Oh, these Apple Cider Muffins! Soft, spiced, and baked with reduced apple cider. While still warm, they are finished with a crisp, cider-butter cinnamon sugar coating for that donut crunch. Perfect for breakfast, snacking or as a fall treat.
I'll be honest, that my son usually insist that a proper muffin must contain chocolate chips, just like my sour cream chocolate chip muffins, or banana chocolate chunk muffins. So these Apple Cider Muffins are a rare exception. And I think that that cinnamon-sugar donut crust makes him forget the chocolate.
And if you end up with extra apple cider after baking, use it to make my buttery apple cider caramel sauce to drizzle over the warm muffins.
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Ingredients and substitutions
This is the ingredients overview, you can find ingredients quantities in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- For apple cider reduction: It is best to use unfiltered, old-fashioned, apple cider (the cloudy kind found at refrigerated produce section or local orchard). The pulp will give your muffins a deep flavor that you cannot replicate with apple juice.
- For muffins: You will need flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda, salt, regular sugar, brown sugar, eggs, oil, sour cream, vanilla extract, and apple cider reduction.
- For sugar cinnamon donut coating: You will need unsalted butter, cinnamon and granulated sugar.
Substitutions:
- Milk in place of sour cream: If you have just milk at home, you can use ⅓ cup of milk, plus 2 teaspoons of baking powder and omit the baking soda. Baking soda is needed only when sour cream or Greek yogurt is used.
- Butter in place of oil: You can use canola, vegetable or olive oil. If you want to use butter in place of oil, melt 8 tablespoon of unsalted butter, let it cool slightly and whisk it with the rest of wet ingredients.
How to make Apple Cider muffins
This is a step-by-step recipe overview. See recipe card for detailed instructions.
- Pour 2 cups of apple cider in a small saucepan. Let it simmer on medium-low for about 30 minutes until you have ¼ cup left. Let it cool down until warm or room temperature.
- In the first large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
- In the second large bowl, whisk eggs, sugars, oil, sour cream and vanilla extract.
- Add cooled down reduced apple cider. Whisk until well combined.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Use a silicone spatula to mix the batter just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Divide the batter between 12 muffing cups. This recipe makes 12-13 standard muffins.
- Bake muffins for 5 minutes at 425°F, reduce to 350°F and bake for another 13-15 minutes. The muffins are cooked when the toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
- Let muffins cool down in a pan for 5 minutes.
- Set up a bowl with melted butter and a bowl with whisked sugar and cinnamon.
- Dip each muffin top into melted butter, followed by cinnamon sugar. Set coated muffin on a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat the process with the rest of the muffins.
mistakes to avoid
There are a few things that can go wrong with this muffins and you can easily avoid them.
Mistake 1. Baking at 350°F for the whole duration will result in flat domes.
How to fix? Start at 425°F for first 5 minutes , then lower oven temperature to 350°F without opening the oven door. bake them at 425°F for 5 minutes. The initial heat shock will push the batter upward into tall, rounded bakery-style tops. (image 1)
Mistake 2. Dipping muffins into melted butter and cinnamon-sugar immediately after pulling them out of the oven. Hot steam melts the sugar instantly into a wet glaze.
How to fix? Let baked muffins rest for 5 minutes for the beautiful crisp apple-cinnamon tops.
Recipe Tips
- For best results, measure the ingredients using the kitchen scale.
- It is best to use unfiltered apple cider.
- Do not overmix the batter, it may remain with a few small lumps.
- For higher domes, bake at 425°F for the first 5 minutes.
Variations
So far, I have tested only one variation for this recipe. I have tried adding shredded apples to the batter. I recommend trying it as see if you like it.
My husband and my son voted for no grated apples version, while I absolutely loved them with apples. They come out super moist, and the apple shreds melt in your mouth after baking.
You simple shred 2 apples on a coarser side of a box grater. Use your hands to squeeze excess juice and fold the apples into the batter.
📖 Recipe
Apple Cider Muffins
Equipment
- 1 small saucepan
- 2 large bowls
- 1 standard 12-muffin pan
- 1 Whisk
Ingredients
Apple Cider Reduction Ingredients
- 2 cups (475 ml) unfiltered apple cider
Muffins Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup (75 grams) light or dark brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup (120 ml) canola oil or vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup (80 grams) full fat sour cream or Greek yogurt
- ½ cup (120 ml) reduced apple cider
- 1 (optional) large apple, grated
Cinnamon Sugar Donut Coating
- 3 tablespoons (45 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
Apple Cider Reduction Instructions
- In a small saucepan, bring 2 cups of unfiltered apple cider to a boil. Turn the heat to medium or medium-low and gently simmer it until reduced to about ½ cup. It should thicken and look darker. Mine took 30 minutes. Cool it down to room temperature, slightly warm is OK. You can make the reduction the day before. Tip: Before boiling, I like to pour exactly ½ cups of water to the saucer pan and look at where the water line hits. Pour out the water out and pour your 2 cups of apple cider.
Muffins Instructions
- Preheat oven to 420°F. Line the muffin tin with paper muffin liners or grease it well with neutral oil.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk 2 cups of flour, 1½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, ⅛ teaspoon allspice and ½ salt.
- In a second mixing bowl, add 2 eggs, ½ cup of granulated sugar. ⅓ cup of brown sugar, ⅓ cup of sour cream.Whisk until well combined and sugars are almost dissolved. Pour in ½ cup of reduced apple cider. Whisk again until combined.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients.Using a spatula fold, gently fold the batter until just combined and no flour streaks visible. Do not overmix. Optional add-in: If you like more texture and moisture in muffins, grate one large apple (Granny Smith, Gala or other) on medium side of a box shredder. Squeeze out the extra juice, and fold it into the batter.
- Divide batter evenly into 12muffin cups Bake at 425°F. for 5 minutes, reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for another 13-15 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean and the internal temperature reaches 200°F.
- Cool muffins in a pan for 5 minutes.Meanwhile prepare the sugar cinnamon coating.
- Brush or dip warm tops inn melted butter, then roll it right away generously in cinnamon sugar for a crunchy topping. Repeat with the rest of the muffins.Store these muffins at room temperature for1-3 days in an airtight container.
Cinnamon Sugar Donut Coating Instructions
- Add butter to the small or bowl (muffin should fit in it). Melt butter in a microwave.In second small or medium bowl, add ½ cup of granulated sugar and 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon. Whisk well to combine
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