Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
on Feb 02, 2017, Updated Feb 26, 2020
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Healthy Pumpkin Muffins made with oats, real maple syrup and whole wheat flour are perfect for breakfast, snacks, or a dinner side!
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
I love muffins. The evidence is in my breakfast archives. And what really gets me excited is when the muffins are healthy and my kids don’t even know it. These healthy pumpkin muffins are one of my favorite recipes. I make them often to accompany soups and stews, to serve with smoothies for breakfast, or for a simple snack after school. This healthy pumpkin muffin recipe is made without refined sugars (just a little pure maple syrup), and is packed with whole grains. The color is warm and beautiful, they are tender and light, they are just sweet enough, and the recipe makes a perfect dozen.
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins are made with:
- Oats: One of my favorite whole grains. They are cheap, easy to find, and easy to use. I like that the oats add a little bit of texture to the muffins (and make a pretty garnish for the tops), but they don’t add any kind of strong flavor that might turn off my kids. Oats are awesome.
- Real Maple Syrup: my favorite natural sweeteners because when it is baked along with everything else, it doesn’t leave much flavor behind. It’s sweet but not overpowering. I like honey in some things, but when it comes to baking muffins, I almost always choose to use maple syrup. I normally get mind at Costco. If you don’t live in the desert like I do, chances are good you’ll be able to find someone local who sell maple syrup at the farmer’s market. I hear that Trader Joe’s has some good quality syrup for a good price too.
- These aren’t as sweet as most commercial cake-like muffins. If you are feeling like you want dessert-like muffins, I highly recommend adding a cup of good quality chocolate chips (I like this brand). The chocolate is magic and makes these feel much more like a treat. It’s up to you; they are delicious both ways.
- Coconut Oil: the nectar of the gods, right?! I use coconut oil because it stores well and it’s a great plant-based oil for cooking. Healthy fats are great for kids too.
- Whole Wheat Flour: when it comes to using 100% whole wheat flour, I highly recommend buying whole wheat pastry flour. This flour is very finely ground from soft white wheat berries, unlike traditional whole wheat flour, which is ground from hard red wheat berries. The whole wheat pastry flour yields better results in baking than traditional whole wheat flour, though either can be used. Whole wheat flour has all kinds of fiber and nutrients that will keep your kids full and happy. I know grains aren’t always popular, but I think of them as a perfect whole food and we enjoy them!
How can I make pumpkin muffins sweeter?
If you want these to taste more like dessert, try adding in 1 cup of good chocolate chips. Pumpkin and chocolate are always a good idea in my book.
Should muffins cool in the pan?
Let muffins cool for a few minutes in the pan then carefully remove from pan to a wire cooling rack. Muffins that are cooled too long in the pan may become soggy.
How to Keep Muffins Moist Overnight?
After the muffins are cooled completely, transfer them to a ziploc bag or airtight container to keep them fresh.
These are great on the side of a soup or chili like these:
- Lentil chili
- ABC soup
- Instant Pot Vegetarian Chili
- Simple Cream of Tomato Soup
- Instant Pot Split Pea Soup
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
Vegan pumpkin muffins made with oats, real maple syrup and whole wheat flour are perfect for breakfast, snacks, or a dinner side!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/2 cup real maple syrup
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup milk of choice (I used almond milk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour or regular whole wheat flour
- 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats, plus more for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin well and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add the melted coconut oil, pure maple syrup, egg, pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla. Whisk to combine well. In a large bowl, add the soda, salt, cinnamon, flour, and oats. Stir to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Don’t over mix here.
- Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle with additional oats. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the muffins spring back when lightly touched. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then remove and allow them to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
Notes
If you want these to taste more like dessert, try adding in 1 cup of good chocolate chips. Pumpkin and chocolate are always a good idea in my book.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Calories: 177
- Sugar: 8.8g
- Sodium: 220.5mg
- Fat: 7.4g
- Carbohydrates: 24.9g
- Protein: 3.9g
- Cholesterol: 31mg
Like Muffins? Here are a few other recipes you’ll love:
- One Bowl Pumpkin Spice Muffins
- Healthy Apple Cinnamon Muffins (made in the blender!)
