The BEST Pumpkin Muffins
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This is truly the BEST Pumpkin Muffins recipe — they’ve been carefully tested to be soft, fluffy, moist, and loaded with fall flavor! My recipe is easy (no mixer or pastry cutter needed!) and takes just 10 minutes to prep. Recipe includes a how-to video.
Top-Rated Pumpkin Muffins
These easy pumpkin muffins are every bit as delectable as my pumpkin cupcakes, but slightly more suitable for breakfast! With their buttery streusel topping and their moist and flavorful pumpkin-y centers, they rival my banana muffins in terms of favorite muffins ever.
The streusel is what takes these muffins from delicious to irresistible. It’s buttery and crisp against the super soft and moist pumpkin muffin interior. The best part? Instead of using cold butter and working it into the sugar and flour with a pastry cutter, my recipe uses a simpler method with melted butter. It’s not only easier, but it also lends itself to a more buttery streusel–yum!
What you’ll love about my recipe:
- Only 10 minutes to prep!
- Uses simple ingredients with incredibly moist and tender results.
- No mixer or pastry cutter needed.
- Includes an easy (optional) 2-ingredient glaze!
What You Need
Here are the key ingredients in my pumpkin muffin recipe:
- Sugar. I like to use both white and brown sugar. The brown sugar adds subtle molasses tones that really complement the pumpkin and the spiced fall flavors.
- Butter. Let your butter cool after melting, otherwise it will melt your sugars, yielding flat, sub-par results.
- Canned pumpkin. Make sure you use pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling, which has other additives that can keep your muffins from tasting as they should.
- Milk. Since it’s such a small amount, really any kind will work. I use whole milk.
- Pumpkin pie spice. If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice on hand, you can always whip up a batch of my homemade pumpkin spice!
SAM’S TIP: These pumpkin muffins would look so nice in my parchment paper muffin liners! They’re extremely easy to make and have a pretty and professional look.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Pumpkin Muffins
- Stir the sugars, eggs, pumpkin puree, and milk into the (cooled) melted butter until combined.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually fold them into the wet ingredients. With muffins, it’s important that you don’t over-mix the batter, so do this step by hand (with a spatula) and be gentle. Don’t use an electric mixer here (!) and stir until just-combined.
- Evenly portion your batter into a lined muffin tin and set this aside while you prepare your streusel.
- Whisk together the flour, sugars, and cinnamon.
- Pour melted butter over the mixture and toss with a fork until clumps form.
- Sprinkle the streusel over your prepared muffins and bake for 17-19 minutes.
- Let the muffins cool before topping with vanilla glaze (if using).
SAM’S TIP: The key to good streusel is a mixture that’s nice and clumpy, so don’t break up the clumps that form as you stir in your butter. If you over-work your streusel, you’ll end up with a paste rather than the crumbly topping that we’re aiming for.
Frequently Asked Questions
These will be fine at room temperature in an airtight container for 2-3 days. They could be refrigerated, but the fridge tends to dry out muffins and so I don’t recommend it.
Yes! Your bake time will be different though (less time for mini, likely about 14 minutes, and more time for jumbo), so keep an eye on them.
You could, but I’d recommend making my pumpkin bread instead. It’s meant to be baked in a loaf pan and has a perfectly dense crumb that’s designed to be sliced without crumbling (which might happen if you use this recipe!).
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
The Best Pumpkin Muffins
Equipment
- Muffin pan
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled at least 10 minutes
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (50 g) light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten (room temperature preferred)
- 1 cup (240 g) canned pumpkin puree¹
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups (156 g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice, (click the link for instructions to make your own pumpkin spice)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Streusel Topping²
- 1 ¼ cup (156 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar tightly packed
- ⅓ cup (66 g) sugar
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 6 Tablespoons (85 g) salted butter³, melted and cooled until no longer warm to the touch
Glaze (optional)
- ½ cup (65 g) powdered sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and line a 12-count muffin tin with paper liners (or lightly grease and flour). Set aside.
- Combine melted, cooled butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl and stir well.¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter, ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar, ¼ cup (50 g) light brown sugar
- Stir in eggs. Add pumpkin puree, milk, and vanilla extract and stir well.2 large eggs, 1 cup (240 g) canned pumpkin puree¹, 2 Tablespoons milk, 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pumpkin spice, and cinnamon until well-combined.1 ¼ cups (156 g) all-purpose flour, ¾ teaspoons baking powder, ¾ teaspoons baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Add your dry ingredients into your wet and gently stir until just combined, taking care to not overmix the batter.
- Evenly divide muffin batter into prepared muffin tins (filling each ¾ full). Set aside while you prepare your streusel.
Streusel
- Prepare your streusel by whisking together flour, sugars and cinnamon.1 ¼ cup (156 g) all-purpose flour, ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar tightly packed, ⅓ cup (66 g) sugar, ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pour the melted butter into the mixture and, using a fork, stir until crumbles form. Don't overwork the streusel or you'll end up with a paste, you want it to be nice and clumpy!6 Tablespoons (85 g) salted butter³
- Using your hands, evenly divide streusel over muffin batter, piling the streusel over the batter and gently pressing the topping into the batter.
