These Bakery Style Pumpkin Muffins with Pecan Streusel are soft, fluffy, and packed with cozy fall flavors. Topped with a buttery pecan streusel and finished with a sweet maple glaze, they're perfect for breakfast, brunch, or an afternoon treat with coffee. Easy to make and utterly delicious, these muffins bring a little bit of autumn magic to your kitchen.
These Pumpkin Muffins with Pecan Streusel have quickly become my favorite weekend treat. Skip the line at the bakery and just make them at home! Quick and simple to make in under 30 minutes, they're soft, flavorful, and perfect for sharing with your kids or enjoying alongside a warm cup of coffee. They're made with a fluffy, moist pumpkin muffin base, topped with a buttery cinnamon-flavored pecan streusel, and finished with a drizzle of maple glaze. They are simply delicious!
If you love pumpkin as much as I do, be sure to check out some of my other favorite pumpkin baked goods on the blog, like my Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake, Frosted Pumpkin Bread, and Brown Butter Pumpkin Blondies; they're perfect for fall baking and snacking.
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♥ Why You'll Love This Recipe
Moist Pumpkin Muffins - Who doesn't love a moist and soft muffin? The pumpkin and applesauce create such a tender crumb!
Pecan Streusel - The buttery streusel with the pecans create such a great texture and crunch, and it complements the muffins so well. It also balances the sweetness.
Maple Glaze - Honestly, the maple glaze can be eaten right from the bowl with a spoon. That's how good it is. It's adapted from my Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake, because I loved how well it paired with the pumpkin cake, so I wanted it to add it to these pumpkin muffins.
📝 Ingredient Notes
A full list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions are located in the recipe card at the end of the post.
Pumpkin Muffins
- Pumpkin puree: Make sure it's pure pumpkin puree, and not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling contains more ingredients than pumpkin puree, and has a ton of sugar. My favorite brand of Pumpkin Puree is by Libby's.
- Sugar: This recipe uses all half brown sugar. You can use either dark or light brown sugar. If you don't have any brown sugar, you can use all white sugar.
- Neutral oil: You can use any type of neutral oil, like canola, vegetable, avocado, light olive oil.
- Flour: All purpose flour gives this cake the best crumb. Use a scale when measuring to get the best results.
- Spices: I use cinnamon and Pumpkin Pie Spice. You can make your own pumpkin pie spice as well.
- Applesauce: Make sure the it's unsweetened. This gives the muffins a little more moisture.
pecan Streusel
- Pecans: I like to chop mine pretty well so that there aren't large chunks. You can leave a few large chunks for a bit more texture and looks.
- Sugars: I use a combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar.
- Cinnamon: You can use more or less cinnamon, or even different spices.
Maple Glaze
- Maple Syrup: I use organic maple syrup, but you can use any kind you like. You can even add a little maple extract for more maple flavor.
- Powdered sugar: Powdered sugar helps thicken and sweeten the glaze.
See recipe card for quantities.
🍴Special Equipment
Kitchen Scale: It's so important to use a kitchen scale for accurate results.
Cupcake pan: You'll need cupcake/muffin pan.
Mixing bowls: I love using glass Mixing Bowls when making batters and doughs.
⇄ Substitutions
Sour cream - If you don't have any unsweetened applesauce, using sour cream or Greek Yogurt would work.
Sugar - If you only have granulated sugar, that will work in a pinch.
✨ Variations
Mix-ins - Add different nuts or chocolate chips to the muffins before baking.
Plain - Leave off the streusel and maple glaze and go for a plain Pumpkin Muffin.
Fill - Go a little fancy and fill the centers with chocolate or cream cheese before baking.
𓎩 Step-by-Step Instructions
A few instruction photos to help you nail this recipe every time.
Step 1
In a bowl, combine the flour, sugars, chopped pecans, and cinnamon. Mix until well combined, then add the melted butter and mix with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.
Step 2
In a bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and whisk until completely combined. Set aside.
