Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins
A family favorite for years, these delicious, soft and fluffy healthy applesauce oat muffins are low in sugar and packed with whole grains.
The numbers don’t lie. With over 400 5-star reviews, these muffins have become a beloved favorite of many (and one of the most popular recipes on my site!).
Simple and straightforward, the muffins are lightly sweet, packed with whole grains, and most importantly: they are so very delicious.
A Very Straightforward Muffin
The batter for these applesauce oat muffins is simple as can be.
Mix together:
- old-fashioned or quick oats
- applesauce
- egg
- melted butter or coconut oil
- sugar or honey
- milk
And then combine that mixture with whole wheat flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
Optional: adding chocolate chips, craisins, or raisins is a very good idea!
Highly Adaptable
The beauty of this recipe being around for almost ten years is that almost any adaptation you can dream up has probably already been tried.
The comments are full of readers who have made the muffins dairy-free, gluten-free, and accidentally butter-free. 🙂
And in most cases, the report back is that the variations are amazing! So if you’re looking to alter these muffins in any which way, read through the comments for some inspiration.
For instance, a comment from Carolyn: These muffins are delicious!! I made them gluten free by using oat flour instead of wheat flour. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. They have been added to my regular rotation!
Wholesome and Delicious
For me, I love the basic simplicity of these muffins. They aren’t fancy. They also aren’t fussy.
They are the perfect every day muffin for after school snacks, easy breakfasts, school lunchboxes, and everything in between.
I’m very loyal to recipes that stand the test of time, and this one certainly has. My friend, Katie, served these muffins to us during a playdate at her house years ago when we had just moved to northern Minnesota and knew hardly another soul in the area.
I didn’t even wait until the playdate was over to beg for the recipe. (Although more than the muffins, I’m incredibly grateful for the sweet and loyal friend Katie quickly became.)
Friendship > muffins. Although this recipe proves that muffins might very easily be the gateway to great friends.
FAQ for Applesauce Oat Muffins
Yes, it doubles great.
The baked and cooled muffins freeze GREAT. I place them in a gallon-size freezer ziploc bag and freeze. We defrost in the microwave or on the counter for a few hours.
Sure, and you can use flavored applesauce as well (like cinnamon, etc). If using sweetened applesauce, you can probably decrease or omit the sugar in the recipe.
Steel cut oats don’t work very well in this recipe because they don’t soften and absorb as much liquid (they stay coarse and crunchy), but you can sub quick oats for the old-fashioned oats.
Many readers (and comments below) have made that substitution with great results!
One Years Ago: Easy Amish-Baked Oatmeal
Two Years Ago: Healthy Breakfast Cookies
Three Years Ago: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
Four Years Ago: Healthy Dark Chocolate Almond Joy Bites
Five Years Ago: Southwestern Chicken Barley Chili
Six Years Ago: Cheesy Black Bean Lasagna
Seven Years Ago: Whole Grain Honey Bran Muffins
Eight Years Ago: Skillet Butternut Squash, Sausage and Penne
Nine Years Ago: Cheesy Ham and Broccoli Quinoa
Ten Years Ago: Egg-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies with Cream Cheese
Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup (100 g) old-fashioned rolled oats (see note)
- 1 cup (227 g) unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup milk
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ cup (57 g) butter or coconut oil, melted
- ⅓ cup (71 g) granulated sugar or honey
- ¾ cup (107 g) whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (70 g) dried cranberries or raisins (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners or grease the muffin cups. Set aside..
- In a medium bowl, stir together the oatmeal, applesauce, milk, egg, vanilla, butter and sugar. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt (and cranberries or raisins if using). Make a well in the center and pour in the applesauce mixture. Stir until just combined (don’t overmix or the muffins will be dense and dry). The muffin batter texture might be a bit different (wetter?) than other muffin batters but no fear, carry on!
- Distribute the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Don’t overbake or the muffins will be dry.
- Remove the muffins to a rack to cool completely. Once cool, I place 6-9 muffins in a large freezer ziploc bag, suck all the air out (oh yes I do) and seal the bag, then freeze, pulling them out one by one to stick in my kids lunches or warm slightly for a snack.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from my friend, Katie K.
Recipe originally posted September 2013; updated January 2022 with new photos, recipe notes, etc.
Do you think you could use finely ground oats in place of the whole wheat flour? I’m trying to make them GF and don’t have GF flour, but my oats are GF.
I haven’t tried that, but it’s definitely worth experimenting!
I am a registered dietitian and I love these muffins, they are indeed healthy! I make them a few times a week for breakfast for my kiddos, sometimes I cut back on the sugar and it still works great.
These turned out fantastic as loaves! I doubled the recipe and made 6 small loaves – I did bake them for 30 minutes instead of 20 in the recipe.
I also used cup4cup GF flour, agave as my sweetener, and vanilla almond milk instead of regular cows milk.
Thank you for a great and easy recipe!
Amazing, thanks for your adaptations and notes!
Do these have to be refrigerated or can they be stored at room temp for a few days?
They can be stored at room temperature.
