These Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Muffins are seriously moist, warmly spiced, and perfectly dense. They're filling and satisfying, and are a good source of protein and fibre. They're refined sugar free, come together in one bowl and are ready in just 35 minutes! The perfect healthy dessert, snack, breakfast or brunch.
Tips for making these
- Make sure to use the right amount of baking powder - 4 teaspoons! Use too little baking powder and your sponge will be too fluffy, too much and it'll have a bitter taste.
- The vinegar is crucial as it's acidic, which means it reacts with the alkali bicarbonate of soda to create a bubbly batter and fluffy sponge.
- Make sure to use an all-purpose shop-bought gluten-free flour blend (or a homemade gluten-free flour blend), as opposed to just using any type of gluten-free flour you can find (such as almond flour, coconut flour, buckwheat flour etc).
How to make this recipe
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix together all the ingredients in a glass mixing bowl.
Tip: Make sure to use a measuring jug to measure out the exact amount of plant-based milk!
- Divide the batter between muffin cases in a muffin/cupcake tin.
- Scatter over pumpkin seeds to decorate, if desired.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of oil: coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup, date syrup etc.
- You can replace the ground almonds (almond meal) with ground walnuts.
- For a nut-free version: replace the ground almonds with ground sunflower seeds or use 30g (¼ cup) coconut flour instead of 150g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds.
- You can use plain flour, wholemeal (whole wheat) flour or spelt flour instead of the gluten-free flour if you're not gluten-free.
- You can use either shop-bought pumpkin purée or make our own.
- The pumpkin purée can be replaced with sweet potato or butternut squash purée.
- The mixed spice (pumpkin pie spice) can be omitted or replaced with cinnamon.
Ways to adapt this recipe
- You can top these with chopped pecan nuts, flaked almonds, pumpkin seeds or coconut flakes before baking.
- You can add chocolate chips, raisins or dried cranberries to the batter.
How long do these Pumpkin Muffins keep for?
These Pumpkin Muffins keep well covered in the fridge for up to a few days. They're easily transportable and freeze well too. You can reheat them in the oven or an oven toaster if you like.
More gluten-free vegan muffin recipes
- Carrot Muffins
- Blueberry Banana Bread Muffins
- Chocolate Muffins
- Cornbread Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Apple Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins
- Orange Poppy Seed Muffins
- Raspberry Muffins
- Gingerbread Muffins
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I'd really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make this recipe
Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 150 ml (⅔ cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 225 g (1 cup) pumpkin purée
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- 8 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder ensure gluten-free if necessary
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda baking soda
- 2 teaspoons mixed spice to taste (pumpkin pie spice, or a mixture of nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon)
To decorate (optional):
- Pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if not using any other oil).
- Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the pumpkin purée, vinegar, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and ground almonds.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice.
- Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it's looking too dry.
- Transfer the mixture between muffin cases in a muffin tin.
- Scatter over pumpkin seeds to decorate, if desired.
- Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- These muffins keep in the fridge for a few days. They can be reheated in the oven or an oven toaster if you like.
Video
Notes
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog - thank you.
Nupur Saha Roy
Hi, Rhian!
Tried this spiced pumpkin cupcakes recipe and it came out so well! Those were the fluffiest cupcakes ever! Thank you for yet another wonderful recipe.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so glad you liked them!
Lynn
Anyone sub applesauce for oil?
Rhian Williams
A few tablespoons applesauce will work!
Sandy
Hi Rhian, would oat flour work instead of almond?
Rhian Williams
No, sorry!
Anonymous
I was in love with the taste of the muffin batter and just as in love as I unwrapped the muffin wrapper to devour, not just one, but two muffins. Waiting for muffin bliss I finally had a wish granted for some wholesome muffins. Personally, I feel muffins are underrated and your recipe proved that. Thank you for a top tier recipe that fulfilled all my muffin desires!
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that!
Jann
This is a wonderful recipe. My daughter also has to be nut free (next to dairy, soy, gluten and egg) and I prefer to not introduce sugar yet so I did not add the syrup and replaced the almond with coconut flour and they came out so well! Fluffy and naturally sweet because of the pumpkin. Thanks so much, something to add to her diet! Next time I am going to try this as a loaf and see if it can substitute bread (gf bread either has egg or is a brick).
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that! I have a loaf version of this recipe: https://www.rhiansrecipes.com/pumpkin-bread/
And I also have a ton of gluten-free vegan bread recipes on my site which you may like to check out: https://www.rhiansrecipes.com/recipes/baking-desserts/bread/. This recipe made using chickpea flour is particularly popular: https://www.rhiansrecipes.com/gluten-free-vegan-bread/
Yulia Grishchenko
Super easy and tasty. Its my favourite recipie.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that!