This easy pumpkin muffins recipe is perfect for fall baking! The whole house smells like warm pumpkin and cozy fall spices while these bakery-worthy muffins bake in the oven. Topped with a layer of crunchy cinnamon sugar, moist pumpkin muffins are a delicious breakfast or snack.
This post is sponsored by Challenge Butter, but all opinions are my own.
Fall is here, and my breakfasts lately have consisted of pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin French toast casserole, and even pumpkin bread pudding. These moist, spiced pumpkin muffins are rolled in cinnamon sugar, easy to make, and full of rich pumpkin flavor, with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. I love baking these easy pumpkin muffins on a cozy fall afternoon, or right before we have company over for the holidays. The house smells so warm and welcoming!
All About This Cozy Pumpkin Muffins Recipe
- Crunchy cinnamon sugar topping. After baking, I dip the buttery muffin tops in cinnamon sugar for the perfect sweet, finishing crunch. It’s quicker and easier than adding a streusel!
- Easy to make. Similar to baking pumpkin bread, the muffin batter comes together in one bowl in minutes. It’s a very foolproof recipe, perfect if you’re a beginner baker.
- Flavored like fall. There’s nothing better on a chilly fall day than pulling fresh pumpkin muffins from the oven. The real pumpkin purée and spices fill every bite with rich, seasonal flavor.
Gather Your Muffin Ingredients
Have a look at the ingredients you’ll need, with notes, below. Scroll to the recipe card after the post for the full, printable recipe with amounts.
- Dry ingredients – You’ll need all-purpose flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Make sure that the baking powder and soda are as fresh as possible. The combination of the two types of leavening gives the best rise and texture.
- Spices – Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. You can substitute the individual spices with pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice if you have it.
- Butter – I use my favorite Challenge Butter. Challenge Butter is a wonderful, creamy butter that goes from farm to fridge in just two days, so you know it’s fresh. It has no added hormones, artificial flavors, or fillers, which I love because you can feel good about feeding it to your family. If you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend it!
- Sugar – Granulated sugar and brown sugar for added moisture.
- Milk – Any kind.
- Pumpkin Puree – Be sure to use plain, canned pumpkin, and not pumpkin pie filling. They aren’t the same product and aren’t interchangeable in recipes!
- Eggs and vanilla – Pure vanilla extract or an equal amount of real vanilla paste will give these muffins the best possible flavor.
How to Make Pumpkin Muffins From Scratch
In a little less than an hour, you can have a pan of warm pumpkin muffins fresh from the oven. Here’s how easy they are to make:
- Combine the wet ingredients. Start by creaming the melted Challenge Butter and the sugars together. Next, mix in the milk, followed by the pumpkin purée, eggs, and vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients. Now, add the dry ingredients and fold them in, taking care not to overmix.
- Fill the pan and bake the muffins. Divide the batter evenly between the lined wells of a muffin pan. Fill each liner about 3/4 full. Then, bake these pumpkin muffins at 350ºF for 18-20 minutes.
- Dip the tops in cinnamon sugar. Allow the muffins to cool completely. One at a time, brush the tops of the muffins with additional melted Challenge Butter, and then dip the muffin into a bowl of cinnamon sugar. Repeat until all the muffins are coated. Enjoy!
Tips for Bakery-Style Pumpkin Muffins
- Don’t overmix the muffin batter. As with most baked goods, overmixing the muffin batter results in dense, deflated muffins. Stir just until the ingredients are evenly combined.
- Baking times may vary. The exact baking times vary depending on your oven, how full your liners are, etc., so check your pumpkin muffins at the earliest suggested baking time and go from there.
- Check the muffins for doneness. You want a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin to come out with just a few moist crumbs.
Storing and Freezing
- Store airtight. These moist pumpkin muffins are ready to serve right away, or you can store them in an airtight container at room temperature.
- Freeze. If possible, I recommend freezing these muffins before you add the cinnamon sugar topping. Store the cooled muffins in a freezer-safe container and freeze them for up to 2 months. Thaw the muffins fully, and then dip them in cinnamon sugar as directed.
More Pumpkin Recipes to Try
Pumpkin Muffins
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12–14 muffins 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These easy homemade pumpkin muffins are fluffy and moist, made with real pumpkin, cozy fall spices, and finished with a buttery cinnamon sugar topping. They’re the perfect fall breakfast or snack!
Ingredients
Scale
Pumpkin Muffins
- 2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted Challenge butter, melted
- 1 cup (207g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (112g) packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cups (350g) canned pumpkin puree
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
- 1/4 cup (52g) sugar
- 4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 tbsp (42g) unsalted Challenge butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and prepare a muffin pan with liners.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the melted Challenge butter and sugars. Whisk to combine.
- Add the milk and whisk together to combine.
- Add the pumpkin puree, eggs and vanilla extract and whisk together until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk together just until combined. Do not over mix.
