Vegan Applesauce Muffins

These vegan applesauce muffins are moist, tender, and studded with sweet raisins and crunchy walnuts. They’re also super easy to make using pantry staples!

Vegan Applesauce Muffin with tea cup and apples in the background.

I love baking up pretty much anything made with apples and spices. I love my vegan apple pie, vegan apple cake, and vegan apple muffins.

But I really love these vegan applesauce muffins because they’re filled with all the deliciousness of apples, along with cozy spices, but are considerably less work than other apple-based treats. There’s no chopping or prep work involved — the apples have already been sauced for you!

It’s also really easy to keep a jar of applesauce in the pantry, along with pretty much every other ingredient that goes in to these muffins, so I can easily whip up a batch on a moment’s notice.

One of these muffins and a cup of hot tea is basically snack-time heaven as far as I’m concerned.

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Ingredients You’ll Need

Unsweetened applesauce. Use smooth applesauce — not chunky.
Vegetable oil. Whatever type of oil you normally bake with will work. Corn oil, canola oil, and melted coconut oil are all fine options.
Non-dairy milk. Use an unsweetened variety of plant milk. Other than that, just about any type will work, including soy milk, almond milk, oat milk and cashew milk. Read my guide to dairy-free milk if you need help choosing one.
Vanilla extract.
Flour. The recipe calls for plain, all-purpose wheat flour, otherwise known as white flour. Whole wheat pastry flour or spelt flour could be substituted. And while I haven’t tried it, I suspect an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend would work if you need to keep the muffins gluten-free.
Sugar. Use organic sugar to keep the recipe vegan. Conventional sugar may be processed using animal bone char.
Brown sugar. This also needs to be organic.
Baking powder.
Baking soda.
Salt.
Spices. We’re using a mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves for maximum spicy deliciousness.
Raisins.
Walnuts.

Tip: Not a fan of raisins and/or walnuts? Feel free to leave them out or substitute another stir-in. Try other types of nuts and dried fruit, fresh fruit, or vegan chocolate chips!

How They’re Made

The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!

Wet ingredients for Vegan Applesauce Muffins in a liquid measuring cup with spoon.

Start by stirring together your wet ingredients in a small container, such as a liquid measuring cup. This mix will include applesauce, milk, oil, and vanilla.

Dry ingredients for applesauce muffins in a bowl with wire whisk.

Whisk your dry ingredients together in a large bowl: flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, salt and spices.

Wooden spoon stirring muffin batter in a glass bowl.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry mixture. Stir them together just until combined. Don’t overmix them. The batter will be pretty thick.

Applesauce muffin batter in a bowl with raisins and walnuts.

Fold in the raisins and walnuts. Be very gentle here, still making sure to avoid disrupting the batter too much.

Vegan Applesauce Muffin batter in a muffin tin.

Divide the batter among paper-lined muffin cavities and pop the muffin tin into the oven. Bake your muffins until they’re set. You can test one for doneness inserting a toothpick in the center, then removing it. If it comes out clean, it’s done.

Vegan Applesauce Muffins on a cooling rack with an apple.

Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack and let your vegan applesauce muffins cool for at least a few minutes. You can enjoy them when they’re warm, or let them cool completely.

Three stacked Vegan Applesauce Muffins with tea cup and cooling rack in the background.

Shelf-Life & Storage

Applesauce muffins will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about 4 days, in the fridge for about a week, or in the freezer for about 3 months.

More Vegan Muffin Recipes

Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!

These vegan applesauce muffins are moist, tender, and studded with sweet raisins and crunchy walnuts. They’re also super easy to make using pantry staples!

Ingredients

1
cup
unsweetened applesauce
(regular applesauce – not chunky)
½
cup
vegetable oil
¼
cup
unsweetened and unflavored non-dairy milk
2
teaspoons
vanilla extract
2
cups
all-purpose flour
¼
cup
organic granulated sugar
¼
cup
organic brown sugar
2
teaspoons
baking powder
½
teaspoon
baking soda
½
teaspoon
salt
1 ½
teaspoons
ground cinnamon
½
teaspoon
ground ginger
¼
teaspoon
ground cloves
¼
teaspoon
ground nutmeg
¾
cup
raisins
¾
cup
chopped walnuts

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a 12-cavity muffin tin with papers.
Stir the applesauce, oil, milk, and vanilla together in a small container, such as a liquid measuring cup.
Whisk the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves together in a large mixing bowl.
Pour the applesauce mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir just until combined.
Fold in the raisins and walnuts.
Divide the batter among the paper lined muffin cups.
Bake the muffins for 8 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and bake them for 12 to 14 minutes longer, until set (20 to 22 minutes total bake time).
Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack and let the muffins cool for a few minutes before removing them from the tin.