Recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction

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

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: I slightly reduced the sugar from my starting point (pumpkin crumb cake muffins), so the pumpkin flavor shines. Using a little brown sugar adds some flavor, too.

• 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:

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

• 1/3 cup (67g) 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:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, and salt together until combined. Set aside.

3. 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.

4. Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top.

5. 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. 

6. Cover tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.