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Pumpkin Muffins

4.85 from 46 votes

These delicious soft and moist homemade pumpkin muffins will quickly become a family favorite recipe all year long!

Homemade Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

The best healthy pumpkin muffins

Easy to make and kid friendly, this simple classic pumpkin muffin recipe is a great portable breakfast or quick healthy snack choice.

It can be egg free, soy free, gluten free, low fat, dairy free, low in calories, nut free, plant based, and vegan, with an oil free option included as well.

The muffins are packed with wholesome nutrition, and they taste like pumpkin pie. So you get the best of both worlds!

Be sure to also try this Crustless Pumpkin Pie

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin breakfast muffins

Breakfast will never be the same again.

Whip up a batch of soft homemade pumpkin muffins the night before, and you will actually want to get out of bed in the morning.

Or make a double batch for Sunday meal prep. Enjoy the muffins throughout the week, or freeze leftovers to have on hand any time a pumpkin craving hits.

Serve with a Homemade Frappuccino, Pumpkin Smoothie, or Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Low calorie, nutritious, and rich in vitamin A, the muffins make a great addition to any breakfast table. For a complete meal, add your favorite breakfast protein source.

You can even replace up to a fourth cup of the flour in this recipe with a flavored or unflavored protein powder, turning them into pumpkin protein muffins!

Vegan Girl With Muffins

Step by step pumpkin muffin recipe video

Above, watch the video of how to make the muffins

If you have only ever made the popular two ingredient pumpkin muffins with cake mix, you will be shocked at how much better these homemade muffins taste!

Homemade pumpkin muffin ingredients

Here’s what you need: fresh or canned pumpkin puree, milk of choice, white or apple cider vinegar, pure vanilla extract, flour, sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and optional oil.

There are no butter or eggs required for this Fall favorite recipe.

And you can change up the flavor of the muffins by throwing in a handful of raisins or dried cranberries, crushed walnuts, flax or chia seeds, or shredded coconut.

Obviously my favorite variation is to add a generous handful of chocolate chips. They are also wonderful topped with oatmeal streusel.

Eat them plain or spread with almond butter, Coconut Butter, or Vegan Cream Cheese.

The recipe is incredibly versatile. If you do not have pumpkin pie spice, there is no need to go to the grocery store. Just use additional cinnamon instead.

And if you cannot find a can of Libby’s pumpkin at the store, feel free to substitute roasted butternut squash. Mashed sweet potato works as well.

(Here’s the best way how to cook sweet potatoes.)

White sugar, coconut sugar, or unrefined evaporated cane juice work as the sweetener. For added sugar free pumpkin muffins, use xylitol or a granulated no sugar sweetener.

Spelt flour, oat flour, and all purpose flour work well. If you experiment with any other flours, such as whole wheat flour, almond flour, or a gluten free blend, be sure to let other readers know about your results.

We do not recommend substituting coconut flour here, because it is a very absorbent grain free flour alternative and will yield dry muffins.

The oil can be replaced with three tablespoons of additional pumpkin, mashed banana, plain or Greek yogurt, applesauce, or finely shredded zucchini.

You might also like these Easy Cinnamon Rolls

The Best Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

How to make pumpkin muffins

Gather your ingredients, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, and optional vegetable or melted coconut oil.

Let these ingredients sit for ten minutes while you sift dry ingredients in a bowl. Alternatively, you can whisk the wet ingredients together the night before and refrigerate in a covered container.

Combine the dry and wet ingredients, stirring until just evenly mixed. Do not over stir, which could result in a tough texture.

Smooth the muffin batter into a greased cupcake tin or muffin liners.

Bake on the center rack of the oven for nineteen minutes, or until the pumpkin pastries are domed and golden. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out mostly clean.

Let cool before handling. If you can wait, the muffins taste even better the next day, and the liners will also peel off easily after a day.

Once cooled, store leftovers in a covered container. They should stay fresh in a container on the counter for a day or in the refrigerator for up to five days.

Or freeze pumpkin muffins in an airtight container for up to three months. Thaw in the microwave or overnight in the fridge before serving. You can also heat up frozen muffins in a pan on the stove top.

More Muffin Recipes

Applesauce Muffins

Keto Muffins

Protein Muffins

Healthy Muffins

Oatmeal Muffins

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

Pineapple Muffins

Banana Muffins

Secretly Healthy Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

The recipe was adapted from this Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe with cream cheese frosting and from my Vegan Pumpkin Bread and this Keto Pumpkin Bread.

