Best Pumpkin Muffin Bake Off

Searching for the best pumpkin muffin recipe? We tested 9 popular pumpkin spice muffin recipes in search of the best!

Although I’ve already conducted a pumpkin bread bake off, pumpkin muffins somehow felt slightly different to me. (And to be totally transparent, I also wanted an excuse to use my jumbo 24-cup muffin tins again.) Even though you can technically modify any pumpkin bread recipe into muffins, I was curious if testing muffins would result in different textures, muffin top rises or flavors than pumpkin bread.

So let’s dive in!

Bake off Methodology

• 58 total tasters tasted samples of all 9 muffins
• Each taster ranked each muffin on a scale from 0-10 for flavor, texture and overall as a whole (data is shown under the Results section below)
• All recipes were baked the day of tasting
• Ingredients were measured by weight according to King Arthur (unless the recipe specified weights)
• Recipes were baked in nonstick muffin pans (I occasionally used muffin wrappers for insurance against sticking)

Ingredient brands I used

• Gold Medal bleached all-purpose flour
• Trader Joe’s unsalted butter
• Trader Joe’s virgin coconut oil
• Daisy sour cream
• Libby’s pumpkin puree
• Kirkland vanilla extract
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt
• Imperial granulated and brown sugar

Results of the Pumpkin Muffin Bake Off

After analyzing the data from 58 tasters, results of the crowd rankings are below!

Krolls Korner, with its instant vanilla pudding and cinnamon sugar topping, was the crowd favorite! Closely followed by Joy the Baker, a brown butter and oil-based pumpkin muffin, and then Lovely Little Kitchen, which was The Kitchen’s pumpkin muffin showdown winner (always nice to see some consistency across recipe comparisons).

Apologies to Nora Cooks–baker’s error probably occurred with this recipe, so definitely take Nora’s rating with a huge grain of salt. I will also note that it’s very difficult for vegan/gluten-free recipes to compare against conventional recipes.

As always, I recommend reading through the entire blog post to decide which sounds best to you. I truly believe all of these recipes are delicious and would be someone’s ideal muffin. My overall recommendations are outlined at the bottom of the post!

Factors

Fat: oil and butter reign supreme

In this bake off, the fats included creamed butter, melted butter, brown butter, oil, butter and oil, and coconut oil. In almost every bake off, I feel like I mention the flavor and texture supremacy of using oil and butter. But in this bake off, I actually expected an oil-based muffin to win both for the moisture edge and because I didn’t think the butter flavor would matter so much in a spiced bake.

Instead, the muffins that took the top two spots both used a combination of butter and oil! (Krolls Korner and Joy the Baker.) I think both recipes had a tiny bit of an unfair advantage with sugar toppings (no other muffin had a topping). There were other confounding factors–Joy uses brown butter and Krolls uses instant vanilla pudding. But overall, I think this illustrates the strength of butter and oil even in a bake like pumpkin muffins.

It’s also interesting to note that Lovely Little Kitchen took third place using coconut oil. While some people were quite sensitive to the virgin coconut oil I used, I actually didn’t pick up on a difference in flavor. I think the success here was mostly based on the overall ingredient ratios rather than the coconut oil. (If you’re sensitive to coconut flavor, try refined coconut oil for no coconut flavor.)

Lastly, Alison Roman/New York Times took fourth place with a base of brown butter. It seems clear in retrospect that brown butter and pumpkin are a match made in heaven.

Spices

When I’m picking recipes for the bake offs, I’m usually looking at the overall ratios of each recipe. The spices comprise such a small fraction of the recipe that I don’t pay much attention when selecting recipes–but they obviously make a huge difference in flavor.

Handle the Heat is an example of a recipe that I think received lower scores because of the less-preferred spice mixture. With a relatively heavy amount of nutmeg and cloves, many commented that this recipe felt more holiday-ish than they wanted for a pumpkin muffin. (Note: not a spice, but the molasses in Flour Bakery’s muffin also lent it a darker spiced profile that most also didn’t prefer in a pumpkin muffin.)

