These gluten free apple cider muffins are soft, moist & apple packed with a quick toss in cinnamon-sugar to finish like classic, bakery-style apple cider donuts.
Gluten Free Apple Cider Muffins – 3 Key Ingredients
- Reduced apple cider (or apple juice):
- Boiling gets rid of excess water leaving you with a more concentrated apple flavor with less added liquid.
- Grated or finely diced apple:
- You can use any apple variety you like. Granny smith, braeburn and pink lady varieties are good if you want a crispy, tart apple-flavor. Fuji, gala and honey crisp apples are ideal if you prefer a sweeter profile.
- Greek yoghurt:
- If you want tall, even, bakery-style muffin domes then Greek yoghurt is a must. Check the recipe notes below if you need substitute suggestions.
How to Make these Gluten Free Apple Cider Donut Muffins
This recipe breaks down into 3 main stages:
- reduce cider
- make the batter
- bake muffins & coat with cinnamon sugar
First Step – Reduce the Cider
Add the apple cider or apple juice to a wide, shallow pan and bring to a boil for about 20-30 minutes. Total time will vary depending on the actual size of your pan and stove top temperature.
When it’s nearly done, you should notice the cider/juice start to foam up and create big bubbles.
When you’ve got a little more than 1/4 cup, transfer the hot cider to a heat-safe bowl and set aside to cool.
Combine & Bake
- bowl#1: Whisk the dry ingredients (not including the sugars).
- gluten free all purpose flour, cinnamon, salt, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda
- bowl#2: Combine the wet ingredients and sugars (not including the fresh apple).
- white & brown sugar, greek yoghurt, egg, vanilla extract and cooled apple cider.
- add wet ingredients to the dry (bowl#2 to bowl #1)
- Mix together until no pockets of flour remain.
- add the apple
- Fold in until evenly distributed.
Fill & Bake
Spoon the batter into the greased/lined muffin pan, filling almost all the way full, then bake for about 15 minutes until golden and domed.
Cinnamon-Sugar Topping
After cooling, brush the muffin tops with melted butter then dip in a bowl on cinnamon-sugar.
FYI:
- You don’t have to brush with butter. The butter is for function more than flavor. The cinnamon-sugar will stick to the muffins even without.
- You can dip the whole muffin in the cinnamon-sugar coating or just the tops.
A Few Quick Notes & Things to Keep in Mind
Additions➕
- Chopped Nuts: Add a bit more texture to your muffins by adding 1/2-3/4 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, etc.
- Spices: Add or replace some of the cinnamon with premade spice blend like chai spice or apple pie spice. If you know your way around a spice can
Tip!
- Fill the muffin cups up almost to the top for tall, even bakery-style domes.
Make Donuts – Makes about 12 donuts
- Grease a standard 6-cup donut pan.
- Fill the donuts moulds about 1/2 full.
- Bake at 350°F (176°C) for about 10 minutes.
- Cool a few minutes in the pan, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.
More Gluten Free Fall Treats
Enjoy!
Let me know if you make these Gluten-Free Apple Cider Muffins! Leave a comment and review with your thoughts. I always appreciate the feedback and serving suggestions that you come up with!
Yield: 10 muffins
Baked Gluten Free Apple Cider Muffins Recipe
5.0 Stars (1 Review)
Prep Time
45 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Total Time
1 hour
A baked, gluten free alternative to classic apple cider donuts. These muffins pack in the apple flavor with apple cider (boiled down into a more concentrated reduction) and fresh diced apple.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup non-alcoholic apple cider or unfiltered, unsweetened apple juice (360ml)
- 1 ⅔ cup gluten free all purpose flour (230g)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp xanthan gum
- ¾ cup light brown sugar (165g)
- ¼ cup white sugar (50g)
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup greek yoghurt or sour cream, room temperature (120ml)
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil or melted coconut oil (45g)
- 1 medium apple - peeled, cored & finely diced
Coating
- ½ cup white sugar (100g)
- 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp salted, butter - melted (32g)
Need help converting to weights? Check out my cups to grams Conversion Guide.
Instructions
- Oven prep: Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C). Lightly grease or line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.
- Reduce the juice: Bring the juice/cider to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring every so often, for about 20-30 minutes until you're left with a little more than ¼ cup (60ml). Transfer to a heat-safe bowl and container and cool to room temperature.
Dry ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum. Set aside, - Wet ingredients: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, white sugar, egg, vanilla extract, yogurt, oil and cooled cider until evenly combined.
- Combine: Add the yogurt mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk together until mostly combined, then fold in the diced apples. Make sure to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl.
- Fill & Bake: Carefully spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling the cups a little more than ¾ full. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 15 minutes until cooked through (a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean). Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool for about 5-10 minutes, then transfer the muffins from the pan to the rack to finish cooling.
- Cool & Repeat: Let the muffins cool in the pan for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Coat with sugar: Whisk together ½ cup white sugar and 2 tsp ground cinnamon in a medium bowl until combined. When you're ready, use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the muffins with melted butter then dip the muffins in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Feel free to dip the tops only or unwrap and roll the entire muffin in sugar.
- Store for later: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for about 2 days or in the fridge up to 1 week. They're best enjoyed the first day, but they're go nice and soft again easily if you reheat them in the microwave for about 5-10 seconds though the cinnamon-sugar coating will make them a bit sticky after day 1.
Notes
- Apple Cider vs Apple Juice: Apple cider in the US is basically raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized apple juice. It is not alcoholic or fermented. If fresh apple cider isn't available you simply use unsweetened and unfiltered apple juice (cloudy apple juice) instead.
- Use a wide, shallow pan for the cider/juice: The more surface area your pan has, the faster the juice/cider will reduce. You can use a small, deep pan but it will take much longer.
- Greek Yoghurt Subs: Buttermilk (or milk with ½ lemon juice) is a decent substitute as it's acidic enough to work with the baking soda, but will make for a thinner batter with muffins that don't rise as much.
- Make it dairy free: Use an unsweetened, dairy-free greek style yoghurt and vegan butter.
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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