Homemade apple zucchini muffins or bread is a great mix with fresh fruit and vegetables inside. A sweet baked good for breakfast or dessert. If you loved our moist zucchini bread this is a great way to make it quicker in a muffin tin.

Apple Zucchini Muffins
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It’s time for apple zucchini muffins recipe y’all!! If you too love grab and go breakfasts then get ready. You can combine fruit and veggies in one bite and your kids won’t even notice! Just one of the best muffin recipes ever. (affiliate links present)

Apple Cinnamon Zucchini Muffins

Yes you have most likely made a batch of my easy moist zucchini bread before, but you NEED to go a step further. You can make this into a loaf most certainly but we are a grab and go kinda’ family so these are perfect for busy mornings. Just one of many great fresh apple recipes on The Typical Mom blog.

If you are a busy mom like me you too love muffin tin recipes right? I mean this is a given, sweet and served in the morning but it’s a great size for all sorts of other dishes too. Take a peek at the other ideas in that post too and you too will be hooked!

Let’s talk a bit about my favorite things when it comes to baking shall we?

  1. You really should get a 24 cup muffin pan, or opt for a quicker baking time with mini size.
  2. I ALWAYS use paper liners and you should too. They make cleanup easier and grab and go breakfasts easy. ๐Ÿ˜‰
    1. No pan, no problem! You can use stiffer or silicone self standing cups instead!
A close-up view of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, mixing flour and yellow batter in a metal bowl. Some dry flour is still visible on top, hinting at the transformation into delicious blueberry muffin tops.

Ingredients

  1. All purpose flour is needed but make sure you measure flour properly.
  2. Milk, 2% is what I prefer
  3. Sugar, I usually use white and haven’t tested this with raw turbinado sugar as of yet
  4. Melted butter or dairy free alternative
  5. Egg is best added at room temperature
  6. Baking powder and salt
  7. Cored, peeled (or not), diced apples
  8. You could add 1/2 cup of crushed nuts inside if you wanted
  9. Shredded cup of zucchini that has been gently pressed in between a few paper towels to remove excess moisture.
    1. Use this method for any and all zucchini dessert recipes.

Apple Zucchini Bread

Whether you make a loaf, regular size or mini muffins this batter will work for all of them. I guess the other part of these smaller versions is you get that nice outer crisp on each one, and they bake faster too. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Baked in a loaf pan it would take 50-60 minutes to get done in the middle, that is another great option.

Let’s talk about this last thing for a minute shall we?

how to make zucchini bread

Cinnamon Zucchini Muffins

Now you could in fact leave the fruit out. You could even swap those out for shredded carrots instead, or even raisins. Both provide added moisture, flavor, sweetness and texture too.

Do you squeeze water out of zucchini for bread?

I wouldn’t say squeeze is the right term, that is a bit much. Instead what I do is lay 4 paper towels down. Place your cheese grater on top and shred. Once you have enough roll those up and use your hand to gently press down.

You can see how I do it in the photo above here. See how much water is absorbed? You don’t want that in your batter. It will make your end result more dense with the excess liquid.

apple zucchini bread

Always add fruit, vegetables, nuts, and/or chocolate chips into baked goods at the end. Gently fold in just so they’re incorporated. This is really important when using delicate items like in our zucchini blueberry muffin recipe.

How can I make my muffins light and fluffy?

One of the biggest tips is to make sure your eggs, butter and milk are at room temperature before adding them. That means you should think ahead and take out about an hour before baking.

Also the tips I shared above help. Measure your flour correctly (no scooping) and remove excess liquid from your add ins. Follow these baking hacks and you’ll see the difference.

Zucchini Apple bread

How do you make apple muffins from scratch?

You could leave out the veggies and increase the amount of apples instead. I like the combination of both for texture and flavor purposes. Use our recipe below for the batter or use our easy muffin recipe and just add diced fruit.

Now we’re ready to fill those little cups up. You can either spray the insides with non stick spray or use liners. If making apple zucchini bread spray your loaf pan or lay a piece of parchment paper across the width of it.

