Welcome to the epitome of fall baking! (Well, besides apple cake and apple crisp.) These are my super-moist, deliciously spiced, and extra soft pumpkin muffins. They’re adapted from my popular pumpkin crumb cake muffins and aren’t quite as sweet, making them the perfect “anytime” treat during the fall season. You could even add chocolate chips for extra tasty pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. No mixer required!
Meet my favorite pumpkin muffin recipe, the sequel to my favorite zucchini muffins and banana muffins. I appreciate “simple” muffin recipes like these because sometimes we don’t crave all the bells and whistles of pumpkin cream cheese muffins… right? Over-the-top muffins are undoubtedly delicious, but I’m certain you’ll want to make today’s easy pumpkin muffins again and again. Why?
Here’s Why You’ll Love My Simple Pumpkin Muffins
- Reliable, easy recipe with basic ingredients
- No mixer needed
- Extra soft & moist
- Deep pumpkin spice flavor (you can use your homemade pumpkin pie spice!)
- Dairy free if using dairy-free milk
- Very adaptable recipe—add chocolate chips, nuts, or dried cranberries; sprinkle with coarse sugar; or leave plain
How are these different from pumpkin cupcakes? My pumpkin cupcakes recipe is a favorite! In that recipe, you use less flour and milk with the same amount of pumpkin, so the cupcakes have a much lighter, airier texture. Today’s muffins are thicker and denser with just as much flavor.
Grab These 11 Ingredients:
- Flour: Use all-purpose flour in this recipe. If desired, you can replace half of the flour with whole wheat flour for a heartier, denser pumpkin muffin.
- Baking Soda: Helps the muffins rise. There’s no need for baking powder and, in fact, I’ve made these pumpkin cream cheese muffins with only baking soda before too. (Just leave out the baking powder in those; truly no noticeable difference in the outcome.)
- Cinnamon, Ginger, & Pumpkin Pie Spice: Pumpkin is tasty, but in order to really bring out its flavor, you need some warming spices like cinnamon, ginger, and pumpkin pie spice. You can use store-bought or try my homemade pumpkin pie spice blend. Pumpkin pie spice already includes cinnamon and ginger, but for the BEST, deepest flavor, I recommend using all 3. See recipe Note.
- Pumpkin Puree: You need 1 and 1/2 cups (about 340g) of pumpkin puree, which is most of a standard 15-ounce can. Do not use pumpkin pie filling. Just like with these pumpkin snickerdoodles, canned pumpkin is best, but you could use fresh puree if that’s what you have.
- Oil: The muffins taste dry and rubbery without some fat. Just as if we’re making pumpkin cake and pumpkin coffee cake, use vegetable oil. You could also use melted coconut oil.
- Brown & White Sugars: I slightly reduced the sugar from my starting point (pumpkin crumb cake muffins), so the pumpkin flavor shines. Using a little brown sugar adds some flavor, too.
- Eggs: Provide structure.
- Milk: Like most muffin recipes, the batter needs a liquid. You can use whole milk, buttermilk, or any dairy or nondairy milk you enjoy. I use orange juice in my pumpkin bread recipe, but using orange juice (for the amount of liquid needed here) wasn’t ideal here. The muffins were too citrus-y. You could, of course, replace *some* of the milk with *some* orange juice.
This is optional, but I love adding a little coarse sugar to the tops of the pumpkin muffins before baking. I do this in a lot of my muffin recipes (both online and in my book) because it adds a sparkly crunch—just like real bakery muffins! You can use something like Sugar in the Raw or white sparkling sugar. And don’t forget my high-temperature trick, included in the written recipe and explained in the Notes below.
As instructed in the printable recipe below, grab a large bowl for the dry ingredients, a medium bowl for the wet ingredients, then whisk it all together. Expect a thick batter:
Fill the muffin liners all the way to the top:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
You can turn these easy pumpkin muffins into pumpkin chocolate chip muffins! Simply fold 1 cup (about 180g) of chocolate chips in the batter right before spooning into your muffin pan.
If you enjoy pumpkin + chocolate together, be sure to try my chocolate pumpkin muffins as well. For extreme chocolate and pumpkin lovers only!
More Pumpkin Favorites
- Pumpkin Pie
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Donuts
- Pumpkin Cake
- Pumpkin Bars
- Pumpkin Pancakes or Pumpkin Waffles
- Pumpkin Bundt Cake
For even more inspiration, here are my 30+ favorite pumpkin dessert recipes.
Print
Easy Pumpkin Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 21 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These muffins are adapted from my popular pumpkin crumb cake muffins and aren’t quite as sweet, making them the perfect “anytime” treat during the fall season. You could even add chocolate chips for extra tasty pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. No mixer required!
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice*
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil)
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (67g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 cups (340g) canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk (dairy or nondairy)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, 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, and then fold everything together gently just until combined and no flour pockets remain.
- Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F, 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 5 minutes in the muffin pan before enjoying.
- Cover tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: For longer storage, freeze the muffins for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then heat up in the microwave if desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Cupcake Liners | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk
- Pumpkin Pie Spice & Spices: 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 ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger. Do not leave out the 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon that is also called for in this recipe. Depending how much you like ginger, you can skip or leave in the extra 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger that is also called for in this recipe.
- Can I reduce the sugar or oil? You can absolutely slightly reduce either or both, but understand that sugar and oil help produce moist, tender muffins and the results may be disappointing and your muffins could taste dry. For the oil, feel free to swap *some* for applesauce. You could also try substituting all or most of both sugars with coconut sugar.
