High Altitude Apple Spice Crumb Muffins
Soft and tender muffins, full of apple flavor and warm fall spices, topped with buttery brown sugar streusel.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Standard-Sized Muffin Pan
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ⅓ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
Muffins
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ⅛ tsp ground cardamom
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated apples (from 3 peeled and cored medium-sized apples)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 F. Line a standard muffin pan with 14 paper liners. Lightly spray the papers and the top of the pan with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, combine all of the topping ingredients until moistened and crumbly. Set aside.
- To make the muffin batter, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and spices in a bowl.
- Separately, whisk together the brown sugar, eggs, sour cream, butter and vanilla. Peel and core the apples, then grate them with a box grater (don't use the tiny holes, or it will just turn the apples into juice). Measure 2 packed cups of grated apples and stir them into the wet ingredients.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir together just until moistened.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cups, filling them full.
- Spoon the crumble on top of the batter. It may seem like too much crumble, but it's not. Just heap it on, and gently press it into the batter.
- Bake the muffins on the center oven rack at 425 F for 5 minutes. Without opening the door, turn the heat down to 375 F and bake for about 12-15 minutes more, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool the muffins in the pan for 2 minutes, then gently lift them out and let the cool on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes.
- Enjoy the muffins warm, with softened butter.
Notes
- Leftover muffins should be cooled completely, then stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
- For even more apple flavor, try adding 2-4 tablespoons of boiled apple cider (a concentrated apple syrup) to the muffin batter with the wet ingredients. If adding the boiled cider, reduce the grated apples by the same amount.
- Instead of the fresh grated apples, this recipe also works great with freeze-dried apples. Omit the 2 cups of grated apples and add 1 cup chopped freeze-dried apples + 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce.
- Another option is to try substituting apple butter for some of the grated apples for a richer, deeper flavor.
- You can also make these in a 6-cup jumbo muffin pan, but they will take longer to bake.
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