Healthy pumpkin muffins, topped with a spicy crumble, and soft in texture. The best nutritional breakfast muffin with fiber and vitamins, made in one bowl and egg-free in 20 minutes.
These soft spicy healthy pumpkin muffins are perfect for breakfast or even a snack and made easily in one bowl. These muffins are not only full of warm spices, but also rich in nutrients, low in sugar and full of metabolism-triggering goodness.
Like my blueberry muffins and my chocolate chip muffins, and even more easy recipes with pumpkin purees such as my pumpkin fudge, iced pumpkin spice latte and my healthy chocolate cake, and even my baked pumpkin donuts, these pumpkin muffins contribute to your daily nutritional needs, specifically supporting weight-loss, eyes, immunity, skin and are low in sugar.
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Why You'll Love These
These healthy pumpkin muffins taste spicy and soft. They are:
- Full of warm spices and healthy pumpkin
- Easy to make in one bowl, in 20 minutes
- Vegan, gluten-free, egg-free, with an oil-free option
- A great healthy breakfast or snack
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this easy pumpkin recipe:
Flour – I use GF baking flour but all purpose flour would also work easily.
Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves – I use my homemade pumpkin spice recipe off my homemade spice recipe guide here - In this guide, I not only share a homemade pumpkin pie spice, also homemade gingerbread spice, homemade chia spice, and homemade apple pie spice.
Oil – If you don't want to use oil in this recipe, replace it with unsweetened apple sauce. I use extra-virgin olive oil which is heart-healthy and the least processed oil.
No eggs - instead use 3 tablespoon of aquafaba or 1 flaxseed egg (3 tablespoon water + 1 tablespoon flaxseed).
Dairy-free milk activated with lemon juice – I add a tablespoon of lemon juice to my almond milk to activate the baking soda to help the muffins rise. This is also called vegan buttermilk.
Organic cane sugar - There is only ½ cup of sugar in 12 muffins. That's only 8 grams of sugar per muffin. The average pumpkin muffin recipe typically has 30 grams of sugar. I find my muffins to be sweet enough, especially if you added a glaze or crumble.
Pumpkin puree – I use quality canned pumpkin puree. The only ingredient is pumpkin. So don't mistake pumpkin puree for pumpkin pie puree which has added sugars. Also, sweet potato puree or butternut squash puree works perfectly if you can't find pumpkin puree.
And then we have the baking essentials baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Now you’re ready to bake!
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions
Oil-free: Swap oil for applesauce.
Egg replacements: I used aquafaba but you can also use a flax seed egg. You'll need the equivalent of one egg for this recipe.
Milk: I used almond but any dairy-free milk works. I add the lemon juice to curdle the milk into a kind of buttermilk - this allows the baking soda to help with lift.
Flour: I used gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour blend but GF all purpose would also work. If you don't need the muffins to be gluten-free, regular all purpose flour would also work.
Step by Step Instructions
For more detail, visit the complete recipe at the bottom of this post, but here are general steps.
Step #1: Mix up the wet ingredients in a large bowl. And sift or dump in the dry ingredients.
Step #2: Use a medium scoop (2 tbsp) to distribute batter between 12 muffin wells in a muffin pan lined with paper cupcake liners, either two 6-well pans or 1 12-well pan.
Step #3: Bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Allow them to cool 20 minutes in the pan. This will help the papers come off more cleanly.
Recipe Tips
Tip#1: When making an egg-free recipe, it's important to add an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar to the milk to react with the baking soda and help the muffins rise.
Tip #2: There is not a ton of oil and butter in these muffins so to help them not stick to the papers, let them cool in the pan for 20 minutes then peel off paper carefully.
Tip #3: You can bake these in mini-muffin tins as well.
