These bakery-style Spiced Pumpkin Streusel Muffins are soft and tender, and bursting with pure Fall flavor in every bite! Perfect as a breakfast or snack, these muffins are also freezer-friendly.
This is one of my Muffin recipes I know you’ll want to keep on hand!
Can you believe how close we are to the holidays? I’m so not prepared, and it’s stressing me out… so instead, I’m going to bake and pretend I still have plenty of time lol.
These pumpkin muffins have a perfect crumbly streusel topping, and have quickly become one of our favorites!
And they’re SO much better than any muffins you could make from a mix/box.
Once you start making homemade muffins you’ll realize how easy they are, and how much better they taste, and you won’t be buying anymore pre-made mixes.
Plus, muffins are great to freeze, so you can have fresh muffins anytime you want them!
How to make pumpkin streusel muffins?
This is just an overview; the full ingredients and directions are in the recipe card toward the bottom of this post.
- Stir dry ingredients. This is helpful to make sure everything blends well into the batter later.
- Mix wet ingredients. For this recipe, that includes the oil, both sugars, pumpkin puree, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla.
- Combine dry and wet. This is best done with a rubber spatula so you don’t over-mix.
- Scoop batter. I love using a cookie scoop to do this, but you can use anything you’d like.
- Make streusel. This recipe uses melted butter for the topping, so you just need to stir it together with a fork. The fork helps it crumble up.
- Top batter with streusel.
- Bake. This muffin recipe has a two-stage bake. The first stage is for a short time at a higher temperature, and the second is for longer at a lower temperature. This creates the bakery style tops!
- Cool and serve.
Helpful Tip!
Making a streusel can be intimidating if you haven’t done it before. But I promise this one is easier than you think. A lot of streusel is made with cold butter that’s cut into the dry ingredients, which some people can find tricky. So this recipe was developed to use melted butter instead, which is SO much easier!
Variations of this recipe
- Buttermilk substitute – if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make your own! Add 3/4 tsp of lemon juice or white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup. Pour in enough whole milk to reach 1/4 cup. Stir and let it sit about 5-10 minutes. It may look a bit curdled, but that’s okay. Stir and use in the recipe.
- Regular milk – alternately, you could just use regular whole milk, although we really prefer the flavor and texture of the buttermilk.
- Vanilla – for a more robust vanilla flavor, try using vanilla bean paste instead. Use an equal amount.
- Streusel – the streusel can be made with cold butter instead of melted, if you prefer it that way. Just cut the butter into small cubes, or grate it, then use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the dry ingredients of the streusel.
- Mini – if you’d prefer to make mini muffins, bake at 350°F for 11-12 minutes.
FAQ’s
Unfortunately no. Canned pumpkin pie filling has sugar and spices already added to it, so you can’t just sub it into this recipe, or the muffins will be sickly sweet and way over-spiced. You’ll want to pick up a can of pumpkin puree or sometimes labeled “pure pumpkin”.
The main reason that muffins end up dense instead of soft and tender is that the batter is over-mixed. Unfortunately it’s really easy to over-mix muffin batter when you use a power mixer, which is why I recommend just using a whisk or rubber spatula and mixing until JUST combined.
Making pumpkin muffins ahead of time
We think these muffins taste just as good the next day… so you can make them a day ahead of time, but I wouldn’t do much more than that.
But my favorite way to enjoy these muffins is nice and warm from the oven!
Storage
Leftover muffins should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container and eaten within 3-4 days.
For best taste, enjoy within 1-2 days.
Freezing
For longer storage, you can freeze these muffins!
I like to wrap each muffin in plastic wrap (or whatever you like to use instead of plastic wrap), then add to a freezer-safe container, label it, and freeze.
Thaw overnight in the refrigerator (or on the counter for an hour or so), then reheat at 325°F for 10 minutes or so to warm them up and give them that “just baked” taste.
My Favorite Muffin Pan!
I’ve had several of these pans for years, and they’ve held up so well! Not to mention they clean up like a dream.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @the_chunky_chef on Facebook and Instagram!
Ingredients
Muffins
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 15 oz can pumpkin puree
- 2 large eggs room temperature works best
- 1/4 cup buttermilk room temperature works best
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon Streusel
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter melted
Garnish
- powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
Prepare
- Preheat oven to 425°F, line 2 standard muffins pans with liners, or spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
Mix dry ingredients
- To a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and ground nutmeg. Whisk to combine, then set aside.
Mix wet ingredients
- In another smaller mixing bowl, add the wet ingredients (vegetable oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Whisk well to combine until smooth.
Combine
- Pour the wet ingredients into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients, then stir everything together with a rubber spatula until just combined and no flour streaks remain.
Scoop batter
- Scoop or transfer batter to prepared muffin pans, filling each liner about 2/3 – 3/4 of the way full.
Make streusel
- To a small mixing bowl, add the streusel topping ingredients (except the melted butter). Use a fork to stir together, then continue using the fork to stir in the melted butter, until crumbs form.
- Spoon or sprinkle some of the streusel crumbs onto each muffin, very gently pressing them down so they stay put.
Bake
- Bake in 425°F preheated oven for 5 minutes, then keep the muffins in the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Continue baking for another 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
Cool
- Let muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to continue cooling.
- Once muffins are at room temperature, dust with powdered sugar if desired.
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Chef Tips
- This recipe makes approximately 12-15 muffins, which you’re free to divide into as many servings as you’d like.
- Recipe heavily influenced by Sallys Baking Recipes, with some small changes that we prefer.
Nutrition Disclaimer
The Chunky Chef is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Stephanie says
The muffins have a very subtle taste. I wish there was more flavor to these muffins. I also would not blast them at 425 degrees. The outside of the muffin was stuck on the cupcake liner and we had to peel the muffins out of the liner to be able to eat them. I would try these again but add more spices and bake them at 350 for 15 minutes.
Sandra says
This is something I’d enjoy any time of the day!! Thanks for the recipe!
LUCIANO GARZIA says
Hello Amanda. Can I use real pumpkin pulp that I removed from a pumpkin? Thanks
The Chunky Chef says
I can’t say for certain as I’ve only tested this recipe as written. So without testing and retesting it myself, I can’t say how well that would work or if any change would need to be made. If you do some experimenting, I’d love to know how it turns out!
katerina says
I love these muffins! They are amazing!!
Catalina says
I would like to have these muffins for my weekend brunch! My family will thank you for the recipe!
Erin says
Looks absolutely delicious! Can’t wait to have this with my coffee!
Beth says
I can’t think of a better sweet breakfast or snack than these muffins! They look absolutely amazing.
Shawn says
Can this be done as a loaf?? or too much mix?
The Chunky Chef says
While I’m sure you could, I haven’t tested it, so I can’t speak to the specifics.
Jeremia Johnson says
Great muffins😍
Nadine Parise says
Can you make this as a loaf?
The Chunky Chef says
While I’m sure you could, I haven’t tested it, so I can’t speak to the specifics.