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These healthy pumpkin muffins are lightened up with less oil and sugar but are every bit as moist and fluffy as you’d expect!
Love healthy muffins? Try my healthy zucchini muffins, healthy blueberry muffins, healthy chocolate muffins, and healthy oatmeal muffins next.
Come fall, my healthy pumpkin muffin recipe becomes an almost weekly staple! It’s the perfect use of pumpkin puree, uses wholesome ingredients, and are one of my most foolproof baked goods ever!
Table of Contents
Why I love this recipe
- No wheat flour. Traditional muffins use white flour or bread flour, but using oat flour adds extra fiber, protein, and whole grains to the recipe (source).
- Perfect texture and flavor. The texture is moist and fluffy in the middle with a tender crumb. They are full of pumpkin flavor, thanks to adding pumpkin puree to the batter (no pumpkin pie filling!).
- Low sugar and nothing refined. Swapping out white sugar or brown sugar for coconut sugar keeps these muffins refined sugar-free. This sweetener also works well with the pumpkin flavor.
- Tastes like bakery muffins. Don’t let the word ‘healthy’ fool you. These muffins taste like any good bakery-style muffin out there!
★★★★★ REVIEW
“These are delicious and super moist! They are so easy to make also!” – Adrienne
Ingredients needed
- Oat flour. Ground-up rolled or quick oats. Skip the expensive packaged kind and make your own with my homemade oat flour.
- Baking powder. The leavening agent used to give the muffins some rise and fluffiness.
- Pumpkin spice. A must for any recipe using pumpkin puree. You can make your own by mixing together ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ground ginger.
- Pumpkin puree. Homemade pumpkin puree or unsweetened canned pumpkin. If you use the latter, be sure that it is NOT pumpkin pie filling.
- Coconut oil. A fantastic alternative to butter. Use refined coconut oil, as it has no coconut flavor whatsoever.
- Eggs. room temperature eggs.
- Milk of choice. I used unsweetened almond milk to keep them dairy-free, but any milk can be used (coconut, soy, non-fat, etc).
- Coconut sugar. A refined sugar free sweetener. You can find these at Asian grocers or health food stores. White or brown sugar will also work or liquid sweeteners like honey or maple syrup
- Oatmeal crumb topping. A simple mix of oat flour, rolled oats, sugar, cinnamon, and coconut oil.
How to healthy pumpkin muffins
I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1- Make the batter. Whisk together your flour, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice in a small bowl, then set that aside. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients until creamy.
Step 2- Combine. Gently fold through the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until fully incorporated and no air pockets remain.
Step 3- Make the crumb topping. If desired, make the crumb topping by mixing together the oat flour, rolled oats, coconut sugar, cinnamon, and coconut oil.
Step 4- Bake the muffins. Disperse the batter evenly amongst a greased 12-count muffin tin and sprinkle the crumb topping over each one. Bake the muffins for 18-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out mostly clean.
Arman’s recipe tips
- Do not over-bake the muffins. Remember, muffins will continue to bake as they are cooling in the muffin tin. Remove them from the oven when a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
- Use superfine oat flour. For the best texture of the muffins, the oat flour used must be a powdery texture. If you are making your own, you may need to blend it down several times.
- Adjust the sweetness. These muffins are pleasantly sweet, thanks to the addition of coconut sugar and the natural sweetness of the pumpkin. However, if you prefer a sweeter muffin, add an extra tablespoon or two of your favorite sweetener.
- Use actual flour. If you prefer to have muffins made with flour, swap out the oat flour with whole wheat flour.
Variations
The beauty of these muffins is just how easy they are to customize to a plethora of diets or preferences. Here is what we have tested:
- Make them vegan. Switch out the eggs for an egg substitute.
- Add mix-ins. Add chocolate chips to make healthy pumpkin chocolate chip muffins or fold through some walnuts and pecans for some crunch.
- Pumpkin muffins with applesauce. Replace half the pumpkin with unsweetened applesauce. This gives the muffins a slightly less intense pumpkin flavor while keeping them perfectly moist and fluffy.
- Healthy pumpkin banana muffins. Swap out half the pumpkin for mashed banana.
- Pumpkin oatmeal muffins. Do as I did and make a simple oatmeal streusel on top. Combine rolled oats with coconut sugar and sprinkle on top of each muffin before baking them. Drizzle with a simple powdered sugar glaze.
Storage instructions
To store: Muffins can be stored at room temperature, covered, for up to 3 days. If you’d like them to keep longer, store them in the refrigerator and they will keep for up to 1 week.
To freeze: Place muffins in a ziplock bag and store them in the freezer for up to 6 months. Let them thaw completely from their frozen state.
Frequently Asked Questions
If your pumpkin muffins are more on the dense side, it comes down to how long you cook them! To ensure they are never dense, be sure to remove them from the oven when a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
More healthy pumpkin recipes to try
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
Video
Ingredients
- 3 cups oat flour gluten free, if needed
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2 cups pumpkin puree 15 oz can
- 1/4 cup coconut oil melted
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tbsp unsweetened almond milk any milk works
- 1 cup coconut sugar
Crumb topping
- 3 tablespoons oat flour
- 3 tablespoons rolled oats
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease a 12-count muffin tin and fill each one with muffin liners.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice and set aside. In a mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients and cream together until smooth.
- Gently fold through the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Distribute the batter evenly amongst the muffin tin.
- Make the crumb topping by mixing together the oat flour, rolled oats, coconut sugar, cinnamon, and melted coconut oil. Sprinkle over the top of each muffin.
- Bake the muffins for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
- Remove the muffins from the oven and let them cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally published September 2021, updated September 2023 and May 2024
Tried this recipe, it was really good, but the only thing that I thought was too much of that ingredient is the pumpkin, I know that it’s called pumpkin muffins, but it just was too dense. It felt like a heavy muffin.
But still it was good.
Simple easy and delicious recipe!