Apple Zucchini Muffins
Updated October 15, 2024
Quick Summary
Apple Zucchini Muffins-these healthy whole wheat zucchini muffins are easy to make, popular with kids and adults and use up that summer zucchini! They freeze well too!
Whenever I have too much garden zucchini on my counter, I love making zucchini muffins. I also love these Apple Zucchini muffins because you get a fruit and a vegetable in ONE mufifn.
I wanted the muffins to be on the somewhat healthy side so we used whole wheat flour, applesauce, and zucchini. The applesauce and zucchini keep the muffins super moist without adding fat. There is a little bit of oil, but not much.
The muffins also have cinnamon, allspice, and chunks of apples. Before baking, we sprinkled the muffins with cinnamon and sugar, which gave the muffins a sweet and pretty crust!
These muffins make a great grab and go breakfast or snack.
How to Make Healthy Zucchini Muffins
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and all-spice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, applesauce, oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined. Do not over mix. Gently stir in the grated apple, zucchini, and chopped apples.
- To make the topping, combine turbinado sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Stir well.
- Fill the prepared muffin pan with muffin batter, filling each cup about ¾ the way full. Sprinkle each muffin with cinnamon sugar topping. Bake for 20 minutes, or until muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let muffins cool to room temperature and serve.
How to Store
- Store the muffins covered on the counter for up to 3 days.
- The zucchini muffins freeze beautifully! Let the muffins cool completely and store in a freezer bag or freezer container for up to 3 months. Thaw and enjoy!
Looking for more zucchini recipes? Check out our favorite zucchini recipes here. You might also like these zucchini recipes:
- Zucchini Banana Blueberry Muffins
- Zucchini Bread
- Lemon Zucchini Bread
- Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
More Muffin Recipes
- Banana Muffins
- Best Blueberry Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
- Strawberry Muffins
- Zucchini Muffins
- Pumpkin Zucchini Muffins
Apple Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
For the Muffins:
- 2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 tablespoon oil melted coconut oil, canola oil, or vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup grated apple I use Granny Smith
- 1/2 cup grated zucchini moisture slightly squeezed out
- 1 cup chopped peeled apple I use Granny Smith
For the Topping:
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and all-spice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, applesauce, oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined. Do not over mix. Gently stir in the grated apple, zucchini, and chopped apples.
- To make the topping, combine turbinado sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Stir well.
- Fill the prepared muffin pan with muffin batter, filling each cup about ¾ the way full. Sprinkle each muffin with cinnamon sugar topping. Bake for 20 minutes, or until muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let muffins cool to room temperature and serve.
- Note-these muffins freeze well.
Have you tried this recipe?
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Congrats you guys!! Such a special time for you!
Great looking muffins and love the green liners – the perfect shade of green to pop! Matches your blog colors!
These look amazing! I love zucchini muffins and apple muffins so it makes perfect sense to combine them! Congrats on your new bundle of joy!
Congratulations to you all! What a beautiful family. Thank you for all your recipes and stories as well.
These look delicious and I was looking for ways to use my zucchini for freezer friendly recipes! I only have light brown sugar.. would that work? Is the biggest difference a deeper taste? Thanks!
You can use light brown sugar!
This must be a great treat after the hospital food!
Thanks for the recipe. Have been waiting for this one since seeing it on your Instagram pic. Will make this weekend. 🙂 Congratulations on your new addition. Love reading your blog, and every recipe I have tried has been great.
Wow these look amazing. Not too worried about keeping it healthy though so some caramel dipping sauce or topping sounds like a great addition! Congrats on your little one.
Cheers!
We have a ton of zucchini on our hands right now so I’m all about the zucchini recipes. I think I’m going to make a loaf of zucchini bread today actually.
I don’t know why you went with apple zucchini muffins instead of blueberry gummy bear muffins but alas, these do look good. 😉
I might be tempted to eat gummy bears in muffins, but these apple and zucchini muffins are fabulous!
Loooove baking with zucchini! These look perfect! Hope you and sweet baby are doing well! xo
Do you have a rough idea of how many calories they are each? If not, I can measure it out when I make them, no worries. I appreciate that they are on the healthy-side – it is important (and should be important for the health of our children), so anything like this is very appreciated!