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins/Other Add-Ins: Simply fold 1 cup (about 180g) of chocolate chips in the batter right before spooning into your muffin pan. Or you can add 1 cup (about 130g) of chopped pecans or walnuts, or 3/4 cup (about 105g) of dried cranberries.
- Mini Muffins: For around 30 mini muffins, line mini muffin pans with liners or spray with nonstick spray. Prepare batter as directed and fill liners to the top. Bake at 350°F (177°C) the entire time (skip the initial high temperature) for 11–13 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Why the initial high oven temperature? Like I do for most muffin recipes, bake the muffins for 5 minutes at a very hot temperature. Then, keeping the muffins in the oven, switch to a lower temperature for the remaining bake time. This initial high temperature will quickly lift the muffin tops so they’re extra high, then the centers will bake during the lower temperature bake time. This trick makes beautiful bakery-style muffins every time.
Keywords: pumpkin muffins
You NEVER steer me wrong! Literally every recipe I try of yours (and there are lots) is absolute perfection. These muffins are perfect! Thank you!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Donna!
Sally you beautiful land mermaid, thank you for once again knocking it out if the park. My family loves your recipes, and I love cooking them.
I love anything pumpkin and these are the best! Moist, full of flavor and easy to make. Add the chocolate chips..you won’t be sorry!
Best, hands down, muffin ever! I used butternut squash instead of pumpkin because that’s what was in the garden, and it was delicious! I will be making more. I added walnuts to this batch and served them at mom’s book club. This is a tender muffin that doesn’t crumble into pieces when you eat it. Had leftovers today with butter and apricot preserves, wormed slightly. I’ll be trying many variations in the near future!
If I wanted to make these as giant muffins, how might I adjust the baking temp?
Also, any adjustments for homemade roasted pumpkin puree rather than canned?
Your recipes never fail me and I’ve got a bumper crop of pumpkins this year.
Hi Amanda, for jumbo muffins, you can use the baking times and temperatures from jumbo blueberry muffins as a guide. If using homemade puree, you may want to slightly blot it if it seems excessively wet. You don’t want to rid of all the moisture though. Hope you enjoy the muffins!
I used butternut squash I had roasted the day before. It was a little drier than canned pumpkin so I added a little milk till the batter looked ‘right,’ about an 1/8 C more. Hope that helps.
What type of container do you store these in, I.e tin,plastic( mold) or in the fridge.
Hi Dona! We usually store them in a large plastic container.
This is my go to recipe for pumpkin muffins, however just this recipe only makes 6 muffins in a traditional muffin tin, even though the recipe states to make 12. If you double the recipe and bake for a few minutes longer it perfectly makes 12 muffins in a traditionally sized muffin pan!
Interesting. This recipe made 12 perfect muffins for me without doubling it.
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Wow!! These are amazing! Used lactose free milk. My pan has 9 large muffins. I added 1 more minute to the 425 temp timing and 5 minutes to the 325 temp timing. Thank you for sharing your recipe
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Wow!! These are amazing! Used lactose free milk. My pan has 9 large muffins. I added 1 more minute to the 425 temp timing and 5 minutes to the 325 temp timing. Thank you gif sharing your recipe
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Muffins are delicious but the bake time is WAY off. After the 16-17 minutes they were still goo inside. Added bake time several times and it ended up being close to 50 minutes. I realize that pumpkin puree takes a bit but this recipe should account for that. They will firm up with cooling off but they won’t turn from unbaked goo to amazing from cooling off. Might want to check this recipe and repost it. (My oven holds a consistent temp. Not sure what is different when I do it since others don’t seem to have this problem.)
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Same problem here! Broke one open after 30 mins in there and still see some batter that isnt cooked.
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These muffins were delicious! I added pecans but otherwise followed the recipe exactly as written. They turned out beautiful and delicious!
All the cookies I made over the years . Not once did I know to shape the cookies the same after cooking thanks so much lol they look all perfect
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Foolproof.. just follow directions.. not sure about calories or if they r medium or large.
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I love the taste of molasses so would it hurt to add 3 tablespoons to the recipe.
Hi Sue, what an interesting idea! We haven’t tested it, but would try replacing some of the brown sugar with molasses. Would love to hear how it goes!
Hi Trina, thanks for getting back to me so quickly. The molasses worked out beautifully! In fact my husband & I just ate 2 each. I replaced 3 tablespoons of brown sugar for 3 tablespoons of fancy molasses. Added half a cup of roasted pumpkin seeds including a few on top with a white sugar sprinkle. They rose perfectly & the texture is even and light. This will be my new go to recipe. Thanks very much.
Just made these this morning and swapped flour for King Arthur’s gluten free since my daughter has celiac. They were wonderful and very moist, added dark chocolate chips. Thanks, this is a keeper for me!
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This is my favorite recipe finder for baking. Whenever I need to make a sweet treat I look here. I’ve never been disappointed,you’ve done the research for me. I love reading why the recipe works. Thank you for such an awesome site!
These were amazing!
As per my usual practice, I used ⅛ c oil & filled up to ½ c with unsweetened applesauce.
Next time I will sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top. 😉
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This is the best pumpkin recipe! I used a bit less white sugar, added chocolate chips and chopped walnuts! The best investment I’ve only made this year, and I bake muffins a lot, is a nice quality ice cream scoop with the release feature! They come out the same size and look beautiful! I added raw sugar and chopped walnuts to the top! Will be making these often!
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