Soft Pumpkin Muffins

This is a very simple, easy recipe for pumpkin muffins. Nothing crazy fancy here! This is just one of those recipes that I make pretty much every year around this time, and I realized I’ve never shared it on the blog before.

These pumpkin muffins are super soft and springy. The perfect little morning or afternoon treat with coffee!

I like to add mini chocolate chips to this pumpkin muffin recipe, and you’ll see that in the recipe card below. But it’s optional, as these are delicious without the chocolate chips too. Other than the pumpkin puree, the other thing that makes these muffins so soft is the sour cream, which you could swap out for Greek yogurt, too.

Sometimes I bake these as mini muffins and sometimes the regular standard size as well, so I’ve added both baking time suggestions to the recipe card. I also prefer to bake these without liners, as for whatever reason, these soft pumpkin muffins tend to stick to liners more than the average muffin recipe.

Just use a generous amount of nonstick spray on your muffin pan and you won’t need to use liners. My favorite is PAM baking spray with flour.

You will also notice there is pumpkin puree in this recipe. Pumpkin puree is different from pumpkin pie mix.

Pumpkin puree should have only one ingredient (pumpkin) while pumpkin pie mix is made of multiple ingredients and usually has instructions on the can to add a few ingredients (like eggs and evaporated milk) to make pumpkin pie.

Think of pumpkin pie mix as one of those baking mix boxes, like a brownie mix box, while pumpkin puree is like buying cocoa (just one ingredient—not a mix).

I love these simple, soft pumpkin muffins. Like I said, this is a recipe I make over and over again, so I hope you enjoy it as much as me! Happy baking. xo. Emma

Soft Pumpkin Muffins

simple, soft pumpkin muffins with mini chocolate chips

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes

Total Time 23 minutes

Servings 18 muffins

Author Emma Chapman

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon ginger
• ⅛ teaspoon cloves
• ¾ cup granulated white sugar
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup oil
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 10 ounces mini chocolate chips optional

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Set aside.

2. In another bowl, stir together the white sugar, brown sugar, oil, sour cream, eggs, and pumpkin puree.

3. Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry until a wet batter forms. Stir in the chocolate chips if using.

4. Bake at 350°F in prepared (sprayed well with nonstick spray) muffin pan.

5. For standard size muffins, bake for 18 minutes. This recipe will yield around 18 muffins.

6. For mini muffins, bake for 13-14 minutes. This recipe will yield around 48 mini muffins.

Recipe Notes

You can use any oil in this recipe, but I prefer ones that don’t have a strong taste, like canola or vegetable. 

You can substitute the sour cream for Greek yogurt.

Use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix.

You can substitute the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove mixture for pumpkin pie spice. Just use 1 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. 

If you choose not to use mini chocolate chips, you can add something else like chopped walnuts. But this is also optional.

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman.