The Best Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

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Learn how to make the best pumpkin muffin recipe using fresh pumpkin puree. Add chocolate chips for the ultimate treat for the whole family!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.

Farm to Table Fresh

Pumpkin muffins are very highly requested in our home.  In fact, I’m pretty sure this is everyone’s favorite muffin, especially when chocolate chips are involved.  Because this recipe is so good, we enjoy making batches of this pumpkin muffin recipe all year long.

We make this recipe farm-to-table by using pumpkins from our garden, or grown locally when we aren’t growing them ourselves.  If you are interested in learning more about what we’re growing in our garden this year, check out our summer garden tour. 

Making pumpkin puree at home is very easy to do. This is especially true if you are using a large pumpkin that will produce quite a bit of puree.  Pumpkin puree can be stored in the freezer. I still have about 3 bags of pumpkin in our freezer that we made back in January.  Once the sandwich-sized ziploc bags are filled with homemade pumpkin puree, lay them on their sides until frozen to save space in your freezer. I share a full recipe for making your own pumpkin puree here.

How to use homemade pumpkin puree in recipes

We have found that about 1 sandwich-sized ziplock bag of pumpkin puree is close to the equivalent of a 15 ounce can of pumpkin.

That being said, one large pumpkin can produce a significant amount of puree! We store our pumpkin puree in bags in our freezer, and frozen puree can last about a year.

To thaw frozen pumpkin puree, it can set out on the counter until room temperature. If you’re making something in a pinch, fill a bowl with warm water and set the frozen puree in to thaw that way. In a pumpkin emergency, I have made a double-boiler type setup and thawed it that way too.

You really can’t go wrong with frozen homemade puree!

Tools and Ingredients Needed to make the best pumpkin muffin recipe

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.

• Muffin pan: this recipe makes 12 full-sized muffins
• Baking cups: I’ve recently switched to these silicone baking cups and I love them so much. More about those below!
• Large mixing bowl
• Mixer: I always use my KitchenAid, but a hand mixer will get the job done too. My favorite feature of the KitchenAid is it’s glass bowl, that I use for so much more than just the stand mixer.
• All-purpose flour
• Salt
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Cloves
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Unsalted butter
• Granulated sugar
• Eggs
• Pumpkin puree (or canned pumpkin)

Silicone Baking Cups

In my quest to reduce some of the waste in our home, I recently purchased silicone baking cups.  Now that I’ve used them several times, I can share a couple of tips with you.  The first time I tried silicone baking cups, I treated them just like paper baking cups (leaving them on the muffins until it was time to eat).  This resulted in the muffins sticking to the inside of the baking cups, and the kids weren’t happy that I “broke” their muffins trying to get them out!

When using silicone baking cups I have found it best to let the muffins cool for several moments and then remove them from the baking cups while still warm.  Be sure to wait until the muffins are cool enough to safely handle before trying to remove them.  With this tip, the muffins came out of the baking cups without sticking and I didn’t have to worry about them getting accidentally thrown away.

How to make pumpkin muffins

This recipe was created by Jenn Segal of Once Upon A Chef. Jenn is such a talented chef, I have used and love so many of the recipes she shares over on her blog. For her full recipe, click here.

The original recipe calls for a pecan-streussel topping, which looks absolutely incredible.  Someone in our home has a nut-sensitivity, so we skip the topping and still love this recipe just the same.

When we have chocolate chips on hand, our boys are in charge of adding chocolate chips to the muffin batter.  We don’t always measure this part, but the kids generally add about 1-1 ½ cups of chocolate chips.

How to store muffins

If your household is anything like ours, that fresh batch of pumpkin muffins will be gone within a couple of days. In fact, our youngest (who is not quite two) will always request a second muffin for breakfast!

Muffins can be stored on your countertop for several days. Our preferred method of storage is an airtight container on the counter of our kitchen.

Did you know that muffins actually store quite well in the freezer? We seal each muffin into it’s own ziplock baggie and throw them into our freezer. The night before, pull however many muffins you need out of the freezer and set them on the counter overnight to thaw.

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Posts Mentioned …

How to make pumpkin puree

Summer Garden Tour

Once Upon a Chef: Pumpkin Muffins

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What’s your favorite muffin?

We love hearing from you. In the comments below, I would love to know what your favorite type of muffin is. When we aren’t eating these pumpkin muffins, we are likely enjoying chocolate chip or blueberry.

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