Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
Fluffy vegan pumpkin muffins with bakery-style muffin tops! These muffins come together in one bowl and have a crunchy streusel topping.
This recipe uses cozy Fall spices and a whole can of pumpkin puree for the best pumpkin flavor (and you’ll have no leftovers)!
Simple ingredients you’ll need
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Notes about the ingredients
Pumpkin puree, either canned or homemade (I’ve tested this recipe with both). If you’re making your own pumpkin puree, make sure it is thick, like pictured.
All-purpose flour for the fluffiest muffins. Alternatively, you may use whole wheat or spelt flour for denser muffins.
Brown sugar for sweetness and depth of flavor. For lighter muffins, you can use granulated sugar. Or for refined sugar-free muffins, use coconut sugar.
Baking powder and soda. Pumpkin purée often weighs down baked goods so we’re using double baking agents to ensure the muffins are fluffy.
Even though these muffins are eggless, we don’t need any special egg replacers. The extra pumpkin in the recipe adds moisture and binds the ingredients!
How to make vegan pumpkin muffins
The muffin batter is easy to make as we’re just mixing the wet ingredients, then the dry ingredients in one bowl. For the best results, here are some tips:
- Measure your flour accurately. If you’re using measuring cups, don’t use the cup to scoop flour out of the container as it can pack in too much flour and lead to dry and dense muffins. Use the spoon and level method to add flour to your cup, or use an electric scale.
- Make sure your baking powder and soda are still active. Old raising agents will make smaller and denser muffins.
- Avoid overmixing the batter, otherwise you’ll get dense muffins that won’t rise as much.
Making the streusel topping
The topping is easy to make as we’re adding all ingredients to a bowl and mixing it until combined.
If you want a streusel topping without pumpkin seeds, you can replace them with chopped pecans, or simply exclude them. Your streusel will be more similar to the one I used for my banana muffins.
TOP tips for cafe-style muffin tops
If you bake these muffins as is, you’ll still get high muffin tops! In a classic USA muffin tray, the muffin batter fills each cavity close to the top.
If you’d like extra high muffin tops, I recommend spacing apart the muffins in your muffin tin and baking only six at a time. Each muffin is exposed to more oven heat which encourages them to rise more! With a 12-cavity tray, you’ll place the muffins diagonally from each other. If you have only one muffin tray, you’ll need to bake the muffins in two lots.
Customizing these muffins
Yes, you will get around 16 smaller muffins from this recipe (similar in size to my vegan apple muffins) and will take around 20-25 minutes to bake. Or make them even smaller to fit into school lunchboxes!
Yes! I recommend:
– dairy-free chocolate chips (or check out my vegan choc chip muffins)
– pecans, walnuts or other nuts
– dried cranberries, soaked in water beforehand
Yes, these muffins work well with King Arthur’s measure for measure flour! I would recommend just baking the muffins for an extra 1-2 minutes to ensure they’re baked through.
Yes, you can use whole wheat flour or spelt flour and coconut sugar. However, add an extra dash of non-dairy milk because those flours are more absorbent than all-purpose flour.
More vegan recipes with pumpkin
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Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
Wet ingredients for pumpkin muffins
- 15 ounces (425g) pumpkin puree, canned or homemade (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 – 1 ¼ cups (200g-250g) packed light brown sugar, to taste (note 1)
- ½ cup (110g) neutral flavored oil
- ¾ cup (170g) dairy-free milk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry ingredients for pumpkin muffins
- 2 ½ cups (315g) all-purpose plain flour, spoon and leveled (note 2)
- 3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, (note 3 for homemade blend)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Crumb topping (see note 4 if omitting the crumb topping, and for the optional icing)
- ½ cup (65g) all-purpose plain flour
- ¼ cup (30g) raw pumpkin seeds, or replace with 1-2 tablespoons (8-15g) extra flour
- 3 tablespoons (45g) vegan butter, melted and cooled
- 2 tablespoons (25g) packed brown sugar, granulated sugar or coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, or ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with 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 to the wet batter and mix until there are no big lumps. 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 4). The batter should fill each cup almost entirely (see the reference images above).
