Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal Cups (Vegan, Gluten Free)

These apple cinnamon baked oatmeal cups are the best healthy make-ahead breakfast or snack! They’re lightly sweetened, soft and chewy, and filled with apple cinnamon flavor in every bite.

What’s your favorite fall flavor combination? I do enjoy a good #PSL, but I think apple cinnamon has my heart. It reminds me of warm apple pie, and who doesn’t love the aroma of apples and cinnamon being cooked?

If you too adore apple cinnamon, please make these apple cinnamon baked oatmeal cups immediately! They’re made with simple, whole food ingredients like oats, apples, and flax. They’re naturally sweetened with applesauce plus just a touch of maple syrup.

These baked oatmeal cups are meal prep friendly because they keep well in the fridge. Make a batch at the start of the week so you have a healthy breakfast waiting each morning! Grab one or two, heat them up, maybe add some peanut butter or yogurt, and you’re fueled up for a busy day.

What’s in these apple cinnamon baked oatmeal cups?

You need a handful of simple ingredients to make these cups. You likely have many of them in your kitchen already!

• Old fashioned rolled oats: I don’t recommend using quick or steel cut oats in this recipe. Old fashioned rolled oats have a specific soft and chewy texture that work really well, and soak up just enough liquid to keep these oatmeal cups moist.
• Honeycrisp apple: We’re working with the golden child of apples today – Honeycrisp! I used New York grown Honeycrisp apples from Yes! Apples in this recipe. Honeycrisp is pretty much a jack of all trades. Since they are extra crunchy and have the perfect sweet-to-tart balance, they are excellent to eat out of hand, in baking, for snacking, and cooking. Yes! Apples distributes over 15 delicious apple varieties from family run farms in New York. They’re a family run, women-owned business themselves! Click here to locate stores in your area where you can pick up Yes! Apples.
• Unsweetened applesauce: This adds moisture, natural sweetness, and even more apple flavor to the baked oatmeal cups.
• Maple syrup: You need just 1/3 cup to add the perfect amount of sweet maple flavor!
• Non-dairy milk: Any kind will do. I used unsweetened soy milk for this batch.
• Flax meal: To make this recipe vegan, we mix flax meal (or ground flaxseed) with water to make flax eggs. Flax eggs replace regular eggs to add moisture, structure, and stability.
• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Nutmeg
• Salt
• Vanilla extract
• Baking powder

How to make this recipe

• Whisk together flax meal with warm water to make flax eggs.
• Combine wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
• Combine dry ingredients in another bowl. Then, add dry ingredients to wet and stir to combine.
• Stir in chopped apples.
• Spoon batter into muffin tins.
• Bake in the oven, let cool slightly, and enjoy!

Tips for making this recipe perfectly

• Dice apples into small, equal sized pieces. This ensures the oatmeal cups bake up evenly, and you get apple in every bite.
• Bake right after mixing up the batter. I don’t recommend preparing the batter ahead of time, as the oats will soak up all the liquid. Mix the batter and then bake the cups right away.
• Use muffin liners or grease the muffin tin before adding the batter to prevent the baked oatmeal cups from sticking to the pan when you remove them.

More apple recipes to try

• Apple Cinnamon Overnight Sourdough French Toast Bake
• Healthy Apple Pear Crisp
• Healthier Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Let me know if you love this recipe by leaving a comment or rating below, and check out Instagram and Pinterest for more healthy lifestyle inspiration. Thanks for stopping by!

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Thank you Yes! Apples for sponsoring this blog post! I’m grateful to partner with brands I love to cook with, and all opinions are my own.