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.
This is a great recipe, and easy!
Moist and Delicious. Definitely a keeper. Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for the great review. 🙂
These muffins are so good! I added Vegan chocolate chips instead of walnuts.
Simply delicious!
Thank you for such wonderful vegan recipes!
So happy you enjoyed the muffins Ceci, thanks for the wonderful review. 🙂
Super yummy! I had an abundance of carrots so I actually cooked and pureed them in place of pumpkin and you can’t tell a difference! I also used chocolate chips instead of nuts. Your pumpkin walnut muffin formula makes a great carrot choc chip muffin lol. Super moist and perfectly sweet.
What a great idea to do it like that! Thanks so much for sharing that, it sounds amazing! And thank you for the great review. 🙂
Too delicious!!
These muffins are too delicious! Even when I substituted the coconut oil for applesauce, and ran out of flour so I had to substitute 1/4 cup flax seed meal.
I like to bake muffins every week for a quick on the go breakfast/snack for my family. I was not happy with the last pumpkin muffin recipe I tried, so I tried yours.
But now I have already eaten two, and it is only 11:00. I have a delicious dilemma.
A delicious dilemma, I love it! Thanks for the wonderful review, so happy they turned out great. 🙂
I was looking for a recipe to use up the leftover pumpkin puree in my refrigerator and came across this recipe which turned out to be AMAZINGLY GOOD – it is very moist with a good balance of pumpkin and spice flavors. By the way, I cut both sugar in half which came out just the right amount of sweetness for me. Most of the pastry recipes use way too much sugar for me.
So glad you enjoyed it Joyce! Thanks so much for posting. 🙂
I love how you make vegan cooking fuss-free and straightforward Alison, many thanks! Your pumpkin recipe turned out brilliantly, very delicious and easy. I’ll be making it regularly from now on and look forward to trying your other muffin recipes too xoxo
Hi Melissa! So happy to hear that, thanks so much for the amazing review. 🙂
Personally I think your site is the best Alison – other vegan food websites aren’t great (e.g. too small text, poor pics, poor descriptions) or they have fiddly recipes which I don’t have patience for. But your website and recipes are a pleasure, well done fabulous lady! And much needed because I’m not a natural in the kitchen.
Fyi about this recipe: on a whim I tried the pumpkin muffin mix with half oat flour/half plain flour, plus added a tablespoon of nut butter to see what would happen – the nut butter couldn’t be tasted, and I think the oat flour made the muffins too heavy, especially on day 3, so I’ll stick to your exact recipe next time 🙂
Btw, if possible I’d really appreciate if you could kindly add a little bit of a steer on how to store your recipes (how long in the fridge or freezer) as I like to batch cook.
Hi Melissa! Thanks so much for your kind words about the blog, they are so appreciated! And thanks for sharing about the recipe experimentations too. I usually do state in the post itself how long they keep in the fridge or at room temperature, in the case of this recipe – up to a week in the fridge. But yes, will be good to add freezer info too. Thanks so much for the feedback! 🙂
I make these all the time! I also add streusel topping on them before baking, so goooood!
Would it be alright to add chocolate chips to these? They look great, can’t wait to give them a try!
I think that would be great! No changes to the recipe are needed, just fold in some chocolate chips to the batter as a last step before you divide the batter between the muffin partitions for baking. 🙂
Super tasty! And no one believed me when I said they were vegan, thank you so much for the recipe!!
Fantastic! Thanks Kassandra! 🙂
Simply delicious with, or without, the glaze! I did not use muffin liners. I sprayed the tins. The muffins came out perfectly. Comments from those who enjoyed the muffins – “The right balance of spices and pumpkin.”, “So moist.”, “Love the crumb topping.”
Hi Maria! That sounds awesome! I am thinking your comment relates to our vegan pumpkin cupcakes, sooo pleased they were well enjoyed and thanks so much for the comment and generous rating! 🙂
Can I use almond flour instead and do I need to adjust the amount or add more baking powder or egg?
A gluten-free all purpose flour blend would have the best shot if you want to make these gluten-free, but it has not been tested that way. All the best! 🙂
Just made …delicious!! Thanks for recipe
Trying your banana bread muffins next!
Made flax egg and pumpkin pie spice..came out well
Fantastic! Thanks Linda! 🙂
Made these Vegan Pumpkin Muffins with pecans this morning. Delicious! Thank you so much for such a tasty recipe. Moist, not too sweet, very filling.
Superb breakfast treat!
Oh my! LOVELY muffins! I really need to get over my baking fear and try these!
Yes! Try them! 🙂