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.
I have made these several times as they are my grandchildren’s favorite! I follow the recipe exactly as written using brown sugar and melted butter. Even without modifications these are pretty darn healthy in my opinion, and the kids love the raisins. Thank you for such a basic and delicious recipe!
Love this recipe!!!!! I despise oatmeal unless it’s in a cookie. With this recipe being so adaptable, I used Splenda instead of sugar, Canola oil instead of butter or coconut oil and couldn’t find my cinnamon so substituted unsweet cocoa powder. They are fabulous! Will have to try with peanut butter soon.
DELICIOUS. I made them this week & have been enjoying them for breakfast. I added 1/4 cup each of raisins & chopped pecans. Thank you for a great healthy recipe! Mary
These have been a big hit in my house for a while now! Very good as written!! Thanks for always giving us great recipes so we can feel like rockstars in the kitchen too!
Thanks so much, Jenn!
Mel – do you know if you are using hard or soft wheat? I made it today with soft wheat and I think they needed a bit more as they came out really super soft. Really tasty, just feels like they need a bit more flour.
I use hard white wheat or einkhorn wheat.
My kids’ favorite breakfast! Fast, easy, simple, and so good! We make these at least once per week.
Just made these and they’re great. Don’t know why I waited so long to make them. Thanks!
These just came out of the oven a few minutes ago for an after school snack. They are a hit! Delicious and nutritious. Ever since I got the USA muffin tins (thanks to your recommendation), I love making muffins. I make those pumpkin chocolate chip muffins a couple times a month, no matter if it’s pumpkin season or not. I didn’t used to love muffins, but thanks to you I’ve found a few delicious recipes we all love.
These are baking as I type! I don’t know if my version is ‘healthy’ though! I used cinnamon applesauce, sugar, added pecans and sprinkled vanilla sugar on top before baking LOLOL
Anxious for them to finish baking!!
Can I use flaxseeds or milo for get substitute?
I haven’t tried that, but you could definitely experiment.
Sooo good and great for kid lunches, now I am starting to experiment, pumpkin instead of apple sauce etc. Kids devour them all. Yum!
Amazing! I have been meaning to try these for years, and I’m so glad I finally did! My kids gobbled them up (my husband and I did, too). I doubled the batch and made them dairy free with your suggestions and used half honey/half sugar. I think they’d be sweet enough with all honey, but we were running low, so halfsies it was. Thanks, Mel! This is absolutely a keeper!
Yay, Lindsey! I’m so glad they worked out so well!
Looks and sounds delish from all the comments! I do not have wheat flour on hand; will it be okay to substitute half oat flour and half wheat bran instead?
I haven’t tried that substitution but it’s worth a try!
Super yummy! Will make it again and again. I switched out the egg for 1/2 of a banana (allergies) and it worked out great!
I’ve been making these with pumpkin instead of applesauce, using freshly ground flour (half wheat, half oats). They’re delicious! We also loved the original recipe.
These are so good. My husband asked me to make more even after he learned they were “healthy”! The only real problem is that I could eat them all by myself in short order (does eating all 12 in one sitting negate the healthy part?)
My family and friends love these! And I always read and get a chuckle out of your original post. Cam the linebacker
Haha, that’s amazing you know the original wording. I figured after almost ten years of calling Cam a linebacker, I owed it to her to change up the wording a bit. 🙂
Love this recipe! Next time I’m going to sprinkle coarse sugar on top before baking. I, also, want to try this recipe with chopped walnuts. Love oatmeal! Love applesauce! The whole wheat flour is a bonus.
Tripled the recipe brought them to our senior coffee, there were none left , easy to make and so good
I am glad you reposted this recipe! Just baked and they are great.
These are completely delicious.
They look amazing! Question – could I grind the oats to “hide” them?
I think you probably could! The texture of the muffins will change – and you might want less oats if you grind them like flour so the muffins aren’t too dense.
One of our favorite of your many wonderful muffins! So good and easy! Have been making them for years
Made the apple oat muffins this morning, delicious! I used white flour and they turned out exactly like your picture. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for posting the recipe again. I make muffins a few times a month and I’ve made these before. A super easy and healthy recipe, and tasty! I added blueberries, and a little shelled hemp seeds and flax seed meal to boost the nutrition. I also used one of our own duck eggs and homemade vanilla which was a Christmas gift. Many thanks to you for all your wonderful recipes! The house smells great too!
I’ve made these muffins countless times and love them! If you let the oats soak in the milk and applesauce for 20 minutes before making the rest of the muffins they come out with a domed top.
Thanks, Jayme!