This is my go to muffin recipe. I make them every couple of weeks. My only changes are two TBSP agave instead of 1/3 c sweetener, and added shredded carrot, and walnuts. Delicious! Perfect for breakfast, or an afternoon treat with some almond butter!
Thanks for sharing!
I made these with my granddaughter; super easy and tasty. I made them gluten free by using certified GF quick oats, Bob’s Red Mill GF flour (though any of the cup for cup blends would probably work. King Arthur GF flour is my current favorite but I had Bob’s and also like Cup4cup) Also make sure your baking powder is GF. Like others have said they are a good base for other flavors to play off. Oh and I made them as mini muffins and it yielded about 36 muffins (1 regular muffin is equal to 3 minis). I reduced the head to 350 and baked for about 11 minutes but your oven will vary. Thank you for a great recipe!
Love this one. I’ve made it for the second time in 2 days — helping to use up my huge stash of homemade thicker-than-applesauce-but-not-apple-butter. I used part yogurt, part apple juice as liquid in the first batch. Less fat and sugar than many applesauce muffin recipes, so more a real muffin than a cupcake. I haven’t added any nuts or raisins, lest I frighten the grandkids. Oh– and I ran out of whole wheat flour, so used all purpose flour.
Do you think half old fashioned and half quick oats would turn out okay? I don’t want them to be too chewy for my toddler.
Yes, that should work just fine!
These are lovely! I was looking for a recipe that would help me use up the silly amount of old-fashioned oats and canned applesauce that I have. I doubled this recipe and followed the directly exactly (using butter, honey, and oat milk), but while the first batch was in the oven, I eyeballed some cocoa powder for the remaining batter. This recipe seems quite customizable and forgiving — since the extra powder made my batter a bit drier, I just baked the muffins for a minute or two less! Both versions were quite yummy. The original have a subtle flavor and aren’t too sweet (which is perfect for me). I may add a little more cinnamon next time since I prefer a stronger flavor there, but the texture of them is perfect. I’ll be freezing about half and then using some for lunches throughout the week. Thanks for the great recipe!
I am getting ready to make these and wonder if I can use maple syrup in place of the honey? Thank you!
Should work just fine!
Question before I make these for the first time..if I food process the oats beforehand, would that change the outcome much? My kids can be picky so I don’t want to waste my time if this would mess things up. Thank you for any advice!
Hi Sonia, I haven’t tried blending the oats, but it is worth a try. It should work fine as long as you use the amount of oats in the recipe and THEN blend (versus measuring out blended oats).
These are delicious! So moist, will definitely double up next time. The only change I made was almond flour and almond milk. Mine also took 22-23 minutes. It was a perfect dozen with raisins. Will be making often, thank you for sharing.
These taste delicious, but there was hardly enough batter for eight small muffins. I wish I knew how much to increase each ingredient to make twelve!
Made with chocolate chips! Everyone loved.
These came out so moist that I cooked them for an additional 10 minutes and they are still very soft. I made mine with whole grain einkorn and went ahead and doubled the recipe. My kids can’t stop eating these tonight and I was trying to save them for breakfast 🙂
This is a fantastic base recipe to alter. I added chia seeds, ground flax, collagen, cocoa powder, chopped hazelnuts, coconut, and honestly maybe even more. I just kinda walked around my kitchen and added healthy stuff to bulk it up. They turned out great, I was a little apprehensive about the chia seeds soaking up liquid but it was fine. I may try fresh berries next time, and some of this peanut butter flavored powder I have, I think it is Moringa? Maca? Not sure which one. Could also add hemp seed. I’m already going to prep another batch by mixing the dry ingredients now and holding off on the wet. Thanks!
I make these at least once a week and add a big spoonful of pumpkin puree and maybe a tablespoon of hemp hearts if I have them. My kids love them so much that I have to double the recipe or my husband and I don’t even get one. They stick to ordinary muffin liners, but not to parchment paper ones. Super delicious!
Holy cow! These are delicious. One question…Why does the recipe call for so much applesauce when there is also butter?
It’s the way the recipe was written and tested – applesauce adds sweetness and moisture.
I have made these twice now! Once with raisins and walnuts and once with blueberries. They are so good! I am going to make a double batch freeze one batch and give them to a friend who is about to have her second baby. I feel like she will love them and also her toddler!
Absolutely delicious! I used sugar instead of honey. Not too sweet with a delicious cinnamon flavor. Definitely will be making again!
I make these constantly- usually I make them with overripe bananas and use canola oil as I have to watch my saturated fat. They are fantastic with some nut butter of any flavor on top!
I made these muffins for the first time, but, not my last. Followed the recipe as directed using melted coconut oil and honey. I added raisins. They are so moist and delicious flavour. Thanks for sharing. I will be taking these to our fellowship time at church.
I’ve been a long time follower of Mel, she’s my “homie” as my kids would say haha. I used my homemade chunky unsweetened applesauce, coconut oil, coconut milk, and I sprinkled turbinado sugar on the top of them just before baking. Oh, ,and I added frozen raspberries to the flour mixture. Delicious! Thanks for a great healthy recipe.
Thanks, Jenn!
great muffins!