These apple cinnamon almond blender muffins are for a Hero. As in, literally a boy named Hero. A couple of months ago his mom sent me a message on Instagram saying he’d watched my segment on AM Northwest when I made chipotle cauliflower tacos, and suggested the cauliflower as a veggie side for their dinner that night. Furthermore, she told me he likes my blender muffins, so naturally I needed to dedicate a recipe to one of the coolest fans ever. So Hero, these are for you. I hope you love them. 🙂
As with all of my blender muffin recipes, they start with a base of rolled oats. This makes them gluten-free if you use certified gluten-free oats. As the name implies, these also have apples, almonds, and cinnamon. Baking soda for lift, salt for flavor, coconut sugar for sweetness, and almond extract to bring out that extra almondyness. Normally I’d just have you toss all this in a blender and bake away, but these muffins have just one small extra step that’s worth the effort.
We’re going to add two apples to the mix to make up part of the liquid. So the first thing you need to do is core and chop two apples, and blend them to smithereens. Then just add water to the applesaucy mixture to make 2 cups of liquid. Every apple is different in terms of water content, so the amount of water you need will vary. If you don’t want to do this step but want the extra apple flavor, just use apple juice instead of water. YUM. I used SweetTango apples here, which have been described as the perfect Fall apple, and I have to agree!
From there just add all of the other ingredients and blendy blend blend until the batter is smoothish and a pourable consistency. If it’s not pourable, add water a little at a time until it is pourable. Then you can, you know, pour it into the muffin liners. Fill em’ up all the way, they can take it.
Then thinly slice one more apple and lay them on top of each muffin liner in an X shape. You don’t have to do this, of course, but it looks cool so you should.
Then bake at 375F for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. The apples dry out a bit and add some nice texture to the top of the muffin when you devour them.
Now go be someone’s Hero and make these muffins! Or if this particular flavor combination doesn’t float your boat, pick from this ever-growing list:
Vegan Blender Muffins
Vegan Double Chocolate Hazelnut Blender Muffins
Carrot Cake Blender Muffins
Vegan Pumpkin Blender Muffins
Pistachio Cardamom Blender Muffins
Thank you for inspiring these muffins, Hero! Hope I get to meet you one day, I think you’re super cool.
Apple Cinnamon Almond Blender Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 3 apples, divided*
- 3/4 cup roasted unsalted almonds, or other nut of your choice (pepitas also work for a nut-free option)
- 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar, maple syrup, or other sugar of your choice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla extract
Instructions
- Core two apples and cut into chunks.
- Add apple chunks to a blender and puree until mostly smooth.
- Pour the apple puree into a liquid measuring cup and add water or apple juice until the volume has reached 2 cups.
- Add the apple liquid to a blender along with the remaining ingredients.
- Blend until the batter is mostly smooth and pourable. If the batter is too thick to pour, add water a bit at a time until it is just pourable.
- Fill muffin liners with the batter until almost full.
- Core and thinly slice remaining apple, layering two to three slices on top of each muffin liner.
- Bake at 375F for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
- Let cool before enjoying!
Nutrition
Disclosure: I was provided SweeTango apples to use for this recipe at no cost to me, but I received no other compensation. This recipe and my opinions are my own.
These were delicious! Yesterday I made the original “vegan blender muffins”, and found them to be a good base recipe for any muffin. I was planning to add to it today, until I saw this recipe! I didn’t have almonds, and I’m currently soaking the last of my cashews for lasagna soup later, so I used a dollop of almond butter and hoped for the best! I halved the recipe since I was unsure and didn’t want to waste ingredients, but those 6 muffins disappeared immediately! So tasty!!! Will probably become a breakfast staple in our house.
Do you peel and core the apples ahead of time? Or just core them?
Sorry I missed this question! I don’t prep them at all ahead of time, I just cut around the core so there are four big pieces (peel and all) and chuck them in the blender. 🙂
These were amazing! My one year old loved them. I used 3 dates instead of the sugar. Thank you so much for the amazing recipe!
I’m on a salt free diet for the next 3 months and need something for breakfast! Can I not put salt in the muffins?