sugar. They were good but not sweet enough for me. I would recommend adding more sugar and also more cinnamon. I served them with a slather of honey-butter spread (equal parts honey and butter). That provided the sweetness I desired and accommodated those who preferred a less sweet muffin. They were very easy to make.
Hi Alice,
You could certainly use 1 additional tablespoon of sugar if you like your baked goods a little sweeter. You could also switch to using a Golden Delicious apple instead of Granny Smith. They’re considerably sweeter, but have a very similar texture to the Granny Smith.
I found these muffins to be very moist, but I added 1 more tbsp of butter because I used old fashioned oats instead of the quick cook, and added 1/4 cup of almond flower. I added 1 tsp of vanilla to the sugar mixture and used 1/4 cup brown sugar instead of white. I thought to use maple syrup or maple sugar the next time. With those changed this recipe came out great. I also used 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice instead of the other spices. Just did’t feel like looking for them in the cupboard. I shredded the apple instead of dicing, that added more moisture to the mixture. In all I made my own recipe but had the basics.
Hi Roberta,
Sounds like your adjustments worked out fine. Thanks for sharing!
This looks wonderful, I grew up eating similar muffins and miss them. I wonder what buttermilk is called in Italy..or if they even sell it?
Hi Joshua,
You can substitute buttermilk by combining 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar with enough milk to equal 1 cup. Stir and let stand for 10 minutes before using.