- Healthy Pumpkin Blender Muffins
- Maple Sweetened Healthy Banana Muffins (with or without chocolate chips)
- Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins
- Homemade Cornbread Muffins
- Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins
- Pineapple Zucchini Muffins
- Easy & Healthy Banana Muffins Made in the Blender
- Morning Glory Muffins
- Blueberry Lemon Muffins
I can’t wait for you to make these. Healthy Pumpkin Muffins made with oats, real maple syrup and whole wheat flour are perfect for breakfast, snacks, or a dinner side. Enjoy!
If I made these in a mini muffin tin, how would I adjust the bake time?
I’d start checking for doneness around 10 minutes
Very nice healthy pumpkin muffin recipe. Very moist and flavourful as the maple syrup does not mask the flavours like regular sugar. Did some adjustments……no coconut oil on hand so replaced with butter, used half whole wheat and half unbleached white (didn’t have the recommended whole wheat pastry flour and find regular whole wheat too dense), added 1/4 tsp baking powder, chopped dates and walnuts which blended wonderfully with the pumpkin flavour, and some ginger and nutmeg to some of the batch to give it a little more bling. Hubby loved these commenting how wholesome they tasted rather than empty regular muffins. Definitely a keeper recipe and would highly recommend to anyone. Definitely try the dates and walnuts for the added health benefits.
Ohhhh I love dates and walnuts, I’ll be trying that as soon as I make them again. Thank you for the tips and suggestions!
I made these for Thanksgiving today and we think they’re delicious. I did add some raisins as well as semi sweet chocolate chips since they were taking the place of pie this year. Not vegan but fine for vegetarians (me)and old fashioned carnivores (my husband).
Awesome! I was looking for a cupcake recipe for my daughter’s 1 year birthday in October, and thought pumpkin would be cool, and found this! Cannot WAIT to try it !!!
These will be perfect for a little one on their birthday! Congratulations!
Hello Melissa
Just thought you and your readers may wish to know that dates can be used to sweeten recipes instead of sugar. This recipe sounds really good and will try it soon.
I was pleasantly surprised by all the pumpkin recipes for ripe pumpkins, but my dilemma is that I have 11 pumpkins that were “gifted” to us by some stray pumpkin pips in the compost! Anyway, they were unable to ripen due to our weather turning rather foul with rain and threatening frost so they are sitting on my kitchen counter. I have not cooked any yet, but mentioned to hubby that as the stalks had dried on some that we would be having steamed pumpkin for dinner tonight…
That’s so fun! I hope that you find a way to use your volunteer pumpkins! I bet they’re fine, just less sweet.
My husband loves these! The flavor is good but very dense. Next time I would put 1 1/2 tsp baking soda to have a little rise and maybe another egg and a little more pumpkin pie spices. But they are great for my 1st thing-in-the-morning food with my Chai tea!
These were really good. I added 1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips. Very moist, but not squishy, just the right amount of sweetness. The oats give great texture. I used muffin liners and they pulled off perfectly. I’ll be keeping this recipe for sure!
I’m so glad that you liked them. I have another recipe on my site for healthy pumpkin muffins you make in the BLENDER! It’s a fun one to make with kids. Also delicious if you liked this one! Thank you for the great review, they are so welcome and helpful.
https://www.blessthismessplease.com/healthy-pumpkin-blender-muffins/
These were great! Nice and moist, with great flavor. Thanks for the recipe!
I added chocolate chips and substituted half the cinnamon for pumpkin spice and they came out amazing!
Sounds perfect!
Hi! I love reading your blog! I want to make these muffins – they sound great! I just have a couple of questions….the recipe directions don’t say when to add the vanilla extract or cinnamon. Am I just missing that? Also, 235 degrees seems like a weird temp to set the oven, Should that be 325? I’ve just never baked at that low a temp before, but maybe that’s what’s needed for these muffins? Thanks so much!
Gah, good thing you said something! It is indeed 325 and I have added where you add the cinnamon and vanilla. Mistakes are fixed. Enjoy the muffins and thanks for helping me out!
These look wonderful and I’m going to make them today! Do want to mention that these muffins are not vegan as they contain eggs – may want to make a fix. Doesn’t matter to me as we aren’t vegan anyway!
All fixed, thank you! I’m not sure how I missed that… definitely not vegan!