Healthy Pumpkin Muffins 20 Minutes

Keen for more healthy pumpkin recipes? Try my healthy pumpkin bread, healthy pumpkin pancakes, healthy pumpkin cookies, and healthy pumpkin pie next. Come fall, my healthy pumpkin muffin recipe becomes an almost weekly staple in my household. It’s the perfect use of pumpkin puree, uses wholesome ingredients, and one of the few muffins my family begs me to make weekly.

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. My muffins taste like any good bakery-style muffin out there!

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 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. “These are delicious and super moist! They are so easy to make also!” – Adrienne

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.

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. 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. Add 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. Add banana. Swap out half the pumpkin for mashed banana. 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.

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.