These cinnamon oatmeal muffins make the perfect breakfast or snack. Can easily be made gluten free or vegan, you’ll love how delicious they are with just a hint of crunch from pepitas on top.
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Why You'll Love These
- Perfect for meal prep! Freeze them and store for a few months.
- So delicious and cozy - they taste like fall!
- Great as gifts! I brought these to my labor and delivery nurses.
- Allergy-friendly for school functions.
- Dairy free, nut free, vegan, and gluten free (if edited).
As I neared my delivery date, I was really into meal prepping anything and everything that’s easy to freeze. This obviously includes muffins. I also wanted to make something that I could bring to my nurses during the delivery, plus have for snacking. If you’ve ever spent time in the hospital, you know the food leaves something to be desired. Everyone kept telling me to bring something that is comfortable - a favorite robe or lotion. To me there’s nothing more comforting to me than having something home cooked. So I figured these are easy to freeze and they can defrost at the hospital!
Ingredients and Tips
This oatmeal muffin recipe was inspired by another banana muffin recipe I made, but alas bananas aren’t allowed in the elimination phase of a migraine diet. I racked my brain on some other good options and loved the idea of using applesauce paired with cinnamon and oats. Plus I had some to use up in the fridge - ha! Here are the main ingredients:
Applesauce - It makes a good binder in muffins instead of using eggs. You don’t want to use too much or your recipe will end up dense and kind of gummy, but I found this amount to be perfect. I do like sweetened for this recipe since you're not using a lot of sugar, but unsweetened will also work.
Rolled Oats- Oatmeal is something I always have in my pantry, along with the other basic staples used for these muffins. I loved the idea of combining apples and oats, but without having the texture of chunks of apples. You get all the great flavor this way in a soft and smooth muffin batter.
All Purpose Flour or Gluten Free 1:1 Flour - You can also use oat flour, although that tends to be more crumbly than the other two.
Vegetable Oil - Generic vegetable oil or another mild oil like canola oil will work for this recipe. You could also use melted butter.
Milk - I used Oatly for this recipe, but any type of milk will work for these cinnamon oatmeal muffins.
Cinnamon and Nutmeg - Both of these spices provide that wonderful cozy flavor.
Pepitas - Don't skip these! They are basically shelled, toasted pumpkin seeds and they provide the best crunch on top of the muffin. I like to buy them roasted and salted, but you can also do this at home by lightly toasting them in the oven.
How to Make Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins
As far as mixing goes, you really just need two large bowls to start - dry ingredients in one, wet ingredients in the other. Then all there is to it is to mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones, put in a muffin tin, top with some pepitas and you’re good to go.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Start with the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar.
- In a smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients - a lightly whisked egg, milk, vanilla, oil, and applesauce.
- Mix the wet ingredients into the dry using a wooden spoon or a dough mixer. Stir till just combined.
- Spoon the mixture into paper muffin cups and top with extra oats and pepitas.
Bake for 5 minutes and then turn the heat down to 350 degrees F to continue cooking another 15-17 minutes. The initial blast of hot air will help to get a nice dome muffin top. Just don't forget or you'll over-bake the muffins!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, just add an extra 2 tablespoons of apple sauce instead of the egg.
Substitute the all purpose flour for oat flour or your favorite 1:1 gluten free flour.
The best way to freeze these cinnamon oatmeal muffins is to line them up evenly in a plastic storage bag or container. Freeze in one layer. To reheat, either thaw at room temperature (usually about an hour), or reheat in the oven. I’ll usually do this by sticking it in there on a sheet pan and preheating to 350 degrees F. Once the oven beeps, it’s typically warmed through. Microwave is a last resort option.
Yes! I love these with pumpkin seed or sunflower seed butter. The spices in the cinnamon oatmeal muffin mix so well with the spread. 