Pin it now to save for laterPin Recipe

Pumpkin Muffins

This soft and moist pumpkin muffins recipe is sure to become a family favorite.
Cook Time 19 minutes
Total Time 19 minutes
Yield 9 pumpkin muffins
4.9 from 46 votes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 cup milk of choice
  • 3 tbsp oil or additional pumpkin
  • 2 1/2 tsp white or cider vinegar
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup spelt, white, or oat flour (for keto, try these Flourless Pumpkin Muffins)
  • 1/2 cup sugar (unrefined if desired)
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice or additional cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp each: baking soda, salt, and baking powder
  • optional handful chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 F. Whisk liquid ingredients. Let sit 10 minutes, and sift dry ingredients in a bowl while waiting. Pour dry into wet, stir just until evenly mixed, and smooth into a lined muffin tin. Bake 19 minutes on the center rack. Let cool. The pumpkin muffins taste even better the next day, and liners peel off easily the next day as well. 
    View Nutrition Facts

Notes

Readers also love these Baked Apple Cider Donuts.
 

Have you made this recipe?

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Or this Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Published on October 29, 2023

Meet Katie

Chocolate Covered Katie is one of the top 25 food websites in America, and Katie has been 
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ABC's 5 O’Clock News. Her favorite food is chocolate, and she believes in eating dessert every single day.

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53 Comments

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  1. Monet says

    These look amazing! Going to grab some pumpkin right now:) Are the pictures in the post of the fat-free version or oil version? Would love to copy that texture but there are people in my household watching their weight. I love healthy fats though so will probably top mine with pumpkin pie hummus (you can get that from Target and it’s vegan)

    • CCK Media Team says

      That hummus sounds amazing! We honestly don’t remember which version these are. Katie tested a bunch of versions to make sure all the listed variations worked, and the photos are from a few months ago, but the oil or oil-free versions looked pretty similar so it should be fine either way 🙂

  2. Marla says

    I love this recipe, they turned out perfect. I used coconut oil, carob chips, no pumpkin pie spice, no vinegar, white spelt flour (a little extra), homemade almond milk…I didn’t have any paper liners so just oiled some muffin tins and they came out great. Thanks for the wonderful recipe, I plan to share it with others.

    • CCK Media Team says

      We haven’t tried so probably it would be a safer bet to go with this recipe and add some pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. You might also be able to sub some of the milk of choice with pumpkin. We are going to try it too at some point so hopefully there will be a keto pumpkin muffin recipe on the site either this Fall season or next year’s 🙂 https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/keto-muffins-recipe/

  3. Sandra says

    I tried the recipe with oats (blended to oat flour in a Vitamix) and topped it with cream cheese made from cashews. Yummy! But the muffins seemed not quite baked through. Is that intended in order to give them a moist texture?

  4. Jenn says

    Delicious! These turned out perfectly and it’s so true about the taste and the more easily peeled liner the day after. Another CCK hit!

  5. Sheri says

    When do you sift the dry ingredients? Before or after measuring the dry ingredients? So few recipes mention sifting today, so I was just wondering. Thanks.

  6. Amy R. says

    So I’m hoping anyone can answer, Sprouts was out of pumpkin puree, so I bought butternut sqush puree thinking I can substitute it. I don’t see it listed as a substitute option in any of the recipes, only sweet potatoes. Can anyone pleaseee tell me if they’ve had success with squash instead of pumpkin in recipes? Thank you.

    • CCK Media Team says

      Texture-wise it will work :). We have never tried so don’t know what the flavor will taste like, but if you experiment, be sure to report back!

    • Lynda says

      I read all the time that butternut squash is a very common and excellent sub for pumpkin. I made a pumpkin pie using butternut and it was great.
      Hope that helps.

  7. Lauren says

    Hi Katie, thank you for this outstanding recipe. I followed your directions exactly. In place of the oil, I used 1 tablespoon of pumpkin and 2 tablespoons of nut butter, based on other recipes of yours that substitute oil for nut butter and vice versa. I think these are very good, and exactly as you described. I baked them for exactly 19 minutes, as well. Thank you, again.

  8. Kelsee says

    AMAZING!! These are so good! I tripled the recipe and it made 24 big muffins. I cut the sugar back to 1 cup for a triple batch and they were plenty sweet. Thanks for a great recipe!

  9. Barb says

    Great recipe! I used banana flour. My son wished there were chocolate chips in the muffin instead of just on top. 🙂 I baked it a little longer because I thought it looked wet still but next time I won’t. My other son mentioned he thought it was a bit dry. I’m sure that’s because I added 3-4 minutes to the baking time.

  10. Bela Khanna says

    I just baked these – made my own oat flour from rolled oats and used monkfruit sweetener instead of sugar. They tasted good but they sank as soon as I pulled them out of the oven and didn’t look like the pictures. I followed everything else exactly and baked them for 19 minutes so I’m not sure what went wrong.

