October is here again! That can only mean one thing: crisp, cool evenings, crunchy leaves, honeycrisp apples, sweater weather, and ALL things pumpkin. I absolutely love Fall. It’s without a doubt; my favorite time of year. I didn’t grow up with four, marked seasons. Our wardrobe in the tropics literally looks the same year-round. Well, mayyyyybe with the exception of December when the temperature drops to 18-20 degrees Celsius (ha!) and we all make a weak case to throw on a fancy scarf or put on a nice sweater. Because it’s “cold”.

I am convinced Canada hosts the prettiest fall in the land. Mother nature can’t stop showing off around these woods, it seems. Shades of red, crimson, gold, yellow, orange & auburn highlighting everything around us. The momentum starts slow, but by the second week of October… you pretty much wake up one day and BAM! The leaves have changed. It’s so sudden and beautiful. And you can’t possibly miss it. It’s also harvest time at our local farmers market and the (official) grand finale to summer. AKA eat all you can before fresh, local produce goes away.

Cue in these apple pie muffins. The farmers market made me do it. Totally. I was going to kick off October by baking something pumpkin. Hey, I bet you that could very well be the name of a blog “Something Pumpkin”. Possibilities are endless, and the audience for pumpkin everyyyything seems to grow steadily every year.

But before we dive deep into pumpkins, let us not forget about apples. Especially honeycrisp apples; AKA the gold standard of apples. Have you ever tried the unparalleled sweetness this apple variety has to offer? If you haven’t, you are seriously missing out. Like BIG time. But before you panic wondering if you can find them- they’re super easy to find at this time of year at most grocery stores and farmers markets. That said, this recipe works with ANY kind of apples. And if cinnamon is not your thing, simply omit and you’ll have the best apple muffins in the land. Easy as pie.[totally pun-intended]

The muffins are moist, sweet, have a crunchy coconut sugar & walnut topping on the muffin top, and lots of warm apple chunks. The texture is all sorts of amazing! I love softened baked apples and everything they have to offer inside your dessert. These muffins are also gluten-free, as I baked them with all purpose gluten-free flour. I have tried many brands & strongly recommend: Bob’s Red Mill & Robin Hood GF flour. If you’re in the United States, King Arthur Flour is also amazing! Whatever you do, don’t try to bake these with coconut flour. Or buckwheat flour. Or amaranth flour. The measures I provide are fitted for All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour made from rice and tapioca.

You will be baking these on repeat, long after apple season is gone. They were a hit, particularly with little hands. They were super excited to eat these and take them in their lunch boxes this week. If your kid’s school has a no-nut policy like mine, simply omit the walnuts. And you’re set! Speaking of school… My Gracie starts preschool tomorrow! And I’m getting all the feels. But she’s so ready to venture out without me. And I’m writing this the night before drop-off. She’ll only be going thrice a week for now, and that means double duty in the morning for this mama. So big day tomorrow folks, big day!

One last thing about these muffins- if you don’t like the smell of coconut oil, I strongly suggest your use butter or grape seed oil. But coconut sugar is a REAL treat in these muffins because it has this nutty, caramel-like taste and it couldn’t pair better with those apples. Word. And as always, let me know what you think of my goodies. Love to hear from you guys.