Vegan pumpkin spice muffins are sweet, spiced, and super simple to make with just 5 healthy ingredients.
If you’re like me and you couldn’t make your pumpkin bread last longer than 2 days (no shame)…let’s make vegan pumpkin spice muffins!
Normally, I’m not a big muffin person. I guess my thought process is if I’m eating something that shape, I want a big mound of frosting on top, so why not just have a cupcake instead?
But in this case, I’ll take several vegan pumpkin spice muffins and be a very happy girl, even without the frosting. These muffins are perfect for a fall breakfast, snack, or dessert treat, and they couldn’t be simpler to make with just 5 healthy ingredients.
Ingredients for vegan pumpkin spice muffins
- Rolled oats: you’ll blend the oats to flour consistency, which will hold the muffins together. Because it’s the only grain in the recipe, the oat flour will give the muffins a dense texture – they’re not light like cupcakes, but hearty and satisfying.
- Pumpkin pie spice: the warm spices help bring out the pumpkin flavor in the muffins.
- Medjool dates: dates give the muffins their natural sweetness, totally from fruit. You’ll make date paste by simply blending the pitted dates with hot water.
- Pumpkin puree: pumpkin gives the muffins their fall flavor and soft texture.
- Nondairy milk: milk brings the muffin batter together. I always use unsweetened almond milk, but any nondairy milk should work.
Tips for making vegan pumpkin spice muffins
- Measure the rolled oats before blending into flour. I always list the amount of oats used BEFORE they’re blended for flour. So in this case, you’ll measure out 3 cups of whole, rolled oats, then put those 3 cups into your blender to make flour.
- Make sure to mix the dry ingredients first. This recipe makes a lot of batter, so to be sure it’s as smooth as possible, make sure your dry ingredients are mixed completely, then add the wet. Get everything incorporated, but don’t over-mix.
- Use a silicone cups or parchment-lined pan. Make sure to use a nonstick or parchment-lined pan so that the muffins don’t stick after baking. I love using silicone baking cups for super easy removal.
- Let them cool completely. Let the muffins cool for at least 30 minutes before carefully removing, then let it sit and cool completely. The muffins are pretty soft and delicate when they’re done baking, but will firm up a lot as they cool.
- Add some fun toppings. They’re great on their own with warm cup of coffee or tea, but even better fancied up with some toppings. Drizzle on some nut butter and granola, or add your muffin onto a vegan yogurt bowl with some fruit.
These vegan pumpkin spice muffins are rich, satisfying, and so full of the classic pumpkin spice flavor we all love in the fall. I love mine slathered with a generous bit of almond butter, but they would also be great on top of a vegan yogurt bowl!
Leave it to fall/pumpkin spice to get me this excited about muffins.
Xo,
Sara
Vegan Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 cups rolled oats, blended into flour
- 2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 cup date paste – 15 pitted medjool dates with 1 cup hot water
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 1/2 cups nondairy milk – I use unsweetened almond milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, mix the oat flour and pumpkin pie spice.
- Add the date paste, pumpkin puree and nondairy milk and stir into a thick batter.
- Use a 1/3 cup to portion out each muffin (I recommend using silicone liners for easy removal so they don't stick to the pan) and bake for 30 minutes.
- Let the muffins cool for at least 30 minutes in the pan before removing – they'll still be soft on the bottom, so be careful when turning them out. Let them cool completely at room temperature and they'll firm up quite a bit.
- Add any toppings of your choice and enjoy! Store leftovers in the refrigerator.
I have packaged date paste, would the measurement be the same?
Hi, Cheryl! The only packaged date paste I’ve seen is more like date syrup, which definitely have a different texture. I’ve only tried this making date paste with whole dates + water at home, so I can’t say for sure whether that sub would work. It may change the texture but I’m sure they’d taste just as good! Let me know how it goes if you try it out.