Congrats on your newest little one. 🙂
I would like to know the calories if you did measure it out. you called them healthy and they have almost a full cup of sugar plus more sugar on top
I’m coming up with 127 calories per muffin, not counting the extra sugar on top. I used lowfat buttermilk because no stores near me carry full-fat buttermilk.
127 cal, 23 g carbs, 2 g fat, 4 g protein, 141 g sodium, 12 g sugar
These look delicious Maria!!
Never thought to combo apple with zucchini! Yum!
Pinned.
Enjoy that baby. 🙂
Jeanette, I checked it on http://happyforks.com/analyzer
1 muffin has:
Energy (calories): 141 kcal
Protein: 3.39 g
Fat: 2.24 g
Carbohydrates: 28.53 g
Cholesterol: 14 mg
Great combination! I want to grab it right outta the computer 😀
Congrats again you guys! Apple and zucchini sounds perfect for muffins!
Congrats on the new one. I loved the story of Caleb and his muffins. I did day care at home for years before nursing school and used to call one group of my boys my stud muffins. One of the boys would dance around singing “I’m a muffin”.
Love the combo in this – sounds perfect!
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How would you make these egg free (without using an egg substitute or flax)?
I made these today with ‘leftover’ zucchini from our garden. They are delicious! I followed the recipe exactly (however I used all purpose flour). And I squeezed the hell out of the grated apple too, because it was so wet.
Thanks for the recipe! And enjoy your little one!
These muffins look like a perfect breakfast or snack! My mother has a bunch of zucchini growing in her garden I will send her the recipe!
These look delicious! When grating the apple and the zucchini, should they be peeled or unpeeled?
Anyone know the nutrition facts for these?
Ok, I’ll take two dozen! From your ingredients, these must be flavorful and moist.
These look so healthy and delicious! I can’t wait to pin them and make them for my mom (we always bake healthy muffins together). Thinking I might reduce the brown sugar but make up with it with some chocolate chips. 🙂 I’ll let you know when I make them! Also, so happy to hear about your new sweet little pea. He’s adorable! Congrats! xo!
You can reduce the sugar and add chocolate! Yum! Thanks friend! xo
Can we make these eggless? May be increase the amount of applesauce?
I haven’t tried them without eggs.
My daughter has a milk allergy. Can I substitute her soy milk for the buttermilk?
Do you de-seed the zucchini in your recipes? I do not usually peel them, but never sure if I should keep the seeds or not.
No, I never do! I just shred the whole thing!
YUMMY! Just pulled these out of the oven and devoured one! Terrific recipe and I don’t feel so guilty eating one….or two or three! Congrats on your new pea!
They were so moist that we had a hard time getting them out of the paper liners after baking and cooling. I tried baking them in the pans without the liners and they were good, but a little chewy.
Do you have any suggestions??
My young niece and nephew love what we call your “apple muffins”, wouldn’t touch them if they knew zucchini was in them!
I also want to thank you for your bread pudding recipe-everyone absolutely loved them too!!
What is the difference between using dark brown sugar vs brown sugar?
Just made these tonight. They are sinfully good!
Could you use crab apples in this recipe?
I really was excited to make these muffins ! They came out super dense though – tasty but not something I would serve outside immediate family – any ideas what went wrong ?
What an awesome website, Mark! Thank you so much for this information!! 🙂
These are delicious! Thanks for sharing.
Tasty breakfast muffins! Great way to use up some of my zucchinis from the garden. Thanks.
I made this with 1 1/2 cup Jules gluten free flour and a cup of coconut flour to be gluten free . I had to bake extra time but turned out very good.
These were really delicious! I added in a bit of lemon zest and used 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour, 1/2 regular flour, as I usually prefer that texture. They were great! I’ll definitely make them again. Thanks for the recipe!
I had the same problem with the muffins coming out super dense. I squeezed excess water out of the zucchini but not the apples…possibly the cause? They are still delish but was hoping to use for a shower I’m hosting in the next month. Any suggestions on how to make them less dense? The sugar/cinnamon topping is delish too!! Just. Adds to it!!
You can use all-purpose flour if you want a lighter muffin texture.