I wanted to make these as close to “whole food plant based” as possible, so here are my substitutions: plant butter (smart balance), soy milk, monkfruit sweetener (instead of sugar), a flax egg, pumpkin puree for half of the applesauce, and frozen blueberries instead of cranberries. I baked it for about 18 minutes. It was super yummy! I’ve made this recipe the regular way several times and this new way was just as good.
One of our favorites for sure!
Made this recipe tonight with cranberries, and the result is delicious. I had to cook just a bit more than 20 minutes before they were done, but these muffins ended up moist and with a bit of chew from the rolled oats. Glad I found this recipe; I’ll make it again.
Thanks for sharing.
Absolutely delicious, moist and tasty applesauce muffins! Thanks!
Can quick oats be used?
Yes – the texture will be a bit different, but they will work fine.
Really enjoyed these. I used ap flour and skipped the craisins and vanilla as that is what I had. Also made a second batch with 1/2c applesauce and like 1/2-3/4c grated carrot (with a little less sugar) and it was good too. Can I link to your recipe on my blog?
Thanks!
Easy and good! I also reduced honey to 3 T. Thanks for the recipe!
For anyone wondering: These are good made dairy free with coconut oil and almond milk! I add an extra little spoonful of coconut oil to make up for the fat missing from milk. These are delicious and we make quadruple batches. Thank you for the recipe!
Mel, I adore this recipe. I have been making these muffins for years. It’s the perfect base recipe for healthy add ins like shredded zucchini, mashed banana, nuts etc! Tonight I doubled the recipe and baked in a 9×9 for a snack cake. It was perfect. Thank you for your consistently reliable recipes! You are my go to and one of my favorite resources!
do you know the amount of carbs per muffin?
I dont – sorry!
Last year I had lots of applesauce that needed used up when I googled this recipe. Probably the greatest thing I ever did! Haha I make huge batches and freeze them and pull them out and throw them in the microwave on mornings when we need a quick breakfast. I have started substituting honey for the sugar and that’s delicious too. Thanks for the great recipe!! It has made my life 100 times easier!
We love these muffins and make them all the time. Light and delicious.
Can you substitute oat flour for whole wheat flour? What is the ratio?
I make these often. I love how easy they are. Often complimented on how good they taste. Thankyou Mel.
I forgot to put in the melted butter (left in microwave) and they still turned out delicious. I did 1/2 with chocolate chips and the other plain. Yummy!!!
Love these little muffins! I have reduced the sugar to 3 TBSP without any complaints in my household. When the craisens add sweetness – no one notices. I just made them today I had no applesauce so I subbed 3/4 c of banana purée ( I only had two ripe bananas) . I again reduced the sugar to 3TBSP left out the dried cranberries and added a few mini chocolate chips. I was out of wheat flour so I ground more oats into oat flour. The muffins turned out perfect. These muffins are very versatile and could be made many ways. They are my go to breakfast muffin. Thanks Mel for the great recipe.
These are delicious!! Made exactly as written and my fmaily devoured them!
I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve made this recipe over the past 4 years. My kids and I love them!! I usually don’t leave comments but I just had to say thank you!!
Thanks, Sarah!
Quarantine baking adventures… we’ve been making all kinds of new foods from your site that I’ve been eyeing. Now with nothing to do, baking has really been my saving grace!
We made these muffins yesterday with what I had on hand. I used the coconut oil so I could save butter for something else, had one gogosqueeze cinnamon applesauce pouch and a container of baby pear puree. Adjusted the cinnamon to reflect the gogosqueeze, but once they came out of the oven you would never have known how many subsitutes we used!
My three kids devoured all 12 muffins before lunch! Such a healthy (and thankfully forgiving) breakfast recipe! My daughter calls them sprinkle muffins now because of the oatmeal texture at the top. Can’t wait to make these again with the original ingredients! Ha!
I only have steel cut oats…will this work still with those?!
I don’t think so – steel cut oats are much different than rolled oats and won’t absorb the liquid in the same way.
Love these! I accidentally commented on the applesauce carrot muffins so Ill keep this short. These are very good,! They use ingredients you have on hand. They were plenty sweet to me so I will knock the sugar down a little. Thanks for the post!
These muffins are my go-to now! A friend passed these along and I love them!! I made a double batch last night but only used about 1 C of sugar instead of the full amount and they were still just as sweet!
Will these turn put subbing honey for the sugar?
Haven’t tried that so I’m not sure – sorry!
Made this a few times now, and passed the recipe onto a few others! Love! Tonight’s version I subbed one banana for 1/2 cup of the applesauce and it’s my best batch yet! But of course I add 2/3 cup choc chips every time. So incredibly yummy!
I made these tonight with your baked chicken nuggets and they were a huge hit!! The cranberries absorbed some of that AMAZING moisture and plumped right up. The kids gobbled them up and my hubby and I loved them. Thank you, your recipes are consistently fabulous!