Gluten Free Apple Muffin Recipe: Easy & Healthy (2024)

🍎Gluten-Free Apple Muffin Recipe at a a Glance

Apple muffins that are dairy free, gluten-free AND refined sugar free... and they still taste good? How is that possible?! I promise you any doubts about sugar-free baked goods tasting ‘weird’ or ‘funny’ will melt away after tasting these gluten-free muffins. They are undeniably delicious with a distinct 'apple cinnamon muffin' flavor and use a sugar substitute that isn’t overly sweet.

For best results, use Granny Smith apples, but during apple season you may have a bigger variety of apples to choose from. In that case, Gala apples, Pink Lady or Honeycrisp apples are also great options.

Step One: In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients - gluten free flour mix, xanthan gum (if needed, see note in Ingredients section above), baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and Swerve.

Step Two: Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients - almond milk, vegetable oil, and egg.

Step Three: Stir the muffin batter until combined. Then add ¾ of the peeled, sliced and chopped apple. Set the batter aside to rest for 30 minutes.

Step Four: Use a ⅓ cup measuring cup or a large spoon and spoon the muffin batter into the prepared muffin tin, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle a few leftover apple chunks on top each muffin cup.

Step Five: Bake these muffins at 375 F for about 25 minutes. Serve warm from the oven!

Pro Tips for the Best Gluten-Free Muffins

1. Room Temperature Ingredients

Just like in these carrot muffins, these gluten free crepes and this gluten free French bread, room temperature ingredients are a must for gluten free baking. Warm ingredients tend to blend together better than cold ingredients so allow time to take the chill off eggs and milk beforehand.

2. Measure by Weight

On most of my recipes, you’ll see a weight measurement and a cup measurement for the dry ingredients. That’s because most of the time, weight measurement is a more accurate way of measuring flour than cup measurement. The reason has to do with all the different kinds of flours that are available. While I buy most of my flours from Nuts.com, Bob’s Red Mill also carries those flours and 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill white rice flour could actually be 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons of Nuts.com white rice flour. Weight is a true measurement of how much flour you really need in the recipe.

A kitchen scale is a low cost solution to the measurement problem. This one from Amazon is an excellent scale and will become an indispensable kitchen tool!

3. Grated Apple vs. Chopped Apple

The key to these delicious gluten free apple muffins is nice, big chunks of apples. All they need is a quick peel and then dice these beauties up. Chopped apples maintain a bit more texture when these muffins are baked. Grated apple tends to turn into apple sauce which results in a completely different texture.

4. What Kind of Apples to Use?

Wondering what apples are the best for these muffins, and baking in general? My favorite apples for baking are not the typical sweet apples, they are the Granny Smith variety. It’s what I recommend for this recipe and for my apple bread recipe too. They’re firm enough that they hold their shape when baked and they’re super tasty too.

Look for Granny Smith or even Pink Lady in the grocery store. Granny Smith are the green ones that are super tart if you bite into them. They bake really well and don’t get mushy like others can.

5. Helpful Tools

These gluten free apple muffins need just a few convenient items from your baking toolkit:

• A large bowl – These muffins are just a one bowl prep, so just one large bowl is all you need.
• A sturdy spoon – I love these spoons!
• A whisk – A good whisk allows the dry ingredients to fully incorporate.
• A 12-cup muffin tin – These pans are excellent for baking muffins in – highly recommend them!
• Muffin scoop (optional) – While you don’t necessarily need a muffin scoop, it makes filling muffin cups a whole lot easier!

What about a crumb topping on these muffins?

These muffins don't need a crumb topping! Crumb toppings are great for some muffins like these banana oatmeal muffins but in the true spirit of keeping them refine sugar free, no crumb topping is needed.

Are apple muffins healthy?

Not all apple muffin recipe are healthy, but these are - being sugar free and low salt and higher in fiber and potassium makes them a winner in healthy muffin recipes.

How do I use Swerve sweetener?

If you’re new to Swerve, you are in for a treat. It’s a cup for cup sweetener that functions just like brown sugar or white sugar in recipes. The only real difference I notice is when taken right from the bag, it’s sweeter than brown or white sugar would be. But once it’s baked, there is no difference! Find Swerve here.