To make the crumb topping:
- Add all ingredients for your crumb topping to a mixing bowl (to minimize dirty dishes, you can use the same bowl that you used for your batter). Mix with a spoon or your fingertips until combined. The mixture should be flaky and crumbly.
- Generously sprinkle the crumb topping onto your muffins.
Baking and storing the muffins:
- Bake the muffins for 25-28 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in a muffin and it comes out mostly with no wet batter (a few moist crumbs 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, in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month. If the crumb topping softens, you can reheat the muffins in the oven for 10 minutes at 160°C (320°F) or until heated through.
Video
Notes
- Use more sugar if you prefer sweeter muffins or less sugar if you prefer muffins that aren’t too sweet. Granulated and coconut sugar will also work instead of light brown sugar.
- Measuring your flour: If you’re using measuring cups, make sure you measure the flour accurately otherwise your muffins will be dry and dense. Use the spoon and level method where you fluff up the flour in the bag, use a spoon to add the flour to a measuring cup, and level it off with a knife. Please don’t use the measuring cup to scoop flour out of your container, as it will pack in too much flour and result in dry and dense muffins. For the best results, use the grams measurements.
Gluten-free version: These muffins work well with King Arthur’s measure for measure flour without any other ingredient changes. You may need to bake the muffins for an extra 1-2 minutes. - For homemade pumpkin spice, use 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger and a pinch of ground cloves.
- For the highest muffin tops, space apart the muffins in your muffin tray and only bake 6 at a time. This encourages more of the hot oven heat to circulate the muffins, and they rise more. If you do this, you’ll need to bake the muffins in 2 lots.
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If you omit the crumb topping, please use 1 cup (250g) of dairy-free milk in the batter. The topping shields the muffins from the oven heat, so they don’t dry out quickly. However, baking the muffins without the topping can result in drier muffins.To make a simple icing for your muffins, combine ¾ cup (75g) of powdered sugar with 3-4 teaspoons of dairy-free milk in a medium bowl. Add more sugar for a thicker icing or more liquid for a thinner icing and drizzle it over the cooled muffins.
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Excellent recipe. Love that this uses the entire can of pumpkin. Very fluffy. I chose the less sugar version. Perfect!👏🏾🙏🏾❤️
I’m so glad you loved these muffins! Thanks so much for letting me know ❤️
I love this recipe! I did the lowest on her range of sugar and I swapped the sugar for coconut sugar, so good! I also did canned coconut milk for the milk, and I openly did 1tsp of cinnamon instead of the spices. They are pansies with spices. And I didn’t have pepitas so I used a date walnut concoction that I make, like a granola of sorts. This recipe is my new go-to pumpkin muffin recipe! It is so stinking good!
We’re so thrilled this has become your new go-to pumpkin muffin recipe 💛 That date-walnut granola topping sounds absolutely divine — we might have to try it next time! Thank you so much for your lovely feedback x
These were sooooooo good! Moist, crunchy, delicious, not too sweet 😋 absolutely loved them! Another awesome recipe 🙌
Hi Gerty, I’m so glad you loved these!!! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment here, I appreciate it a lot ❤️
Hi Anthea, Thank you so much for continue share your delicious recipes,
Question , can I make the vegan pumpkin muffin, gluten free and please could you provide me with the flour measurement. I want to try them for thanks giving.
Love your recipes.
Yes, these muffins work well with King Arthur’s measure for measure flour! I haven’t tested these muffins with other brands so not sure how they’ll turn out. For King Arthur’s flour, the measurements are the same as AP flour. I hope that helps and thanks for your ongoing support! Let me know if you get to make them 🙂
Hi, I want to try and make these for a work event but we want to have mini ones. Would this recipe still work for mini muffins? How would the baking time change?
Thanks!