5 Healthy Benefits of Pumpkin
1. Pumpkin Supports Weight-loss: Rich in fiber so slows digestion, making you feel full longer. Also low calorie. Far lower in calories than butter that traditional pumpkin recipes include. [source]
2. Pumpkin Protects Eyes & Vision: The bright orange color of pumpkin indicates tons of beta-carotene, an element the body converts easily to vitamin A. And vitamin A helps your eye absorb and process light, and vitamin A and two antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin protect against eye disease. [source]
3. Pumpkin Boosts Immunity: That same vitamin A pumps power into your immune system to fight infections, viruses and disease. Pumpkin not only has vitamin C which is an immunity booster, its oil is a fungal fighter. [source]
4. Pumpkin Protects Skin: The same beta-carotene that produces vitamin A also protects your skin from the sun's UV rays and age-driven breakdowns. [source]
5. Pumpkin Balances Blood Sugar: Eating pumpkin has been shown to reduce blood glucose levels and improve glucose tolerance. That, combined with the low sugar levels of these muffins, make this muffin recipe ideal for a low sugar healthy breakfast or snack. [source]
Make Mini Muffins
It's easy to turn this recipe into a mini pumpkin recipe.
1. Just spoon the batter into mini cupcake pans lined with paper cups.
2. Fill the wells most of the way up. Forgo the crumble top.
3. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 F. Test baked muffins with a toothpick to be sure they are baked through.
4. Once cooled, dip in the glaze rather than drizzle.
FAQS
Look at the ingredients before you buy. For this recipe, the ingredients need to be only pumpkin. Don't use Pumpkin Pie filling as it has added sugars and spices and is more suitable for pumpkin pie.
Muffins stored in a container will become moist after a few days. To combat this, add a paper towel to the bottom of the container, and lay a paper towel on top of the muffins as well. They should stay dry for about 4 days. Freeze them individually for long term storage. To have them ready for breakfast, put a frozen muffin in the refrigerator overnight so it is thawed by morning.
More Bread & Muffins
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Recipe
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
Equipment
- Measuring cups & spoons
- Mixing bowls
- Hand-mixer
- muffin pan, liners
- Cooling rack
Ingredients
Wet ingredients
- 1 cup pumpkin puree, canned Or sweet potato puree, or butternut squash puree - Farmers Market brand has both in cans
- ½ cup dairy-free milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (Or apple cider vinegar or white vinegar)
- 3 tablespoon aquafaba, liquid from a can of chickpeas (Or 1 tablespoon flaxseed mixed in 3 tablespoon water)
- ½ cup organic cane sugar
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil (Or unsweetened apple sauce)
Dry Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour or use gluten-free baking flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch salt
Spices to add to dry ingredients
- 2 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon cloves
Equipment
Crumb top, optional
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2-6 tablespoon butter sticks, chilled and chopped
Instructions
Prep
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Be sure your oven heats accurately. Use an oven thermometer to test it.
- Line cupcake pans with paper liners. Either 1 12 well pan or 2 6 well pans.
- Measure out aquafaba from a can of room temperature chickpeas or prepare flaxseed egg by mixing 1 tablespoon flaxseeds into 3 tablespoon of water and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Stir 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar) into the milk and allow it to curdle for 5 minutes.
Crumb Top, optional
- Combine ingredients with a fork. Allow texture to be chunky and put it in the freezer. The more chilled the crumb is, the more crumbly it stays through the baking. Sometimes I make it the night before and let is freeze overnight.½ cup flour, ½ cup brown sugar, 2-6 tablespoon butter sticks, chilled and chopped
Make Pumpkin muffins
- Mix up the wet ingredients in a large bowl.1 cup pumpkin puree, canned, ½ cup dairy-free milk, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 3 tablespoon aquafaba, liquid from a can of chickpeas, ½ cup organic cane sugar, ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Set a sifter over the bowl, and add the dry ingredients + spices to it. Then using a spoon to push the dry ingredients into the bowl on top of the wet ingredients.1 ¾ cup all purpose flour, 2 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, pinch salt, 2 tablespoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ginger, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, ⅛ teaspoon cloves
- Or, alternatively, just stir up the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and dump that into the wet ingredients.
- Use a medium scoop or 2 tablespoon scoop to fill each well. If you are using crumb top, add it to each muffin now.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes.
- Let muffins cool for 20 minutes in pan.
Store Pumpkin Muffins
- Store pumpkin muffins covered at room temperature for one day. After that, refrigerate for 4 days, again well covered but with paper towels in container.
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