These paleo apple muffins are so quick and easy to put together and so good! Bake them on the weekend and freeze for grab-and-go breakfasts during the week. They're gluten-free and grain-free with a dairy-free option.
Paleo apple muffins are a great treat for breakfast or as an afternoon snack. And because they're not too sweet and have a hint of cinnamon, they make a perfect base for your favorite toppings. I love them warm out of the oven with a little ghee, a drizzle of honey, and a hot mug of cappuccino.
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The secret to easy apple muffins
The secret to this paleo apple muffin recipe is getting the apple pieces small enough to cook through by the time the muffins are done. You can use a food processor or mini chopper, but I find using a grater is the fastest way to do this. Just peel the apple and grate it until you get to the core—super easy!
These paleo apple muffins are made with almond flour. The almond flour makes a nice thick muffin batter so the apple pieces stay suspended in the muffins and don't fall to the bottom. So you get little pieces of apple goodness in every bite.
I use very finely ground almond flour in this apple cinnamon muffin recipe. I find this type of almond flour gives the muffins a better texture and works better than almond meal in this recipe.
These apple muffins are quick and easy to put together on a weekend morning. You can bake them for breakfast and put any leftover muffins in the freezer for grab-and-go breakfasts during the week.
How to make paleo apple muffins
Paleo Apple Muffins
Ingredients
- 200 grams almond flour about 2 cups
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 large apple grated and drained
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil or ghee
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease or line muffin tin.
- Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Toss grated apple with lemon juice in medium bowl. Add remaining wet ingredients and combine. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
- Using a large ice cream or cookie scoop, fill muffin cups 3/4 full.
- Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.
Notes
More easy paleo muffins
- Paleo Blueberry Muffin Recipe (with Video)
- Lemon Poppy Paleo Muffin Recipe
- Carrot Pineapple Paleo Muffin Recipe
- 10 Easy Paleo Muffins You Can Make This Weekend
What's your all-time favorite muffin flavor? Let me know in the comment below!
Jen Evans
April 11 at 7:01 pmJust made these and they are amazing! My kids went back for seconds! 🙂
Lisa
April 12 at 7:54 amThank you! So glad you enjoyed them!
BasyaG
July 2 at 12:15 pmabout how many calories are in a muffin?
Lisa
July 3 at 7:26 amI don’t track calories, but you can use websites like MyFitnessPal (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/) or SparkRecipes (http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp) to calculate the nutritional values.
HappyForks.com
August 13 at 11:13 amBasyaG, if you want to know how many calories have recipe which you’re going to prepare, check out happyforks.com/analyzer. This apple paleo muffin has 208 calories. You will find there also information about many nutrients. Just try it by yourself!
Natalie
November 30 at 7:48 pmLooking forward to trying these!! And thank you so much for the tip about Happy Forks recipe analyzer!! I am motivated to try more Paleo recipes with my family but I need to calculate the nutritional information because our son has diabetes. This makes it so much easier! 🙂
Carla Bruns (@CarlaABruns)
September 7 at 10:50 pmTerrific recipe! Sounds wonderful.
April
October 1 at 10:05 pmI just made these using maple syrup in place of the honey (only because I didn’t have enough honey on hand). I also added about a teaspoonful of vanilla extract and sprinkled cinnamon on top of each muffin before baking. They are wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing!
Lisa
October 5 at 2:24 pmYou’re welcome April! The maple syrup and cinnamon sounds good – I’ll have to try it!
Felicia
January 6 at 7:42 pmI had to do the same with maple syrup since I didn’t have enough honey as well. 🙂 Cannot wait for these to cool off!
Emily Isenberg
October 16 at 1:48 pmCan you use oil in place of the ghee?
Lisa
October 18 at 12:28 amCoconut oil should work, you can substitute it for ghee in most recipes.
Maggie
February 17 at 7:01 pmSo good! I added cloves and ended up using a mixture of honey and molasses since I was out of everything else. REALLY good! Thank you!
Lisa
February 18 at 6:08 pmYou’re welcome – I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Cristina
February 22 at 4:55 pmDo you think it would be ok to substitute coconut flour for the almond flour?
Lisa
February 24 at 1:35 pmThis recipe will not work with coconut flour. Coconut flour and almond flour have very different properties, so they can’t be substituted for each other.
If you prefer coconut flour muffins, try these banana blackberry or lemon poppy muffins.
Christina
July 25 at 7:14 pmHow do you know when to use Almond or Coconut flour, in general?
Jen @ DesertFarmgirl
April 16 at 11:32 amI have some apple pulp that I’ve saved frozen from my daily juicing. (sweet red apples) I’m thinking to try this and see if it works without making it mushy. What’s your thoughts? I love to save pulp and reuse! Thanks for the recipe! I’m going to make some either way and freeze them for those sleepy mornings I can’t seem to put a nice breakfast together for my hunny. 🙂
Lisa
April 17 at 11:44 amJen, I have not tried this recipe with apple pulp, but it sounds like it should work. Make sure you drain or squeeze the pulp so it’s not too wet when you add it to the batter. If you try it, let me know how it turns out!
Sierra
April 19 at 12:19 pmThese are awesome! Hubby loved them so much he asked me to make more, daughter was skeptical but loved it from the first bite and baby can’t get enough!!