Meanwhile, the recipes that were higher rated tended to go lighter on the spices (and coincidentally or not, often included vanilla). Generally tasters preferred spice mixes that had a heavier amount of cinnamon (around ~2 tsp) and a smaller amount of other spices (~1/2 tsp or less of ginger and ~1/4 tsp of cloves/nutmeg).

Sweeteners

Most recipes simply used brown sugar, white sugar, or a mix of both. Flour Bakery used an interesting mix of white sugar with 3 additional tablespoons of molasses. Combining these two is essentially like making a DIY brown sugar. However, the molasses ended up imparting a much stronger earthy flavor than typical brown sugar that most tasters didn’t prefer.

I was curious to see how the mix of maple syrup and brown sugar would fare in Alison Roman’s recipe. Ultimately, I think the maple syrup worked well to provide extra moisture that gets lost with browning butter. These muffins had a super fluffy yet distinct crumb structure that didn’t feel that different from several others.

Instant pudding

While I was skeptical about adding instant vanilla pudding mix to a pumpkin muffin, Krolls Korner took top honors with this special ingredient! Instant pudding is essentially sugar and cornstarch. While we could probably reverse engineer a from-scratch formula, instant pudding is an effective shortcut to adding moisture and achieve a soft crumb with the added sugar and starch.

I felt the instant pudding added a bit of an artificial vanilla aftertaste, but this didn’t seem to bother most tasters.

Added liquid

Unlike in a cake recipe, some of these recipes didn’t call for any added liquid–probably because the pumpkin adds so much moisture. Krolls Korner adds extra liquid in the form of extra eggs while Joy the Baker and Butternut Bakery use just a bit of sour cream. Handle the Heat and Flour Bakery had the highest ratios of added liquid (3/4 cup of buttermilk and orange juice, respectively), and it didn’t seem to do any favors for the crumb. Nora Cooks adds 1/2 cup of plant-based milk in lieu of any eggs.

Overall, my takeaway is that added dairy or liquid (milk, sour cream, buttermilk, orange juice) doesn’t seem to be a key factor in pumpkin muffins. Given the moisture already coming from the pumpkin, the type and proportion of fat and sugar are more important.

Analysis of the Best Pumpkin Muffin Recipes

*Probable baker’s error* Nora Cooks: simple, pumpkin-forward muffins with a slightly gummy texture

While I learned long ago that vegan and gluten-free variations often fare poorly compared to conventional bakes, I was curious to see if eggless muffins could perform well in this bake off. Nora’s recipe is very straightforward with melted vegan butter or oil (I used the former), plant-based milk and brown sugar. This is an easy one-bowl recipe that simply requires mixing the wet, then folding in the dry.

Unfortunately, I definitely think baker’s error occurred here–although after reviewing the recipe multiple times, I’m not sure where I went wrong. These muffins turned out with a really moist top and slightly gummy texture. Assuming that I made an error somewhere, I don’t want to spend too much time commenting on the texture. But the flavor was enjoyable with a very prominent and pure pumpkin flavor. The sweetness felt slightly one-note compared to others, but the spice mix felt warming and appropriate for a pumpkin muffin.

Based on the reviews, people seem to love this recipe–definitely give it a try if you need a vegan or plant-based muffin recipe!

Taster comments:

• This one was very good as a pumpkin purist! It had a very pure pumpkin flavor and texture – Not as pumpkin spice/spiced flavor or sweet. It was very bouncy and moist.
• I commend this sample for being the most pumpkin-flavored of the bunch! I wasn’t really a fan of the squashy, vegetal flavor — especially when paired with the slightly stodgy, gummy texture
• Tastes very similar to pumpkin pie, texture is almost like a pumpkin pie.
• Flavor is so pumpkin, I feel like there was fresh pumpkin. Unfortunately the texture was quite dense and gummy which made it unpleasant
• Texture was amazing. So moist it’s almost doughy. Still needs something more flavor wise–it’s missing something
• Liked this one the least. The top was mushy and the inside was a little gummy to point of seeming underbaked – not my ideal texture for a muffin. Flavor-wise, the pumpkin and spices came through but was overshadowed by the bad texture for me.