Step 3
In a large bowl, combine dark brown sugar, oil, unsweetened applesauce, pumpkin puree, and eggs and whisk together until completely smooth.
Step 4
Sift in the dry ingredients and mix until JUST incorporated. Do not over mix.
Step 5
Scoop batter into muffin liners reaching the top of the liner.
Step 6
Then crumble the streusel on top. Make sure to use all the streusel on the muffins (it will seem like a lot, but it's really not).
Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at 425°F., then reduce the oven temperature to 350℉ and bake for another 15-17 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin pan onto a cooling rack, then cool completely before topping with glaze.
💬 FAQ
Absolutely! You can skip the streusel or replace the pecans with walnuts or oats for a nut-free version.
Start baking at 425°F for 5 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350°F for the rest of the baking time. The initial high heat helps the muffins rise tall.
💡Pro Tips
Measure Flour Correctly - As always, with any recipe, use a kitchen scale, as it is the best form of measuring your ingredients. If you don't have a kitchen scale, fluff your flour, scoop flour with a spoon into a measuring cup and level off.
Don't over mix the batter - Mix just until the ingredients are combined. Over mixing can make muffins dense instead of light and fluffy.
Space out the muffin liners - Using only 6 liners in a 12-cup pan gives these muffins room to rise and dome beautifully.
Add glaze at the right time - Let muffins cool slightly before drizzling maple glaze so it doesn't completely melt into the streusel. Or, keep the glaze stored until you're ready to eat a muffin.
❄ Storage
Room temperature: Keep these Pumpkin Muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for about 5 days.
📖 Recipe Card
Pumpkin Muffins with Pecan Streusel
Ingredients
Pecan Streusel
- ½ cup (60 g) all purpose flour
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (50 g) dark brown sugar packed
- ⅔ cup (66 g) pecans chopped
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 tablespoon (56 g) unsalted butter melted
Pumpkin Muffins
- 1¾ cup (210 g) all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (200 g) dark brown sugar packed
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup (65 g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1⅓ cup (325 g) canned pumpkin puree
- 2 large eggs
Maple Glaze
- 2 tablespoon (28 g) unsalted butter
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Pecan Streusel
- In a bowl, combine the flour, sugars, chopped pecans, and cinnamon. Mix until well combined, then add the melted butter and mix with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.½ cup all purpose flour, ¼ cup granulated sugar, ¼ cup dark brown sugar, ⅔ cup pecans, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, 4 tablespoon unsalted butter
Pumpkin Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with 6 liners each, spacing them apart. (If you only have one pan, bake half the batch at a time. See notes).
- In a bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and whisk until completely combined. Set aside.1¾ cup all purpose flour, 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt
- In a large bowl, combine dark brown sugar, oil, unsweetened applesauce, pumpkin puree, and eggs and whisk together until completely smooth.1 cup dark brown sugar, ½ cup vegetable oil, ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce, 1⅓ cup canned pumpkin puree, 2 large eggs
- Sift in the dry ingredients and mix until JUST incorporated. Do not over mix.
- Scoop batter into muffin liners reaching the top of the liner, then crumble the streusel on top. Make sure to use all the streusel on the muffins (it will seem like a lot, but it's really not).
- Bake the muffins for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350℉ and bake for another 15-17 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the muffin pan onto a cooling rack, then cool completely before topping with glaze.
Maple Glaze
- In a small sauce pan, add the butter and maple syrup and place on medium heat. Let the butter melt completely, then pour in the powdered sugar, salt, and whisk until combined. Whisk thoroughly until there are no lumps (this could take a couple minutes). Initially it will look pretty lumpy from the powdered sugar, but the more you whisk, the more it comes together. Add milk to thin out as needed, but not too much. It will thicken as it cools.2 tablespoon unsalted butter, ¼ cup maple syrup, 1 cup powdered sugar, pinch of salt
- Let it sit for at least 15 minutes to thicken a little before drizzling over the muffins.
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