These moist, pumpkin streusel muffins are perfectly spiced with a crumbly cinnamon streusel topping. Drizzle them with an optional cream cheese icing to take them to the next level!
Why You’ll Love These Perfect Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
Warm, fragrant, spiced pumpkin goodness awaits! Here are a few reasons you’ll want to make this pumpkin muffin recipe as soon as the leaves start dropping:
- Scrumptious Topping: An easy, yet amazing cinnamon streusel topping bakes up golden brown right on top of the pumpkin muffins.
- Pumpkin Flavor: These pumpkin streusel muffins use an entire can of pumpkin making them super moist, full of pumpkin flavor and with no wasted ingredients!
- Divine Drizzle: Dress them up with a sweet drizzle of cream cheese icing on top before serving, if desired.
- Dessert or Breakfast: You can serve these muffins with a cup of coffee in the morning or after dinner for dessert, they are so delicious and sweet that they work for both!
If you love pumpkin as much as I do, make sure to check out my bakery style classic pumpkin muffins, easy pumpkin oatmeal muffins, or these show stopping pumpkin cream cheese muffins.
Ingredients Needed For Pumpkin Muffins
This delectable pumpkin streusel muffin recipe uses readily available, inexpensive, baking ingredients. Check the recipe card at the bottom of the post for exact amounts.
For the muffins:
- Flour: All-purpose flour works here.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: Use store bought pumpkin pie spice, or I shared my recipe for homemade pumpkin spice mix in the recipe card below.
- Baking Soda: Rising agents insure tender, fluffy muffins.
- Salt
- Pumpkin Puree: I use a 15 oz can of pumpkin, but you can also use homemade pumpkin puree. Do not use canned pumpkin pie filling as it is already sweetened and seasoned.
- Sugar: I use a combination of granulated sugar and light brown sugar.
- Eggs
- Vegetable Oil: For an extra-moist muffin, I recommend using oil, however you can use melted butter or unsweetened applesauce.
- Vanilla Extract
- Paper Muffin Liners: Or spray your muffin tin with bakers joy if you want to skip the liners.
For the streusel:
- Flour: All-purpose works here, too.
- Sugar: Either white, brown, or a combination of the two will taste delicious.
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- Unsalted Butter: If using salted butter, omit the 1/4 teaspoon of added salt.
Optional icing:
- Cream Cheese: Use full-fat, softened cream cheese.
- Sugar: Powdered or confectioner’s sugar is a must here.
- Milk
- Vanilla: Pure vanilla extract provides the best flavor.
How to Make Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
These easy pumpkin muffins are a culinary triple threat with three simple, but delicious layers. No hand mixer or stand mixer needed. Just a couple of bowls and a whisk!
How to Make Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
- Streusel: Whisk together flour, sugar, and cinnamon, and then stir in melted butter until crumbly.
- Dry Ingredients: Whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda and salt.
- Wet Ingredients: Whisk together pumpkin, sugar and brown sugar. Beat in eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
- Combine: Slowly whisk in the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture, until there are no lumps. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full and top each muffin with streusel topping.
- Bake: Bake muffins for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Optional Drizzle: Beat cream cheese icing ingredients until smooth. Drizzle on top.
Tips & Variations
Take a moment to read tips and variations below to help guarantee success!
- Caution: Don’t overfill the muffin tins with batter as the cinnamon streusel topping will make up some of the volume.
- Oil vs. Applesauce: Vegetable oil or melted butter is preferred for an extra moist muffin, but you could substitute applesauce for a light, fluffy, yet slightly less moist pumpkin muffin.
- Don’t Over-Mix: Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients gently, just until combined. If you over stir the batter, it can overdevelop the gluten and cause dry muffins.
- No Pumpkin Spice? Make your own by combining 4 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp allspice.
- Bake A Loaf: If you would prefer to bake a loaf of bread instead of muffins, head over to my best pumpkin loaf recipe . It’s the same recipe, but baked into a loaf! Simply add the streusel over the loaf before baking. Lightly cover with foil half way through baking to keep the topping from over-browning.