Flour Bakery: earthy, molasses-spiked pumpkin muffins with an open, slightly drier crumb

As the winner of the bran muffin bake off, Flour Bakery was looking promising for its pumpkin muffin. The butter-based muffins use a simple spice mix of cinnamon and cloves along with orange juice for moisture. Instead of brown sugar, the recipe calls for a combination of white sugar and molasses. This was the only recipe that called for creaming the butter. Note: I omitted the candied pepita topping for consistency. I also split the recipe into 24 muffins instead of 12, which resulted in more conventionally-sized rather than oversized muffins.

First, I’d like to commend the accuracy of the recipe steps. It notes that the mixture will look curdled when you add the orange juice and pumpkin, but that it’ll come together. And it does! This is a great make-ahead recipe as you can refrigerate the batter for up to 2 days (though I made it same day).

Overall, the texture of this muffin felt just a hair drier relative to the others, similar to how a butter-based cake will feel drier than an oil-based cake. It had a slightly spongy but firmer texture on day 1 that relaxed into a more open, soft crumb on day 2. I actually kind of like a drier muffin texture sometimes, so that wasn’t a huge turn off personally–but most preferred a more moist texture. Flavor-wise, I didn’t prefer the strong overtones of molasses. The flavor felt almost more gingerbread-y than pumpkin. But if you love molasses, definitely give these a try!

Taster comments:

• So fluffy! Good pumpkin spice flavor. Would like it to be a little more moist
• I like that this one felt less sweet. The molasses flavor really came through, but in a way that overpowers the pumpkin. It feels more like a gingerbread muffin than pumpkin
• The flavor is spicier than what I would expect for a pumpkin muffin and the texture is leaning on the dry side
• I’m learning how vastly different pumpkin muffins can taste!! This one has a strange fruity sweetness to it that I don’t love – not sure if it’s syrup, molasses, applesauce or something else.
• Super dense and left my mouth a bit dry! Tasted almost too much like a can of pumpkin with little sweetness.
• Nothing to write home about. Felt like it had the least amount of pumpkin flavor so far. I also feel like I tasted a floral flavor that wasn’t in the others.

Handle the Heat: deeply spiced, slightly dense pumpkin muffins

This recipe is very similar to both Sally’s Baking Addiction and Lovely Little Kitchen with just a few differences. Tessa uses just a cup of pumpkin instead of a whole can, less egg, more buttermilk and baking powder instead of baking soda. There is a generous amount of ginger, nutmeg and cloves (a 1:1:1 ratio), which felt unusually high on the nutmeg and cloves. I was curious to see how a full 3/4 cup of buttermilk would affect both the texture and flavor. Note: I omitted the streusel topping for consistency.

My immediate impression of these muffins was how powerful the spice mix was. These were probably the most spiced muffins of the bunch–you can definitely taste the cloves and nutmeg. There might have been a slight tang from the buttermilk, but I couldn’t really detect it under all the spices. The texture felt slightly more dense and a bit drier than the others (not dry, but on the drier end of the spectrum). It has what feels like a fairly standard spongy muffin crumb, not overly fluffy or cakey. Overall, I’d pull back on the nutmeg and cloves next time to let the pumpkin shine a bit more.

Taster comments:

• Super moist! Love the texture. I don’t really get pumpkin flavor, but get an overwhelming spice flavor – not sure if it’s allspice or nutmeg. It reminds me more of just a holiday spice cake as opposed to pumpkin. Overall, I do like the muffin though!
• Loved the spongy/bouncy texture, vanilla forward flavor with strong cloves
• This was the best smelling one! It tasted like Dutch honey cake and had a nice spice balance. The texture was a little dense, but it melted in your mouth.
• Great open crumb on this one. The taste feels like one spice, maybe nutmeg, is a little too overpowering – I think the spices could be more balanced
• It is extremely nutmeg (or some other spice) heavy that dominates the flavor and makes it bitter. it doesn’t feel sweet – it just feels like that one spice. Nice crumb – more bouncy than moist
• Came off as spongey, a bit stodgy/not a nice fluffy or moist texture. On the more spicy side but the flavors feel balanced.