    • CCK Media Team says

      Homemade oat flour has added air because you’re whipping/blending it, but the monk fruit could have also been an issue with yours, as we haven’t tried the recipe with that sweetener. Glad they taste good even if they look funny!

  11. ChocolateLover says

    Katie, these are delicious. Just to let you know I paired them up with pumpkin frosting (pumpkin puree, milk, cream cheese, sweetner of choice) I also made my own pumpkin puree for the muffins and frosting. They were all delish! The only difference is I used cassava flour. Thanks for the recipe! You’re amazing!!!

  12. Lauren says

    Hi Katie,
    I made this recipe a second time because I had leftover pumpkin from a previous recipe. This time, instead of 3 tablespoons of oil, I used 1.5 tablespoons of yogurt and 1.5 tablespoons of peanut butter. I baked the recipe in a 9×5 inch loaf pan for 30 minutes (plus 10 minutes more in the turned off oven). The “bread” is wonderful, too. Obviously there’s less batter than another loaf recipe, so the slices aren’t as big/tall, but it’s beautiful as is and tastes just as good as the muffins. I thought I’d leave you a message in case anyone asks about making this recipe in a different form. Thank you, again.
    Lauren

  13. CAROL GIBSON says

    This is the MOST delicious, moist, yummy muffin I have ever tasted! I think I could’ve sat down and eaten the whole batch myself, they were so amazing. But I restrained and only had two. Regrettably, I left the rest on the counter and my mischievous dog got the rest! I almost cried I was so disappointed! It’s definitely a recipe I will be making again and again and sharing with everyone I know!

  14. Sarah says

    I made with 3 times and they come out realy great. Bith whole wheat flour and spelt flour worked well. I used water instead of plant based milk and reduced the sugar. One of my colleague said it was one of the best muffin she had ever eaten and she begged for the recipe.

  15. Momma Bear says

    5 stars
    These pumpkin muffins are delicious!

    We added dried cranberries to half and mini chocolate chips to the others.

    Wonderful both ways!

  16. Maureen Gutman says

    5 stars
    These pumpkin chocolate muffins are delicious! My daughter has already requested the recipe. I love that you can adapt the recipe for the amount you like. I followed the recipe exactly but may have added a bit more chocolate chips. These are going to be in the fall rotation for sure. Thank you for sharing.

  17. Pattie says

    5 stars
    These Pumpkin muffins were a hit. The texture is moist, and soft and very tasty! I used melted coconut oil I mine and they mixed up fine. What a wonderful way to bring in the fall flavors! Thanks so much!

  18. Leah says

    5 stars
    These are so delicious! I knew 9 wouldn’t be enough, so I doubled the recipe and somehow got 15. I used half the oil (canola), and instead of subbing additional pumpkin puree, I used an equal amount of pumpkin butter. I used whole wheat pastry flour, and mini chocolate chips. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.

  19. Coby says

    5 stars
    These are delicious! I am new to vegan baking, so I was unsure about not using any eggs; I also used extra pumpkin instead of oil. These are moist, fluffy, and SO flavorful! Thanks for a great recipe!

  20. Patricia says

    5 stars
    Oh my goodness!!!! Absolutely scrumptious! I made them with sugar free chocolate chips. This is the best recipe I’ve ever tried! You are amazing Katie!! Thank you so much! I can’t wait to try other versions with the cranberries and walnuts etc.…😍👍🏼

  21. Michelle says

    Yummy! I went the oil-free route and just guestimated 3 tbsp of pumpkin puree plus I love pumpkin so it was win-win! Baked in my toaster oven at 340 for 17 minutes. Very moist and probably undercooked but that’s the beauty of vegan baking!

  22. Michelle says

    5 stars
    I forgot to say that I used my 2-tqblespoons cookie scoop to scoop the batter into my muffin pan. I had to do that twice for each and only got 8 muffins. 😆 Pretty close, right!? Thanks again, Katie!

  23. Sarina F. says

    5 stars
    This recipe is easy and delicious. I have made it twice and it is very popular with all four of my kids! I made it in a loaf pan both times, rather than muffins, and it turns out perfectly. I am keeping the recipe to make regularly!

    • Sarina F. says

      I should also say making it in a loaf pan requires a bit of a longer baking time, so I just keep an eye on it and take it out when a toothpick comes out clean.

  24. S says

    5 stars
    These homemade healthy pumpkin muffins offer a delicious blend of wholesome ingredients, making them an ideal choice for a nutritious and satisfying breakfast or snack!

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