Fall into fall with these deliciously light and perfectly flavored vegan pumpkin muffins. An easy, fail-proof, autumnal pastry that will warm up your home and fill you up. Made in just 30 minutes!
Not only is today one of my favorite days of the year because, yay, OCTOBER, but ALSO it is the day I celebrate my veganversary. 12 years and counting! Which, this year, means that ⅓ of my life I have been living and eating (and thriving and flourishing) as a vegan.
Hooray!
Happy October, friends!
To celebrate the beginning of October and my veganversary, I made a little sweet treat.
Vegan Pumpkin Muffins, to be exact.
These muffins are a variation of last year's Vegan Cheesecake Muffins. Since sharing those on the blog, I have had several requests for a plain and simple vegan pumpkin muffin recipe. And so, per your request, a warm, light and fluffy, pumpkin muffin that is bursting with pumpkin flavor and fall spices.
Recipe Video
Ingredients & Substitutions
Here is everything you need.
- All-Purpose Flour - For healthier flour options, you can use 1:1 gluten-free flour blends, buckwheat, or spelt flour.
- Baking Soda
- Spices - You will need cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.
- Pumpkin Puree - Make sure to use canned pumpkin and NOT pumpkin pie filling.
- White & Brown Sugar - Check out my guide to vegan sugars and alternative sugar replacements. For a healthier sugar alternative, I recommend coconut sugar.
- Applesauce - This is the binder of the recipe. You could replace it with ½ mashed bananas, an additional ½ cup of pumpkin puree, or a variety of other egg replacers.
- Coconut Oil - I recommend coconut oil because it is non-hydrogenated and relatively neutral flavored. You could also use avocado, olive, or canola oil.
- Vanilla Extract
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step One - Make the Batter
Whisk together all your dry ingredients in a bowl. That's your flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
Pro Tip: Make sure to whisk the dry ingredients together. I had a few issues when I first made this recipe with my baking soda clumping together. This is not only a nasty surprise to bite into but when the baking soda is not fully incorporated, the bread cannot rise as full and evenly.
In a separate bowl (or liquid measuring cup) mix together your wet ingredients. That's pumpkin purée, sugars, apple sauce, coconut oil, and vanilla extract.
Combine the wet ingredients with the dry, mixing until you have a uniform batter. Don't over-mix as this will make your muffins dense and gummy.
Step Two - Scoop and Bake
Scoop the batter into a prepared muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes at 350 F. To check for doneness, insert a toothpick in the middle of a muffin. The muffins are done when the toothpick comes out clean.
Pro Tip: I find that using an ice cream scoop is the cleanest and easiest way to get the batter into the muffin molds. With an ice cream scoop, you can ensure the muffins are equally sized as well.
Pull from oven and let the muffins cool for 10 minutes in the pan before transferring them to a wire cooling rack. If you flip them out too quickly, the muffins may fall apart.
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Serving and Storing
Serving – Serve these muffins immediately. They come out of the oven warm, buttery, and hard to resist!
Storing – Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You can also freeze these muffins for up to 2 months. To thaw, pull the muffins from the freezer and let them thaw at room temperature for several hours.
Tips and Tricks
- The most accurate way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- Do not overmix your batter. Overmixing allows the gluten to develop and too much gluten will give you gummy and dense bread.
- Applesauce varies a lot. If your applesauce seems thin, first strain it through a fine-mesh strainer to get the excess liquid out.
- Make sure to use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling has added sugar and spices and would make the bread too sweet.
- Fill up your muffin molds about ⅔rds of the way full. If you do much more, the muffins will spill over as they rise.
- Let your muffins cool for 10 minutes before flipping them out onto a wire cooling rack.
- Want variation? Add chocolate chips for chocolate chip pumpkin muffins.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sure. If you would like to make this recipe oil-free, simply swap out the oil for additional applesauce at a 1:1 ratio.
For sure! For gluten-free muffins, I recommend using a 1:1 baking blend.
Definitely! This is enough batter to make one 9x5 loaf or two mini loaves. Bake the loaves for 45-55 minutes (depending on the size of the loaf pan). Follow these instructions for Vegan Pumpkin Bread for more details.
This recipe calls for one (15oz) can of pumpkin puree. However, if you use a larger can or made a smaller batch, you might have leftover puree. You can freeze pumpkin puree in an ice cube tray. When frozen, pop them out and store them in a Ziplock bag for up to 2 months.
Pumpkin puree is great for quickbread, donuts, pasta sauce, as well as works as a great natural egg replacer in many baked goods.
