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Home Recipes Course Snacks Muffins & Breads Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

Jump to Recipe Rate Recipe
Posted:10/4/21
Updated:1/16/23

Everyone needs these Healthy Pumpkin Muffins in their life! A simple recipe made with pumpkin purée, sweetened with maple syrup and made with whole wheat pastry flour for the softest, tender muffins. Dairy free, gluten free friendly.

pumpkin seeds topped on pumpkin muffin, next to other muffins and glass of milk

This post is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. As always, all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that help Fit Mitten Kitchen bring you new content!

Pumpkin muffins are in season year round, in my opinion! They are so delicious and make the best snack.

What really makes pumpkin muffins, well, pumpkin muffins, is the pumpkin pie spice.

However, if you’re not a huge fan of spice, you could just do 1 teaspoon of the spice blend to give it a little flavor.

Why You Should Make These

  • Pumpkin adds so much moisture to these muffins – we’re using over a cup!
  • Whole wheat flour makes for a more nutrient dense muffin.
  • You can add chocolate chips – the best combo!
  • This healthy pumpkin muffin recipe happens to be dairy free and gluten free friendly.
  • Anyone can make muffins! They’re the perfect recipe to start your baking adventures.

What You Need

Muffins are one of my favorite things to make. You usually have everything you need on hand, they’re easy to make and they can be a wholesome snack!

Here’s a quick rundown of the pumpkin muffin ingredients you’ll need:

Dry Ingredients

Whole wheat pastry flour, pumpkin pie spice (use my homemade blend, linked!), baking soda, baking powder and a touch of fine sea salt.

Wet Ingredients

Canned pumpkin (pumpkin purée, not pumpkin pie mix), egg, maple syrup, a little oil, and some non-dairy milk to help thin out the batter a bit.

ingredients on board for pumpkin muffins, in spoons and bowls

Why Use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour is one of the best whole grain flours to use in healthy muffin recipes, in my opinion. Bob’s Red Mill is 100% stone ground from the finest soft white wheat. The lower protein content makes it perfect for whole grain baking, and will yield a softer, tender texture.

If you need a gluten-free sub, feel free to sub their 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour in this recipe. It works perfectly!

bag of bob's red mill whole wheat pastry flour on wooden board, with ingredients in background

Tips for Making Muffins

Mix the dry ingredients separately from the wet – this will make sure your baking soda and baking powder get evenly incorporated into the whole wheat flour.

When combining the wet ingredients with the flour mixture, be sure to slowly combine and not over-mix. When you over-mix whole grain flours, it will give you tougher muffins.

When adding mix-ins, add them in when you can still see some dry bits of flour in the batter. This will make sure you’re not over-mixing the batter.

Use a medium cookie scoop for easy dispensing.

pumpkin purée with egg and maple syrup in bowl, with ingredients and bag of flour surrounding bowl

How to get Higher Muffin Tops

Bake the muffins at 425ºF for the first 5 minutes, then drop the oven temperature to 350ºF and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

  • wet ingredients and dry ingredients mixing in glass bowl for pumpkin muffins
  • pumpkin muffin batter in muffing pan, with pumpkin seeds

Mix-ins and Toppings

You can’t go wrong with mixing chocolate chips in pumpkin muffins.

If you want a little crunch, add some pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) to the top of the muffins.

Looking for a sweet topping? Use the oat crumble from this recipe.

Want a simple glaze? Mix 1/3 cup confectioners sugar with 2 teaspoons of milk and dip the tops in.

pumpkin muffins on wire rack, topped with pumpkin seeds and chocolate chips

Ways to Use Up Canned Pumpkin

Because this pumpkin recipe calls for 1.25 cups of canned pumpkin, you’ll be left with a half cup. But don’t let it go to waste! Use one of these three recipes to use up the rest of the can:

  • Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal {Stovetop + Instant Pot!} (calls for 1/2 cup)
  • Pumpkin Spice Latte Truffles (1/3 cup) then use up the rest to make my Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte (about 2 tablespoons)
  • Chai Zucchini Pumpkin Muffins (calls for 1/2 cup)
open chocolate chip pumpkin muffin

Let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a comment and rating below! It helps others learn more about the recipe too! Xx Ashley

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Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

pile of pumpkin muffins topped with chocolate chips and pepitas
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Everyone needs these Healthy Pumpkin Muffins in their life! A simple recipe made with pumpkin purée, sweetened with maple syrup and made with whole wheat pastry flour for the softest, tender muffins. 

  • Author: Ashley
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 12 muffins 1x
  • Category: Snacks
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale

Dry Ingredients

  • 1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (see notes)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Wet Ingredients

  • 1.25 cups canned pumpkin
  • 1/4 cup avocado oil (see notes)
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon non-dairy milk (cashew, almond, coconut, oat or similar consistency)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425ºF and grease 12-cup muffin pan, or use silicone baking cups; set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl combine dry ingredients, flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
  3. In a large bowl whisk together pumpkin, oil, maple syrup, egg. Slowly add half of the dry ingredients, gently stir, then add the milk and remaining dry ingredients. If using mix-ins, add them in before dry ingredients are fully incorporated.
  4. Evenly distribute batter into muffin pan, filling about 3/4 way full. Top with pepitas if you’d like.
  5. Bake muffins for 5 minutes at 425ºF then drop oven to 350ºF and bake for an additional 12-18 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 10 minutes before moving to wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

VEGAN – sub egg with 1 flax egg. Or make these.

FLOUR – you can use whole wheat white flour, or use 1 cup all-purpose flour with 2/3 cup whole wheat flour. If you want to use all all-purpose flour, use 1.75 cups. If looking to make gluten-free, sub in Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour. If you’d like a grain free muffin recipe, try these.

SWEETENER – This recipe was tested and made with maple syrup. Honey is also an okay substitute. Do not sub in a granulated sugar or your wet-to-dry ratios will be off.

PUMPKIN – Canned pumpkin may vary by brand. Libby’s is darker and thicker than Farmer’s Market brand. If using canned pumpkin with consistency like Farmer’s Market brand, only use 1/2 cup of milk. I did not test this recipe with homemade pumpkin purée.

LARGER MUFFINS – If you want slightly larger muffins, you can distribute the batter into 10 muffin cups, and they’ll need a couple more minutes of bake time at 350ºF.

Keywords: pumpkin spice muffins, easy pumpkin muffins, best pumpkin muffins

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @fitmittenkitchen on Instagram and hashtag it #fitmittenkitchen

About Ashley

"Ashley Walterhouse is the founder of Fit Mitten Kitchen, based in the Greater Lansing Area of Michigan, AKA “the Mitten.” Ashley grew up as a picky eater but later discovered that eating healthy was actually easy and fun. She started FMK in 2015 as a way to share her newfound love of developing healthier recipes for all to enjoy."

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