These super soft pumpkin crumb cake muffins are topped with pumpkin spice crumbs and finished with sweet maple icing. They’re a reader favorite and after baking one batch, you’ll understand why!
I originally published this recipe in 2016 and have since added new photos and more success tips.
Let’s be honest: the crumbs are the best part of crumb cake.
At least, that’s what I thought… until I created these. Underneath the crumbly pumpkin spice topping is an irresistible pumpkin muffin—soft, moist, and full of fall flavor. And when you add the maple icing? Forget about any other breakfast food (unless you’re making a batch of these baked pumpkin donuts!).
Readers’ Favorite Pumpkin Muffins
Like clockwork, September rolls around and we all go crazy for these pumpkin crumb cake muffins. They’re the perfect combination of everything we love about fall. Their ease and flavor also help us transition into the chillier months.
Here’s why you’ll love them:
- The batter is based off of my pumpkin bread—it’s SO good
- Easy to make and no mixer required
- Ready in less than one hour
- Soft and moist thanks to power ingredients like pumpkin, oil, eggs, and milk
- Topped with pumpkin spice crumbs + maple icing (you could also leave them plain and you’ll basically have my regular pumpkin muffins)
- Delicious as a breakfast, snack, or dessert
- Packed with warm and cozy fall spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves
How to Make Pumpkin Crumb Cake Muffins
Instead of using my iced pumpkin coffee cake recipe as the base, I turned to my pumpkin bread. I LOVE using that bread recipe to make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. All you do here is take out the chocolate chips, reduce the sugar, and use milk instead of orange juice. Though you could definitely use orange juice if you’d like! (Orange juice provides incredible flavor to the bread, trust me on that one.)
Made with basic ingredients, these pumpkin muffins come together quickly.
Mix the dry ingredients together. This includes lots of spice flavor and you can use homemade pumpkin pie spice here.
Whisk the wet ingredients together. Combine wet and dry ingredients, then fill the muffin cups—almost full, but leave room for the topping.
Make the crumb topping. Spoon it evenly onto each muffin, pressing the crumbs into the tops. Bake, then whisk the 3 icing ingredients together. Drizzle and serve.
Pumpkin Spice Crumb Topping
If you thought crumb topping couldn’t get any better, think again. We’re topping pumpkin crumb cake muffins with pumpkin spice crumbs. YES!
We use oil in the muffins themselves for extra moisture, but we use melted butter in the crumb topping. Why? FLAVOR. The crumb topping also has brown sugar, granulated sugar, flour, and pumpkin pie spice. (Like my traditional crumb cake topping but with pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon.) There are repeat ingredients used in the muffins, so this is not only an easy recipe, it’s a convenient one too. By the way, this crumb topping would be fantastic on zucchini muffins and these chocolate pumpkin muffins, too.
I reduced the sugar in these muffins because they’re getting an extra dose of sweet from the crumb topping and maple icing. With that, I also reduced the salt to make sure the muffins didn’t taste salty with less sugar.
Optional Maple Icing
“Optional” might not be the right word here, because the icing seeping into the crumb topping is outstanding. While the muffins are wonderful on their own, I highly recommend the quick maple drizzle for an extra indulgent finish.
You could also try the maple icing on these mini pumpkin muffins, too.
Be sure to enjoy a batch with a cup of coffee and homemade pumpkin coffee creamer for the ultimate fall breakfast!
More Crumb Lover Recipes
- Coffee Cake
- Apple Cinnamon Muffins
- Crumb Cake Donuts
- Apple Crumb Cake
- Crumb Cake Muffins
- Raspberry Almond Crumb Cake
- Zucchini Crumb Cake
- Crumb Coffee Cake
Pumpkin Crumb Cake Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 15 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft and moist pumpkin crumb cake muffins with pumpkin pie spice and maple icing topping.
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice*
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (120ml) canola or vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 cups (340g) canned pumpkin puree
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk, at room temperature*
Crumb Topping
- 3/4 cup (94g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice*
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, melted
Maple Icing (optional)
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) confectioners’ sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) pure maple syrup
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners. This recipe makes 15 muffins, so prepare a second muffin pan in the same manner. Set aside.
- Make the muffins: In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together until combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, eggs and milk together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, then fold everything together gently just until combined and no flour pockets remain.
- Spoon the batter into liners, filling them almost full.
- Make the crumb topping: Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice together until combined. Using a fork, lightly mix in the melted butter until crumbs form. Don’t over-mix. Spoon crumbs evenly on top of the batter and gently press them down into the batter so they’re snug.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C) then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 16-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 21-22 minutes, give or take. Allow the muffins to cool for 10 minutes in the muffin pan as you make the icing. *For mini muffins, bake for 11-13 minutes at 350°F (177°C) the entire time.
- Make the icing: Whisk all of the icing ingredients together until combined and smooth. Drizzle over muffins and serve warm. Cover tightly and store at room temperature for 1-2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: For longer storage, freeze muffins (with or without icing) for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature or warm up in the microwave if desired. Top with icing before serving if needed.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Glass Mixing Bowls | Spatula | Whisk
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: You can find pumpkin pie spice in the baking aisle of most grocery stores or make your own homemade pumpkin pie spice. If you don’t have either and want to use individual spices, use 1/4 teaspoon each of ground ginger, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, and ground allspice in the muffin batter. Do not leave out the 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon that is also in the muffin batter. The crumb topping also uses pumpkin pie spice and, again, if you don’t have store-bought or homemade, use 1/4 teaspoon of each of those spices and add 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon too.
- Milk: Any milk works. I’ve tested with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, whole milk, and skim milk. You can use any, dairy or non.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Most amazing recipe EVER!!! Usually don’t change recipes but used coconut oil. Heaven! Thank you so much!
I made these muffins several times now and boy do they go fast! I didn’t use canned pumpkin – I process my own pumpkin puree from whole pumpkins and freeze it for whenever I need a pumpkin fix. I usually heat my pumpkin puree in a pan to dry it out a little bit then let it cool down before using it, so no change to the recipe was needed. These muffins are also very quick to put together. I’ve tried a bunch of other pumpkin muffin recipes but this is the only one I’m keeping!
I have made these twice now, my family loves them. Perfectly spiced, moist and delicious. Thank you for the best pumpkin muffins recipd ever!
Sally, I just made these! Holy moly, to DIE for!! I did not use liners, just greased the muffin tins well! Cannot wait for hubby and adult sons to try them!! Another hit recipe from you, thank you, thank you
I’m a big fan of all your recipes, and have made many of them. This time around I’m doing a Whole30 so it was hard to bake and not eat. I froze them and plan to bring them to my daughter in NYC. That being said, they smelled delicious and came out looking like they came straight out of a bakery!
I made these muffins yesterday and I did something wrong! I have baked MANY of your recipes and they are all amazing. My muffins were dense and heavy and the crumb texture was wrong…any idea what I did? We love the pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and I hoped the muffins would be like that….I don’t think I forgot any ingredients.
Hi Dana! Did you change the recipe at all? Did you use canned pumpkin? If so, what brand? I prefer Libby’s. These muffins aren’t supposed to be heavy at all. What did you find was wrong with the crumb topping?
Hands down, THE BEST pumpkin dessert I have ever made. I highly recommend these muffins. I made them exactly per the recipe and they came out perfectly. I will definitely make these again. Thanks, Sally!
I just made these vegan (egg substitute, unsweetened vanilla almond milk) for my 17 month old, and they smell amazing! I didn’t put the crumb topping or frosting since they’re a trial run, but I can’t wait to try them once they cool. (She has an allergy to eggs and bananas) Thanks for sharing!
I’ve made these twice now! My kids devour them (and so do I!). Definitely a keeper!
Absolutely love this recipe. Love how moist and tasty these muffins are. I substituted the veg oil out and used coconut oil. My whole family devoward them, definitely will be making these again !
Sooooo good! I added walnuts which was a nice touch. I made half in mini muffin tins which I sprayed with coconut oil first. They came out of the tin perfectly. Next time I may do them all as mini muffins–nice to get that added crunch that the baked edges provide. Came out perfectly moist and utterly delicious!
Just made this tonight, but had to sub ginger and cardamom for other spices due to allergies and I made it as a cake. Other half was hanging out in the kitchen waiting for it to come out of the oven because it smelled so good! He never does that! It was amazing and I was told the maple glaze is not optional. Ha!
Just made these minus the glaze. Soooo delicious! My whole family gobbled them up.
oh my gosh! made these twice already and i am so in love with them. everyone who’s tried raves about them and tells me they’re the best muffins they’ve ever tasted! 🙂 such a great recipe! they came out perfectly moist and the crumbs are an amazing touch that i didn’t know i needed in my life until now. these muffins have the perfect amount of sweetness so that my parents and the little ones both can’t get enough!! definitely will be making them again for the family on thanksgiving! lots of love
I made these this morning for my family along with a big pot of Chai, and I have to thank you because they came out delicious. What a wonderful recipe. This is one that I’ll be making again and again because everyone loved them so much! It’s the perfect recipe for a chilly fall morning.
I made these last night and they turned out so well that I’m making them again tonight! Everyone loved them.
I’m wondering if anyone has tried making these gluten free? Any tips?
I made these Gluten-Free yesterday and they turned out awesome! The only substitution I made was the flour. I used GF Better Batter Flour Mix and the muffins were moist and delicious! Usually I add additional moisture/fat when baking GF to get the right texture but with this recipe it was not needed.
Just made these amazing muffins on this cool Fall Day! Spectacular!!
Hi Sally! My two year old daughter watched one episode of The Great British Bake Off with me and my husband last week, and since then she’s been a teeny little baking machine! We’ve been using your recipes, because they always come out perfectly, and it’s easier to have a toddler help dump ingredients into a bowl on a scale than measure everything with cups and spoons. So far we’ve made your best ever banana bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, apple cider donuts, and today we made these muffins. They came out great (of course) and my little baker was able to help with every step. Thank you for working so hard to put out yummy new recipes!
Hi Edith! I recommend a 9×9 inch baking pan. The bake time will be about 30-35 minutes, but use a toothpick to test for doneness just in case your oven takes longer.
For mini muffins, bake for 11-13 minutes at 350°F (177°C) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.