The best vegan pumpkin muffins packed with pumpkin spice flavor and pecans! Perfect for breakfast or dessert and divine with or without vegan butter.
These vegan pumpkin muffins came out so well.
They have that beautiful domed top and they’re perfectly moist and deliciously spiced.
And…they’ve got pecans. I mean do I even need to say more?
They’re also seriously easy to make with simple everyday ingredients. And you don’t even have to wait for pumpkin season to make them since you can make these with canned pumpkin purée.
Though, if you’re all about fresh then you can make them with fresh homemade pumpkin purée too.
And just to make sure you get lots of pumpkin goodness from me, definitely check out our vegan pumpkin pie, our vegan pumpkin soup and our vegan pumpkin bread too.
How To Make Vegan Pumpkin Muffins:
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- This recipe is super easy! Sift some flour into a mixing bowl and add in brown and white sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
- Prepare a flax egg by mixing 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons of hot water and letting it sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Then add pumpkin purée, vanilla, melted coconut oil and apple cider vinegar into your mixing bowl. Add in your flax egg.
- Mix into a thick batter. Add in your chopped pecans and stir in.
- Divide the batter evenly between the muffin partitions of your prepared muffin tray (spray with non-stick spray first).
- Bake for 20-25 minutes and test for doneness with the toothpick test: a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins should come out clean.
- Allow to cool for a few minutes in the muffin tray and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Fresh Pumpkin vs Canned
You can use either fresh pumpkin or canned. Canned pumpkin purée is easiest and will save you time.
Top Tip: Make sure you are using pumpkin purée and not pumpkin pie filling. This is very NB.
However, if you can’t get canned pumpkin purée or would rather use fresh, then you can make it yourself.
Place peeled and chopped pumpkin onto a parchment lined baking tray and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes (no oil or spices) until soft and cooked. Then simply let it cool and then add it to the food processor and process into a purée.
Let the purée stand in a strainer so that any excess water can run off. Canned pumpkin isn’t ‘wet’ so your homemade version should not be either. A quite surprising amount of excess water will drip off from freshly made pumpkin purée.
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Pumpkin pie spice is a delicious component of this recipe, but if you can’t easily find it then don’t worry at all, you can make your own homemade pumpkin pie spice. This is what I use and it works wonderfully for all pumpkin desserts.
It’s a simple mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves and you can mix it up in about 2 minutes and be ready to go.
Chef’s Tips For The Best Pumpkin Muffins
Weigh your pumpkin purée and your flour. Weigh your pumpkin purée to make sure you use the right amount. And then weigh your flour too. This will give you the best chance of success in this recipe. I use an Oxo Good Grips Food Scale and it’s the most useful item in my kitchen (well, one of them!).
A nice thick batter is also ideal for good muffins and this is what we have here. This is also why we use coconut oil, because it’s relatively thick. But if you want to switch for a different vegetable oil you can do so without any major impact. We’ve tested these with canola oil as well and it works great.
Serve these beauties cut in half and spread with some vegan butter, or just eat them as is! They are perfect either way.
Storing and Freezing
Store them covered at room temperature where they will last a few days OR keep them covered in the fridge where they will last up to a week.
They are also freezer friendly! Let them cool completely before freezing.
More Vegan Muffins
- Vegan Blueberry Muffins
- Vegan Banana Muffins
- Vegan Zucchini Muffins
- Vegan Chocolate Muffins
- Vegan Apple Muffins
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar (200g)
- ½ cup White Granulated Sugar (100g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- 3 ½ tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
- 1 ½ cups Pumpkin Purée (337g) Canned or fresh
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¼ cup Coconut Oil (60ml) Melted
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Flax Egg 1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal with 3 Tbsp Hot Water
- 1 cup Pecan Nuts (109g) Chopped, plus more to place directly on top of the muffins
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray a muffin tray with non-stick spray and set aside.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the brown and white sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
- Prepare your flax egg by adding 1 Tbsp of ground flaxseed meal to a bowl and then pouring in 3 Tbsp of hot water and allowing to sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add the pumpkin purée, vanilla, melted coconut oil and apple cider vinegar to the mixing bowl.