Storing Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
Store muffins in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Take them out of the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving. For that just baked taste and feel, microwave chilled muffins for 10 to 15 seconds.
Pumpkin streusel muffins can be frozen. Freeze muffins wrapped tightly in saran wrap, then placed in a freezer safe bag and freeze for up to 3 months. For best results, freeze without the drizzle.
More Pumpkin Recipes
- Best Pumpkin Cake
- Best Pumpkin Bread
- Easy Pumpkin Dump Cake
- Best Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Easy Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Yield: 18 standard muffins
Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
Pumpkin streusel muffins are super moist and perfectly spiced with a cinnamon streusel crumb topping. Drizzle the warm muffins with an optional cream cheese icing to take them a whole new level!
Ingredients
Pumpkin Spice Muffins:
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin spice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon Streusel:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Optional Cream Cheese Icing:
- 2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Place paper baking cups into muffin pan. Set aside.
- Cinnamon Streusel: In a small bowl, whisk to combine the flour, sugar and cinnamon. Add the melted butter and stir with a fork until crumbly (can also beat with a hand mixer until crumbly). Set aside.
- Pumpkin Muffins: In a medium bowl, whisk to combine the flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, sugar and brown sugar. Beat in eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
- Slowly whisk in the flour mixture, until there are no lumps. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full.
- Top each muffin with about 2 to 3 tablespoons of streusel mixture and gently press down.
- Bake muffins for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cream Cheese Icing: In a small bowl, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. If needed, slowly add more milk until you reach a good drizzle consistency.
- Drizzle the frosting onto the warm muffins and serve immediately!
Video
Notes
Storage: Store muffins in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Take them out of the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving. For that just baked taste and feel, microwave chilled muffins for 10 to 15 seconds.
Freeze: Freeze muffins wrapped tightly in saran wrap, then placed in a freezer safe bag and freeze for up to 3 months. For best results, freeze without the drizzle.
Oil vs. Applesauce: Vegetable oil or melted butter is preferred for an extra moist muffin, but you could substitute applesauce for a light, fluffy, yet slightly less moist pumpkin muffin.
No Pumpkin Spice? Make your own by combining 4 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp allspice.
Don’t Over-Mix: Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients gently, just until combined. If you over stir the batter, it can overdevelop the gluten and cause dry muffins.
Nutrition
Serving: 1muffin, Calories: 305kcal, Carbohydrates: 48g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 12g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Trans Fat: 0.2g, Cholesterol: 32mg, Sodium: 180mg, Potassium: 96mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 31g, Vitamin A: 3866IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 27mg, Iron: 1mg
Categories:
If you try these muffins, make sure and leave a comment/review below letting me know how they turn out!
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This is my second time making these pumpkin streusel muffins and they are sooooo good (and easy)! I use homemade pumpkin purée and the muffins come out so cakey and delicious. Will make again next year!
Would it hurt if I added a scoop of cream cheeses on top of the wet mixture before I add the streusel topping? (just to have an inside bite of cream cheese)
It should work just fine! But I personally would probably add half the muffin batter to the liners, add about a tablespoon of cream cheese filling to the inside, then add another scoop of batter on top. Then top with the streusel topping.
For the cream cheese filling, I would use the cream cheese filling from this muffin recipe: https://thenovicechefblog.com/pumpkin-cream-cheese-swirl-muffins/
I want to make these but I don’t have any cupcake liners /papers … can I just spray the muffin tin ??
Yes, should work just fine, I would recommend using bakers joy as the non-stick spray! You may need to run a knife around the edge of the muffins to help them pop out if they happen to stick.
Amazing!!! I make these at least once a month for my coworkers and they love them! The salt in the streussal helps not make the muffins overly sweet.
Easy easy easy and delicious, I added extra cinnamon to mine since my son loves that bold cinnamon flavor. Thank you for the recipe, I saved your website so that I can explore the other great recipes you have uploaded!
