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Perfectly Cozy Pumpkin Muffins

October 28, 2022 by Joy the Baker 21 Comments

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Today’s offering is meant for your lazy weekend.  A weekend that I hope includes a whole pot of coffee, slippers with fur inside, and at least one episode of Love is Blind season 3 (are you on this madness because we really need to talk about it).   This pumpkin muffins recipe makes for tender, sweet, and bouncy muffins. The bounce is what makes a muffin CAKE and that’s all I see sidled up to our coffee this weekend.

inside of pumpkin muffin

Oh there is one caveat.  One promise I need you to make.  Serve these muffins with an alarming amount of softened cream cheese. It’s somehow even better than butter on these muffins. Please forgive me for keeping this simple muffin recipe from you for all these years. I somehow felt it was too simple but… I very much want to make these simple days. Happy weekend, friends!

ingredients for pumpkin muffin recipe measured on sheet pan.

Here’s what you’ll need to make this cozy pumpkin muffins recipe:

•  all-purpose flour

•  brown sugar and granulated sugar

•  baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt

•  a neutral oil (I like sunflower, grape seed, and avocado oil)

•  unsalted butter, melted to browned

•  spices: ground cinnamon, ground coriander, ground nutmeg

•  vanilla extract

•  one large egg

•  canned pumpkin puree, though you can use fresh pumpkin puree if you have it!

•  sour cream, my favorite dairy in baking

pouring vanilla into bowl with sugars and oil.
dry ingredients for pumpkin muffin recipe mixed in antique bowl.


This pumpkin muffins recipe is mean to to be relaxed as in… you should absolutely be wearing slippers as you bake these.

In a large bowl whisk together the wet ingredients.  We’re talking sugars, oil and melted butter, sour cream, egg, vanilla and the pumpkin puree whipped into a thick emulsion.

I like to use both butter and oil in these muffins.  The butter adds a toasty rich flavor while the oil keeps the muffin tender and bouncy, giving it a longer shelf life. 

In a separate medium bowl, let’s mix together the dry ingredients.  Flour, leavening, salt and spices.  I snuck coriander into these muffins like the blueberry muffins we made this summer. It’s such a warm and bright spice that invigorates base pumpkin flavors.

If you don’t have all of the separate spice ingredients- no sweat. Just use a heaping teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.

pumpkin muffin batter
covering pumpkin muffin recipe with plastic wrap.


Stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and stir into a thick batter.  It’s as easy as that.  And if you have half a bag of chocolate chips or chopped walnuts stashed somewhere on the baking, now is a good time to toss em in!

The key to making these muffins tall and craggily – cover the muffin batter and chill for an hour (or overnight). The chill time will allow the starch to absorb the moisture and the batter to thicken creating a sturdy but still tender muffin.  If you need muffins on the quick, you can skip this step and the muffins will still be fantastic!

pumpkin muffin batter in cups topped with sugar

Grab a muffin pan with paper liners or a rimmed sheet pan with these muffin baking cups that stand on their own.  I love the later option because the paper doesn’t show grease spots and the straight sides bake for super tall muffins.

Before the muffins go in the oven, sprinkle very generously with turbinado sugar. I love the shimmery crunch it adds to the top of the muffin. This of this sugar in place of a crumb topping for a crisp, sweet muffin top.

To test the doneness of the muffins, make sure the tops appear evenly risen and dry and insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin.  If it comes out clean or with a few crumbs, your muffins are done!

baked pumpkin muffins on tabletop
inside of pumpkin muffin


Allow the muffins to cool just slightly on a wire rack before serving warm with big pats of cream cheese or salted butter.  I’ll tell ya, cream cheese is the way to go here.

melted pumpkin muffins on a plate with coffee

Cake! You can’t tell me this isn’t the perfect cake bite.

Leave any questions or comments on this pumpkin muffins recipe below! I want to hear how you enjoy them! xo

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melted pumpkin muffins on a plate with coffee

Perfectly Cozy Pumpkin Muffins

★★★★★ 5 from 9 reviews
  • Author: Joy the Baker
  • Prep Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 12-15 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
  • Yield: 12 muffins 1x
  • Category: breakfast, brunch
  • Method: baking
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Description

A rather perfect pumpkin muffin. Tender, sweet. and spiced. The perfect weekend treat. (And they freeze well and toast up perfectly in the oven!)


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 3/4 cup (218 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup (100 grams) lightly packed brown sugar
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted to browned
  • 1/3 cup (75 grams) vegetable oil (or any neutral oil)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup (61 grams) sour cream
  • 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
  • Turbinado sugar for topping

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl whisk together sugars, melted butter, oil, vanilla, the egg, and sour cream until well combined. Whisk in the pumpkin puree.
  3. Add the dry ingredients all at once to the wet ingredients and use a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients together. The batter will be thick. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This will create a muffin with a lofty top.
  4. Thirty minutes before baking, place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 400°F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or lightly grease each muffin cup. Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle each muffin generously with turbinado sugar (about 2 teaspoons each). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until puffed and golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
  5. Allow the muffins to cool for a few moments in the pan before removing to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store any leftover muffins well wrapped at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Keywords: pumpkin, muffins, breakfast, brunch, autumn, fall, holiday

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  1. Talia

    November 21, 2022 at 9:23 pm

    These were perfect for a “teachersgiving” potluck at school! Made them as listed with the chocolate chips! One batch made 12 regular sized and 12 mini muffins. Turbinado was such a nice crunchy addition. Cooked them for longer than listed, about 19min at 400 for the full sized and 15 for the minis.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  2. Patsy

    November 13, 2022 at 9:14 am

    I scooped and baked these straight from the fridge – having followed the recipe exactly. They rose minimally and took over 20 minutes to bake. Should have let the batter come to room temperature before baking? The flavour was excellent.

    Reply
  3. Vicki

    November 12, 2022 at 6:01 am

    These were so delicious! Moist, seasonal, and perfect! Thank you for sharing :)

    PS, did Karlee @ Olive & Artisan take these photos? She has such a distinctive style and I’m getting major O&A vibes from these lovely shots!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  4. Seema Sharma

    November 8, 2022 at 1:49 am

    It’s the best way to give your kids some pumpkin! It is a beautiful recipe..

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  5. Carrie

    November 6, 2022 at 11:11 pm

    I came for the coriander. Hadn’t seen that in a pumpkin/baking recipe before. Searched my house for my baking soda. Remembered I’d used it all on the drains. Wanted to make this so badly I went out to the grocery store at -18 to get more baking soda. These muffins were worth it. To be fair, I did some subs—posting here for the curious—as always I used whole wheat pastry flour and a little of a ground seed blend for the flour. I used swerve for the white sugar since I have some that someone gave me and regular brown sugar for the brown. As always, I doubled the spices. For the topping, I’m out of hemp seeds, my usual muffin topping, so I made a new muffin top blend of coconut, poppyseeds, black sesame seeds, and coriander seeds my dad harvested. I used a jumbo muffin tin for the first time and it took them about 30 minutes to bake. Amazing. And I ate just one and packed up the rest.

    Reply
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