Cooking and Serving: 35 minutes | 12 muffins
Ingredients
Tips for making perfect gluten free muffins with applesauce | Storing your gluten free applesauce muffins | Gluten free flour – I usually bake with Better Batter’s classic gluten free
Description
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 12 muffins
Ingredients
Tips for making perfect gluten free muffins with applesauce
Storing your gluten free applesauce muffins
Gluten free flour – I usually bake with Better Batter’s classic gluten free
Baking powder – Baking powder provides much of the lift in these muffins, so
Baking soda – Baking soda helps with rise, but its main job here is to help
Salt – Salt offsets the sweetness and enhances the other flavors in these
Ground cinnamon – Since these are meant to be really simple, almost plain
Granulated sugar – Sugar is both a sweetener and a tenderizer in these
Butter – Melted butter adds flavor and tenderness to these muffins, but also
Applesauce – Together with the melted butter, the smooth, unsweetened
Buttermilk – Buttermilk adds tenderness and some flavor to these muffins.
Eggs – The eggs in this recipe help create the structure, and the egg whites
Vanilla – Pure vanilla extract adds some depth of flavor to these super
2 cups (280 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend
1 teaspoon xanthan gum, (omit if your blend already contains it)
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
6 tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
⅔ cup (160 g) applesauce, at room temperature
⅓ cup (2.66 fluid ounces) buttermilk, at room temperature
2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Cinnamon sugar mixture, for sprinkling (optional; see Recipe Notes)
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 425°F. Grease or line the wells of a standard 12-cup.
In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda,.
salt, ground cinnamon, and granulated sugar, and whisk to combine well.
Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients in the large bowl and add.
until just combined. The batter will be very soft.
Divide the batter among the prepared wells of the muffin tin. Shake the pan.
Sprinkle the tops of the batter in the muffin wells with a light dusting of.
Place the muffins in the center of the preheated oven, and let them bake for.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue to bake until a toothpick.
crumbs attached (about another 15 minutes). Do not overbake.
Remove the pan from the oven. Allow the muffins to cool in the tin for 5.
minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
* Tips for making perfect gluten free muffins with applesauce
* Gluten free applesauce muffins: ingredients and potential substitutions
* Storing your gluten free applesauce muffins
* Gluten Free Applesauce Muffins Recipe
WHAT MAKES THESE GLUTEN FREE MUFFINS WITH APPLESAUCE SPECIAL?
Usually, when we describe something as “plain,” it’s not intended as a
compliment. This recipe for gluten free muffins made with applesauce is a true
exception to that rule. They may be plain, but they’re full of all the light,
tender texture and light sweetness of the best snacking muffins, and never leave
you feeling weighed down.
Applesauce adds a lot of tenderness to baked goods, and can even be used in
place of mashed bananas in some recipes like our gluten free banana pancakes
. It doesn’t have the
polarizing flavor of bananas, though, tending to fade into the background
If you’re looking for a muffin with lots of apple flavor, you’ll need one that
has chopped apples mixed into the batter. Luckily, we already have that one in
our gluten free apple muffins
recommend and have long been a reader favorite recipe, especially in the fall.
* Gluten free flour – I usually bake with Better Batter’s classic gluten free
all purpose flour blend, and this recipe is no exception. You can also use
Cup4Cup, or either my mock blends for those packaged blends, which you can
find on my all purpose gluten free flour blends
* Baking powder – Baking powder provides much of the lift in these muffins, so
be sure that yours is fresh, or they won’t rise as intended.
* Baking soda – Baking soda helps with rise, but its main job here is to help
the muffins brown easily and evenly in the oven.
* Salt – Salt offsets the sweetness and enhances the other flavors in these
* Ground cinnamon – Since these are meant to be really simple, almost plain
muffins, ground cinnamon in the muffins and in the optional cinnamon sugar
topping adds a really nice flavor. You can also add 1/4 teaspoon of freshly
grated nutmeg, or replace the entire amount of ground cinnamon with apple pie
spice for even more complex flavor.
* Granulated sugar – Sugar is both a sweetener and a tenderizer in these
muffins. If you choose to use an alternative sugar, they tend to be quite
drying, so you may have to add more liquid to reach the right batter
* Butter – Melted butter adds flavor and tenderness to these muffins, but also
makes a more compact crumb, which is helpful since the applesauce tends to
make a more open crumb.
* Applesauce – Together with the melted butter, the smooth, unsweetened
applesauce in these gf muffins with applesauce adds plenty of moisture and
has some pectin from the apples, which acts as a bit of a thickening agent
and helps these muffins stay fresher, longer.
* Buttermilk – Buttermilk adds tenderness and some flavor to these muffins.