Sally’s Baking Addiction: quintessential muffins that aren’t too sweet or pumpkin-forward

Sally’s recipe is very similar to Lovely Little Kitchen but it uses almost half the amount of sugar and adds 1/4 cup milk. I was mainly interested in testing this to see if the reduced amount of sugar would yield an equally good, if not better muffin. This was one of two recipes to use 1.5 cups of pumpkin (about 100g less than a standard 15oz can of pumpkin). It’s a simple almost one-bowl recipe, and Sally uses the high/low baking method to give these muffins extra lift.

This was a really enjoyable muffin texture to me. Soft, moist and a little dense and springy–exactly what I’d expect from a muffin rather than a pumpkin cake. The pumpkin flavor felt a little more subtle than I wanted, but not because it was obscured by the spices. In fact, the mixture of pumpkin pie spice and ground ginger also felt fairly subtle, though balanced. While it didn’t stand out to me in the crowd, this is definitely a solid muffin, and easy to make!

Taster comments:

• This was the best flavor of the nine samples for me, the texture was pretty good, not quite as good as some of the others, but was soft and moist, the spice:pumpkin ratio was perfect, a basic muffin, but one I would go back to time and time again — my overall favorite of the bunch
• Very moist! On the verge of too moist, but loved the texture. Good combination of spices – tastes like fall!
• Texture was very tender with a good bit of bounce. The flavor was very pumpkin forward with no weird aftertaste. Nice hint of spices too!
• This felt like one of the less spice-forward ones, and in general, the flavor isn’t especially interesting. But there’s a spring to the texture that I really enjoy. It almost strikes me as the kind of texture I’d expect in an eggy cake/bread, like a sponge bread.
• Still kind of bland and tastes like [Handle the Heat] but more spice forward. Not much distinct flavor but tasted good. Texture was bouncy and a little breadier.
• Spongey texture. Good simple taste, but I feel like this would go best with walnuts or chocolate. Some variety in the texture to offset how simple it is.

Butternut Bakery: fluffy, oversized, pumpkin-forward muffins with light spice

Jenna was the winner of the chocolate chip muffin bake off, so I also had high hopes for this muffin. The recipe has all the indicators of a good muffin: oil, a mix of brown and white sugar and sour cream for moisture. These are designed to be pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (I omitted the chocolate chips for consistency), so perhaps this wasn’t the fairest comparison–but more on that later. This is written as a true one-bowl recipe, which I loved–super easy to make!

These muffins came out with the most beautiful orange color and generous domes. I loved the very soft, cakey texture–these were almost squishy-moist yet fluffy. The most common taster complaint was that this tasted like pure pumpkin (with a hint of vanilla) and most wanted more spice.

Jenna specifically notes in her recipe that she doesn’t prefer mixing chocolate and pumpkin spice (but gives an option for adding pumpkin pie spice, which I added). While I would have enjoyed a bit more spice, I actually liked the vanilla-scented pumpkin purity. I can see how the base would be greatly elevated with chocolate chips. Some thought these were too sweet, but I (as a cake lover) liked the overall sweetness level.

My conclusion is you should either make these as written as pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (I think they’d be STUNNING), or try them with a heavier spice mixture. My recommendation would be try the spice mix from Lovely Little Kitchen (2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp each nutmeg and cloves).

Taster comments:

• Flavor is great, I can actually taste the pumpkin. Muffin is moist and has a nice fluffy texture. Not very sweet too. Would love more pumpkin spice
• Texture was like cake and it tasted like a vanilla cake. Not a lot of pumpkin or spices going on but very tender!
• It tasted the most pumpkin-y thus far, the texture was a little pasty
• Slightly sticky texture, really moist, pretty mild pleasant flavor and texture. Could use more cinnamon and salt.
• Okay, maybe I don’t love a muffin with full pumpkin flavor and no spice? That’s what this muffin tastes like. Straight squash with no warming spices.
• This sample had a nice, light texture but was not flavorful. It was moist but overly sweet, with no spice or pumpkin flavor.
• Blindly, this could have been a vanilla cupcake — very sweet, not a lot of spice, almost feels like it was butternut squash as opposed to pumpkin. Texture was moist and fluffy.

