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.
Lynette
Very easy to make the batter tasted great and the muffins were just as good. They didn't rise much so next time I will fill to the top. Nice sweet treat that doesn't have a ton of sugar. Will definitely make these again.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that!
Connie
These rose beautifully and looked so lovely. The taste is great but I am not a fan of the texture. Are they meant to be gooey?
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much for your feedback. No they are definitely not meant to be gooey! It sounds like they were not baked for long enough and the inside wasn't cooked properly. Or if that was not the case, what type of gluten-free flour did you use?
Renee’
Just make these pumpkin muffins. Before they were cool I ate one. On my goodness. So dangerous good. Thank you for the recipe.
I didn’t have quite a full cup of the pumpkin, so I add the not quite half of a banana from my breakfast.
I used King Arthur GF flour.
0nly 6 tablespoons of maple syrup. That was enough sweetener.
Thank you.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that!
Diane McEachern
Hi Diane
Can you use sweet potato instant of pumpkin
Rhian Williams
Yes you can!
Imogen
Hello rhian,
I love this recipe- we had a glut of courgettes in summer and now have three large pumpkins 🎃 from autumn. I’ve been baking muffins almost every week. Do you have suggestions of how to turn it into a tasty savoury muffin?
I don’t have the confidence to just leave out the sweetener and hope for the best. Plus - if they taste good - no one will eat them apart from me!
Thank you and happy Christmas 🎄😊
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear you like them! To make these into a savoury muffin, you can just use the same recipe but either omit the sweetener completely or just use 2 tablespoons maple syrup. And add a bit more salt (to taste). For an extra savoury flavour you could also add some chopped sun-dried tomatoes or chopped olives or nutritional yeast, and instead of ground almonds you could use ground walnuts, ground sunflower seeds or even ground pumpkin seeds instead. I hope that helps! Happy Christmas to you too!