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These moist and tender gluten free pumpkin muffins are made with simple pumpkin puree, plenty of pumpkin pie spice, a few chocolate chips, and a crispy crumble topping.
The secret to tall muffins is baking them first at a high temperature before turning the oven down and letting your pumpkin muffins bake all the way through. They look like they came from your favorite bakery!
Why this recipe works
It's easy to make: mix up the 3-ingredient crumble topping and chill it; whisk the wet ingredients, add the dry, mix, top, and bake. That's all!
The muffins have intense pumpkin flavor: more than 1 cup of pumpkin puree, with tons of pumpkin pie spice and a touch of brown sugar for richness.
The perfect texture balance: moist, tender, sweet muffin with a really soft crumb inside and a crispy, rich crumble on top.
Beautiful presentation: The muffins rise really high, and the crumble topping catches your eye and makes them look fancy!
Recipe ingredients & swaps
Here the role of each ingredient in these muffins, and a bit about how you can replace some ingredients to avoid additional allergens:
- Gluten free flour blend: use any one of my recommended gf flour blends, and be sure to add some xanthan gum if your blend doesn't already contain it. You must use an all purpose blend though, and not almond flour, coconut flour, or anything else.
- Baking powder: provides plenty of rise for tall muffins, especially when we bake them first in a really hot 425°F oven for a few minutes.
- Salt: brings out the other flavors and balances sweetness.
- Pumpkin pie spice: A warm spice blend with cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg. If you don't have it, don't let that stop you. Use apple pie spice, or 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg if you have it.
- Sugars: mostly white sugar in these muffins for sweetness and tenderness, plus some light brown sugar for the rich taste of molasses. The crumble topping is all brown sugar for flavor.
- Pumpkin puree: a full 1 1/4 cups of pure canned pumpkin puree make the muffins really tender and adds flavor and color. There's no substitute for this here.
- Butter: Melted butter keeps the muffin crumb nice and dense, and adds lots of flavor. If you're dairy-free, try virgin coconut oil or Miyoko's Creamy vegan butter.
- Eggs: Add rise and richness. If you're egg-free, try 2 “chia eggs” (2 tablespoons ground white chia seeds + 2 tablespoons lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel).
- Chocolate chips: Dark chocolate chips pair really well with pumpkin, but semi-sweet work great, too. You can replace them with chopped raw walnuts or pecans, or another type of chip. If you leave them out, the muffins will be smaller.
How to make gluten free pumpkin muffins
For full instructions, see the recipe card below. Here's an overview of how to make these muffins in your own kitchen:
Make the crumble topping
Make the crumble topping first because it has to chill. Mix the gluten free flour blend, brown sugar and melted butter, which makes it easy to blend, and place it in the refrigerator to firm up and become stable enough not to melt quickly in the oven and stay chunky.
Whisk the dry ingredients then wet separately
We'll use two bowls to make the muffin batter. In the first, whisk together the dry ingredients, including the flour blend with xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice to ensure there are no clumps.
In a separate bowl, add in the sugars, beaten eggs, melted butter and pumpkin puree and then mix until fully combined. You want the eggs to become emulsified in the melted butter and pumpkin puree, since the eggs help the muffins hold their shape after baking.
Combine all ingredients, then add chips
Placed the whisked dry ingredients right on top of the wet ingredients all at once for a thick, soft batter. Since there's no gluten in these muffins, you don't have to worry about mixing the batter too much. Then add the chocolate chips until they're evenly mixed and appear all over the muffins.
Fill the muffin wells, add topping, bake
Scoop the muffin batter into the muffin tin. The batter is thick, so a large cookie scoop can be useful in getting a rounded mound of batter in each well for round top muffins.
Break up the chilled crumble topping and scatter it over the muffins. Since it's chilled, it will keep its shape in the oven. Bake at 425°F for 6 minutes to quickly activate the baking powder and get a high rise, then finish baking at 350°F so nothing burns.
My Pro Tip
Expert tips
Bake in a really hot oven at first
To get a really tall rise on these muffins, bake at 425°F for 5 or 6 minutes. Without opening the oven, reduce the temperature to 350°F and finish baking, about another 20 minutes. The super hot oven activates the baking powder fast, and your muffins get a head start.
