The Best Easy Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

I love most pumpkin flavored things but muffins and quick breads are amongst my all time favorites and even though I have a killer recipe for a copycat pumpkin spice coffeehouse bread, it’s a little more of a complicated recipe and I wanted a simpler one you could whip up in one bowl when the mood strikes. This one is it. It’s the only vegan pumpkin muffin recipe you’ll ever need.

This recipe has most of the standard ingredients you’ll find in most but there are a few exceptions. Vegan baking is tough because we need to replace dairy ingredients yes, but those are more easily swapped than eggs. I wanted to create a recipe with no special egg replacers and although pumpkin purée itself can often be used as a replacement it lacks one thing inherent in real eggs. Fat. The vegan recipes I’ve tried for pumpkin muffins simply using this as the substitute all lacked depth of flavor and the right texture. I’ve solved that by adding some vegan sour cream to the mix. This lends moisture, flavor and helps the overall texture of the finished bake.

The main difference between my recipe and others is also my mixing method. I’m using the reverse creaming technique I’ve used in a lot of my other recipes and there’s a few reasons for this. Without getting too technical, we’re adding the fat to the dry ingredients first which is going to coat them preventing the moisture from the wet ingredients from forming gluten which is great for bread but not for cakes or quick breads. The dry ingredients once properly mixed with the oil and sour cream should look almost like a crumb topping mixture (see example pic above) and once the wet are mixed in it will smooth out to a regular looking batter. The other advantage of this method is that once the dry ingredients are properly coated, you can’t over-mix the batter. This is great because one of the main issues with quick breads and muffins in general is that just the slightest over mixing of the batter results in a tough baked product. Reverse creaming also provides a better texture overall and better rise. These muffins even stay moist days after baking and don’t dry out. They’re perfection.

Let’s talk spices. I prefer to add my own to control the overall taste but some like to use a premixed pumpkin spice blend. You certainly can use one just substitute one tablespoon for the spices I’ve used but I really believe it will taste better by adding them separately.

So why add cornstarch? The answer is that it lightens the flour to almost make it like we’re using cake flour and provides a bit of a binder as well. If you’re allergic, you could also use arrowroot powder.

I sprinkled my muffins with plain vegan cane sugar for a crusty topping. I tried using cinnamon sugar and although it tasted great, it made it look like the top of the muffins had burned so I don’t recommend it. You could also add nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruits like cranberries or raisins if you’d like. These are great warm with vegan butter. I hope you enjoy this recipe as it was a labor of love for me and signals the start of fall but are really great any time of year.

The Best Easy Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

Recipe by Kreg

4.8 from 11 votes

Cuisine: Dessert, breakfast, seasonalDifficulty: Easy

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

25

minutes

Hands down the best vegan pumpkin muffins you’ll ever make!

Ingredients

• Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

• 3/4 cup vegan cane sugar (plus more for sprinkling)

• 1/2 cup light brown sugar

• Wet Ingredients to mix into dry

• 1/2 cup plain vegetable oil

• 1/2 cup vegan sour cream

• Remaining Wet Ingredients

• 1 15 oz can of pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie mix)

• 1/2 cup room temperature water

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare a 12 cup standard muffin pan by greasing it with spray or vegan butter or use paper cup liners.
• In a large mixing bowl add all of the dry ingredients and whisk together to remove and large lumps. Add the oil and vegan sour cream and using a rubber spatula or spoon mix together until all of the dry ingredients are coated. The mixture should look like a crumb topping mixture and there should not be large areas of flour not mixed in so make sure there’s no streaks of flour left at the bottom of the bowl.
• Add the remaining wet ingredients (canned pumpkin, water and vanilla) and using a whisk or spoon, fully mix them well until a smooth batter is formed. You can’t over-mix the batter now as we’ve protected it with fat from forming gluten so whisk or stir well until fully blended.
• Using a large scoop or spoon, fill each muffin cup almost to the top (about 3/4 full) and give the pan a good rap on the counter a few times to level out the tops of the batter. They should be pretty much flat. Sprinkle sugar over the top if desired and bake for 25-27 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Every oven varies (I use a convection oven) so watch carefully but they could take a bit longer to bake if not using convection. Cool slightly then enjoy! These can be frozen or refrigerated.

Recipe Video

Notes

• Make sure to use plain pumpkin purée not canned pumpkin pie filling as that’s sweetened.
  
• I use Crystal Diamond kosher salt which is softer in flavor so if using a more aggressive salt, you can reduce the amount to just one teaspoon. Salt adds flavor to baked goods and is needed. I found 1 1/2 teaspoons to be the right amount.
  
• Use your favorite vegan sour cream. I used Tofutti brand.

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