These were amazing, i fed them to a football team of guys 18-22 and none were left (i had to stop eating them so there would be some for them!)
One question, i used paper liners but found the batter stuck to them once baked. Did you have a problem with this? I will use the aluminum cups next time.
Thanks for the great recipe
Making these now with half cup of coconut sugar instead of the 3/4 cup brown sugar and butter in place of the apple sauce and oil ( we are not afraid of the healthy fat you get from butter in moderation). l figured apples and 1/2 sugar was enough sweetness. Hope they are good, like the idea of the combo.
These were perfect with the changes, l couldn’t imagine how sweet they are with more sugar and apple sauce
Had trouble with them sticking to the paper. Would really like to know how to fix that problem so I can serve them to others.
I used paper liners and they didn’t stick. Hmmm. Maybe just grease the muffin tins next time?
The batter was thick and stringy and the muffins came out rubbery.
Not sure what I did wrong, I read the recipe three times, followed it to the T. Put the batter in paper muffin cups.
And when I went to eat one, I tried pulling away the paper & half of the cake stuck to the paper. I was going to
Take to a friend who loves anything made with zucchini, but I feel ashamed if they all stick. Not sure what I did wrong? Could of it been too much liquid between the grated apple & grated zucchini? And they also don’t taste
That sweet?
This recipe is delicious, my kids absolutely love them!! They are moist and very flavourful. I didn’t have applesauce so I increased the oil to 1/4 cup. Thank you for the recipe 🙂
can I use something else instead of buttermilk, which I don’t have?
These muffins are AMAZING!! I use a lot of your recipes but this might be my favorite. Perfect blend of sweet and satisfying.
Thank you! I need to make them again!
I made these today while my
Kids were at school. They are amazing! Even my picky daughter who asked, “are there chunks of apples?” and when I said “yes, but you won’t even notice them” responded, “gross” loved them. You don’t know her but take my word for it, that’s a huge compliment. I didn’t have buttermilk so I substituted whey that I had left over from making yogurt, 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup. That was the only substitution. Thanks for an awesome recipe!
I’m making a dinner from the garden tonight for a friend. I knew I wanted to use my zucchini and apples from the garden. Thought about fudging my own recipe, but found yours. Just wanted to say, I taste-tested one before serving…and it was great! Thanks!
PS. I should add, that most recipes I feel I have to healthify but yours came pre-healthified…bonus!
How do these come out if you make them gluten free??
I haven’t tried to make them gluten-free, but I am sure they would still be good! I like Cup4Cup gluten-free flour.
I made those last night. Accidentally left out the vanilla but they still came out great! My mom requested mini muffins for herself, and this one batch of batter made 12 full size muffins plus 9 mini muffins.
Will definitely be making again!
Glad you liked the muffins!
Congrats! I love your site, very refreshing. Your reciepes are awesome and easy. Can’t wait to try this one
Wow these are totally delicious! From this recipe, I got 12 regular-sized muffins, and 11 mini muffins. My 3.5 year old just devoured 5 of the mini muffins, and I just ate 2 regular ones so it’s safe to say we love these! I sauteed my chopped apples in a tiny bit of coconut oil and sprinkled with cinnamon before adding to the muffins. My son is hesitant to eat things with chunks of fruit in them, so I wanted to make sure we would not get any texture from uncooked apples. Thank you for sharing your recipe…I know we will make these often!
how many weight watchers points are these? they look delicious!
I made them with 1/4 cup of sugar…still delicious!!!
Hi there! Do you think I can make this in a loaf pan? Perhaps a 9×5 at the same temp, time adjusted? Also, just made your peanut butter/banana/honey muffins and they were amazing, as are all of your recipes! Thanks so much! 🙂
I am sure it would be fine. I haven’t tried it though. Let me know how it goes!
Hi there. Can I omit the vanilla extract and allspice? I do not have either, but would like to make these tonight.
THanks!
They won’t have as much flavor. Maybe add more cinnamon?
I used clove and nutmeg instead of allspice…great!
Would this work with carrots iso zucchini?
zucchini has a lot more moisture…
These muffins are excellent!
Very moist and easy to make!
These apple zucchini muffins are AMAZING!