It’s thicker than milk, though, so remember not to replace it with regular
milk (yes, even if you’ve soured it with some lemon juice!).
* Eggs – The eggs in this recipe help create the structure, and the egg whites
even absorb some of the moisture of the applesauce, creating the perfect
* Vanilla – Pure vanilla extract adds some depth of flavor to these super
simple, lightly sweet muffins.
Applesauce muffin with white liner peeled back
muffin with white liner peeled back
TIPS FOR MAKING PERFECT GLUTEN FREE MUFFINS WITH APPLESAUCE
MAKE SURE YOUR APPLESAUCE IS SMOOTH AND UNSWEETENED
This recipe is developed using smooth, unsweetened applesauce without any
clumps. It’s not smooth like a liquid, but is really consistent with minimal
texture. That’s what combines well with the other ingredients in these lightly
sweet gf breakfast muffins.
CHOOSE YOUR GLUTEN FREE FLOUR BLEND CAREFULLY
The simpler the recipe, the more important your flour blend is. I highly
recommend using Better Batter’s classic blend (or our mock blend
Cup4Cup, my favorite gf flour blends in this recipe for consistently good, light
MEASURE ALL YOUR DRY INGREDIENTS
Measuring measure dry ingredients accurately, since dry measuring cups tend to vary and
you can’t avoid human error—no matter how experienced the baker! You can buy a
simple Escali brand scale for
less than $30, and it’s all you really need for years of measuring.
IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY BUTTERMILK ON HAND, USE A PROPER REPLACEMENT
Regular milk with lemon juice isn’t buttermilk, but you can replace buttermilk
with half regular milk and half sour cream, buttermilk in this recipe, so it’s a little harder to measure accurately by
total volume, so try using 3⅓ tablespoons regular milk and 2 tablespoons sour
cream for a total of 5⅓ tablespoons, or ⅓ cup.
BE SURE YOUR INGREDIENTS ARE AROUND ROOM TEMPERATURE BEFORE COMBINING THEM
When a recipe specifies ingredient temperature, it’s important! If your butter
has been melted and cooled, so it’s no longer hot to the touch, but your eggs or
buttermilk is cold, your butter will clump when they’re combined. That means
that the wet ingredients won’t blend properly into the dry ingredients, and
you’ll have pockets of butter, rather than a homogenous batter.
USE A LIGHT-COLORED MUFFIN TIN
My favorite muffin tins are these light-colored Wilton nonstick tins
from their “Recipe Right”
line. They’re light in color, don’t have extra seams that would make them harder
to clean, and they’re so inexpensive that I don’t mind messing them up! Dark
colored bakeware of all kinds attracts more heat in the oven, quickly, so it can
lead to your baked goods, like these applesauce muffins, to over brown and even
WARM UP YOUR BUTTERMILK AND EGGS TO ROOM TEMPERATURE BEFORE BAKING WITH THEM
If your eggs are cold, you can bring them quickly and easily to temperature by
floating them in a bowl of very warm (not hot) water right from the tap for
about 15 minutes. Every now and again, just give them a quick turn in the water.
For buttermilk, microwave it on about 50% power for 30 seconds at a time until
Raw applesauce muffin batter with cinnamon sugar in muffin wells
applesauce muffin batter with cinnamon sugar in muffin wells
GLUTEN FREE APPLESAUCE MUFFINS: INGREDIENTS AND POTENTIAL SUBSTITUTIONS
GLUTEN FREE DAIRY FREE APPLESAUCE MUFFINS
The dairy in these applesauce muffins comes from both butter and buttermilk. If
you’re dairy-free, try replacing the butter with Melt or Miyoko’s Kitchen brand
vegan butter. I’ve tried them with oil in place of butter, and they turned out
greasy, so I don’t recommend that. In place of buttermilk, try using 3⅓
tablespoons unsweetened nondairy milk and 2 tablespoons dairy free sour cream
for a total of 5⅓ tablespoons, or ⅓ cup.
GLUTEN FREE APPLESAUCE MUFFINS WITHOUT EGGS
There are two eggs in this recipe, and they should be able to be replaced with
two “chia eggs” (2 tablespoons ground white chia seeds + 2 tablespoons lukewarm
water, mixed and allowed to gel).
GLUTEN FREE VEGAN APPLESAUCE MUFFINS
If use you use the dairy free and egg free substitutions in this recipe, and
make sure your sugar is made without bone char, you’d have gluten free vegan
Six baked applesauce m uffins in metal tin
baked applesauce m uffins in metal tin
CAN I MAKE GLUTEN FREE APPLESAUCE MUFFINS WITH HOMEMADE APPLESAUCE?
