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 1/3 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 1/2 mashed bananas, an additional 1/2 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.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
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 2/3rds 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 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.
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 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup apple sauce
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon Sugar Topping (optional)
- 2 tbsp vegan butter, I use Earth Balance
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp 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 2/3 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 2/3rds 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
Harmony says
Can I replace the cinnamon, ginger, clove, and nutmeg with the equivalent amount of pumpkin pie spice blend (2.5 tsp)? My pumpkin pie spice blend says it also contains allspice.
Sarah McMinn says
For sure!
Ana Moore says
This recipe is awesome! Finally found a yummy way to use my leftover canned pumpkin, and the buttery topping was delicious. Would love to try these with cream cheese frosting. Thank you!
Aleksandra Isakovic says
These are the BEST vegan muffins I’ve ever made!
They are light, fluffy, moist, and ohhhh so sweet, I cannot get enough of them. Thank you for the amazing recipe!
Yvonne Thomas says
Absolutely amazing muffins!
Made in mini-muffin paper lined tin.
Very moist and delicious flavor!!
Jennifer Dunn says
This is my go-to vegan muffin recipe! I bring them to parties, pot-lucks, etc.
Amy M. says
This muffin recipe was a smash hit! Baked it for a class of grad students and everyone—mostly omnivores—devoured them. I used the exact measurements as listed, but substituted the regular flour for the King Arthur 1:1 Gluten Free baking blend that I found at Whole Foods. Unlike many vegan, gf recipes that come out like hockey pucks, these were MOIST with a perfectly structured crumb. Thanks for the phenomenal recipe!
JOSIE says
Excellent! Made today for Thanksgiving. I only used 1/2 cup of sugar & they were plenty sweet enough. I also added some sultanas.
Cindy says
Made this recipe gluten free (combination of cassava flour, almond flour and brown rice flour.) I cut back on the sugar a bit and I substituted the apple sauce with homemade Mango jam I had in the fridge. Came out amazingly delicious and wonderfully moist! I will definitely make this again. So easy to make!
Ashley says
These muffins are so moist! It feels like they’re straight out of a famous bakery. I cut back on the sugar and oil by about 1/4 cup. I didn’t taste the applesauce, but it’s a great fall combination! I want to make these for my neighbors and not tell them they’re vegan, just give them the recipe. When they ask about using eggs, I’ll comment “They’re Vegan!”.
JE Flanagan says
Super easy and so tasty! I agree with the other comments, it makes more than a dozen. Had enough to make an adorable loaf.
Sarah says
It definitely sounds like something went wrong! Perhaps your baking soda was expired?
Paula James says
I Made the pumpkins muffins yesterday and they were elicious. I could not stop eating them. Thanks for a great recipe.
Sarah says
How many is it making for you?
Susan says
It made 18 for me. I did sub non dairy yogurt for half the oil. ALso added mini chocolate chips to dry ingredients.
Sudevi says
I just made these and they are awesome – the best vegan, gluten free muffins we’ve had so far. I used a flour blend called Manini’s GF multi purpose flour consisting of teff, millet, tapioca, amaranth, and sorghum flours. I baked them for 30min and they are crusty on the outside and nice and moist inside. The batch turned into 18 delicious muffins, 9 of which are already eaten…
Belinda says
I had some leftover pumpkin puree & came across this recipe. I thought I’d give it a go, not really sure about how they’d taste since I’d never had pumpkin muffins before. I didn’t have apple sauce so I substituted 1 mashed banana for it. I used grapeseed oil instead of coconut oil & used raw organic sugar. They only took about 18 minutes to cook with a preheated oven. My son & daughter were very skeptical because the name didn’t sound very appealing but when they tried them they were both pleasantly surprised at how delicious they were! These were a real winner with the whole family & I will definitely be making them again.
Sarah says
So glad you gave it a try! Thanks for sharing.
Rachel McCready-Flora says
These are amazing muffins! I used coconut sugar instead of white sugar and added raisins. Made 16 muffins, baked for 25 minutes.
sheenam | thetwincookingproject.net says
These muffins look AMAZING!!!