These healthy pumpkin muffins are my new faves! They’re naturally gluten-free, sweetened with maple syrup, quick and easy to make, and perfecty pumpkin-y.
Meet your new favorite pumpkin muffins. ♡
Oh my goodness, we’ve been completely obsessed with these little guys these past few weeks. They are perfectly pumpkin-y, made with my favorite warming spices, and lightly sweetened with maple syrup (plus a pinch of turbinado sugar on top, if you’d like a little extra sweetness and sparkle). They’re also quick and easy to make with ingredients that I’m betting you probably already have on hand. And thanks to an oatmeal base, they’re also gluten-free and on the healthier end of the muffin spectrum in general.
Basically, a pumpkin muffin recipe that tastes great and you can feel great about enjoying too. That’s my kind of a muffin win-win.
Let’s make some!
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins Ingredients:
As I said, the ingredient list for these muffins is super simple. You will need:
- Pumpkin puree: ‘Tis the season!
- Old-fashioned oats: Which we will pulse in the blender or food processor until they are finely ground to make our “flour”
- Pumpkin pie spice: Either homemade or store-bought
- Almond milk: Or your favorite kind of nut milk or cow’s milk (2% or whole)
- Maple syrup: Or you could sub in honey, if you prefer
- Coconut oil: Just a few tablespoons (or feel free to sub in your favorite mild-flavored oil)
- Eggs, salt, vanilla and baking soda: Because…muffins.
- Turbinado sugar: Totally optional, but I love the extra hint of sweetness and crunch and sparkle on top
As always, if making this recipe gluten-free, be sure to double check that all of your ingredients are certified gluten-free. (Especially the oats.)
Also, I made my own little parchment baking liners. But feel free to use whatever baking liners you love best, or can just mist the baking pan with some cooking spray.
How To Make Pumpkin Muffins:
To make this pumpkin muffins recipe, simply:
- Make your oat “flour”: Add your oats to a blender or food processor and pulse until they reach a flour-like consistency.
- Combine your dry ingredients: Add the pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda, and pulse until evenly combined.
- Whisk together your wet ingredients: In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, eggs, maple syrup, almond milk and vanilla until evenly combined.
- Combine the two. Fold the dry ingredients in with the wet, and use a spatula to stir together until just combined. (Try not to over-stir.)
- Fill your muffin cups. Portion the batter evenly between 12 muffin cups. (I always like to do this with a large cookie scoop. You’ll need a heaping scoop of batter for this specific recipe — about 1/3 cup per muffin.) Then sprinkle with a pinch of turbinado sugar, if you’d like.
- Bake. Until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 15 minutes.
- Enjoy! I love these muffins best fresh outta the oven. But once they have cooled to room temperature, feel free to store them in a sealed container for up to 3 days, or freeze (wrapped tightly in plastic wrap) for up to 3 months.
Optional Add-Ins:
Feel free to also add in:
- Chocolate chips: Because…chocolate.
- Nuts or seeds: Such as pepitas, pecans, sunflower seeds, walnuts, etc. You can either sprinkle them on top of the muffins, or fold them into the batter.
- Dried fruit: Dried cranberries, raisins, apricots…whatever you love.
- A maple glaze: Whisk together powdered sugar and maple syrup until they form a glaze-like consistency, and drizzle over your muffins for extra sweetness
Enjoy, everyone! ♡
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 cups (240g) old-fashioned oats (or 2 cups oat flour)
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice, homemade or store-bought
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, plain or vanilla
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil (or any mild-flavored oil)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- optional: turbinado sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with parchment or cupcake liners, or lightly grease with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Puree oats in a blender or food processor until they reach a flour-like consistency. Add in the pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and sea salt, and pulse until the mixture is evenly combined. Set aside.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, coconut oil and vanilla extract until evenly combined. Fold the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredient mixture, and stir until the mixture is just combined. (Try to avoid over-mixing.)
- Portion the ingredients into prepared baking cups. Then sprinkle a pinch of turbinado sugar on top of each muffin, if you would like.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Remove from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack for 5 minutes.
- Serve warm. Or let the muffins cool to room temperature, then store in a sealed container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Excellent recipe! It’s now in our regular rotation. I’ve also played with it and substituted mashed bananas or shredded zucchini for the pumpkin. Great result. Does anyone have a nutritional analysis for the recipe? I’m curious about the amount of fiber.
These muffins somehow suck all the flavor out of it. I literally couldn’t taste anything. No pumpkin, no cinnamon, nothing. Except cloves, but that’s because it’s a REALLY strong taste. But other than that, these are the most unflavorful muffins I’ve ever had. I even put the sugar on top, and added extra maple syrup. Nothing. I had high hopes with this recipe, and I am extremely disappointed. I stupidly ignored the comments that said it wasn’t very flavorful because I thought “oh, it can’t be THAT bad”. Trust me: it’s that bad. Usually desserts, muffins, anything like that goes fast in this household, but I think I’ll have a very hard time getting through them. I’ll try to salvage them with some frosting or something, but I honestly don’t know if that’ll do it. Just stick to another recipe. But if you’re stubborn like me and want to try it anyway, try doubling the pumpkin puree and omitting the oil. Maybe do some of the add ins, too. And good luck.
Delicious! I wish I knew how many calories/nutritional info for each muffin. Awesome recipe! Thank you!!!
They were amazing! I made a half batch, subsituted apple sauce for coconut oil and skim milk for almond milk, and added mini chocolate chips. My family loved them. I will definitely make again.
First time I made this it was super good! With some adjustments. I baked them at 350 for 24 minutes, used 2% instead of almond milk, and I made my own spice mixture (2.5 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon cloves, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, shake of ground ginger, and a few shakes of pumpkin pie spice). The second time I made it, it turned out very eggy tasting and took 30 minutes in the oven for it to not be too wet inside the muffin. Both times I used oat flour instead of blending whole oats. The first time however I used 2.5 cups of oat flour and the second time I used 2.25 cups of oat flour and used melted butter instead of oil. I guess that wasn’t the move. My rec here to make these work is to use more spices and vanilla than the recipe calls for, lower the temp to 350, and cook for a little longer (22-24 min)! And if you use oat flour, 2.5 cups should do!
Thank you for this recipe! We’ve recently discovered some significant allergies in our family & are so. very. grateful. for healthy, gluten-free options! This will be on consistent rotation for breakfasts. Sincerely thankful for this simple but yummy recipe. Seriously.
Simple and delicious! My baby loved them!
Easy & delicious! I made them as minis and baked them for just shy of 12 minutes. Added three semi sweet choc chips to the tops of each and it gave it that little bit of extra deliciousness. Thanks as always for a reliable recipe!
Thank you for this recipe. Instead of rolled oats, i substituted with raw oat bran and i used coconut sugar for the sprinkles on the tops. It baked very well in 18 mins and i had 21 muffins. It lacked sweetness for me though – perhaps increasing maple syrup to 1 cup might have helped. Then the times would have to adjusted, isuppose. So after the 1st batch of 12 came out of the oven, i added 60% chocolate chip cookies to the balance batter. Those muffins are easier to eat on its own while the 1st batch can be used for breakfast cereal muffins with butter and some jam or marmalade.
My son, who is notoriously fussy, actually likes these. I am amazed – that alone makes them worth baking repeatedly! They turned out wonderfully. I used the homemade pumpkin spice mix and found the flavour was perfectly spicy. I did need to up the cooking time however. They required about 25 minutes to make sure the centre was done.