Cinnamon Apple Streusel Muffins

Cinnamon Apple Streusel Muffins aka when breakfast feels like dessert. Eat one of these and you'll be questioning how you ever did breakfast differently.

Cinnamon apple streusel muffins are an easy and delicious way to get some fruit in your body while feeling like you're eating a treat. Seriously, these are a treat. I am not exaggerating when I say that when I first bit into one of these babies, my eyes crossed and rolled into the back of my head. The next bite took them even further until suddenly I was staring at my own brain and wondering what would happen if I finished the muffin. OK, slight exaggeration but I DO mean it when I say that there was a bit of crossing and rolling. These are UNREAL.

I was initially hankering to make some blueberry muffins but was not even remotely interested in going back out to the grocery store. I realized we had an excessive amount of apples, and next thing you know… I was making your new favorite breakfast treat.

Everyone likes the top portion of the muffin the best, including myself. The crystallized and crunchy streusel topping does, in fact, take these to another level (I mean, LOOK at that topping!), but you'll be pleasantly surprised that even as you bite into the bottom portion, you still get that super yummy, ‘holy wow these are insane,' feeling. Usually I am bored with a muffin by the time I reach the bottom, but these fall into the must-eat-it-all category.  I would attribute that to using a combination of white and brown sugar, rather than going white all the way like most muffin recipes do.

As usual, Seware was all, “hmm, not sure how I will feel because I don't like cinnamon and I'm not a fan of apple muffins.” Yea, OK dude… a likely story. Trust your girl from time to time! Sure enough, he bit in and was sold. Katie wins again, what else is new?

Anyway, these are perfect with coffee, as a grab-and-go breakfast, for a Sunday brunch, for a snack, for a holiday breakfast… anything, really. They're super quick and easy. Total prep time won't go beyond 30-35 minutes, depending on how fast you work. Chances are you have most ingredients in your pantry.

Looking for other breakfast breads? Try my Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze or my Low-Fat Banana Bread!

Cinnamon Apple Streusel Muffins

Ingredients

For the muffins:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 1/2 cups apple, diced small (type optional, but I used honeycrisp)

For the topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream softened butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and cinnamon.
4. Dice apples into small cubes and fold into the creamed mixture. Slowly mix in the flour mixture.
5. In a small bowl, use a fork to mix together the melted butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon to make the streusel topping. Break apart some of the larger clumps so there is a good combination of small, medium and large crumbles.
6. Evenly distribute the muffin mix in a prepared muffin pan and sprinkle each with the streusel topping.
7. Bake at 400 degrees F for 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for another 15 minutes.

Enjoy warm for the full effect!