Growing up, I hated apples with a fiery, burning passion. I think it’s because most of what I tasted was the Red Delicious variety, i.e., the most popular one at U.S. grocery stores (at least during my formative years).

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Red Delicious apples, they’re the red ones that are essentially the cardboard cutout versions of real apples: They look good, but they taste like the insulation you fill the wall with. I have vivid memories of taking a bite out of a Red Delicious apple and gagging because it was so grainy and mealy.

I steered clear of apples for a while until I studied abroad in France. I went into a grocery store in the small town I was living in and got an apple for a snack. I wanted something to counteract the 90 crêpes and pastries I’d already eaten that day. I chose a Pink Lady apple. It was compact and firm in my hand. It had a nice sheen to it. I took a bite and realized what I’d been missing for years: Real apples are actually good. They are crisp, juicy, and refreshing. I filed this knowledge away and started to incorporate apples into my diet once I returned stateside.

I still buy apples at the grocery store (obviously, not Red Delicious), but these days, I mostly stock up on them at the farmers’ market. There are several varieties, but I’m a fan of the tart ones like Fuji, Honeycrisp, and Jonagold. The tart ones are better for baking because they’re a good contrast for all the sugar you put in pies, cakes, or muffins.

I used some diced tart apples for these muffins and mixed them with cinnamon, a little lemon juice, and sugar. I let them sit and marinate on the counter while I combined the other ingredients. The dry ingredients include ground nutmeg and ginger, two of my favorite spices to bake with in the fall. The wet ingredients have a ton of brown sugar, which is one of the best pairings with apples, in my humble opinion. I also topped the muffins with a brown sugar flour mix, which hearkens back to one of my favorite fall desserts, apple crumble.

These muffins smelled so good baking in the oven that it was almost surreal. I had a flashback to last weekend when I made cinnamon rolls with my friend Lynn. “I wish I could bottle up this smell,” I said to her at the time, and today, I wished I could do the same thing with the apple muffins. I guess the silver lining is, my apartment will smell like apple muffins for the rest of the day. Also, I can always make them again to recreate the memory.

I made these muffins gluten-free to accommodate my friend at work, but I’m sure you could make them with regular, all-purpose flour if you wanted to. I haven’t tested the recipe that way, but I would experiment with adding all-purpose flour in place of the gluten-free flour and keeping the almond flour, because I think that contributes to the texture.

Here’s a song to get you started on your apple crumble muffins.

Apple Crumble Muffins

Ingredients
For the apple filling:
2 tart apples, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

For the crumb topping:
1/2 cup gluten-free flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

For the muffin base:
1 3/4 cups gluten-free flour
2/3 cup almond flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 large eggs
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup whole milk yogurt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with liners and set aside.

First, make the apple filling. Toss the diced apples, lemon juice, sugar, and cinnamon together in a small bowl and set aside.

Next, make the crumb topping. Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and ground cinnamon. Drizzle in the melted butter and mix everything together with a fork. Make sure all the flour is incorporated but stop once you have big crumbs; you don’t want to over mix. Set aside.

Finally, make your muffin base. Whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, and ground nutmeg in a medium bowl. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the eggs and brown sugar on medium speed until the mixture is light colored and fluffy. Turn the speed to low and slowly pour in the vegetable oil. Once that is incorporated, add 1/3 of the flour mixture. Then add 1/2 the yogurt. Continue this pattern until you don’t have any yogurt or flour left.

Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then give the batter one more quick mix. Use the same spatula to mix in the diced apples until they are incorporated.

Using spoons or an ice cream scoop (my preferred method), scoop some batter into each well in the muffin tin. Top generously with the crumble mixture.

Bake the muffins for 10 minutes at 425 degrees F. Then, turn down the oven temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for another 10 to 12 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and spring back to the touch. You can also test them by inserting a toothpick in the middle. If it comes out clean, they’re done.

Cool the muffins for five minutes in the tin, then remove them to cool the rest of the way on a wire rack. Enjoy!