One-bowl vegan pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that use a whole can of pumpkin puree! These muffins are soft, moist, and loaded with vegan chocolate chips and warm spices.
Simple ingredients you'll need
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the gray recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Notes about the ingredients
Pumpkin puree. I've tested this recipe with canned pumpkin puree (Libby's brand) and homemade puree and they both work well! If using homemade pumpkin puree, make sure it is thick, like pictured above.
Brown sugar for depth of flavor and texture. Alternatively, you can use regular granulated sugar or coconut sugar.
Baking powder and soda. We're using double baking agents to make sure these muffins are fluffy! Pumpkin puree weighs down baked goods but we don't want dense muffins. The leavening agents also replace some of the functions of eggs.
Making the muffin batter
To make the pumpkin muffin batter, you just need to mix the wet ingredients then mix in the dry ingredients. Here are a few tips for soft and fluffy muffins:
- Accurately measure the flour. If using measuring cups, use the spoon and level method or, for the best results, use an electric kitchen scale.
- Sift your flour if it has lumps in it. If there are lumps in your flour, you're more likely to overmix it. I usually don't have to sift my flour, but every bag of flour is different!
- Don't overmix the batter. It's okay for some lumps to be in your final batter, as long as they aren't lumps of flour. I recommend using a wide and large bowl as you'll need fewer strokes to mix the batter.
- Don't worry if your batter looks curdled. This recipe has A LOT of pumpkin puree which can give a curdled appearance to cake batter.
Tips for baking the muffins
These vegan pumpkin chocolate chip muffins bake beautifully as is. However, for the best results, here are some tips:
- Brush or spray your muffin liners with oil before baking. Due to the high amount of pumpkin puree, the muffins can stick to the liners (especially if you use brown compostable liners).
- For extra high muffin tops, space the muffins apart in every other cavity (like pictured). This encourages more oven heat to circulate the muffin cups, which encourages them to rise more!
- Make sure your oven temperature is accurate. Baking muffins at a lower temperature will make them dense, whereas an oven that's too hot will dry them out. Many ovens aren't accurate so I recommend using an oven thermometer.
Customizing this recipe
This recipe bakes a little differently in a larger pan. I recommend using my vegan pumpkin bread recipe and adding chocolate chips.
Unless your pumpkin puree is very sweet, I don't recommend it. Reducing the sugar makes these muffins denser, drier and slightly chewy. They also don't keep as well. For less sweet muffins, I recommend using coconut sugar in the same amount.
You can use whole wheat flour or spelt flour in the same amount as all-purpose flour. However, I recommend adding a generous splash of non-dairy milk as those flours are more absorbent.
These vegan pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are delicious as they are! But to the batter, you can also add:
- cranberries
- raisins
- chopped walnuts or pecans
You can also decorate these vegan muffins with:
- flaked almonds
- a streusel topping (check out the topping from my pumpkin muffins recipe)
More easy vegan muffin recipes
Or see my roundup of 15+ vegan muffin recipes.
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Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
Wet ingredients
- 15 ounces (425g) pumpkin puree, canned or homemade (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 cup (190g) packed light brown sugar, granulated sugar or coconut sugar
- ½ cup (125g) neutral flavored oil
- 1 cup (250g) dairy-free milk
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice (optional)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, (optional)
Dry ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose plain flour, spoon and leveled (note 1)
- 4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, (note 2 for homemade blend)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of salt, optional
- 1 cup (170g) dairy-free chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin liners. If you're using paper liners, spray or brush them with oil.
Preparing the pumpkin muffins:
- Add the wet ingredients to a large mixing bowl and whisk until combined. Add the dry ingredients (except the chocolate chips) to the wet batter and mix until just combined and there are no more streaks of pumpkin puree. Add the chocolate chips and fold until combined. Make sure you don't overmix the batter.
- Use an ice cream scoop or a spoon to divide the batter in your muffin pan (note 3). The batter should be thick enough for you to create a 'heaped mound' in each muffin cup (check the reference images above).
- Sprinkle additional chocolate chips on top of the muffins.
Baking and storing the pumpkin muffins:
- Bake the muffins for 24-27 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in a muffin and it comes out mostly clean with no wet batter (a few moist crumbs on your toothpick are fine).
- Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin pan for 10 minutes (or until they aren't too hot to handle). Remove the muffins and allow them to cool on a wire rack.
- Enjoy the muffins warm or at room temperature. They're perfect by themselves or with some vegan butter.
- Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze the muffins for up to 1 month but I recommend initially freezing them spaced apart so they don't stick together.
Notes
- If you're using measuring cups, I strongly recommend using the spoon and level method. First, use a fork to fluff up the flour in the bag, use a spoon to add flour to a measuring cup, then level it off with a knife. I don't recommend using the measuring cup to scoop flour out of your container as too much flour will result in dry and dense muffins. Alternatively, use the grams measurements.
- For homemade pumpkin spice, use 2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ½ teaspoon ground ginger and ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves.
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For the highest muffin tops, I recommend baking 6 muffins at a time in a 12-cup muffin tin. Spacing apart the muffins allows the hot oven air to bake them faster, resulting in higher tops. This means you'll need to bake the muffins in 2 lots.
Nutrition
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An excellent recipe!! These were so easy to make and are beyond delicious. I’ll be making these regularly. Stick to her instructions and they’ll be perfect. I used a kitchen scale to weigh everything vs. measuring cups and couldn’t be happier. (Definitely grab one online asap, it makes a world of difference in baking and meal prep) The notes were super helpful too!
Hi Nicole, sorry for the late reply but I'm so thrilled that you enjoyed these muffins! I love that you used grams (so much easier and better results). Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review 🙂