These muffins have all the qualities of a white girl’s favorite Fall product: pumpkin, sugar, and something that looks like it came out of a Starbucks pastry case. Who cares though? We’re on board! These muffins are fluffy, moist, hearty, and not too sweet, making them perfect for a quick breakfast or on-the-go snack!

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If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you’ll also notice that these are our first muffins that aren’t gluten-free – and there’s a reason for that. We’ve attempted to make pumpkin/sweet potato muffins in the past using a variety of gluten-free flours, but they all came out too dense and heavy for us to be proud of. The problem is that pumpkin puree is a heavy ingredient that weighs down its other teammates. For this reason, air has to be incorporated into the batter in one way or another to lighten it up. Unfortunately, gluten-free flours – in our experience – can’t hold up the weight.

All-purpose flour, on the other hand, has a higher protein content than most gluten-free flours and has our favorite culinary mesh: gluten! While we don’t want to incorporate a lot of gluten into our batter as we don’t want the muffins to be tough, a little bit of gluten will form a structural mesh that’ll uphold air bubbles created by our leavening agents without letting the pumpkin sink the pastry.

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Speaking of air, we want to do whatever we can to incorporate more of it into our batter. Naturally our first thought was aquafaba, but it actually made our batter too light, leading to an unappealing crater in the center of our muffins. Bleh. On our second (and successful) go around, we got air into our batter by using the creaming method. You know, the method by which you beat sugar into solid butter, thus puncturing the fat with little crystals and aerating it. Once the butter’s aerated, we add in some Vegan Egg by Follow Your Heart, which has the amazing ability of fluffing up like eggs do when whisked vigorously. Vegan Egg is stronger than aquafaba and lighter than flax eggs, making it the best egg replacement here. It’s a bit pricey, but a little bit goes a long way, and since it doesn’t taste good on it’s own, you know you’ll only use it in moderation when you’re baking!

… I can’t tell if I’m giving it a positive review or not. Either way, these muffins would be dense and heavy without them, so we recommend you seek them out for this recipe. You can find Vegan Egg in some Whole Foods, Sprouts, as well as on Thrive.com (who actually has the best price).

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Once you’ve got your ingredients rallied up, these muffins are a breeze to make, as they only take about 15 minutes of prep time and 20-40 minutes of baking time (depending on the muffin tin size you choose). All in all, these muffins are:

  • Perfect for Fall
  • Sweet, pumpkin-spiced, and nutty
  • Fluffy, moist, and subtly crisp
  • Vegan and sugar-free!

If you like what your tastebuds are tellin’ ya, leave behind a nice rating, share your thoughts with us in the comments, or show us your creations by tagging @noeggsorham on Instagram.

Say Hello to the Muffin Plug,
Name’s Ryan.

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Eerie Pumpkin Streusel Muffins (vegan & sugar-free)

  • Servings: 6 jumbo muffins or 12 regular muffins
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Fluffy, moist, and crispy-topped pumpkin muffins fragrant with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 c (300 g) pumpkin puree
  • 168 g (3/4 c) vegan butter
  • 96 g (1/2 c) Brown Swerve (replace with brown sugar if not sugar-free)
  • 96 g (1/2 c) Granular Swerve (replace with cane sugar if not sugar-free)
  • 20 g (1/4 c) Vegan Egg powder + 4 oz ice cold water

Streusel

  • 1/4 c Brown Swerve (replace with brown sugar if not sugar-free)
  • 1/4 c pecans, crushed
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • small pinch of salt

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 325° F if using jumbo muffin tins and 350° F if using regular muffin tins. Lightly oil your tins using butter or non-stick spray.
  2. In a small bowl, use your hands to rub together all of the streusel ingredients. Set aside for now.
  3. Sift flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a medium mixing bowl. Whisk in charcoal, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and set aside for now.
  4. In a small bowl, whisk together Vegan Egg Powder with ice cold water until smooth. Set aside for now.
  5. In the bowl of a stand-up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer, beat butter with Brown Swerve and Granular Swerve on medium-high speed for 2 minutes.
  6. Scrape down the sides and add Vegan Egg mixture into butter & Swerve. Replace paddle with a whisk attachment and whip on high until very light & fluffy – about 5 minutes – scraping down the sides once halfway through.
  7. Shake off as much batter you can from the whisk and replace it with the paddle once again. Add the pumpkin puree and beat on medium speed until smooth.
  8. Scrape down the sides and pour in all of the dry ingredients. Beat on low until dust stops flying around and then beat on medium speed until just combined; about 30 seconds. Be sure not to over-mix – a few spots of flour is okay.
  9. For jumbo muffins, add 2/3 cups batter to each tin. For regular muffins, add 1/3 cup of batter to each tin. Distribute streusel evenly atop muffins and press down lightly into batter. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean; about 40 minutes for jumbo muffins and 18 minutes for regular muffins.
  10. Cool muffins in pan for 10 minutes then gently transfer to a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way. Enjoy while slightly warm or allow to cool to room temperature. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

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