Sourdough Apple Cider Muffins

I love how much apple flavor is packed into these easy and delicious Sourdough Apple Cider Muffins that taste like your favorite fall donut!

The sourdough discard apple cider muffins use apples in three ways, including boiled apple cider, applesauce, and shredded apples in the batter.

Kissed with cinnamon and other apple pie spices, the apple cider muffins are moist and tender and store well for days. They’d be an excellent Thanksgiving breakfast treat that you could bake the morning of after mixing the batter overnight!

The detailed recipe will guide you through every step, including how to bake the muffins with lots of pro baking tips.

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Moist and tender sourdough apple cider muffins using sourdough discard.
• You only need bowls, a muffin pan, a whisk, and a spatula with no special tools required just like my Sourdough Chocolate Muffins.
• This is an easy fall sourdough breakfast or dessert that you can make overnight and bake in the morning.
• Uses apples in three ways so they have lots of apple flavor with reduced apple cider, applesauce, and real apples.
• The muffins taste like your favorite Sourdough Apple Cider Donuts topped with cinnamon sugar like Sourdough Churros.

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🛠 Tools Needed

• Baking scale
  • Flour and sourdough starter can weigh differently from person to person, so weighing your ingredients will make your baking more consistent and accurate. A kitchen scale is the most important sourdough tool you can have!
• Whisk and Spatula, for mixing
• Muffin Pan
  • Use a standard 12 cup muffin tin for these muffins. If your pan is darker, they make bake slightly faster.
  • Use muffin tins or paper liners to line the cups and prevent sticking.

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

• All-purpose flour
  • You can substitute with a gluten-free flour to make a gluten-free sourdough apple cider muffins, such as cup-for-cup or measure-for-measure.
  • Use whole wheat flour for heartier, denser muffins.
• Baking Soda and Baking Powder help the muffins rise and give them a spongier texture.
• Salt
• Spices
  • I use cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice for that apple pie flavor in these muffins. However, you can substitute with your favorite mix of warm spices or use apple pie spice.
• Apple Cider
  • Use apple cider (not apple cider vinegar or alcoholic cider) to make these muffins.
  • Boil and reduce the cider to concentrate the flavor almost to a syrup consistency like making homemade maple syrup.
  • You can reduce more apple cider at once and store the reduced cider in your refrigerator for weeks. Use in recipes like my Sourdough Apple Cider Upside-Down Cake or fall-themed mocktails or cocktails.
• Applesauce
  • You can make homemade applesauce or use premade applesauce like I use in my Sourdough Apple Fritters.
  • Substitute the applesauce with apple butter for an even richer apple taste.
• Apples
  • Any shredded fresh apples will work in this flexible recipe.
  • My favorite baking apples that I use for Sourdough Apple Galette and Sourdough Apple Hand Pies are Honeycrisp, Braeburn, Baldwin, Empire, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, and Northern Spy.
• Eggs provide structure, rise, binding, richness, and moisture.
• Brown sugar
  • For sweetness, moisture, and structure.
  • You can use light or dark brown sugar in this recicpe.
• Vanilla Extract
  • Use real vanilla extract or vanilla paste, not imitation.
• Sourdough Discard
  • If you don’t have an active sourdough starter, learn how to make one in a week following my how-to guide. See my top sourdough starter tips and other sourdough discard recipes.
• Vegetable Oil
  • A neutral oil such as vegetable oil, canola oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil keep the muffins moist for days with a light texture.
  • Substitute the oil with a stick of cooled, melted butter for a richer, denser muffins like I use for my Sourdough Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins and Sourdough Blueberry Yogurt Muffins.
• Unsalted butter
  • Melt the butter and brush on top of the muffins so the cinnamon sugar mixture will stick.
• Granulated Sugar
  • For the cinnamon sugar mixture that will coat the muffins.

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🍎 How to Make Sourdough Apple Cider Muffins

Follow this detailed recipe guide as you make the best Sourdough Apple Cider Muffins.

1. Reduce the Apple Cider

Boil and reduce the apple cider in a small saucepan over medium-high heat for about 30 minutes, stirring often.

Sit aside and let cool. You can make the boiled apple cider ahead of time and store in the refrigerator weeks in advance.

2. Mix the Dry Ingredients

In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together and set aside.

3. Mix in the Wet Ingredients

In another bowl, whisk the wet ingredients.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until a few floury spots remain.

Then, stir in the shredded apples until fully mixed.

For best results, chill the batter in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, overnight, or while you preheat the oven.

3. Bake

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (204ºC) and line and grease a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin tins or paper. This recipe makes about 14 muffins, so you may want to line another muffin pan with a couple more papers if you have one.

Use an ice cream scoop or cookie scoop to fill the prepared muffin cups about ¾ full with the batter.

Bake for about 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool for a few minutes in the pan before letting them cool slightly on a wire rack.

4. Coat in Cinnamon Sugar

Combine cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in another small bowl and brush the tops of the warm muffins with melted butter.

Then, dip the tops of the muffins in the bowl of cinnamon sugar to coat before serving.

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How to Store

Once completely cooled, store sourdough apple cider muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days or in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.

You can freeze the muffins for up to 3 months and thaw before coating in the cinnamon sugar.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions