These vegan pumpkin muffins are just as good (if not better) than freshly baked muffins from your local bakery.
They have the most amazing tender crumb and are moist and fluffy. They taste like a hug in a muffin basically and go so well with a cup of tea or coffee whether as a snack, for breakfast, or brunch.
Just like my vegan pumpkin bread and pumpkin cupcakes, these muffins are a must for your fall baking list.

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💭 What To Expect From This Recipe
- Moist and flavorful: These muffins are bursting to the brim with fall flavor. From the pumpkin spices like cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves to the streusel topping and maple icing.
- Fluffy and tender: They are incredibly soft and fluffy. With a slight crunch from the streusel and gooeyness from the maple glaze, all the textures come together to create an incredible vegan muffin.
- Easy to make: With just 15 minutes of hands-on prep, and minimal equipment, these pumpkin muffins are quick and easy to whip up. They're also ready to eat in less than an hour, so are great if you're expecting some last-minute guests!
- Eggless and dairy-free, and because they use almond butter in place of oil, you can make them without added oil by omitting the streusel topping.
🎃 Ingredients Needed
Here's everything you need to make this vegan pumpkin muffin recipe from scratch. You'll also need some lemon juice and organic powdered sugar for the maple glaze.
If you love vegan pumpkin desserts check out my pumpkin crumble pie, pumpkin cupcakes, and pumpkin creme brulee!
Notes about the ingredients
- Pumpkin puree, canned pumpkin but not NOT pumpkin pie filling as this contains sugars and other additives. Canned pumpkin will give the best results, as fresh cooked pumpkin can be a little on the watery side.
- I like to use soy milk as it works best for homemade vegan buttermilk. This becomes the base of the vegan “buttermilk” when mixed with apple cider vinegar and gives eggless pumpkin muffins a nice fluffy rise.
- You really won't miss the oil in these muffins as smooth almond butter adds fat and richness to the batter. You can also use runny cashew butter or sunflower seed butter, peanut butter will add a stronger taste.
- Soft brown sugar is the best way to sweeten these muffins as it keeps them lovely and moist. If you want to use less refined sugar, you can also use coconut sugar like in my pumpkin cupcake recipe, but soft brown works best for these muffins!
- Baking powder and baking soda work in tandem as the leavening agents for these vegan pumpkin spice muffins. They produce carbon dioxide bubbles which form air bubbles in the muffins as they bake.
🥣 How To Make Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
(Full ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post)
(1) For the streusel topping, add the all-purpose flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon to a mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Add the butter cubes and use the tips of your fingers to rub the vegan butter into the flour mix until you have a crumble consistency.
(2) Add the wet ingredients to a medium bowl and whisk (that's the buttermilk, pumpkin puree, almond butter, maple syrup, and vanilla extract).
(3) To a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (brown sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, milled flaxseeds, sea salt, and pumpkin spice mix).
(4) Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk to combine, being careful not to overmix.
(5) Use an ice cream scoop to divide the muffin batter between the muffin liners. Make sure you don't fill them more than ¾ ways. The recipe is enough for 10 tulip muffin liners (as pictured) or 12 regular muffin liners.
(6) Sprinkle the muffins with some of the streusel topping before baking.
(7) Once ready, allow the muffins to cool completely to room temperature.
(8) Drizzle with some maple icing and enjoy!
👩🍳 Expert Tips
- If your almond butter is on the thicker side, simply place the jar into a saucepan of gently simmering water for a minute or two and give it a stir. You can also warm it over a double-boiler.
- If you measure in cups instead of grams, be sure to use the “spoon and sweep method”, use a spoon to fill your measuring cup, and then sweep it to level it off. You can read a full blog post on thespruceeats.com on how to measure flour. Too much flour will result in dry muffins!
- Make your own pumpkin pie spice mix by whisking together 2½ tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp allspice, ½ tsp nutmeg, and ¼ tsp ground cloves.
- Another delicious way to top these muffins is by adding a drizzle of pure maple syrup and some chopped pecans or walnuts before serving.
- To make vegan chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, simply fold half a cup of vegan chocolate chips through the batter, and add extra on top before baking.
💬 FAQs
These pumpkin muffins will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days, or refrigerated for up to a week.
Either way, make sure that you wrap them in foil or store them in an airtight container.
You can enjoy the muffins while they are still warm after about 15 minutes of cooling.
As with all vegan muffin recipes, I recommend leaving them in the muffin tin for 5 minutes after baking. After that carefully remove or turn them out onto a wire rack.
Do not leave them in the muffin pan for longer than 5 minutes as condensation will build up underneath the liners causing the muffins to turn soggy!
Pierce the center of a muffin with a toothpick or skewer, it should come out almost clean but a few visible crumbs are fine.
Yes, you can freeze them in an airtight container and defrost them for a couple of hours before serving.
🍂 More Vegan Fall Recipes
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star ★★★★★ rating in the recipe card below and consider leaving a comment as well, thanks!
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Description
Equipment
Ingredients
Streusel Topping (optional)
- 50 g plain flour
- 30 g soft brown sugar, or coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon, or pumpkin spice mix
- 30 g vegan butter, room temperature
Muffins
- 236 ml soy milk, *see notes
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 300 g pumpkin puree, NOT pumpkin pie filling
- 160 g runny almond butter, *see notes
- 100 ml pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 140 g soft brown sugar, or coconut sugar
- 240 g plain flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon milled flaxseeds
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 ½ tablespoons pumpkin spice mix, *see notes
Maple icing (optional)
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- 4-6 tablespoons powdered sugar (icing sugar), *see notes
Instructions
Preparation
- Preheat your oven to 175°C (347°F) and line a muffin tray with 10-12 muffin liners. If using tulip muffin cases (like in the images) you will get 10 and if they are shorter you will get 12.
Streusel Topping
- To a medium bowl, add the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon and whisk to combine. Add the butter cubes and use the tips of your fingers to rub the butter into the flour mix. You'll be left with a crumble consistency. Set aside.
Muffins
- To make the vegan "buttermilk" add the soy milk and apple cider vinegar to a medium bowl, stir and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- Add the buttermilk, pumpkin puree, almond butter, maple syrup, and vanilla extract to a medium bowl and whisk to combine.
- To a separate large bowl, add the brown sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, milled flaxseeds, sea salt, and pumpkin spice mix. Whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and whisk to combine, be careful not to overmix.
- Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, distribute the batter amongst the muffin liners. Crumble some streusel topping on top of each muffin.
- Bake for 22-24 minutes. Check they are done by piercing them with a toothpick or a knife, the knife should come out almost clean- a few crumbs are fine. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool further for 30 minutes.
Maple Icing
- Mix together the maple syrup, lemon juice, and powdered sugar until smooth. You can add more or less sugar depending on whether you want it runny or thicker. Drizzle the maple icing on top of the muffins.
Storage
- Place the muffins in an airtight container and store them at room temperature for up to a week. You can freeze them in an airtight container and defrost them for a couple of hours before serving. You can also gently warm the muffins in the oven to get them back to tasting like they're been freshly baked!
Notes
- Soy milk works best for fluffy muffins, but you can swap it for almond milk or oat milk. Learn more in my vegan buttermilk post.
- You can sub almond butter for cashew butter or sunflower seed butter. Peanut butter can also be used, but it will have a stronger flavor.
- This recipe calls for runny nut butter. If on the thicker side, simply heat the nut butter over a double-boiler and stir to melt and thin it out.
- To make pumpkin spice mix: Mix together 2½ tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp allspice, ½ tsp nutmeg, and ¼ tsp ground cloves.
- Some white sugar in the US is not vegan, if in doubt use organic sugar.
Nutrition
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