- Bake on 375F (190C) for 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Allow muffins to cool in muffin pan for 5 minutes before carefully removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Glaze
- If desired, make glaze by whisking together powdered sugar and milk. Drizzle over cooled pumpkin muffins½ cup (65 g) powdered sugar, 2-3 teaspoons milk
Notes
¹Pumpkin Puree
Make sure you buy puree that is 100% pumpkin and NOT “Pumpkin Pie Filling”, which contains other ingredients.²Streusel topping
These pumpkin muffins can be made without the streusel topping, they may just need a minute or two less in the oven. A few people have commented that the streusel recipe made more than they needed for their muffins. The amount listed is exactly as much as I use and as is shown in the photos and in the video, but feel free to reduce the amount in half if you don’t like a lot of streusel.³Salted vs unsalted butter
If you don’t have salted butter on hand, just use unsalted and add 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the dry ingredients for the streusel.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Muffins may also be tightly wrapped and frozen for several months.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
I originally published this recipe 10/3/2018. Post updated with new pictures and more notes, recipe is the same.
These muffins are AMAZING! I’ve made them a few times now. The extra streusel works well for making more muffins with the extra pumpkin : ).
My only complaint is the ads on your page make the recipe jump around and reload constantly, making it hard to follow
I just made these and I haven’t put them in the oven yet but I tasted the batter and I can tell they’re already going to be good so I’m just waiting for the butter to cool down right now to finish making this streusel but I can tell that these are going to be really good so thank you that I came across this recipe
I made these exactly as the recipe is written and they were DELICIOUS!! I also love your recipe layout with the having the ingredient list plus listing the ingredient and quantity again as it’s being used in each step. No having to scroll up and down! Nice! Thanks for sharing!
We’re so happy you enjoyed the recipe so much, Patty! Thanks for the review 🙂
These were phenomenal. I omitted the vanilla glaze and they were still perfectly sweet.
Thanks for giving them a try, Justin! 🩷
These were AMAZING!!!! I couldn’t stop eating them. 🫣 I took them to an event and got so many compliments. I made them exactly the way it said except for the “light” brown sugar. I only had dark but still perfection! Thank you thank you!
So glad you enjoyed, Ash! 🙂
Yum to the yum, yum! I and my church family, loved the muffins!
We’re so happy they were such a hit, Karen! Thanks for the review 🩷
My daughter and I just made these and they didn’t come out right . The texture of the muffins are not right they’re like a sponge instead of cake . This is the second time of trying this and it happened again we do not know why.
Oh no! They could have potentially been over-mixed or over-baked. Are you using a mixer to combine your batter?
I think this is a very medium recipe
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy it. What went wrong? I can help you troubleshoot it.
These are great! Very easy to make. 1 bit of advise, if you’re making larger muffins as I did, you might want to hold off on adding the streussel for a bit while they are in the oven. My muffins took an additional 10 minutes to bake as they were larger, and the streussel was bit “toasty”, still good for sure, but next time I’ll try waiting a few minutes after they’re in the oven before adding the streussel
great tip! Thanks
I cannot sing enough praises about these muffins! Everyone who had some was raving about how amazing they were. That icing drizzle really completes it too, I was going to skip that step but I’m SO glad I didn’t! The perfect family fall treat. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
made this into a coffee cake and it was amazing. I used monk fruit and coconut sugar with organic flour. There was a lot of crumb that wasn’t super secure on top of the muffin but it was delish. The glaze was the perfect topping. definitely my go to recipe!!! thank you
Made a double batch for work. I’m always hesitant on how things will turn out when I make them the first time, but people were RAVING about them! Compliments included fantastic/delicious/AMAZING/no notes/(insert dramatic sighs with full mouths) and “best muffins I’ve ever had.” I did only use about half of the streusel mix but I found that it created gaps in the top when the batter baked and raised. The author’s muffins don’t look to have any gaps so I’m thinking I need to pile on more streusel before I bake! Thank you, I’m sure I’ll be asked to make these again soon and they were easy enough with simple ingredients that I’ll be happy to oblige. 🙂
Oh, small request, is it possible to add the functionality to adjust the recipe card amounts if I want to double the recipe again in the future? It would be awesome if possible. thank you!
I’m so glad they were such a hit, Veena! Unfortunately I have found that the option to scale ingredients isn’t always accurate and can be awkward so I don’t have it on my site. 🙁
Ohh I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. Understood. Thanks again!
This recipe is fantastic I’ll never use another again. My kids absolutely love them.
I’m so glad they were such a hit, Danielle! 🙂
I made these gluten and sugar free using measure for measure flour and monk fruit. You’re my favorite recipe site, but I hate the pop-ups on my phone. It is so annoying when they block the recipe.
Just made them. They were perfect. I followed the recipe including your pumpkin spice, the muffins are moist. The streusel was the perfect amount for the 12. I shared them, even friends that are not a fan of pumpkin are. Thank you