Yes! You can use homemade applesauce, but please make sure it’s made from peeled
and cored apples, fully pureed until smooth, and made without any added sugar.
CAN I REPLACE BUTTERMILK WITH REGULAR MILK WITH SOME LEMON JUICE?
No, that age-old recommendation for a buttermilk substitute adds acid, but way
too much water, to your recipes. Commercially prepared buttermilk has added
thickeners and less moisture than regular milk, which is part of why it works so
well in baking recipes.
IS APPLESAUCE GLUTEN FREE?
Yes, most applesauce is gluten free. In fact, unless it has been contaminated
with gluten or has gluten-containing ingredients added to it, like thickeners,
applesauce is naturally gluten free.
CAN MAKE THESE INTO GF OATMEAL MUFFINS WITH APPLESAUCE?
You might be able to replace 36 grams of the all purpose gluten free flour blend
in this recipe with gluten free oat flour
add some whole grains. I wouldn’t add rolled oats to the batter, but you could
sprinkle a few on top of the muffin batter before the muffin tin goes in the
oven. Our healthy gluten free blueberry muffins
applesauce, and entirely with oat flour, and without any rice flour blend.
CAN I MAKE MINI GLUTEN FREE APPLESAUCE MUFFINS WITH THIS RECIPE?
Yes, you can use this same recipe to make miniature muffins. All the same rules
apply for recipe success that we’ve discussed in this post. Just start checking
them for doneness minutes.
CAN I ADD MIX-INS TO THESE MUFFINS?
You can add some mix-ins, but be sure they don’t also add moisture. Avoid
berries, but try adding no more than 3 or 4 ounces of chopped soft nuts, like
pecans or walnuts. Chocolate chips might also be nice.
Pile of applesauce muffins in white liners on brown paper
of applesauce muffins in white liners on brown paper
STORING YOUR GLUTEN FREE APPLESAUCE MUFFINS
These muffins will stay fresh on the counter, covered, for about two days. After
that, rather than refrigerating them, which dries out baked goods, freeze them
in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, then pile them into a freezer-safe
container. Even a zip-top freezer safe bag works well, once they’re already
DEFROSTING YOUR GF MUFFINS WITH APPLESAUCE
We always have muffins in the freezer are our house, and my kids sometimes
defrost them the night before kitchen counter. It’s good to go first thing in the morning. If you’re in a
rush, you can defrost one of these simple muffins easily in the microwave on
reduced power (try 50%) for about 1 minute. Give it a gentle squeeze to be sure
it’s not frozen still in the center.
Applesauce muffin broken in half sitting in liner
muffin broken in half sitting in liner
Go Ad-Free
GLUTEN FREE APPLESAUCE MUFFINS
Prep Time: 15 minutes mins
Cook Time: 20 minutes mins
These gluten free applesauce muffins are simple, tender muffins made with smooth
applesauce and plenty of ground cinnamon for the perfect breakfast or snack.
* 2 cups (280 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend
(I used Better Batter; please click thru for more info on appropriate blends)
* 1 teaspoon xanthan gum, (omit if your blend already contains it)
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* ¾ teaspoon baking soda
* ½ teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
* 6 tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
* ⅔ cup (160 g) applesauce, at room temperature
* ⅓ cup (2.66 fluid ounces) buttermilk, at room temperature
* 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* Preheat your oven to 425°F. Grease or line the wells of a standard 12-cup
muffin tin and set it aside.
* In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda,
salt, ground cinnamon, and granulated sugar, and whisk to combine well.
* Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients in the large bowl and add
the melted butter, applesauce, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla, and mix to
until just combined. The batter will be very soft.
* Divide the batter among the prepared wells of the muffin tin. Shake the pan
back and forth to distribute the batter evenly in each well of the muffin
* Sprinkle the tops of the batter in the muffin wells with a light dusting of
the optional cinnamon sugar mixture. I use about 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
sugar on each muffin.
* Place the muffins in the center of the preheated oven, and let them bake for
* Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue to bake until a toothpick
inserted in the center of a muffin comes out with no more than a few moist
crumbs attached (about another 15 minutes). Do not overbake.
* Remove the pan from the oven. Allow the muffins to cool in the tin for 5
minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the cinnamon sugar
To make a cinnamon sugar mixture for sprinkling on top of the raw muffins, you
can almost use as little or as much as you like. The ratio of ground cinnamon to
granulated sugar should be about 1 teaspoon cinnamon to 1/4 cup granulated sugar
(or 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon per full cup of granulated sugar).
Nutritional information is approximate, and is calculated without the added
cinnamon sugar mixture on the top of the muffins.
Cholesterol: 43mg | Sodium: 239mg | Potassium: 34mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g |
Vitamin A: 230IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 0.2mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an