Chill the crumble topping first
The crumble topping has to be cold or it won't hold its shape in the oven. So mix it up first and put it in the refrigerator. As soon as you're done making the muffin batter, the topping is cold enough to break up, scatter on top, and bake.
Use room temperature ingredients
If you are using leftover pumpkin puree, it's going to be cold. If you add cold ingredients to melted butter, the butter will clump and your batter won't be smooth or cohesive. Microwave cold leftover puree at 50% power for 10 to 15 seconds to warm it up. Float cold eggs in warm water for 15 minutes before using.
Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
For the crumble topping
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup (109 g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup (70 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (I used Better Batter; please click thru for more info on appropriate blends)
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum, (omit if your blend already contains it)
For the muffins
- 2 cups (280 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (I used Better Batter; please click thru for more info on appropriate blends)
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 6 tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (55 g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 ¼ cups (306 g) pure canned pumpkin puree, at room temperature
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- 6 ounces chocolate chips, I like dark chocolate chips here
Instructions
Make the crumble topping
- In a small bowl, place all of the ingredients (melted butter, brown sugar, flour blend and xanthan gum), and mix to combine fully. The mixture will be thick.
- Place the crumble mixture in the refrigerator to chill while you make the muffin batter.
Make the muffins
- Preheat your oven to 425°F. Grease or line the wells of a standard 12-cup muffin tin and set it aside.
- In a medium-size bowl, place the flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice, and whisk to combine well. Set the dry ingredients aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, place the melted butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, and eggs. Whisk to combine very well.
- Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl of wet ingredients, and mix until just combined. The batter will be very thick.
- Add the chocolate chips to the batter, and mix until just evenly distributed throughout.
- Divide the batter among the prepared wells of the muffin tin. The wells should be full of batter.
- Remove the crumble topping from the refrigerator and use the tines of a fork to break up the mixture into small chunks. Use your fingers to scatter the crumble topping evenly across the tops of all of the raw muffin batter in the wells, and press very gently to help the mixture adhere to the dough.
- Place the muffins in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 6 minutes.
- Without opening the oven door, lower the oven temperature to 350°F. Let the muffins continue to bake for about 20 minutes more or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the center muffin comes out clean.
- If the toothpick still comes out wet at all after the final 20 minutes of baking, reduce the oven temperature to about 300°F and continue to bake until done.
- Remove the pan from the oven. Allow the muffins to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
make ahead/leftovers
Storage instructions
These are really moist, tender muffins that will keep well in an airtight container on the counter for 2 to 3 days.
Freezing
These muffins also freeze really well. Just place them in a single layer on a small rimmed baking sheet and freeze until firm. Then, place them in a feezer-safe zip-top bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Let defrost overnight on the counter or microwave at 70% power for about 30 seconds.
FAQs
Yes, you can definitely use this recipe to make mini muffins rather than full-sized ones. I would suggest checking the mini muffins starting at 12 minutes and using the toothpick test to judge whether they're done.
Your muffins might be dense because your leaveners that aren't fresh, so check your dates. Plus, ask yourself if did you bake for 6 minutes at 425°F and then lower the oven temperature to 350°F until they were done baking?
Did you use one of my recommended flour blends and measure by weight, not volume? Did you bake your muffins at the right temperature? If the oven temperature is too low, they may not rise properly. If your oven temperature is too high for too long, the outside will become dark before the inside has the right baked structure and the muffins will sink as they cool and become gummy inside.
No, this recipe is only suitable for muffins. If you'd like to make a loaf, try our recipe for tender and flavorful gluten free pumpkin bread. Like these muffins, it's full of pumpkin flavor and made with simple canned pumpkin.
Try replacing the 2 eggs with 2 tablespoons ground white chia seeds + 2 tablespoons lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel.
Try replacing the butter in the crumble topping with virgin coconut oil, Spectrum shortening, or vegan butter. And for the muffins, virgin coconut oil or vegan butter should also work really well. Be sure your chocolate chips are dairy-free, too.
Yes! Skip the crumble topping if you'd prefer, and reduce the baking time at the reduced 350°F oven temperature by 2 to 3 minutes.
I love these muffins. I add chopped pecans instead of chocolate chips, to suit my celiac spouse’s preference.
That’s a perfect swap, Kathy! Chopped pecans are a perfect chocolate chip sub.