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!
One reader, Nicole, commented: “Another winner, of course. We made the mini muffin version and they were so light, moist, and delicious. Perfect breakfast compliment for this crisp fall morning! ★★★★★”
Another reader, Holly, commented: “First time making these. Did half regular and half with chocolate chips, and they came out delicious and very moist. Even my picky daughter loved them… This recipe is definitely a keeper. ★★★★★“
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: Pumpkin adds a lot of volume to the muffin batter, but doesn’t sweeten it at all. Using half white and brown sugars provide enough sweetening, and the brown sugar adds additional flavor.
- 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 and Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Donuts
- Pumpkin Cake
- Pumpkin Bars
- Pumpkin Pancakes or Pumpkin Waffles
- Pumpkin Bundt Cake
- Mini Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Muffins
- Pumpkin Coffee Creamer
- Pumpkin Oatmeal Cream Pies
For even more inspiration, here are my 30+ best 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
- 1/2 cup (100g) 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.
Really great recipe! i used brown coconut sugar and white sugar, also
used a little coconut flour since i was short on flour. For oil i used coconu ghee. Will definitely make again. Very moist and not overly sweet.
Great recipe! discovered it 3 days ago and am already making my second batch. Added a tsp of vanilla extract. Highly recommend
Have you made these with coconut oil? I followed the recipe and used coconut oil, but they wouldn’t come out of the liners. They tasted good and were very moist l, but weren’t pretty! I did double the recipe and used the larger muffin size pans, so not sure if that makes a difference or not.
Hi Niki, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. You can use melted coconut oil in this recipe instead, so that shouldn’t be the issue. What kind of cupcake liners were you using? Some are simply better quality than others and can impact how well/cleanly they come out of the wrappers. Make sure that the muffins are completely cooled before removing the liners; if they’re still warm, they will likely leave some crumbs behind. Let us know if we can help further!
Love, love this recipe! Used applesauce instead instead of oil; also add raisins and pumpkin seeds.
My 5 year old ate 3 right off the bat! Then brought one for everyone to our thanksgiving this wkd (we’re Canadian). I added a brown sugar crumble on top … they are so good! Light. Fluffy. Moist. Sweet but not too sweet and they taste like fall!
Can roasted pie(sugar) pumpkin be subbed for canned pumpkin?
Hi Dianne, Fresh pumpkin puree has a different texture than canned. It’s much thinner and quite liquid-y. If you do use it here, we always recommend blotting some excess liquid out of it with a clean towel. The less moisture, the better.
This is a wonderful recipe. I made some plain, and then did some with dark chocolate and marshmallow and they were divine! No fancy ingredients required, and easy to throw together while still being full of flavor and incredibly moist. I will definitely be using this recipe again.
I will say I did minced fresh ginger instead of ground, and did bake mine for 13 minutes after lowering the temperature rather than the instructed 16 minutes.
Easy to make and really tasty!!
Thank you Sally! I love this recipe, these are the best muffins ever! Unfortunately my husband does keto so I need to know the nutritional value. Could you please send me that info?
Hi Kris, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Just made these. Was a little worried that the muffin tins were over filled at first.
However, the tops puffed up beautifully and came out perfect. In fact, they had a MUCH bigger muffin top than in the pictures. Something that was a huge bonus for us stump haters.
Delicious and am saving this recipe.
I just made these, and they are super delicious!! They’re so light and fluffy and so easy to make.
What is the acid that should activate the baking soda? Is the pumpkin enough? Should it be powder?
Hi Liz! Brown sugar and milk.
Great recipe for quick, delicious pumpkin muffins. I added a cup of chocolate chips because why not.
Delicious! I made them last week for a friend who had just had surgery. They were so good that I decided to make them for my grandkids this week. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough pumpkin. So I added mashed ripe bananas to make up the difference. Still delicious and moist. Great fall recipe.
Delicious and so easy to make
I never leave reviews but this is the best pumpkin muffin recipe I’ve made. Super light and fluffy and just the right amount of seeetness
I am currently making this recipe for the second time. My 8 years old who did they didn’t like pumpkin things loved them. I didn’t read all the way through and the first time with mini muffins I used the high to lower temperature method. Just did 3 mins only, worked fantastic!
I’ve made these muffins twice within a few days, and I even used K.A.’s Gluten free flour, and they turned out perfectly! So nice and fluffy and moist. My family didn’t even ask if they were gf until they saw me eating them! Thanks so much!
I’ve made these twice within one week they are SO moist and delicious! Everyone I have shared them with love them too!
This was my first time making it and I followed all the instructions, except I increased the cloves/ginger/cinnamon amount (I did not have pumkin spice on hand). These muffins are delicious!!!! Very moist. Huge hit with my coworkers and staff.
Just made this recipe with homemade apple sauce instead of eggs due to allergies and also did homemade pumpkin puree and they are AMAZING!!
So moist and delicious!
I have been enjoying all the muffin recipes but suddenly realised that I am not sure if the oven temperatures are with fan? I have been using it but think you are saying without fan?
Hi Ursula, we always give temperatures for conventional oven settings, not fan-assisted. You may need to lower the temperature a bit if you’re using fan. We also recommend going with the conventional setting for baking, if possible.
Hi! If I wanted to add oats to these, would I just want to use less flour? Thanks!
Hi Lainey, we haven’t tested this recipe with oats, so are unsure of the exact amount to recommend, or the other ingredient amounts to adjust. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
Tasty, but just one tsp of baking soda did not make them rise enough! I added less sugar, and 1/2 c of raisins.
These were delicious! Perfect for fall. I multiplied the recipe by 2.5- which uses exactly two cans of pumpkin and made 3 dozen muffins for me. Because when I’m baking, the neighbors need some too!
I followed the recipe to the letter, and used a regular 12 muffin tin, but it only made nine muffins.
Wow this is your ideal moist muffin! I am restraining myself right now.. to not eat more. I added 1/2 tsp vanilla because why not. I made these in mini muffin tins and got 36 but probably could’ve gotten 38 and I filled them all the way to the brim. I also still did the initial high cook temp of 425, even though Sally said it wasn’t necessary. I did 425 for 4 mins and then dropped to 350 until they were done.. maybe 7 more mins (I hovered over the oven). They had a nice poofy top and baked up beautifully. I also baked them in the lower third of the oven, second level from the bottom.
Amazing with chocolate chips. Next batch I will try adding some nuts and sugar on top