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.

Closeup of a pumpkin muffin on a wire rack topped with icing.

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Why you’ll love this recipe
Ingredients needed
Recipe overview
Recipe tips
Basic pumpkin muffins (no topping)
Serving and storage
Recipe

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

Ingredients to make pumpkin muffins (sugars, flour, canned pumpkin, spices, eggs, butter, oil, milk).

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.

Pumpkin, eggs, oil, and sugar in a glass bowl.

Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients. and stir until combined.

Pumpkin puree being poured into flour in a glass bowl.

Crumb topping:

Stir together sugars, cinnamon, salt, melted butter, and flour. Sprinkle over the top of each muffin before baking.

Pumpkin muffins (uncooked) in a muffin tin.

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.

Closeup of a pumpkin muffin cut in half.

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.

Pumpkin muffins next to a gold knife with butter on it.

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.