- Fill the muffins liners about 3/4 full.
- Bake in preheated oven for 18-24 minutes. The time can vary depending on your oven and how full your muffins are.
- Remove muffins from the oven and allow to cool.
- To coat the muffins with cinnamon and sugar, combine the sugar and ground cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Brush the tops of the muffins with the melted butter, then turn the muffin upside down and dip into the cinnamon sugar to coat.
- Store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature. Muffins are best eaten within 2-3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 269
- Sugar: 26 g
- Sodium: 146.2 mg
- Fat: 10.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 42.6 g
- Protein: 3.4 g
- Cholesterol: 50.6 mg
These are fantastic and so easy to make! I used cupcake tins for smaller portions, and worked beautifully.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Can I use butternut pumpkin in Australia. Would I just mash it and put through a sieve.
I haven’t ever tried it, but I imagine it would be fine. You’d want to cook it and probably puree it in a food processor. You could also try mashing it and pressing it through a sieve.
This recipe looks amazing. I was curious if I were to bake this in two mini muffin pans, do you think I would need to adjust the bake time?
Yes, I’d reduce the baking time for minis. Maybe 8-10 minutes?
Hi Lindsay. I wanted you to know, I tried this recipe as directed with cinnamon sugar on top, then with a streusel topping , and then a cream cheese filling with stressed topping. All turned out amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful recipes.
Sounds delicious! Glad you enjoyed them!
Another great recipe from you!!!
I love this recipe!! I made these last year and as soon as NC had a cooler day a co-worker asked me when I was going to make these again! (I love Pumpkin pretty much anything but I have this thing about making Pumpkin recipes when it’s still 80 degrees outside). 😀 Only thing I do differently is I let the batter rest for about 30 minutes then bake at 400 for 5 minutes then drop to 350 for 20 minutes and fill every other cup in the muffin pan(I like the big bakery style muffins, I feel like I’m getting more muffin!
This will definitely be a staple receipt for years to come!
I do wonder, could you use this to make a pumpkin bread/loaf? How long would you bake if possible?
I’m so glad you enjoy them! I’ve never tried it as a loaf, so hard to say. I do have an awesome pumpkin bread recipe though, if you’d like to try it.
I will definitely look for it!!
Some recipes call for room temp eggs and say it helps the batter be fluffy and mix better…? Do you think it matters if the eggs are room temp as cold with this recipe? I assumed cold since it didn’t specify
I don’t find room temperature eggs to necessarily help with a fluffier batter, but they can mix into the batter a little easier. I’m probably a bit of a rebel in that I don’t always worry about it unless it truly seems to make a difference in the end result. It depends on the recipe. I don’t think it hurts either way with this recipe (but I know some people would argue with me on that).
These look amazing. Instead of the individual spices, can you use pumpkin pie spice?
The combination of the different spices may be a little different in the spice mix, but you could certainly use it.
Have truly enjoyed many of your wonderful recipies. Looking foward to making this over the weekend. Wanted to know if it would still turn out using a strusel topping on it before baking instead of the cinnamon sugar afterwards .
I haven’t tried it and I can’t remember how thick the batter is. It’s possible the streusel would sink, but I’m not sure. It’d be worth trying.
perfect fall muffins
Awesome recipe! Followed all instructions and no substitutions. Mine turned out looking like the picture and tasting amazing! Love it when a recipe delivers!
I’m so glad to hear that!
Amazing!!! Wow! Yum! Definitely make these if you haven’t yet. I used whole wheat flour and a little less sugar as well as making my own pumpkin purée instead of can since I had these sugar pie pumpkins I didn’t know what to do with but followed this recipe and I’m so glad I did! These muffins were the best thing I could have used the pumpkin for. My family cannot stop eating these things. My husband doesn’t even like sweets and he keeps going back for more.
So glad to hear that!
Can these muffins be frozen?
I love muffins! These look amazing and perfect for this time of the year. As I was reading the recipe I got the idea to try it with butternut squash, because my garden is full of them and it’s almost time to harvest. I’m sure it would work the same as pumpkin only have a bit different taste. i have also heard that they make wonderful pumpkin pie so I’m going to try that this year too. Thank you for the recipe, all of your recipes look so good and your blog is truly a gift to all of us that love to bake.
Thank you and God bless you.
Connie 🙂
Can this recipe be made successfully using gluten free ingredients?
I have not tried this specific recipe with gluten free flour mix but based on the ingredients (amount of baking powder and baking soda) I would think it would work well. I typically use cup for cup brand for bread type recipes. Also I find using buttermilk in place of milk or water in a recipe really ups the leavening in gluten free baking. If I end up trying this, I will comment back how it turns out. They sound amazing!
Lindsay…I am so making these muffins today ! They look so delicious ! Cant’ wait to do the dipping with my grandson. I truly enjoyed your baby update post. Your family is beautiful and such a gift. Wishing you all the best with the birth of your sweet little girl.