These Healthy Pumpkin Muffins are everything you want in a fall treat—moist, fluffy, and packed with cozy spices—but made with wholesome ingredients you can actually feel good about. They’re made with whole grains, and full of real pumpkin, they’re perfect for breakfast, snack time, or anytime you’re craving something sweet without a ton of sugar and fat.
Fall is the perfect time to make a bunch of seasonally appropriate muffins. Why not make a lightened up muffin? Try baking these Healthy Pumpkin Muffins. The recipe makes a dozen, so if you don’t eat them within a few days, it’s okay to freeze the rest and take them out when the craving for a pumpkin muffin strikes!
What ingredients are needed for Pumpkin Spice Muffins?
- Baking basics: White sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, baking soda and salt.
- Flour: This recipe calls for using a mix of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, but you can use all of one or the other, if you’d like.
- Spices: Ground cinnamon, ginger and cloves
- Butter: Salted butter will give these muffins the most flavor.
- Yogurt: You need plain, nonfat yogurt. Regular yogurt or Greek yogurt may be used.
- Milk: Plain nonfat milk is what you need. If you only have 2% or whole, it’s okay to use one of those.
- Pumpkin purée: Just make sure you’re using unsweetened (and not the pie filling).
- Egg: You need one large egg.
How to make Healthy Pumpkin Spice Muffins:
The complete, printable recipe is at the end of this post.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter and sugars. Add the remaining ingredients and beat well. Stir in the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
These muffins are plenty sweet. But there’s only 5 grams of fat in each muffin. There are only 4 tablespoons of fat (butter) in the whole recipe. If you’re like me though, you might like to add a smidge of butter to a warm muffin when it’s time to eat (with a drizzle of honey too)!
The great thing about making pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread and anything else with pumpkin is that the pumpkin purée works naturally to add moisture to the muffins and create a nice and tender texture. These are delicious. Enjoy!
What You’ll Love About These Muffins:
- They are little more guilt free than traditional bakery-style pumpkin muffins, so perhaps you can enjoy two of them.
- They freeze well! Just pop them into a large freezer baggie, and take them out of the freezer as you’d like to enjoy them.
- Consider having them around for after school snacking. Kids love them.
The Best Pumpkin Muffin Recipes:
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¾ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ cup (½ stick) salted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup plain nonfat yogurt
- ¼ cup nonfat milk
- One 15-ounce can unsweetened pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 12 cup muffin tin with nonstick spray or use liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour through cloves). Set aside.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter and sugars. Add the remaining ingredients and beat well. Stir in the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
