Name: Apple Pie Streusel Muffin
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 26 muffins
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 8 ounces butter, room temperature; 8 ounces Sugar; 2 each Egg; 10 ounces all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 10 ounces sour cream; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 19 ounces apple pie filling; 8 ounces all-purpose flour; 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 2.75 ounces brown sugar; 6 ounces butter, cold, cut into small pieces; 3 ounces oats

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Homemade apple streusel muffins are my most favorite muffin in the whole world. With a tangy sour cream muffin recipe base, flavored with apple pie filling and topped with a brown sugar, cinnamon, and oat streusel, these easy muffins are perfect for a fall breakfast.

side shot of apple pie streusel muffin on a dark wooden board.

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When I was younger and just started college, I worked at a corporate breakfast and lunch place as a barista. Looking at me you wouldn’t know that I can make a mean cappuccino. However, in my months of working there, I discovered something I didn’t know about myself. I realized that I wasn’t a huge fan of muffins, but I also learned that there is one muffin I would never ever turn down. An apple streusel muffin.

After working at that place, I made it my mission to replicate that same muffin because it just made me so happy. Usually, when fall kicks into high gear, I just don’t get it. I don’t get the pumpkin spice, I don’t get all the fall things. I’m a summer girl. I love the beach, I love lemonade, I love juicy watermelon dripping down my arm. Fall has none of that.

angled shot of apple pie streusel muffin with a white coffee cup in the background.

Except, I love apples! And apples come into season in the fall. I finally have found a way that I can now embrace fall and it’s with these delicious homemade apple cinnamon muffins. These muffins are simple enough to make so let’s dive right in!

How to Make Apple Streusel Muffins

These muffins have a few key parts to them that make them amazing:

A sour cream muffin base
Apple pie filling (oh yeah! I go all out with these!)
A crunchy and crumbly streusel topping for muffins

Together, these three elements create a super moist, flavorful, and texturally pleasant muffin. There’s a whole science on how to make a proper muffin, but that’s for another time. I first want to touch on the sour cream muffin base.

Sour Cream Muffin Recipe Base

Like I had mentioned above, I’m not a huge muffin fan. I guess it’s because I didn’t grow up with them so much. My husband, though, that man is a muffin connoisseur! He can tell within the first bite if a muffin is worth his time or not. And he raves over this sour cream muffin base.

Honestly, people, this recipe is 100% fail proof! I have tested this recipe probably 50 different times with different variables and if you have a question, I’ve got an answer.

overhead shot of apple pie streusel muffins unbaked with whole apples next to them.

What makes this base so different from traditional muffin bases is the amount of fat in the base. You also can mix and mix this base and you won’t have steep tops and severe tunneling in your muffins (which are big no-no’s in muffin making). Traditional muffins also seem just a bit too dry and crumbly for me.

I love this sour cream muffin base because it’s super versatile. These are delicious just plain, but if you want to add, let’s say, blueberries, just add 6 ounces of blueberries. Of course, it’s your world and you can add as many blueberries as you’d like. However, with a plain muffin base recipe, usually adding 6 ounces of whatever flavor you want will give you the results you want! Sometimes I like to be adventurous and add nuts as part of my muffins!

Now I know some of you might be wondering if there is a substitute for sour cream for a healthier option, and good news–YES! THERE IS! See, I know this recipe like the back of my hand! I find that using plain yogurt, Greek or regular, gives you the same consistency and same flavor as sour cream. I would just use caution in using vanilla yogurt as that tends to be sweeter and I like to control everything in my recipes; plain would be the best option to go with!

Flavoring Apple Muffins With Apple Pie Filling

I go into more detail on how to make apple pie filling with this post, but you are more than welcome to use any apple pie filling you like. I’m just biased and think mine is pretty spectacular.

As I said in the section about the sour cream muffin recipe base, usually you add only 6 ounces of additives to flavor your muffins recipes. However… I bend the rules for this particular recipe because I LURVE apples so much! So with my easy apple pie muffins, I do waaaaaaaaaaay more than the 6 ounces! For this batch, I add about 19 ounces of the apple pie filling because I wanted a bunch of apple in each bite.

Streusel Topping For Muffins

You might be thinking to yourself that this cinnamon streusel topping looks awfully familiar and you would be correct! I use this same topping for my Apple Pie with Oatmeal Streusel Topping.

I love the flavors that are inherently in this crumble because they complement the apple muffins so well! For my streusel, I love using cinnamon, brown sugar, and oats. The flavors found in this streusel crumble topping gives such a great contrasting texture to what’s going on in the muffins themselves.

close up of baked apple pie streusel muffin.

If you don’t want streusel on your muffins, then bake away; if you do though, add as much streusel as you want. I ended up filling up the rest of space in the tins with the streusel.

The best thing about this recipe is that it stays super moist for days (if they last that long, let’s be honest!) and they are so tender. Yum yum! Though, if you don’t think you can eat all that this recipe makes, you can freeze half of the batter and bake the other half. Or you can freeze some of the muffins and either reheat them in the oven or a microwave!

My husband is the connoisseur of muffins and says that this recipe is, by far, his favorite muffin recipe he’s ever had. Every time I tell him I am making muffins, his eyes light up and it is suddenly the best day of his life all over again.

I hope you guys enjoy this recipe. Let me know what you think down below with a comment (and a rating!)

Happy eating, everyone!

For more awesome apple recipes, check these posts out:

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Yield: 26 muffins

Apple Pie Streusel Muffin

Homemade apple streusel muffins are my most favorite muffin in the whole world With a tangy sour cream muffin recipe base, flavored with apple pie filling and topped with a brown sugar, cinnamon, and oat streusel, these easy muffins are perfect for a fall breakfast.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

8 ounces butter, room temperature
8 ounces Sugar
2 each Egg
10 ounces all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
10 ounces sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
19 ounces apple pie filling

Streusel

8 ounces all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2.75 ounces brown sugar
6 ounces butter, cold, cut into small pieces
3 ounces oats

Instructions

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until super white and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.
Add eggs one at a time, making sure that each is fully incorporated and the bowl is scraped in between each egg before adding another. Add the vanilla extract.
Add the sour cream to the muffin batter, making sure that the batter is completely mixed together.
Meanwhile, measure out and mix all dry ingredients together. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scrape the bowl once more and then begin to slowly add the dry mix to the wet.
Add apple pie filling to the batter.
Grease a muffin pan with non-stick spray; using an ice cream scoop, scoop batter into the muffin pan. Once all cups are filled, top with streusel and place into the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the top is set. Let cool before removing from the pan.

Streusel

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Cut butter into the dry ingredients to resemble a mealy consistency. Add to muffins your heart desires. Store in an air tight container in the fridge for a week or freeze for next use.

Notes

This recipe makes 26 regular sized muffins. If you wish to make jumbo muffins, you'll get about 13. Be sure to bake for an additional 10 minutes, testing for doneness.

Here is my Apple Pie Filling recipe that you can use to make these muffins

Apple Pie Streusel Muffins