Alison Roman/New York Times: fluffy, ginger-y, lightly sweet pumpkin muffins

I was excited to test this recipe due to a few standout factors. This was one of two recipes to use brown butter, and it was the only recipe that uses maple syrup in addition to brown sugar. There’s also the unusual addition of turmeric in the spice mix (for color rather than flavor). Like Sally’s Baking Addiction, this uses most, but not all of a standard 15oz can of pumpkin (1.5 cups of puree). I was curious to see how the liquid sweetener in the batter would fare. It actually makes a lot of sense in this recipe since browning butter decreases some of the moisture, but using a liquid sweetener adds some back.

These muffins were very similar in appearance to Butternut Bakery with huge domed tops. These had a similarly fluffy crumb, though this muffin is a tad drier and had a more distinct crumb structure vs. the VERY moist and almost mushier texture of Butternut Bakery. I liked the toasty brown butter notes in this muffin, though I found the butter flavor a little overwhelming after a couple days. There was something about the spice mix that I didn’t love as much as the others, and I think it was the amount of ginger (might cut it to 1/2 tsp for my personal palate). But overall, a really strong muffin that I feel would be crowd-pleasing in almost any scenario.

Taster comments:

• Overall great–best one so far! Love the pumpkin and cinnamon flavors, perfect density.
• This one has nice big/plump muffin top. It had a good balance of pumpkin and other spices flavors. It tastes like what you think of when you think of pumpkin bread.
• Perfect fluffy muffin texture – not too heavy. Flavor is underwhelming would like more cinnamon.
• Was drier than the others but that is what I enjoy personally. The flavor was the best out of the first 5
• Spicy! Love! Fav flavor so far. Felt like it was lacking moisture but loved that it was risen so nicely. Good size muffin top.
• Texture feels a little drier than the others. Love the taste of this – feels like a great balance between the pumpkin and spices. A great classic muffin
• This is the driest muffin of them all, but not so dry that it’s inedible. The flavor is there, but subtle in both pumpkin and spice. However, this is also definitely the sweetest muffin, leaving a cloyingly sweet aftertaste that I didn’t love.

Lovely Little Kitchen: a plush, sweet, well-balanced and spiced pumpkin muffin

As the winner of The Kitchn’s pumpkin muffin showdown, I was determined to test these even though they’re quite similar to Sally’s popular recipe. The main difference? This recipe uses double the amount of sugar, coconut oil instead of vegetable oil, and a full can of pumpkin. Julie also bakes the muffins at a steady 375 degrees rather than dropping from 425 to 350.

It was so hard for me to choose a favorite among this bake off, but I kept returning to this muffin to take another bite. Both the texture and flavor felt like the perfect quintessential pumpkin muffin. The crumb is close and soft, but not mushy. The flavor is perfectly sweet and feels balanced in terms of the spices. A higher proportion of sugar also contributes to moisture and tenderness, and I definitely preferred both the texture and flavor of this muffin compared to the lower sugar in Sally’s recipe.

The only downside–a few tasters were more sensitive to the coconut oil. I think you could easily use a different oil if you’re sensitive to coconut (or just use a refined coconut oil). It’s easy to see how this moist and flavorful muffin won The Kitchn’s comparison! One of my favorites.

Taster comments:

• This feels almost perfect! Moist and light texture. The taste here feels unique – I like the possible addition of different spices.
• Almost tied with [Krolls Korner] for texture, but this one got the edge on it just a little bit. If I could rate this texture 9.5 I would. A little bit more spice would be nice, but honestly close to perfect.
• Very nice and unique flavors. We kept guessing if it has pineapple, cloves, anise, molasses because it wasn’t your usual pumpkin pie/bread spices. Texture was nice too.
• This had the deepest color of all the samples, which affirmed the rich, molasses-y flavor. I thought this one had a nice spice level and a moist texture.
• Immediately like this flavor the best, texture is a little soft and tacky.
• Would be yummy with something dairy forward to moisten it up and take the coconut down a level.
• Very strong coconut taste which overpowered the pumpkin

Joy the Baker: caramelized pumpkin sweetness with a soft but distinct crumb texture

This was one of two recipes that used a mix of butter and oil, and also one of two recipes that uses brown butter. With a cup of sugar, this had a relatively lower ratio of sugar, but uses a full can of pumpkin. Joy adds a bit of sour cream for moisture and has the unusual addition of coriander in the spice mix. These muffins get topped with turbinado sugar before baking for a delightful crunch.