Yes! Store the batter in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours. To bake the muffins, preheat the oven and bake according to the instructions. However, these muffins may take a few minutes longer to bake since the batter will be chilled.
More Vegan Pumpkin Recipes
- Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats
- Pumpkin Coffee Cake
- Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gluten-free Pumpkin Date Bars
More Vegan Muffin Recipes
- Blueberry Muffins
- Healthy Vegan Banana Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Banana Nut Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
Pumpkin Muffins
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup apple sauce
- ½ cup coconut oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon Sugar Topping (optional)
- 2 tablespoon vegan butter, I use Earth Balance
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.
- In a large bowl combine pumpkin puree with both sugars, mixing to combine. Add apple sauce, oil, and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until a uniform batter has formed. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Fill muffin molds ⅔ of the way full. Bake for 20 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and allow muffins to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- To top the muffins, combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stovetop. Lightly brush each top with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
- Serve immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Video
Notes
- The most accurate way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- Do not overmix your batter. Overmixing allows the gluten to develop and too much gluten will give you gummy and dense bread.
- Applesauce varies a lot. If your applesauce seems thin, first strain it through a fine-mesh strainer to get the excess liquid out.
- Make sure to use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling has added sugar and spices and would make the bread too sweet.
- Fill up your muffin molds about ⅔rds of the way full. If you do much more, the muffins will spill over as they rise.
- Let your muffins cool for 10 minutes before flipping them out onto a wire cooling rack.
- Can I make this recipe oil-free? Sure. If you would like to make this recipe oil-free, simply swap out the oil for additional applesauce at a 1:1 ratio.
- Can I make this recipe gluten-free? Totally! For gluten-free muffins, I recommend using a 1:1 baking blend.
- Can I turn this into pumpkin bread? Definitely! This is enough batter to make one 9×5 loaf or two mini loaves. Bake the loaves for 45-55 minutes (depending on the size of the loaf pan). Follow these instructions for Vegan Pumpkin Bread for more details.
Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m a 14-year (and counting) vegan, professionally trained photographer, former pastry chef, founder of My Darling Vegan, and author of the
Arlene says
These muffins were amazing! So moist. I wish there was not so much sugar, but kids absolutely loved them.
Sarah Moon says
I replace all the sugar with 3/4 cup honey and add about 1 cup of oats. It's awesome!
Joanne Utke says
This was the best vegan quick bread recipe I have made so far! Even my husband said so. And the kids loved them too!
Alice says
I've made these pumpkin muffins twice now!! They are the best, most moist, and delicious muffins I've had in a while. I highly recommend these as well as the pumpkin coffee cake recipe. I just made it this afternoon and it's amazing. These results give me great confidence to make the carrot cake for an upcoming birthday!!
Macy says
The recipe does not say to melt coconut oil. First time coconut oil user here, stuck with an impossibly lumpy batter.
Kayla says
I did the same thing. To fix it, I boiled some water and held my wet ingredient bowl over top of the steam until the oil melted.
Sally says
Yum!! Instead of pumpkin, used a combination of roasted butternut, acorn, and delicata squash, as I have several winter squash from my CSA boxes. Used 1 cup white whole wheat flour and 3/4 cup 100% whole wheat flour. Reduced the granulated sugar to 1/2 cup as tried by others. Used more squash in place of the applesauce as provided in the recipe tips (I basically never have applesauce on hand). Used olive oil instead of coconut oil. Made 12 big muffins, instead of 18 regular size. Took maybe 30 minutes or so to bake for a knife to come out clean. Did not brush with the topping. They were soft and delicious. My muffins never come out good, but one kid of mine kept going back for more. Will be making another batch once this batch is gone. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Stacy Huss says
I made these for Thanksgiving to be our pumpkin item and they were delicious! I was out of applesauce so I used a ripe banana and it worked out very well. Thanks for this great recipe ?
Jane says
I made these muffins for our church several weeks ago, substituting more applesauce to replace the oil. By the time I wanted one they were gone! Tomorrow I’ll get there sooner!
Vikki says
I also like that it uses the whole can of pumpkin. I only had strawberry applesauce but it worked fine and didn’t alter the taste. I put some vegan chocolate chips in some - moist and delicious! I got 15 muffins out of the batch.
Renee Kapowai says
These are moist and love that it uses the ENTIRE can of pumpkin. I topped all the muffins with the cinnamon/sugar and it was good but definitely not needed. Next batch I will not add the topping.
Thanks for sharing and I love reading your recipes and stories.