Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Pecan Crumble

There’s nothing quite like those crisp autumn mornings surrounded by colorful, changing leaves, holding a hot homemade latte, all paired with moist, light, delicious pumpkin spice muffins. It’s that time of year when pumpkin recipes are top of the mind for breakfast, dinner, and dessert.

This post was originally published in September 2017 in partnership with Bob’s Red Mill, as a member of CLEVER.

These muffins are a fall staple for cozy mornings because they’re easy to make in just 30 minutes. Even better? That pecan crumble on top. It takes a basic pecan topping, like on banana carrot muffins, and brings it up several notches with a buttery brown sugar streusel.

Ingredients You’ll Need

• All-Purpose Flour: I recommend measuring it correctly or weighing out the flour to be sure you don’t have too much.
• Baking Soda, Baking Powder, and Salt: the usual suspects for wonderfully textured muffins!
• Pumpkin Pie Spice: of course, we’re using a lot of pumpkin pie spice for all the pumpkin spice flavor in these muffins!
• Cinnamon: and extra cinnamon for warmth.
• Brown Sugar and Granulated Sugar: for a little sweetness!
• Butter: melted, so no time to wait for softened butter.
• Eggs: best if these are room temperature though…so that the coldness doesn’t harden the butter. But a quick trick for this is to put the whole eggs in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes before cracking.
• Apple Sauce: for moisture, without oil.
• Pumpkin Puree: use 100% pumpkin!
• Pecans: to make the crumble, along with brown sugar for a deep, rich caramel flavor.

How to Make Pumpkin Spice Muffins

First things first: you can make the crumble before or after the muffin batter, but I like making it first so that it has time to clump up before it goes on top of the muffins.

I also recommend melting the butter in the microwave at this point so that it has time to cool before whisking together the wet ingredients. If you combine hot butter with the eggs…you’ll end up with scrambled eggs.

Then, stir the dry ingredients so they’re fully incorporated before adding in the wet ingredients. For this recipe, including the sugars, too.

Then, whisk together the rest of the wet ingredients until combined. All that’s left to do is just incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry. It’s important to not overmix the batter so the muffins stay moist and light. Overmixing results in tough muffins.

Fill the muffin tins approximately 3/4ths of the way full. Depending on how full the tins are will determine exactly how many muffins you’ll get out of the batter.

Scoop the pecan crumble on top of the batter and gently pat it down. Patting it down will help it adhere once the muffins bake up into perfection.

Storage & Freezing

Once the muffins are cooled, if you have any left, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

You can also freeze the muffins and place them in a freezer-safe bag. Thaw in the microwave or at room temperature on the countertop to enjoy. Freezing is a great option for on-the-go breakfasts on busy mornings.

More Pumpkin Recipes

• Mini Pumpkin Coconut Muffins
• Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Pumpkin Mousse
• Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

Did you make this recipe? Please leave a star rating and review in the form below. I appreciate your feedback, and it helps others, too!