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
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
I’ve made muffins like these before and I was wondering if I could substitute the all purpose flour for rice flour perhaps? My nephew can’t have wheat or nuts.
Hi Katherine, we don’t have any experience baking with rice flour so can’t offer much advice. Some readers have reported success using 1:1 flour substitutes (like Cup4Cup) in this recipe. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
These pumpkin muffins are super easy and delicious! Awesome recipe to start into pumpkin season! Thanks!
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These muffins were amazing really moist.
Made these this morning with white whole wheat flour and all coconut sugar, delicious! So moist and flavorful, will be making them again and again for sure.
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I made this recipe just as its listed and it is sooooooooo good..doesn’t need any frosting or glaze atall…they are perfect with a cup of hot tea…thank you for a terrific recipe..
So good have made these twice already. A blue ribbon for you 🙂
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Love this base recipe! I like to add oats, which require a little extra moisture, so I soak them in about 1/2 cup of milk and maple syrup mixed together.
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Shared these with the volunteers at Pohaku Park in Maui. They’ve been feeding and supplying necessities to those affected by the Lahaina wildfire for weeks without rest.
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The muffins are so moist and flavorful. I baked them at the recommended time and temp. A toothpick came out with no batter or crumbs but not dry. They didn’t really brown, but we’re done inside. Is this to be expected with such a moist muffin with so much pumpkin and the 1/2 cup oil? Thank you! Love your recipes!
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Can you mix these the night before and spoon them into muffin cups in the morning?
Thank you
Hi Lee, we don’t recommend it. The leaveners are activated once the wet and dry ingredients are mixed together, and it’s best to bake the batter shortly thereafter. You could bake them the night before and then reheat them in the microwave if you’d like warm muffins!
Hi, these muffins look awesome. A quick ? though, watching the video of how to make these, noticed you sprinkle sugar on top of the muffins. What kind of sugar is it please? can’t wait to try them.
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Hi, the kind of sugar you want to look for is coarse sugar, or sometimes called Sparkling Sugar and sold with the sprinkles in the baking aisle. It’s wonderful on muffins and scones!
Doubled the recipe and it made 21 big muffins for me. The instructions to bake at the higher temp for 5 minutes really did make them pop up. They are moist and delicious, another of Sally’s recipes to save!
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I’m pregnant and looking to add more fiber to my diet. If I substituted AP flour for whole wheat, would it affect the bake?
Hi Becca, you can use whole wheat flour but the muffins will taste a bit heavier.
I made them tonight and used 1c AP flour and 3/4c stone ground whole wheat flour. They came out great! I think I would even add more WW flour next time. You could also add some raisins.
This was a great recipe I used pumpkin I I used pumpkin pie filling and no I I I I used pumpkin pie spice and it still worked great
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This was a great recipe I used pumpkin pie filling and no pumpkin pie spice and it still worked great
Addictive ! Incredibly moist, flavorful, easy, and fun to create different styles for those pickier pumpkin eaters. I made some with nuts, some with chocolate, and some without nuts for my family. Everyone was happy I did add a teaspoon of vanilla just bc I love vanilla. This recipe is a keeper ! Thank You . Its a bite into Fall heaven
★★★★★
Can you use honey instead of sugar?
Hi Anne, it will throw off the wet to dry ingredients ratio, but you can certainly try it. I would slightly reduce the amount, since honey is a bit sweeter.
I tried this recipe with real pumpkin frozen from the year before and it turned out very well, much liked by everyone who tried it.
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By far THE most amazing pumpkin chocolate chip muffins I’ve ever made!!! Followed your recipe to a T and I am beyond impressed with how moist and flavorful they are! Feels like Fall biting into these!
★★★★★
Do you know how to convert this to gluten free flour?
Hi Debbie, we haven’t tested this recipe with a gluten free flour, so we’re not sure of the exact results. Let us know if you decide to give it a try!
Hi Sally, can I substitute maple syrup for the white and brown sugars? If so what would that measurement be?
A second question is this – can I substitute maple sugar for both the white and brown sugars?
thanks!
Lynne
Hi Lynne, another reader tried this and reported she was happy with the result, but in general we don’t recommend swapping a wet sweetener for a dry. The muffins will have a slightly different texture. You could try coconut sugar instead of one or both of the sugars, or start with subbing maple syrup for just one of the sugars. If you try it, please report back on how they turn out!
These are the best-moist and dense. Saving this recipe. THANKS Pumpkin and fall great combo!!!
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What kind of chocolate chips do you recommend? (PS I haven’t made these yet but I already love how easy it seems and how I barely have to get anything from the store!)
Hi Courtney! We usually use semi-sweet chocolate chips in pumpkin muffins. Hope you love them!
Hi, I am looking for a great pumpkin muffin recipe for my kids but also looking to make them healthy with chia seed/flax seed.. might you have some ratios or recommendations? Appreciate your feedback 🙂
Hi Frances, You could add a teaspoon or two to the batter before spooning into the muffin tins.
This is a light, fluffy, but full flavored recipe. I used half white flour and half a blend of better for you flours. Came out amazing.
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How would I bake these using mini loaf pans? I’m sure I increase the cooking time, but to what? And do I do the high temp bake initially and then turn it down?
Hi Jessica, You can bake mini loaves at 350 F the entire time (do not start at the higher temperature). We are unsure of the exact time they will take as mini loaf pans vary greatly in size. Bake them until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Just the perfect recipe for whipping up delicious pumpkin muffins for unexpected guests at tea. I toasted 1/2 cup walnut pieces at 350 degrees for 5 minutes then chopped them and added them to the batter. Excellent flavor.
So I just got all the ingredients measured out assuming I had a can of pumpkin in the pantry but I unfortunately I do not. Do you think replacing it with applesauce would work?! Obviously it would change the whole flavor of the muffins
Hi Kristin, rather than trying to make these muffins without pumpkin, we’d recommend another muffin recipe, like our Applesauce Muffins.
I substituted 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour. After cooled, I sprinkled sifted confectioners sugar on top. Came out just like my local coffee shop! Delish.
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Great flavor, like really nice flavor, but my muffins stuck to the paper liner…. Hoping they will release once they have a day or so to settle… ?
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