Lisa
April 23 at 11:27 amThanks, Sierra! I’m glad your family loved them!
mamamamahoney
September 10 at 10:46 amThese sound fabulous, though I’m allergic to almonds. Have you ever tried them with coconut flour?
Lisa
September 11 at 10:39 pmThanks! I haven’t tried these with coconut flour – since almond flour and coconut flour behave differently in recipes, the ratio of dry to wet ingredients would probably need to change quite a bit. Here are a couple coconut flour muffin recipes – Banana Blackberry Muffins and Lemon Poppy Muffins.
kate
September 19 at 10:23 amI have just baked these and couldnt wait for them to cool before trying , they are lovely I didnt have ghee so I used grass fed butter and they taste great thank you
Lisa
September 19 at 11:51 amYay! I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Kate!.
Tami Adams
October 27 at 4:18 pmI’m going out to help my dad do a lot of winter food prepping since he just moved up to the mountains where its possible they can get snowed in quite frequently for days. We want to keep it as close to paleo as possible (which is hard since they won’t have things fresh a lot of times) so we are doing a lot of freezer items. How long do you think these would freeze well? He has a vacuum sealer so they would be air tight. I’ve just never frozen baked type goods before!
Lisa
October 28 at 4:13 pmI freeze all of my muffins and we usually eat them within a few weeks. I don’t have a vacuum sealer so I don’t know if that will make a difference.
Marni
November 10 at 7:14 pmI’ve made these a few times so far and really enjoy them- however I do think they could be a little sweeter for me. I’ve tried using honey & maple syrup instead of just honey, but no better. Can you suggest anything?
Lisa
November 13 at 4:32 pmHi Marni, I haven’t tested a sweeter version, but you could try adding some coconut sugar. I wouldn’t add any more honey or maple syrup since it might make the batter too wet. Hope this helps!
Marni
November 14 at 10:20 pmAwesome! I’ll give that a try. Thank you!
deborah
November 23 at 10:49 pmthese are my new all time favorite. Good Falls Apples plus fresh ground almond flour
…Absolutely the best!
Lisa
November 24 at 8:04 amYay! I’m so glad – they’re one of my favorites too. Thanks for letting me know, Deborah!
Julie
April 29 at 11:48 amI did 1/2 coconut and 1/2 almond flour and they turned out just fine. I also added chopped walnuts, delish! 🙂 THANK YOU!
Tiffany
May 11 at 12:11 pmCan the ghee be omitted? Is it strictly for drizzle on top after baking or does it need to go in the batter before baking? Thank you!
Lisa
May 13 at 1:30 pmHi Tiffany, the ghee goes in the batter with the wet ingredients. It should not be omitted, but you can substitute coconut oil.
Lynn Clement
May 26 at 7:37 pmJust made these . I added walnuts, cloves and nutmeg. I took out a scoop of almond flour and added a scoop od whey protein. Also added two Tbls. Of coconut sugar. To mix. When they came out of the oven I put a swipe of butter on each one with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Can’t wait to try one! Thanks for thr wonderful recipe.
Phyllis
July 11 at 3:45 pmIf Maple syrup was used instead of the honey, would it be a 1:1 ratio. In cooking or baking I prefer to use Maple Syrup. Thank you
Livia
August 12 at 1:24 pmIs it possible to make those with coconut flour instead of almond flour?
Livia
August 12 at 1:27 pmSorry i just saw that there were some other people asking quite the same as I was (could’ve looked in advance, sorry :-)) Thanks anyway for the recipe, looks great and I am gonna try them soon 🙂
Marita
October 12 at 1:52 amHi, these look great but I have a question. The first ingredient says 200 grams (2 cups) of Almond Flour. I’m in Australia and we mainly use metric, but a cup is generally 250g. So is it 2 cups or 200grams? I’m thinking 2 cups but want to be sure before I go ahead. Thanks in advance…..
Lisa
October 12 at 12:55 pmHi Marita, it’s 200 grams by weight or about 2 cups by volume. Here’s a post on how I measure almond flour.
Stephanie
January 1 at 5:35 pmCould I substitute oat flour instead of almond flour?
Lisa
January 2 at 4:04 pmStephanie, grain flours and nut flours have very different characteristics, so they cannot be substituted for each other in recipes.
Shannon
January 19 at 1:21 pmI love paleo, especially yummy paleo recipes like this one!
Sheryl
February 4 at 4:55 pmVery Yummy and quick and easy to whip up!
Vanessa
September 21 at 12:00 pmI’m allergic to almonds (nuts). I know you can’t substitute coconut flour but can I use regular flour?
Traci
January 27 at 11:38 amThese were delicious. They were moist and nit gritty like many gluten free recipes I have tried. I switched to Paleo in January and been finding many delicious recipes.
Emily
February 3 at 8:14 amCould I make this in 8”cake pans? I would double the recipe of course.
Nicole
September 9 at 3:28 pmReally delicious! I doubled the recipe and it made 12 large muffins.
I used avocado oil instead of coconut oil/ghee and it was just fine.
I also used apple pie spice in place of just cinnamon.
Yum!!
Elisa
October 16 at 4:17 pmI just made these for my baby using unsweetened apple sauce in place of the honey …. yes !! apple sauce! (sugar free) Really good! Thank you!
Elizabeth
January 30 at 12:38 pmWhat is a good substitute for 3 eggs? I have a severe allergy and flax isn’t always the best when a recipe calls for more than one egg