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Everyone loves this healthy pumpkin muffins recipe! Bake up a batch for the best moist interior and crunchy streusel topping.
Welcome to fall…with this delightful Healthy Pumpkin Muffins recipe! They’re light and moist, made with pumpkin puree and infused with pumpkin pie spice. The best part? There’s a streusel topping of oats and glittery turbinado sugar that makes a sweet crunch in every bite. Each one is less than 200 calories, so we consider them healthy pumpkin muffins too. We served them to guests and they could not stop talking about them!
Ingredients in this healthy pumpkin muffins recipe
These healthy pumpkin muffins are one of our favorites of this fall baking season. We can’t wait for the weather to get cool to pull out this trick! Here are a few notes on the main ingredients:
- Pumpkin puree: Find canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling! Pumpkin puree is unsweetened and you can add your own spices (which are much tastier).
- Pumpkin spice: Use our homemade pumpkin pie spice or a store-bought version.
- Flour and rolled oats: Oats help make the muffins more filling and nutrient dense.
- Applesauce: Cuts back on the oil and keeps the muffin moist.
- Turbinado sugar. Turbinado sugar is raw sugar. It has large, crunchy crystals and a caramel flavor. It’s available at mainstream grocery stores. If you can’t find it, substitute brown sugar.
- Maple syrup. The muffin batter features maple syrup, brings a nuanced sweetness.
- Butter or coconut oil: These muffins have less fat than most, and you can substitute coconut oil for vegan.
What makes them healthy pumpkin muffins?
Most muffins are just glorified cupcakes. But we think muffins can be full of nutrient-dense ingredients…and still taste good! Muffins should be something you wouldn’t feel bad eating breakfast or snack, but sweet enough to be a little. These healthy pumpkin muffins are a result of that balance. They’re light enough to be deemed nutritious, but not so virtuous that you only want one bite. Here’s what makes these healthy muffins:
- Just sweet enough. These healthy pumpkin muffins have just enough sugar. The muffins are sweetened with maple syrup, which gives a gentler sweetness than refined sugar. Then the streusel topping adds that last bit of sweetness to satisfy.
- Under 200 calories. We don’t count calories, but it’s a good quick test on whether something is overly rich. These weigh in at under 200 calories.
- Nutrient-dense ingredients. These muffins are balance butter and sugar with with heart-healthy oats, applesauce and pumpkin puree.
How to store healthy pumpkin muffins
One last note on these pumpkin muffins before we get to the recipe. What’s the best way to store muffins so that the topping stays crunchy? It’s a great question, because the texture of the streusel can become soggy depending on the storage method. Here are some tips:
- 1 day: Leave the muffins on a cooling rack and cover with a clean, dry dish towel. This keeps the crunchy streusel topping intact.
- Up to 4 days: To store for up to 4 days, place a paper towel in the bottom of a sealed container, then place the muffins in and place a paper towel on top. The paper towels absorb the moisture that rises to the top of the muffins, helping to retain the crunchy topping.
- Longer than 4 days: For any longer than 4 days, freeze in a sealable container and store up to 3 months.
Variation: make them vegan!
This recipe is easily made into vegan pumpkin muffins! All you have to do is substitute coconut oil for butter. Here are a few notes:
- In the muffin batter, use melted coconut oil.
- In the streusel topping, use room temperature coconut oil to make the crumbly crunch.
Another vegan muffin idea? Try these Vegan Apple Streusel Muffins, using the same concept but with apples!
More muffin recipes
Here are a few more muffin recipes we think you’ll enjoy:
- Opt for 100% oats in these Healthy Blueberry Muffins
- Go for moist and sparkling Cinnamon Muffins
- Try Applesauce Muffins: whiz them up in a blender and they come out fluffy and cozy spiced
- Go for Healthy Banana Bread Muffins or Best Blender Muffins, also made in a blender
- Try Easy Zucchini Muffins or Healthy Zucchini Muffins
This healthy pumpkin muffins recipe is…
Vegetarian. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, use coconut oil (see below).
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
Everyone loves this healthy pumpkin muffins recipe! Bake up a batch for the best moist interior and crunchy streusel topping.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Muffin
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
- ¾ cup rolled oats, divided
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice, divided
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup applesauce
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted (for vegan, use melted coconut oil)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup turbinado sugar*
- ¼ cup salted butter, cold and cut into small pieces (for vegan, use room temperature coconut oil)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Add 12 muffin cups to a muffin tin.
- In a medium bowl, mix the 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup rolled oats, and 1 tablespoon of the pumpkin pie spice with the baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt.
- In another bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, applesauce, unsalted butter (melted), and vanilla.
- Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until a smooth batter forms.
- In another medium bowl, add the remaining ¼ cup rolled oats, 2 tablespoons flour, and 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice along with the turbinado sugar and salted butter (cut into small pieces). Cut the butter into the remaining ingredients using a pastry cutter or fork until a streusel topping forms.
- Divide the batter evenly into the muffin cups, then top with a thin layer of streusel.
- Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove the muffins and place them on a cooling rack.
Notes
*Turbinado sugar has large granules that make a delightful crunch! If you can’t find it, you can substitute brown sugar.
I made these but kind of messed up on the recipe. I used whole wheat flour,
added the full 3/4 cup of oats, added corn syrup instead of maple syrup, maple syrup extract instead of vanilla extract and added pumpkin pie filling instead of pumkin puree. They turned out to be very tasty and were baked in 25 minutes.
No regrets to the changes that were done.
I’ve made these muffins twice, and they are wonderful! I followed the recipe using butter instead of the option of melted coconut oil, and light brown sugar instead of turbinado sugar (which I am unfamiliar with). I found the best way (for me) is to make the topping first. I believe I could actually make the topping a day ahead and will try that next time.
Would coconut oil change the flavor any? Thanks for all the wonderful recipes.
I can’t believe the mediocre reviews – are you kidding me? These muffins are so delicious, not too sweet, and have such a nice texture. Definitely recommend!
So glad you enjoyed them :)
I think the ingredients were a little off as these turned out very strange texture. Is there really supposed to be two whole teaspoons of baking powder along with 1 teaspoon of baking soda? I could tell the flavor was good but they were an odd texture and we couldn’t eat them. I loved the yummy crunchy topping however.
I am so sorry to hear this! We haven’t had this feedback and have heard from several commenters and friends anecdotally that they love them. Is it possible you used a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon? Those measurements are correct. Can you tell us more about the strange texture — what type of texture was it?
Yayyy! I made my own applesauce (3 apples for 1 cup) and doubled the recipe – really happy with the result. Also used half honey & half golden syrup. Thanks for this – always fun finding new, more healthy & yummy recipes!
Loved these muffins! They have just the right amount of sweetness and are not heavy. Perfect with a cup of coffee. Thank you for creating a healthy recipe!
In step 2 , it states 1 1/2 cups flour which I followed. As the muffins were cooking I knew there was an issue! Looking back into the ingredients it was 3 cups.
Can you tell me where you are seeing 3 cups? I’m not sure I understand your question!
Ugh – when I doubled the recipe in the clickable box that indicated 2x, the direction amounts didn’t double. I totally winged it and the muffins were just so so.
Maybe it’s a glitch you can fix?
Oh no! We’ll talk to the developers about this!
When choosing the 2X option, the ingredient list doubles, but the recipe instructions still list the 1x ingredients.
We’ll report this to the developer. Thank you!