Graduated to making them in Texas size pan…more worthy of them!!!
Thank you so much…wholesome and filling and oh so moist!!!!
Glad you liked the muffins!
Awesome, I like apple flavor, thanks for sharing the detailed recipe!
I love zucchini muffins and apple muffins so it makes perfect sense to combine them! Thanks for sharing this recipe
Congratulations on the new addition to the family. I made these last weekend with my 2 kids and we all loved them.
I’ll let you know when I make them!
Looking is very delicious. Great way to use up some of my zucchinis from the garden. Thanks.
Congratulations to you all! What a beautiful family. Thank you for all your recipes and stories as well.
My grandsons liked them, however the adults found them a bit dry!
My prep time was over 35 minutes ,by the time I shredded the apples and the zucchinis, measured the ingredients etc., etc.
The banana zucchini chocolate chip loaf was more tasty and moist.
a great site
Again – another amazing recipe! I was able to swipe some mini granny smith apples from the neighbors tree, so bonus for me! First time i made them i did the full muffins (in silicone sleeves) and had a bunch left over so went with mini muffins! I like the mini muffins better! Go figure! This time i did the whole recipe as mini muffins and forgot/skipped the sugar on top and thought they were just as good! 15 min, 2 mini muffin pans side by side and whala! had enough batter left fo 2 more rows of 1 tray on a second round! Thank you so much for sharing and i love it! Will be freezing for ski season morning, love that you shared that freezing works well!
Did you stir in the 1/2 c grated apple? What is the 1 cup chopped apple used for?
You use both! The grated apple adds moisture and the apple chunks add nice flavor!
This is an amazing recipe! Muffins did not stay in the kitchen very long. Might you have the conversion time of what it would take to make this into a loaf of bread? The only thing I changed was I used white flour instead of the wheat listed in your list.
Could i swap out the buttermilk for Greek yogurt?
Yes!
Could you use this recipe and make waffels instead of muffins?
I haven’t tried it!
If you are after an even healthier muffin, you can swap the self-raising flour for wholemeal self-raising flour.
I love zucchini muffins and apple muffins thanks a lot and great work keep it up, guys!
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Never thought to combo apple with zucchini! Yum!
Pinned.
Enjoy that baby.
I love muffins. But has never tried this flavor. Gonna bake this at home tonight.
Loved apple zucchini muffins. i was looking for one tasty recipe and here i eventually fount it.
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I love apples and muffins. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I really love your recipe! I made zucchini Muffins yesterday and my kid just loved it. Thanks for sharing! keeping sharing more recipes
These are one of my son’s favorite muffins. I like to make a double batch and put them in the freezer so I always have a quick snack to send to school. (I skip the cinnamon topping to cut down on crumbs at his desk) Just put one in a covered container in the fridge the night before, then drop into his backpack for his mid morning snack. He always asks for these!
This recipe looks so delish and a great way to get kids to eat veggies! I’d love to try it, but I don’t consume dairy milk. Can I use almond milk in place of the buttermilk?
Yes! Enjoy!
What substitute can you use for the allspice? Was about to make and don’t have it!
You can leave it out if you don’t have it. They will still be good!
What can you substitute for turbinato sugar as I have none
You can just omit it or use cinnamon and sugar!
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I made these today love the recipe the only thing I didn’t like is they stuck to the paper
You can spray the paper liners with nonstick cooking spray to make sure they don’t stick!
I use a silicone muffin, not spray and no sticking love it.
Can I sub regular whole wheat flour for the “white whole wheat flour?”
Sure!
I wasn’t sure how these would turn out since I didn’t have buttermilk on hand, but I replaced it with a cup of plain Greek yogurt and they were a huge hit with my toddlers and hubby! Love how wholesome they are and the combo of grated and diced apple pairs well with the zucchini!! Will definitely be making these again 🙂
A recipe that uses just a half cup of zucchini doesn’t begin to touch my supply of zucchini that needs to be used up before it all goes to waste! But the muffins sound delicious. I may try it next time I have Granny Smith apples that need to be used up
Can this be made into a loaf?
Sure! You will need to bake it for longer.
I love the muffins but do you have the nutritional facts for this?
Why not just buy a few Granny Smiths now and get started. They freeze really well.
