Apple Blueberry Muffins

Wow, I knew it had been a while since I blogged a new recipe, but looking at it now... if I'd left this til tomorrow, it would have been a full month. Oops!

Things have been busy here. We're mostly settled in, both as far as the house and our new lives go. I'm working my butt off at my spandex costuming business, while also working on editing and formatting Maize Craze.

For his part, my husband is about halfway through finals - he had to go back to university, to become qualified to do the job he was doing for the 20 years before moving to Canada. Yikes!

Anyway. I've been making muffins more often, lately, as they make great grab and go breakfasts for his long commute to the university.

Sometimes they're my tried and true recipes (We've done my Pina Colada Muffins and my Breakfast Corn Muffins recently), and sometimes I just ask what he's in the mood for, and build a recipe around that.

Easy Apple Blueberry Muffins

This week, he was in the mood for apple cinnamon muffins.. but blueberries were on sale and looked good.

So, I decided to upgrade my usual moist apple muffins recipe, into the perfect blueberry muffins - delicious blueberry muffins, with the moisture and added health benefits of apple added in!

We kept the cinnamon in, as not only does cinnamon work well with apple, it also works well with blueberries - this is something he learned as I was working on More Than Poutine - they're the main flavours of Blueberry Grunt!

I'd originally (ie: while mentally planning this recipe at the grocery store) intended to put some maple syrup in, but managed to forget.

This easy apple blueberry muffins recipe turned out so well, it ended up in regular rotation!

The apple makes for moist muffins with a tender crumb, while still being nicely fluffy muffins. All the taste of my classic blueberry muffin recipe, just with a little twist!

Ingredients

This easy apple blueberry muffin recipe uses really simple ingredients that you’re likely to have on hand. If not, they can all be easily found in any grocery store.

As always, I have a few ingredient notes for you!

Juicy Blueberries

The key ingredient!

This delicious recipe works well with either fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries. During blueberry season, I tend to use fresh. The rest of the year, I use frozen.

As pictured in the new photos, I used frozen wild blueberries.

No matter which you use, you’ll use the same amount, just a few caveats:

Wild blueberries tend to be a lot smaller than regular blueberries, and you can end up with more blueberry flavour.

Fresh blueberries make for “cleaner” looking homemade muffins, as they don’t “bleed” as much as frozen.

If you’re using frozen, use them *frozen* - thawing them out causes a lot more “bleed”, and also adds more moisture throughout the batter, rather than in pockets.

Fresh Apple

I use one fresh apple for this recipe, and usually keep it to something green and tart (or tart-ish, anyway).

Granny Smith is my go-to apple for most of the year, but during Mutsu season, I’m all-Mutsus, ALL THE TIME.

The side of the shred doesn’t really matter, I’ve made this with the regular “large” grater side, with the really large grater side on my newer grater, and even the small.

One large apple is one large apple, and even variance in the size really hasn’t mattered across the many times we’ve made this recipe, since originally posting it!

Milk

When I first started making this recipe, I used 2% milk.

In the years that passed, we eventually switched over to using Unsweetened Almond Milk for pretty much everything, including this recipe.

It works well, as do the other types of plant based milk we’ve used from time to time.

Oat milk, Cashew Milk, Flax Milk, and Macadamia Milk are my favourites to bake with.

They all just TASTE better than regular dairy milk, IMHO - and that flavour adds something nice to these delicious muffins!

Butter - or Not!

When I first made this recipe, I used melted butter in all of my muffin recipes, kind of by default.

We’ve since switched over to using vegetable oil or canola oil, in the same amounts.

Not only is it WAY cheaper than butter - especially since moving home to Canada - it makes for a better muffin texture when eating them straight out of the fridge.

Muffins that use butter will be dry if not reheated, that doesn’t really apply to muffins that use oil instead.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

All Purpose Flour
Brown Sugar
Granulated Sugar
Large Eggs
Pure Vanilla Extract
Ground Cinnamon
Baking Powder
Salt

... I just really don’t have anything to add, for these last few ingredients!

Apple Blueberry Muffin Variations

Over the couple years since I originally posted this recipe, we’ve done this recipe in a few different variations. Here are a few favourites:

Apple Cranberry Muffins

Swap the blueberries out for fresh or frozen cranberries. We usually leave the cinnamon out, but not always.

Apple Berry Muffins

Swap out half of the blueberries with either fresh or frozen cranberries, OR raspberries, strawberry slices, etc. Skip the cinnamon.

Apple Blueberry Muffins with Orange

Skip the cinnamon, add the zest of one orange. Lemon zest is also nice for some added flavor in this recipe.

Apple Blueberry Cobbler Muffins

Make the recipe as it, but add the streusel topping from my Cardamom Pear Streusel Muffins - but swap out the cardamom in the topping for cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of the muffins before baking.

Apple Blueberry “Fruit Explosion” Muffins

Make the batter as-is, though we usually skip the cinnamon for this variation.

Divide half the batter among the prepared muffin pan.

Spoon a heaping teaspoon of blueberry pie filling in the center of each muffin cup.

Dividing remaining batter among muffin tin cavities, completely covering the pie fulling.

Bakery-Style Apple Blueberry Muffins

You know how muffins you buy in a coffee shop or bakeries sometimes have that crystally, crunchy sugared muffin tops?

That’s Pearl Sugar - a coarse sugar used for finishing all kinds of sweet baked goods.

You may have seen it in my recipes for Blueberry Banana Bread, Blueberry Bagels, Red Velvet Muffins, Gingerbread Scones, Banana Nut Bagels, and Homemade Apple Turnovers.

Sometimes I'll sprinkle some over an unbaked Pie Crust, after brushing on the egg wash.

It’s a fun ingredient to have on hand!

Anyway, for a bakery style muffin, just sprinkle a bit of that Pearl Sugar on top of each muffin, right before baking.

How to Make Apple Blueberry Muffins

The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners, or spray with baking spray / cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking powder , cinnamon, and salt.

Divide blueberry muffin batter between 12 prepared muffin cups, filling each to almost full.

Note: I like to use an ice cream scoop for this!

Bake in a 375 degree F oven until golden brown and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.

The bake time will vary based on the blueberries you use - expect about 18-20 minutes for fresh blueberries or 22 to 25 minutes for frozen blueberries.

Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups; serve warm.

Leftovers

Once cooled to room temperature, muffins can be kept in an airtight container - we’ll usually use a freezer bag.

They’ll be good at room temp for a few days, or up to a week in the fridge. Best served at room temperature or warmer.

More Muffin Recipes!

Are you a fellow fan of muffins? I have some more marvelous muffin recipes for you!

All-Bran Muffins
Banana Nut Muffins
Breakfast Corn Muffins
Cardamom Pear Streusel Muffins
Carrot Cake Muffins
Cranberry Orange Pistachio Muffins
Cream Cheese Stuffed "Everything" Muffins
Gingerbread Muffins
Gluten Free Banana Muffins
Gluten-Free Blackberry Muffins
Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins
Gluten-Free Cranberry Walnut Muffins
Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins
Healthier Apple Oatmeal Muffins
Maple Pumpkin Spiced Muffins
Orange, Date, and Almond Muffins
Peach Cobbler Muffins
Pina Colada Muffins
Stuffed Banana Nutella Muffins
Sweet Potato Muffins

Share the Love!

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