Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Apple Butter and Brown Sugar Streusel

These tender apple cinnamon muffins are packed with chunks of fresh apples, contain a gooey apple butter center, and are topped with a generous amount of crunchy, buttery brown sugar streusel.

I am on an apple butter kick. After making several batches of slow cooker apple butter, I'm wanting to add it to everything.

When I started making these cinnamon apple muffins, apple butter was not a part of the plan. But, somewhere along the way, I thought a dollop of apple butter in the center was the most delicious idea ever.

And, it's true. Having apple butter in the center of these muffins rocks. But, I'd be amiss if I told you it was necessary. These babies are already packed with a ton of fresh apple chunks and the spice of cinnamon and nutmeg. Then, they're topped with hunks of buttery brown sugar streusel.

The apple butter center is a delicious way to gild the lily, but not at all necessary for a comforting batch of cinnamon apple muffins.

What kind of apples are best for apple muffins?

For the most part, you can use any kind of apple you like in these muffins with success. But there are a few varieties that hold up to baking than others. Here are my favorites:

1. Honeycrisp Apples. This is my favorite variety to use in these muffins because they are super crisp, hold up exceptionally well when baked, and add a lovely tartness to every bite.
2. Braeburn Apples. Braeburn apples are my second favorite choice for these muffins because like Honycrisp apples, they hold up well to baking and have an intense enough flavor to stand out.
3. Jonagold Apples. Often apples that are on the sweet side don't hold up well in baking. Not the case with Jonagold apples, which are as sweet as honey but still hold up well in the oven.
4. Pink Lady Apples. Pink Lady apples are a nice balance between sweet and tart. So, if you want something a bit sweeter, but not too sweet, pink ladies are where it's at.

Other good choices include Fuji, Gala.Granny Smith, Honey Gold, Jonathan, and Winesap.

What's the difference between crumb topping and streusel topping?

Streusel is a German topping that is crunchy, cookie-like, and slightly soft on the bottom where it rests on the tops of muffins, cake or fruit desserts. Typically, the ratio of sugar:butter:flour in streusel is 1:1:2 when measured by weight.

By contrast American-style streusel is what German bakers might call a crumb topping because it usually has a higher sugar and lower flower ratio - 3:1:2 or even 3:3:1. 

Because crumb toppings tend to have a higher proportion of sugar and flour to butter, the texture is somewhat sandy cake-like and shakes off easily. A good example is the crumb topping for these Lemon Blueberry Muffins, which contains a high proportion of sugar and flour when compared to the amount of butter. 

In this Apple Cinnamon Muffin recipe, the streusel falls somewhere in between traditional German and American recipes with a ratio of 1.5:1:1. Here's why:

• Because the recipe includes some oats, I reduced the amount of flour.
• Because I used brown sugar instead of the more traditional white sugar, I bumped up the amount slightly because brown sugar is a tad less sweet than white.

Apart from being delicious in its own right, streusel adds a contrasting texture – a little crunch on the top of soft, tender muffins. That little bit of crunch is absolute delicious atop these soft muffins with their creamy apple butter center.

I also subscribe to the notion that if you’re going to add streusel, there should be a decent amount of it. The problem is in getting a generous amount of streusel to actually stay on top of the muffins while they bake. And this, my friends, is why I LOVE to use tulip muffin liners.

I Love, love, love baking muffins in Tulip Baking Cups

I know I say this every time I post a muffin recipe, but these tulip muffin liners are seriously the BEST, especially for streusel topped muffins. Their pointy tops hold in all that yummy streusel as the muffins rise in the oven.

They also allow you to bake taller muffins than you can with regular muffins liners, making it easier to stuff them with delicious things like apple butter.

PLUS, these muffin liners make it super easy to remove muffins from the pan as soon as they are finished baking. Just grab hold of those tulip tops and lift them right out of the pan onto a wire rack to cool. They also unfurl into a nice little paper plate on those mornings when you grab a muffin before rushing out the door.

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