Can I use regular all-purpose flour. I would hate to buy a bag of wheat flour for one recipe?
Yes!
What about making this gluten free? Can I use the 1:1 gluten free flour for the whole wheat flour?
yes!
Love your recipes! Glad you’ve finally got power!
Wondering if I can substitute anything for the applesauce, haven’t got any at the moment and can’t get to the store – hello newborn life 🙂
Thanks!
Thanks! You can use 1/4 cup melted butter or oil if you don’t have applesauce. Possibly 1/4 cup mashed banana but the flavor will be a little different.
Can I use non-dairy milk such as almond instead of buttermilk?
Yes! Enjoy!
These were amazing! My toddler devoured them. I used regular ww flour and they had that wonderfully rich, nutty taste. Will make again and again!
This recipe looks great. Can I substitute the brown sugar for honey or anything else to make it more healthy?
Sure, honey should work. The texture might be a little different.
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Do you think non dairy milk can be used in this recipe?
Thank you!
These look so appealing. But I did wonder about the low quantity of fat (1 T.). Despite just folding the wet and dry ingredients together and not overmixing, my muffins were heavy and went gummy within a couple of hours. To be relatively healthy, I guess some textural issues are hard to avoid. They tasted good though.
How many calories are in these muffins? They are so delicious and my kids love them, but curious as to the nutrition details. Thanks
I count calories. The whole recipe is about b2200 calories so divide 2200 by the number of muffins. I got 17 muffins. I also cut sugar by 2T so shaved a few calories.
Great recipe. I did reduce sugar to about 10 T from 12T. . great texture and taste. Used GrannyvSmith.
I tried them today for iftar desert.They were delicious.For sure I will cook them again.Faliminderit shume.Well don!
I made these muffins today to use up some surplus of zucchini we have from our garden right now and all I can say is WOW!!! They are so good! Both my kids 8 and 15 loved them. These will be a regular in our house! I followed the recipe exactly.
Delicious! A little like a fairly dense apple cake. Mine got sticky on top, but probably because I had to transport them with a lid before they cooled completely. I can’t wait ’til the second batch gets out of the oven!
These zucchini apple cinnamon muffins were VERY DELICIOUS. I was searching for zucchini ideas to preserve as much as possible when I ran across this recipe. I made a single batch and everyone snatched them up quick before they were even cooled enough.
Since they were a huge hit I decided to get back in the kitchen and made a triple batch so I could freeze them for when someone comes over or for a quick snack or even for breakfast on the go.
The only thing I did different is add more cinnamon and allspice for extra flavor.
THIS is a keeper for sure!
This recipe looks amazing but, I have one question my kiddo is someone who doesn’t like allt of texture and I’m worried the apple would give it a crunch, I was wondering if I could not put the apples in or if I could boil them like a apple pie filling and just put little dollops on to each muffin before baking. thank you so much in advance!
I have cinnamon applesauce on hand, can I use that instead of unsweetened?
Yes!
This recipe is fantastic!! I didn’t have buttermilk. So I made my own. Shocked to say the least that it worked out.
This recipe is a keeper!
We’ve made the apple zucchini muffins multiple times. We got a huge zucchini from a neighbor but today when I was ready to bake it was 107 outside…no way am I turning on my oven as it makes the entire house hot. So I made the batter and we made waffles instead. AMAZING!!! Even my picky son liked them!
Oooh, I love the waffle idea. Thanks for sharing!
Hi,
Just made the recipe with a mini muffin pan for my toddler…each one deflated in the middle. I used agave instead of brown sugar (didn’t have any), almond flour and Greek yogurt instead of buttermilk. Any thoughts as to what could happened? Did I mix too much? I tried to lightly do each step. Thanks!
You changed a lot of the ingredients so that is why the recipe didn’t turn out. I haven’t tested the recipe with the ingredients you listed.
I substituted buttermilk with a cup of Greek yogurt as someone suggested below as I didn’t have Greek yogurt and the batter seemed really dry. So then I added a couple splashes of milk. I made mini cupcakes and baked them for 16 minutes.
They came out quite dense and stuck to the liners. Not sure where I went wrong.
Thanks in advance for your feedback!