Hi Maureen, yes this will work as mini muffins! The baking time will depend on how much you fill each cup, but I’d try baking them for 15-20 minutes. Let me know how you go!
Hi hi! I wanted to say thank you. I have made my share of vegan pumpkin muffins during my life. But YOURS are by far the BEST ever!
Being a vegan for a very long time, you are such a gift to the vegan community.
Hi Paula, I’m so so glad you loved these muffins!! Thank you so so much for your kind words and thank you for your contribution to the community too! Much love x
Quick to put together but the crumb didn’t stick to the top. The bread itself was lacking flavor (not sweet enough) very little pumpkin flavor as well
Hi Lopez, is there any chance you used cups to measure the flour rather than grams? If so, that can easily lead to adding too much, which often results in less sweetness, weaker pumpkin flavour, and a drier batter, which would also explain why the crumble didn’t stick. Pumpkin purée can also vary between brands in both flavour and sweetness, which might have been a contributing factor.
These came out delicious! I doubled the crumb topping recipe because I’m a big back and I reccommend doing so. My non vegan mom and brother both agreed they were great.
Thank you for such lovely feedback! We’re so glad everyone enjoyed the muffins and love that you doubled the crumb topping too!
Made them yesterday with butternut squash and they are so tasty and soft. My toddlers absolutely loved them.
That’s so wonderful to hear, thank you! Using butternut squash is such a great idea, and we’re so glad your toddlers enjoyed them too!
These were a HUGE hit with my non-vegan friends! Delicious, not too sweet and perfectly fluffy. I will definitely be making these again 🙂
Hi Adelaide, that’s amazing to hear! And I love that non-vegans approved of them! Thanks so much for your wonderful feedback 🙂
These are the most delicious pumpkin muffins ever!! Thank you, Anthea!!
Hi Lucia!! Aww I’m so happy that you loved them!! Thank you soooo much for taking the time to leave a comment here x
What can I use instead of pumpkin pie spice?
It depends what spices you enjoy. Gingerbread spice is similar. If you look at Note 2 in the recipe card, you can play around with the quantities of spices and omit what you don’t enjoy.
These are incredible. I added cranberries. The streusel takes them over the top. They made the house smell amazing while baking. My partner keeps eating them. They will be a regular item during this season!
Hi Matthew, aw that’s amazing! I feel like I can smell the freshly baked muffins and warm spices all the way from here. Thanks so much for your wonderful comment 🙂
Anthea, I’ve made several of your recipes, and each one turns out perfectly. It is clear you carefully test your recipes to ensure success! I made this pumpkin muffin recipe this morning, substituting one cup of whole wheat flour for the AP flour (added a couple of extra tablespoons of almond milk) and adding 1 tsp. ground cardamom, 1 tablespoon ground flax, and 1.5 tablespoons hemp hearts. I also added 2/3 cup dried cranberries that I soaked in hot water for about 10 minutes. I followed your advice about baking them in every other space on the muffin tin. They turned out spectacularly — big huge tops, moist, light but hearty, not too sweet. I really appreciate your baking instructions and recipes.
Hi Kelly, I’m so glad that these muffins worked well for you and how you could customize them to your tastes! I love how you added cardamom and cranberries (I’ll have to try that next time)!! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know how the muffins turned out. And a bigger thank you for your ongoing support and kindness! You’ve truly made my day 🙂
I was wondering if your could substitute the flour for a more healthier version ie whole wheat flour, almond flour, spelt flour, etc …. instead of all purpose flour.
They look soo yummy would love to try with a alternative flour😊
Hi Christine! Whole wheat flour and spelt flour will work, but I would just add an extra dash of milk as those flours are more absorbent. Almond flour won’t work in the same way as it doesn’t have the same structure. Others may work, but it will really depend on the flour. Hope that helps 🙂
What can you use instead of vegan butter for the crumble?
You can use softened coconut oil, or a smaller amount of liquid oil (the latter will make the crumble a different texture).