- Add your flax egg.
- Mix together with a spoon until well combined. The batter will be thick.
- Lastly, add the pecan nuts and stir in.
- Divide the batter evenly amongst the muffin partitions in your prepared muffin tray. Add a few more chopped pecans directly to the top of the muffins.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean.
- Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
- Weigh the flour on a food scale for accuracy or use the spoon and level method – spoon the flour into a measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife, don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup.
- You can also use canola oil or vegetable oil in this recipe.
- Keep muffins covered at room temperature and they will stay fresh for a few days or in the fridge where they will keep for up to a week. They are also freezer friendly if you want to freeze them.
- This recipe was first published in 2017 and has now been updated with new photos. The recipe itself is unchanged.
These are my go-to muffins for our grown children’s families who have a variety of diet types and restrictions. I would call them “no fail” muffins as well. Always come out perfect and delicious! For variety and individual needs I don’t put the nuts in the batter, putting only on the tops for some, some in combination with mini chocolate chips, some with only mini chocolate chips, and some plain. I love this recipe because it doesn’t require non-dairy milk, which I don’t typically have on hand.
Thanks so much for sharing Connie! So happy you find the recipe easy and versatile.
I froze quite a bit of pumpkin purée (from Long Island cheese pumpkins— my favorite for pies and baking) in November and since then have been trying various vegan pumpkin bread and muffin recipes. They have all been decent, but I tried this today, and it is the clear winner! I am not 100% vegan yet but slowly working towards replacing non-vegan favorites with vegan ones. This has a texture and flavor that rival any pumpkin muffin made with egg. This is exactly what I have been looking for, and it will replace my recipe with egg. Thank you!
Thanks so much Debbie! So happy you enjoyed it! 🙂
I love this recipe. Just wondering though, is there a way around the sugar? Thank you for your time!
Hi Erin, you can try reducing the sugar by half and just see how you go.
They are perfect AND truly delicious!! I cooked them in silicon muffin trays..no need for oil.
Thanks Liz!
Made a batch of these today and they’re lovely! I used walnuts instead of pecans because that’s what I had in the house, and I added a couple of generous handfuls of raisins/sultanas because I like my muffins to feel crammed and with different textures.
My mum declared them “absolutely delicious”, so I felt confident enough to drop some off for a neighbour (a chef and specialises in cakes) who had lent me some baking powder to make them (thanks to my mum accidentally mixing our remaining small amount of baking powder into our large container of baking soda….. Deary me!).
So glad you and your mum enjoyed them Lily! And hope your neighbor will too! They sound delicious with those additions. 🙂
Success! These muffins worked out perfectly. I was a little short on pumpkin purée, so I added a little mashed banana. They were moist, delicious, and the perfect fall treat. Thanks!
Wonderful! Thanks so much Angie!
Delicious! A total hit 😀 just like ALL your recipes… yum!
Thanks so much Marianne!
Amazing, as always. I used half whole wheat, half white flour and they are wonderfully hearty. They turned out a bit dense, which is delicious, but the tops fell flat when cooling! Do you recommend using a bit more baking powder to help fluff them up when using the whole wheat mix? Thanks!!
Hi Jordan, so glad they were good! You can definitely try some extra baking powder, I haven’t experimented with using whole wheat flour on these, but I don’t think it will do any harm to increase the baking powder a little.
I never leave comments but these were seriously delicious. So moist and flavorful, and easy! I didn’t have pecans and I used a bobs red mill egg replacer instead of the flax egg cause I was feeling lazy. This is definitely something you could make for non vegans and they would love it and never know the difference. Thank you for the recipe!
Thanks so much for the wonderful review Sarah!
I made these yesterday and they were so easy and sooo delicious! When I told my mom I made them from scratch, she was really surprised because of how good the texture and flavor were. She doesn’t even like pumpkin, but she’s eaten a few muffins and she really loves them! I will absolutely be making these muffins again. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe ✨
So happy to hear that Raechel! Thanks for the great review. 🙂
I made this yesterday without the pecans but added powdered sugar to top soooo delicious
Thanks for sharing Shante!