While I do think the sugar top gave this a slight edge over the others, I also think this muffin had one of the best flavors. The toastiness of the brown butter really enhances the light amount of spices for a subtle but appropriately pumpkin-y flavor. Like other butter-based muffins, this had a distinct crumb structure that also achieves the soft fluffiness of those made with oil. Similarly to Alison Roman, this muffin felt like it was walking the line of a slightly drier texture, but I really enjoyed it. If you find most pumpkin muffins too moist, squishy, or not complex enough flavor-wise, definitely give this a try. Another one of my favorites!

Taster comments:

• I liked everything about 9. By far my favorite, loved the cinnamon sugar crunch, and the spices.
• Not sure why this is such a clear winner, would eat it all, texture is light but moist, buttery, satisfying. What I’d want from a bakery
• Great texture and crumb, more typically muffin-y but with sneaky moistness that I liked. Flavor wasn’t as pumpkiny as I wanted it to be
• Best texture of them all, moist but not too moist! Good flavor as well, but [Krolls Korner] still has the best flavor. I liked the sugar on top.
• I do love a crunchy sugar top!! This one wasn’t overly spicy and leaned towards buttery with a nice, moist texture.
• Texture is a little too soft. I liked the sweetness level and thought it was balanced well with the spice level – can kind of taste the brown butter
• Good texture but it was hard to tell that it was pumpkin. Still tasted good!

Krolls Korner: a super plush and fluffy muffin with strong vanilla undertones

This was the second recipe (besides Joy the Baker) to uses a mix of butter and oil. With a whopping 5 eggs, this is actually Tawnie’s recipe for pumpkin bread, but transformed into muffins (I omitted the cream cheese filling for consistency). The secret ingredient in this recipe? Instant vanilla pudding mix! (This felt very reminiscent of the lemon loaf bake off, where the winning recipe used instant lemon pudding mix.) Note: I topped this with the optional cinnamon sugar mixture before baking.

Once again, I think the cinnamon sugar topping might have given these muffins a slight edge–but they’re still undeniably delicious. The texture is among the most soft and plush with a texture that feels like a hybrid of Butternut Bakery’s squishiness and Alison Roman’s fluffiness. The simple, restrained mix of cinnamon and nutmeg in the muffin base allows the vanilla flavor (from both extract and pudding mix) to shine with the pumpkin.

While the muffin itself is not overly spiced, I think the cinnamon sugar topping helps convey more spice notes. (Note: the cinnamon sugar topping did get slightly tacky/gummy as it sat overnight, so beware if you make these muffins far in advance.) Most critiques revolved around the muffin being a bit too sweet and wishing there was more spice (I might just increase the cinnamon to 2 tsp next time). So plush and delicious–these were the crowd favorite!

Taster comments:

• This one was my favorite! Good texture and a good pumpkin and cinnamon flavor. Just really really good!
• Wow so freaking delicious!! Super caramelized and the texture was like a pillow. Really lovely pumpkin flavor and the moistest one yet!
• I knew from my first glance at the sugary top that I’d like this one, and I was right! This sample had a nice spice balance with a plush, velvety texture. The addition of the crunchy sugar crust set this one over the top for me!
• This was one of my favorites from the first round of tasting and reaffirmed when I went back. It has a moist but not soft or gummy texture. It’s sweet with a good blend of spices, almost caramel taste. I like the sugar topping.
• Like the cinnamon sugar on top! A little gummy in texture but still overall enjoyable
• The sweetness here tastes more like a pumpkin cake than a muffin. I wish the sugar was turned down a notch with spices turned up a bit. Really enjoy the addition of the sugar on top for some crunch and adds some nice pizzaz
• Loved the texture, wish it had more depth of flavor. Mostly tasted like sugar