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
WOW so good. I followed this mostly to a T. I was short on time so instead of the crumbly topping and glaze, I just sprinkled some rolled oats and mini choc chips on top. The muffins themselves are insanely good- sort of cake like. They are the perfect amount of moisture and softness. I was floored how good a humble muffin could be! Sally never steers me wrong! We love the banana muffins, too, I’ve made them a million times.
I just made these my family loved them so easy and quick to make.Added icing and pecans to the topping after baking
Just made these today. Lovely recipe. It is great how it uses the whole 15oz can of canned pumpkin (no waste). The Crumb topping makes these extra amazing because of the textural contrast and spicy crunch! I skipped the glaze, but next time will try the glaze!
Excited to try this one–question, I want to use a mini tea cake pan. Is it ok to leave off and just go with the glaze? Or would you just put on and the crumb will be on the bottom of the cakes instead of the top? Need these for my mini food party 🙂
Hi Margaret, you can certainly leave off the the crumb topping if you’d like and just use the glaze. We don’t recommend putting the crumbs on the bottom.
You never disappoint, Sally!
I am making these tomorrow for a Santa Letter writing gathering – got to help Santa, he’s so darned busy!
Then I’ll make them again for Tuesday for my Bible Study Holiday Gathering, along with some mini quiches.
Sally, can I make these as mini-muffins? If yes, how should i adjust cooking time?
Donna
Hi Donna! For mini muffins, bake for 11-13 minutes at 350°F (177°C) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
We had almost a full can of pumpkin leftover and this recipe was PERFECT! My family loved them even without the glaze. Definitely a keeper!
I have a question, I measured out 1 1/2 cups and that ended up being a full 15oz can, the muffins also came out feeling a bit too moist, is this how they are supposed to be?
These are amazing! They are so sweet and yummy and the pumpkin flavor isn’t too strong! I will definitely be making the again! I did substitute the milk in the batter for almond milk and the milk in the icing for water to make it dairy-free and it came out perfect! Thanks!
I prefer not to use paper liners for muffins. Will these hold up to just greasing and flouring the pan or are they too moist?
Hi Andrea, they should be OK if you grease the muffin tin well. Enjoy!
Hands down the most disgusting recipe. I’m not even sure why anyone liked this. I moved and all of my own recipes are in a box somewhere so I needed a quick muffin recipe and relied on this. I’m an executive chef and have over 20000 recipes of my own and everyone knows that with baking it has to be precise so I couldn’t just wing it. I’m just disappointed and angered that I wasted time and supplies
Rebekah – how frustrating it must have been for you to know you had a preferred recipe hidden away from you! Now that some time has passed, do you think you can objectively comment on the aspects of the recipe that you found objectionable? No disrespect is meant by this request. I made these today and made my own adjustments, so would honestly like to hear the detail behind your first post.
Can you use pumpkin pie spice extract as a substitute?
Sally, forgot to mention I made 12 muffins instead of 15 and baked them for 20 minutes at 350. Perfect!!
Hi Sally! Made these today…and don’t know where my head was but used pumpkin pie filling. Didn’t matter! They are absolutely delicious!! So moist and cakey. The crumb top is an excellent foil as it isn’t too sweet. Totally forgot to make the maple icing… but again! Didn’t matter lol The muffins were sweet enough with the pie filling. The absolute best pumpkin muffins I have ever made. Thank you so much Sally. Happy Thanksgiving to our American cousins!!
Made these for my volunteers and they loved them. One volunteer even asked for the recipe! Husband had the leftovers a couple of days later and loved them! Thanks for the recipe.
My family loves this recipe! Would it work well as mini loaves for Christmas gifts?
Hi Trish, absolutely! We’re unsure of the exact bake time, as it will depend on the size of your mini loaves.
Can these can be converted into jumbo muffins?
Absolutely! Use the baking time and directions from our Jumbo Blueberry Muffins as a guide.
I’ve made these a few times; they are very good, however, my crumb topping never looks like yours. Your crumb topping doesn’t looked baked. It makes me wonder if the photo was showing the crumb topping raw. They are good, don’t get me wrong, but I’ll look for a different topping.
Hi Tammy! Are you baking the muffins on a top rack? The tops of your muffins may look darker if they’re closer to a heat source. The pictured muffins don’t have raw topping– always baked on the batter. Make sure you press the topping slightly down into the tops so it adheres, too.
Made these today. They look beautiful as well as super yummy. Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Sally! Can I use a jumbo muffin pan for this? What adjustment should I make on the time? Thank you
Hi Grace, absolutely — you can follow the bake time from these jumbo blueberry muffins as a guide. Enjoy!
I made these yesterday- was in a baking mood and craving a pumpkin treat. We absolutely love them! I did alter your recipe just a bit- added 2 oz of softened cream cheese to the glaze! Will definitely make them again. Thank you for sharing this wonderful fall recipe.
I’d like to make the icing more flavorful. Is there any downside to swapping out milk for maple syrup?
Hi Tula! You can use the maple glaze from these scones instead!
I think you forgot to add EGGS in your list of ingredients.
Hi Glenda! This muffin recipe calls for two large eggs in the batter.
Hi Caitlin, we haven’t tested any egg-substitutes with this recipe, but let us know if you do!
can you put nuts in the topping
Hi Shirley, we can’t see why not. You can add them in after you’ve created the crumb topping or simply sprinkle them on top and slightly press them in like we do with the crumb topping. Let us know how it goes!
I made 12 instead of 15, with topping but no glaze. Best muffin I have ever eaten! But then I figured out the calorie count. Yikes! Will share the rest with neighbors. Delicious.
So so so good. I made a batch yesterday and it was perfect (but I went light on the maple glaze) — my husband took them all to work. So I made a second batch today and went heavy on the glaze and that made a world of a difference. But still extremely delicious! Definitely recommending this recipe to everyone I know. Also— I used salted butter this time for the topping mixture for a little sweet and salty touch.
Great flavor in these muffins, and easy recipe. I left off the glaze b/c it would be too sweet for my husband. Next time I will double the crumb topping – I did not think there was enough. (I’m a NY Crumb-lover).
I have this recipe in my save box now! The first time I made them my family ate them up! Do you have the nutritional values.
Please I’m watching calories!
Thank you so much!
Hi Ginger, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
The muffins are wonderful. Can this recipe be turned into a 9×13 cake?
Hi Khandi! We recommend following our recipe for pumpkin cake instead – same lovely pumpkin flavor!
OMG….these are amazing…..the crumb topping is the “bomb”……I did not add the glaze/icing….but know that would make it even better….Thanks Sally!!!
Hello just cooked some pie pumpkin for puree, will that alter the recipe?
That should work perfectly!
It does work beautifully. I use Seminole pumpkins I grow in Florida which have a high water content so if you use a high water content pumpkin you may want to cook that a day ahead and stain it in the refrigerator overnight to reduce the moisture – it wil make a difference in the end product.