I should have read the recipe more carefully—used a full can of pumpkin, but it was the standard Canadian 796 ml can,, which is equivalent to approximately 26.5 ounces! Didn’t realize my mistake until I had a good bit of batter left, after 18 muffin cups were full . I had already upped the vanilla and spice, so filled 5 more cups and added a few fresh cranberries to each. Used 50% brown sugar for the streusel. Baked for 45 minutes and am happy to say they are edible, more like a very dense pumpkin cake than a muffin. Cream cheese glaze topped them off wonderfully. Today’s object lesson for my ADHD brain: .read recipe volumes with greater care! Will try again soon with the correct measurements
I am a pretty good cook, and generally very thorough , following all the steps with correct measures. This one got away from me. I should have read the entire recipe and it’s my fault that I didn’t. I thought the moist ingredients (pumpkin, eggs, oil, vanilla) could be combined in one bowl, which I did. But my mistake was that I added the melted butter to the muffin mixing bowl instead of correctly adding it to the topping. I caught my mistake one minute into mixing; and not wanting to throw the entire mix out, I just switched to an 8×11″ square pan, that I prepped with a light shortening/flour dredge. It was my hail mary move-and it worked! I got a VERY moist and fluffy cake that was (seriously) buttery-rich! The texture was good, the taste was fabulous, and since it is the holiday season, I think the extra calories are forgivable. Next time I make this I will get it right, but just in case anyone else messes this up like I did by cutting out the essential thorough reading before you get to work, know that it can (mostly) be saved. I was lucky. I can live with that.
This recipe is spot on. It made 18 muffins and there was more than enough tasty streusel topping. My question is can these muffins be frozen once the cream cheese icing is drizzled on top?
Thank you for such an easy, scrumptious recipe!!
I just made these Pumpkin Streusel Muffins and they are delicious. I will make them again and again. Thank you for the recipe!
The muffins were a hit! So delicious! It made 18 muffins.
I’ll be making them over and over again!
I am gluten free and just substituted the flour for gluten free flour and they turned out fabulous. Really great pumpkin muffins. The strutzel was super easy and tasted great. I found that I had to cook them about 10 minutes longer because I used a convection oven but wonderful taste. Thanks for sharing.
Oh my goodness, these are wonderful!! Thanks for the great recipe and using the whole can of pumpkin puree!! This is by far the best stresses I have ever made and it was so easy!!
All these recipes sound delish!
Soft, moist, flavorful muffins with a yummy crunchy streusel topping ~ even my husband who hates sweets said he would eat them anytime!
I made mine gluten free and made non cream cheese icing since I didn’t have any. These were kid and adult approved! Thank you for the awesome recipe.
Glad to hear they worked out with gluten free flour!!
I loved these muffins … easy to make . I ran out of cream cheese so used full fat geek yogurt to make the icing for the top and it tasted lovely.
I’ll make a bit more streusel next time- ran short on the last 2 muffins. It did make exactly 18 muffins. I needed a few more minutes of baking time. [ovens vary]
But then to the part that matters— they were awesome! Moist, flavorful — I wouldn’t change a thing.
Delicious !
Also these look amazing, especially with that cream cheese drizzle! I love that you included cream cheese and not just powdered sugar and milk!
In one of the pictures, it looks like there is a graham cracker base…is it supposed to have that?
Got 16 muffins, not 18 because not enough streusel to cover more & I used 2 tbst per muffin. Put remainder of batter in loaf pan & sprinkled with mini chocolate chips! Yum
I made these muffins for work colleagues and they were a big hit. My personal taste found these way, way too sweet with both toppings. I suggest cutting the sugar in half in the muffin and in the crumb topping. I took one star off; because as a person who bakes muffins from scratch, I don’t keep pumpkin pie spice in my pantry. Instead, I substitued 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, and 1/4 ground nutmeg. I prefer a more robust spice flavor, so this amounts to an extra 3/4 tsp of spices than the original recipe. My yield was 14 muffins. At that count, each muffin came in at 385 calories.