These soft and fluffy pumpkin muffins are a cross between a coffee cake and a muffin. They’re flavored with pumpkin and warm spices, topped with a brown sugar crumble, and finished with a drizzle of cinnamon icing. When it comes to fall flavors it doesn’t get much better!
This recipe is a reader favorite and a family favorite. In fact, we love them so much that we used this as the base recipe for our Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins and Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins.
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Why you’ll love this recipe
Ease: This recipe comes together quickly and easily. You don’t even need a mixer!
Versatility: These muffins are fancy enough to serve to guests but simple enough to throw together any day of the week.
Flavor: Pumpkin, warm spices, and vanilla. The flavors of fall!
Texture: The muffins are soft and fluffy and contrast wonderfully with the buttery- crunchy crumb topping.
Not too sweet: Although these muffins include a crumb topping and icing, they aren’t overly sweet like some store bought muffins.
Ingredients needed
Flour: Regular all-purpose flour works best here. If you’d like, you can swap up to half of the all-purpose flour for white whole wheat flour in the muffin batter.
Sugars: Granulated sugar in the muffins, brown sugar for the crumb topping, and powdered sugar for the icing.
Eggs: Two large eggs provide structure.
Pumpkin puree: Canned pumpkin puree adds lots of moisture and pumpkin flavor. Libby’s is my favorite brand.
Oil: Neutral flavored oil like vegetable or canola works best. I have made these with a mild flavored olive oil and it worked as well.
Milk: For a little extra moisture in the muffin batter. Feel free to swap for apple or orange juice, if you’d like.
Spices: A combination of pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon gives these muffins lots of warm and cozy flavors.
Vanilla extract: Rounds out the flavors in the muffin batter.
Baking soda and baking powder: To help the muffins puff up and rise.
Butter: Melted butter holds the crumb topping together.
Recipe overview
*Full recipe below in recipe card.*
Muffins:
Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices).
Whisk sugar, pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, vanilla, and milk.
Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients. and stir until combined.
Crumb topping:
Stir together sugars, cinnamon, salt, melted butter, and flour. Sprinkle over the top of each muffin before baking.
Icing:
A simple mixture of powdered sugar, milk, and a pinch of cinnamon. The icing gets drizzled over the tops of the muffins, filling in the crevices of the crumb topping.
Recipe tips
- Use canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling (which is already sweetened). I find that Libby’s brand is the most consistent.
- Don’t overmix the batter, this can make the muffins tough. Mix just until the dry ingredients and wet ingredients are combined.
- Use an ice cream scoop to add the batter into the muffin cups.
- Prefer a smaller batch? I have successfully halved this recipe to make 6 muffins.
- Leftover pumpkin puree? Make a batch of Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer.
Basic pumpkin muffins (no topping)
Feel free to leave off the crumb topping and icing for a more “basic” pumpkin muffin. I frequently make these without the topping and we enjoy them just as much.
Note: I add an extra teaspoon of cinnamon to the muffin batter since there is no additional topping. These muffins are not overly sweet on their own. If you are making them without the topping you might want to add an additional ¼ cup granulated sugar to the batter.
Serving and storage
Serving: Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. These muffins are best within 1-2 days of being made. Over time the crumb topping will soften from the moisture in the muffin.
Storage: Leftover muffins can be stored at cool room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. The muffins can be frozen for up to 2 months.
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Recipe
Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
Crumb topping:
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Muffins:
- 1-¾ cups all purpose flour*
- 1-½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1-¼ cups canned pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup apple juice or milk
Cinnamon icing:
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- dash of ground cinnamon
- 2+ teaspoons milk
Instructions
For the crumb topping:
- In a medium bowl, combine sugars, cinnamon, salt, and flour. Add the melted butter and stir until combined (I use a fork). Set aside.
For the muffins:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or line with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, oil, pumpkin puree, vanilla, and milk or juice until combined. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined, being careful not to over-mix.
- Divide the batter between 12 muffin cups (I use an ice cream scoop). Crumble the topping over the tops of each muffin. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan and place on the rack to cool completely.
For the icing:
- Whisk all ingredients until smooth, increasing the milk 1 teaspoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency. Adjust the consistency as necessary by adding more powdered sugar (to thicken) or more milk (to thin). Use a small spoon to drizzle icing over the tops of the cooled muffins.
Video
Notes
- Use canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling (which is already sweetened). I find that Libby’s brand is the most consistent.
- You can omit the crumb topping and icing for a more “basic” pumpkin muffin. Note: the muffins themselves are not overly sweet.
- Don’t overmix the batter, this can make the muffins tough. Mix just until the dry ingredients and wet ingredients are combined.
- Use an ice cream scoop to add the batter into the muffin cups.
- Prefer a smaller batch? I have successfully halved this recipe to make 6 muffins.
- Leftover pumpkin puree? Make a batch of Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer.
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!Post and photos updated August 2022, recipe remains the same.
m king
These are good. I followed the recipe exactly but I feel like they could use more of a pumpkin spice flavor. just my opinion.
Celebrating Sweets
Thanks for sharing your experience. Enjoy! 🙂
Katelyn Ramirez
These are so freakin’ delicious!!
Celebrating Sweets
Thanks!
Norma
I agree, I too want a strong pumpkin spice flavor.
Allison
Feel free to increase the pumpkin spice in the muffins. Also, the cinnamon icing adds another bit of “spice” flavor.
laura
I tried doubling the recipe but the crumb topping has to have another 2/3 cup flour to double the topping or its runny. Next time I will just add less butter, until the consistency is crumbly. I made 1/2 with added walnuts and on both I added 1 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. Awesome taste!!
Celebrating Sweets
Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Mana Montana
We made a quadruple recipe to send to my kid’s school for the teachers and staff. We had a bunch of cumb topping left over so I cut up a bunch of over ripe peaches and plums that were sitting in the fridge , tossed them with sugar, cinnamon and lemon and sprinkled with the extra topping and baked for 45 minutes. Would! This topping is amazing! Crunchy and chewy and delicious! Thanks!
Celebrating Sweets
I’m glad you enjoyed them! I love what you did with extra topping – so creative! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂 -Allison
Wy
This is a great pumpkin muffin recipe.
Abby
How long would you bake these if made in a mini-muffin tin?
Celebrating Sweets
I’d start checking them around 10 minutes, then every 1-2 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Enjoy!
Victoria
Could I make this on a bread form and if so would the only alteration be baking it for around 50 to 60 mins?
Victoria
into a bread* I don’t have muffin tins
Gueth
I made these they were amazing I cut a whole in the middle and added some cream cheese filling definitely recommend
Celebrating Sweets
I’m glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂
Jenn
Loving these fluffy pumpkin muffins! Thanks so much for the delish recipe!
Justine
OMG soooooo good. That cinnamon icing totally made them, too!
AnnMarie Maxwell
Made these yesterday. But used jumbo muffin tin and increased the cook time to 40 min. These muffins are soooooo delicious and moist. I am going to make again for sure. Did not change anything in the recipe.
Allison
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