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These apple butter muffins are loaded with warm spicy apple butter, perfectly moist with vanilla yogurt, filled with the nuttiness of whole wheat flour, and they have just enough walnuts to say, “Why hello there, Fall.”

What’s better than apple butter? Apple butter IN a muffin. What’s better than that? Apple butter on your apple butter muffin! I’ve been dreaming about these muffins for a while. I always make a batch of applesauce muffins with my younger kids’ baking class, but after a couple batches of these apple butter muffins, I think I’ll be changing my plans.

The extra flavor from the apple butter is not to be missed. The baking smells alone are reason enough to make a batch. My dog loves hanging out in the kitchen. When there’s something she really loves the smell of, she will sit in front of the stove protecting the cooking pot from all harm. Chili and goulash are her favorite things to guard like the crown jewels. She’s now decided that these muffins require the same sacred duty.

Thankfully she’s a terrier, so she’s too small to pull off the heist she’d like to (good since dogs shouldn’t have walnuts!). Whether or not you have a 4 legged friend at foot, your family is going to love these apple butter muffins!

apple butter muffins on plate with apple butter and walnuts and apple

Apple Butter Muffins with Walnuts

apple butter muffins with jar of apple butter

Why you’ll be grabbing for a jar of apple butter right now

So moist: the apple butter and the vanilla yogurt are the real stars here, making for a perfect light, moist muffin.
Taste like pumpkin patches feel: Apple pie spice in the muffins and in the apple butter itself make these muffins so stinking cozy.
For lunchboxes or busy mornings: When I develop muffin recipes, I keep my sugar content as low as I can get away with and still get good texture. As such, these muffins are great less trashy lunchbox treats. Muffins always win for portable breakfasts too when you’re running out the door.
Quick: Muffins always win the speed test. With a mix and go batter, you really can make these for an easy portable breakfast in almost no time.

Ingredients you’ll need for apple butter muffins

All-purpose flour
Whole wheat flour—fresh milled (I use my KoMo Fidibus) or a good quality brand like Bob’s Red Mill Organic
Light brown sugar (106 g)
Baking powder
Apple pie spice (or ground cinnamon)
Salt

Baking soda
Butter, melted (70 g)
Eggs
Apple butter
Vanilla yogurt
Shelled walnuts (optional but awesome)

Tricks for perfect apple butter muffins

Butter the muffin tin: Muffin papers are convenient, but it’s just as easy to butter the pan. You’ll get a little crispy edge from the extra butter for extra flavor, and they’ll pop right out when they’re baked.
Bake at a lower temperature: Most of my muffin recipes I bake at 400. Just like with biscuits, higher heat gives a lot of flavor to small breads. That being said, these muffins have a lot of natural sugars from the apple butter. Such sugars can make the muffins brown a little too quickly at 400. If you lower the temperature to 350, you’ll still get plenty of color and flavor without burning the muffins.
Bake them in one pan: The internet is out there telling people to bake their muffins by filling every other well in your muffin pan for the highest possible muffins. I’ve been testing this lately, and it’s mostly fake news. My failures could be caused by me living at altitude or making not muffins that are not basically cupcakes in disguise. Regardless, I think it’s a waste of time to prepare another pan when you can just bake them in one pan. Fewer dishes makes happy people! By contrast, grumpy me is eyeing that extra tin I have to wash on the counter…

Apple Butter Muffins with walnuts

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: about 30 minutes
Yield: 12 muffins

Print Recipe

Description

Warm spiced apple butter adds delicate flavor to these sweet Fall muffins. With walnuts and whole wheat flour, these make the perfect grab and go breakfast, lunchbox treat or after school snack.

Ingredients

Scale

1 cup all-purpose flour (130 g)
1 cup whole wheat flour (130 g)—fresh milled or a good quality brand like Bob’s Red Mill Organic Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar (106 g)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 tsp apple pie spice (or ground cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
5 Tablespoons butter, melted (70 g)
2 eggs
1 cup apple butter
3/4 cup vanilla yogurt (170 g)
1/2 cup shelled walnuts (50 g)

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
Melt the butter in a small pan. Brush a 12 cavity muffin pan with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.
Set aside 12 walnut pieces for the tops of the muffins. Chop the rest of the walnuts into coarse pieces.
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, apple pie spice and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir the walnuts into the flour.
Beat the eggs into the rest of the melted butter.
Mix the apple butter and vanilla yogurt into the butter/eggs.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the apple butter mixture. Stir everything together until the flour is just moistened. Be sure to scrape down to the bottom of the bowl as there’s usually flour hanging out that you missed!
Fill the muffin tins nearly to the top. Top each muffin with one of the reserved walnuts.
Bake the muffins for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or the middle of a muffin springs back when you touch it.
When the muffin pan is cool enough to handle pop the muffins onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
Muffins are best the day that they’re made, but you can freeze muffins for up to 2 months.