Other Muffin Recipes
There are so many famous muffin recipes on this site, so these cinnamon oatmeal muffins fit right in. If you want some other options, check out these recipes. (OK the cinnamon milk isn't one, but it pairs wonderfully with these!)
Cinnamon Oat Scones - If you need another gluten free/vegan option I highly recommend these too!
If you make any of my recipes, don’t forget to tag me #thedizzycook or @thedizzycook on Facebook and Instagram. And please leave a review below!
Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups rolled oats + extra for garnish
- 1¼ cups all purpose flour*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup sweetened apple sauce
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup milk of choice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup toasted pepitas for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients - rolled oats (NOT quick cooking/instant/steel cut), flour, baking powder, baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt. Stir to combine. In a separate large bowl, combine the sugar, apple sauce, egg, vegetable oil, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix until thoroughly combined and smooth. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring till just incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Prepare a muffin pan with paper cups or grease the pan well. Fill the batter, almost to the top of the cups or pan. Sprinkle the tops with extra rolled oats and pepitas.
- Bake at 425 degrees F for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F without removing the muffins. Bake another 15-17 minutes until cooked through. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes then remove to continue to cool on a wire rack. If you eat them while still hot, they'll be more crumbly!
Notes
- To make all gluten free, use your favorite 1:1 gluten free all purpose flour or oat flour.
- To make these vegan, add an extra 2 tablespoons of apple sauce instead of the egg.
- Pepitas are just small, shelled pumpkin seeds. They add a great crunch to the topping. Cinnamon sugar would be lovely as well.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published February 15, 2021 and has been updated August 13, 2021 to include ingredient photos and extra tips for baking!
I am addicted to these! I make a big batch, freeze them, and then pop them in the microwave for an easy snack throughout the week. I sub Oat milk for the whole milk to limit my dairy intake. So good!
These are SO good! They satisfy my sweet tooth and have great ingredients that help this lactating mama! My husband who doesn’t like any type of breakfasty pastry will eat these as a morning snack.
Always have some of these stored in the freezer - they are one of our favorite muffins. I make them gluten free and they turn out delicious still!
Rebecca, so sweet of you. Thanks for all your kind words!!
I am not a good baker due to a lifelong inability to follow directions. Imagine how surprised I was when these actually turned out!! They were delicious. I wish they were a little sweeter but that's probably my sweet tooth more than the recipe. If I made them again I might try the cinnamon sugar on top instead of the pepitas.
These are absolutely delicious!
I've made these a few times and love them. This last time though, I didn't have oats, so I used 2 cups of flour instead. I also used 1/4 cup melted butter instead of oil, and 1 cup of milk. My applesauce is unsweetened, since I like less sweet items. With those changes they still turned out great!
My first trial came out dry and crumbly and I figured out what I did wrong - I forgot to turn my heat down! Next batch I was careful to not overmix also and let them cool before digging in, They were perfect and i'm glad i tried again!
How much seed butter would you add?
You just slather it on like butter after these are baked - don't add it to the recipe.
I tried these and they turned out deliciously moist and yummy. I used unsweetened apple sauce and reduced the cinnamon to 1/4 tsp ( as I have to be careful with cinnamon!).
These were incredible. So easy to make. They didn’t last long in our house. We couldn’t stop eating them. The best muffin recipe we have made in a long time. Well done.
Yup, bananas, proven trigger. Bummer! Look forward to trying these, even though apples aren't allowed right now in the elimination diet phase.
Best muffins I ever had! I had unsweetened applesauce so I put a little apple butter in with the applesauce. The apple butter was just apples, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Ate two of them as soon as they were cool enough. These bake well in the muffin papers and the papers peel off nicely.
These were great and I appreciated the edits for dairy tree they worked out great
These are delicious! Perfect combination of flavors. I made gluten free with King Arthur flour. Thanks for another delicious recipe!
My preference is to use unsweetened apple sauce. If I do this how do I compensate for the sweetness? The half cup brown sugar could make it sweet enough, no?