Add a crumble or streusel topping on some, none or all of them at the end. Beyond that you could add a small bit of frosting before enjoying them as well.

muffin crumble topping

How to Make Zucchini Muffins with Apples

Preheat oven to 400 F. Melt butter, grate zucchini and apples over paper towels. Then fold over and gently press down to remove excess moisture from fruit and shredded zucchini. Whisk together your wet ingredients; room temperature eggs, sugar, milk. Then add the melted butter. In another large bowl mix dry ingredients; flour, baking powder and salt.

Line muffin pan with paper liners or spray with non stick spray. Now bake for 18-20 minutes until top springs back when gently touched in the middle, or a toothpick comes out mostly clean with crumbs on it.

This is a “plain” version and you can see the add ins peeking through. They are super easy muffin tin treats that we love during the summertime for sure. When our vegetable garden is booming with this green veggie we need all the ideas we can get!

How do I know when muffins are done?

Some swear by the toothpick method. I think that they can get a big over done and dry if you don’t use your own feelers. By that I mean I want them just baked so I gently touch the middle at the top. The minute they spring back I yank them out and also remove them from the pan itself. That will take anywhere from 18 – 20 minutes depending on how full you filled them and your altitude.

zucchini muffins
Apple Muffins

Other sweet vegetable muffins you’ll love

Looking for more goodies to eat in the morning? We have lots of ideas but will share similar ones to this below here:

Close-up of an apple zucchini muffin topped with crumbly cinnamon sugar and nuts, nestled in a yellow paper liner.
4.63 from 8 votes

Apple Zucchini Muffins

By The Typical Mom
Homemade apple zucchini muffins or bread is a great mix with fresh fruit and vegetables inside. A sweet baked good for breakfast or dessert.
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 18 minutes
Servings: 12
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Equipment

  • 1 muffin tin
  • 2 bowls

Ingredients 

  • 2 c all purpose flour
  • 1 c milk
  • 1 c zucchini, grated, patted dry
  • 1 c apple, cored, peeled, diced
  • 1/3-1/2 c sugar, if adding topping use 1/3
  • 1/4 c butter, melted
  • 1 egg
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • topping is optional
  • 1/4 c sugar
  • 1/4 c pecans, chopped
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 400 F. Melt butter, peel and dice apples and shred zucchini over paper towels (then fold over and gently press down to remove most of moisture).
  • Whisk together eggs, sugar, milk. Then add melted butter. In another bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt.
  • Slowly incorporate flour mixture into egg mix. Fold in zucchini and apples now. If you wanted to add some finely chopped nuts inside you could do that now too.
  • Spoon into muffin pan that have muffin liners or have been sprayed with non stick spray. Fill 3/4 of the way full.
  • If adding topping mix those ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle on top.
  • Bake for approx. 17-20 minutes or until top springs back when gently touched in the middle, or a toothpick comes out mostly clean with crumbs on it.

Video

Nutrition

Serving: 1oz, Calories: 189kcal, Carbohydrates: 29g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 26mg, Sodium: 99mg, Potassium: 238mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 12g, Vitamin A: 199IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 93mg, Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Tried this recipe?Mention @thetypical_mom or tag #thetypicalmom!
Apple Zucchini Muffin

About The Typical Mom

Justine is the creative mind behind The Typical Mom and The Typical Family on YouTube. She began blogging about easy recipes, budget friendly activities for kids, and fun family travel destinations in September 2012.

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4.63 from 8 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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10 Comments

    1. Like pie filling? Guess you could but I would just use the apple, cut into small pieces

  1. These are delicious! I used oats instead of pecans in the topping and might try brown sugar next time. We did have trouble getting the muffins out of the paper cups, so I recommend spraying with cooking spray. Thank you!

  2. These muffins were a great way to use some of the frozen zucchini in my freezer. Makes a tasty afternoon snack!

  3. Made these muffins with my kids the other day and they were a hit!! Love that they are loaded with both fruit AND veggies!

  4. These muffins are really tasty, and I’m so happy to discover a new way to use the stash of frozen zucchini we have!

  5. I wish I’d paid closer attention while putting it together. I would have added some vanilla extract and subbed brown sugar. Otherwise it’s pretty good