A few months ago a reader, Charlotte, sent me a recipe she found on the Meijer web site. It was a gluten free recipe, but she substituted sorghum flour for soy flour. Recently I got around to trying the recipe using sorghum flour like she did, and I was very pleased with the muffins.
My family really like them too, but they sunk on the top a little, and as I made them I kept thinking of ways I might change the recipe. So I did just that.
I had a slight problem though. When I started experimenting with the recipe, I forgot that it made 24 muffins and thought it was only supposed to make 12! I ended up cutting back on ingredients but still ended up with 18 muffins. As I was filling the muffin tins the last time I suddenly remember the recipe was for 24. I told myself I would be doing at least one more experiment because who wants a recipe that makes 18 muffins?
But then I pulled that batch out of the oven and realized they were perfect. I didn’t want to experiment with the recipe any longer. And so, before our apple themed month of September is over, I give you an applesauce muffin recipe that makes 18 muffins.
I have read at times that you should fill empty muffin cups with water. I didn’t do that. If you find it helps, though, then go right ahead.
Applesauce Muffins

Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups applesauce
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup coconut oil (liquid)
- 1 cup brown rice flour
- 1/4 cup sorghum flour
- 1/2 cup potato starch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- Generously grease 18 muffin cups.
- While you are preparing the muffin batter, toast walnut halves in the oven for about 5 minutes. Let them cool some, then chop.
- In a large bowl, combine the applesauce, eggs, sugar, and oil with a spatula or wooden spoon.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk together the flours, potato starch, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Add the dry ingredients and the nuts to the wet ingredients and stir just until moistened.
- Spoon the batter into the muffin tins.
- Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until the tops of the muffins spring back when touched lightly.
- Cool for several minutes in the muffin pan, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
I’ll be giving this one a try! My husband loves muffins, and these are muffins we can both eat 🙂
They sure look perfect, Linda! Love the ingredients, too. Since I can’t do much sorghum, I’d sub for that, but that’s easy.
I do always fill my empty muffin cups with water. So I’m wondering if that advice is a myth? I thought doing so protected the integrity of your pan instead of baking those muffins cups empty. Hmmm.
Shirley
I heard that it makes your muffins cook more evenly
What did you sub for the sorghum flour? I am new to all of this and don’t have any idea what to use?
Carol, as it turns out, I ended up creating my own recipe for Applesauce Muffins on my blog using almond flour and oat flour (made from certified gf purity protocol oats) later. Either almond flour or gluten-free oat flour alone should be a good substitute for sorghum flour in Linda’s recipe. Sorghum flour is considered a medium-weight flour and a flour of similar weight should be subbed ideally. But there’s only 1/4 cup in this recipe so there are probably other gf flours that could be subbed successfully as well. Good luck!
Shirley
Filling the empty muffin tins helps everything bake more evenly if your oven heats unevenly. Like mine!
I just took these out of the oven!! They are YUMMY!! I made a pan of mini and also a pan of regular size. I like to keep things like this in the freezer for grabbing a quick snack or a quick dessert for me at church fellowships. I tweaked it a bit, I used canola oil instead of coconut, added 1 cup of sugar instead of 3/4 (we like sweet stuff around here 😉 and left out the nuts.
These are NOT grainy or gritty like some I’ve made.
I will post it over on my blog with a link to here.
Thanks again for this.
Moe
http://adoptivemomhomeschoolinganonlychild.blogspot.com/
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Moe!
For years, when there were 9 of us, I made muffins and cupcakes in one 12 cup and one 6 cup pans. They fit in a 30″ range just fine. Do not apologize for being smart.
Don’t you love it when a recipe turns our winderfully? These look great!
Sounds so good! We’re egg free too, I wonder how they’ll work with egg sub? I’ll find out tomorrow I guess!
I can’t stop eating them & they are approved by my picky teen. 🙂 I made minis and regular ones, minis burned just a tad on the bottom because I didn’t adjust time but still are sooooo yummy! thank you, thank you, thank you! oh I didn’t have potato starch so I used equal amt of tapioca starch. I will be blogging about these very soon! thanks again!
I know how picky teens can be! I’m glad you both enjoyed them.
These sound fantastic! I love applesauce muffins!
They look delicious! I might have to try these ones on my family. Oh, and I’ve never put water in my empty muffin cups and my muffins usually turn out fine.
Just made these and they came really good. Subbed tapioca for potato since that’s what I had. They smell amazing, too! I have young children so I omitted the chopped nuts and added some chopped apples instead and they came great! Thanks!
We are still enjoying these out of the freezer! They are so good!
Thank you again.
Moe
You’re welcome, Moe. Last week I used a little coconut flour in some muffins (a different recipe) and I loved the way they turned out. The muffins stayed nice and soft. I think I’ll be using coconut flour more!
Hi,
Just made your muffins. Sprinkled the tops with cinnamon sugar. AMAZING! Next time I will add some grated apple.
Made these applesauce muffins today.
I must say, I am quite impressed with the aroma, texture and taste!
They turned out fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing your recipe.
I look forward to trying some more!
I’m so glad you liked them, Natalie!
Heh. 18 muffins is perfect! I just so happen to have a 12-muffin tin and a 6-muffin tin! 12+6 = 18 🙂 Oh, and the muffins are tasty, too!!
Made these this morning, but used my own GF baking mix….so good!!! Love the nutmeg in these! I used my old fashioned ice cream scooper to measure into muffin pans, made 23.5 muffins 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed them, Katy. Thanks for letting me know.
I made these for the first time with a few changes and love them! I did not have coconut oil so I subbed veg. oil. Also I did not have sorghum flour -subbed tapioca flour. I also threw in about 1/4 tsp ginger. Great moist texture. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
You might just use the six muffin tins and bake three of them
Is there something i can use to substitute the eggs?
Sorry, Jennifer. I don’t have experience with using egg substitutes.
Recipe sounds good! I am from the UK do you make your applesauce? and if you do how do you make it. I would love to try the recipe for these. I am trying to cut out wheat and refined sugar so still experimenting!
No, I do not make my own applesauce. I use store bought unsweetened applesauce.
Can I substitute cornstarch for potato starch?
Yes, that would probably work.
Could I use gluten free flour in place of sorghum and rice flour?
These are amazing! Exactly what I needed. Thank you so much.