Warmly spiced pumpkin muffins crowned with a buttery, cinnamon-scented pecan streusel topping. Baking up a cozy batch of these pumpkin muffins with pecan streusel will instantly have your home smelling like fall!
I happened to have a book club meeting the night I was testing this pumpkin streusel muffins recipe so I took the extras with me to share with the group. With one whiff, everyone went from lamenting the end of summer to being so ready for autumn's arrival.
Isn't it funny how food can do that? How it can help us shift from one mindset to the next. These pumpkin muffins with pecan streusel topping do it with ease, as the moment they hit the oven, they start working their magic.
As the aroma of warm cinnamon swirls through the air, buttery notes of toasting pecans and the subtle sweetness of creamy pumpkin coalesce into a singular "fall is here!" scent. The crumbly crown of streusel gently melts during baking, rendering into a crisp sugar topping deepened by the caramelly flavors of sweet maple and warm brown sugar.
Easy. Decadent. Cozy. Perfect for sharing with your book club (or sports team! or improv group! or neighbor!) or for simply welcoming fall on one of those first crisp autumn afternoons.
ingredients for pumpkin muffins with pecan streusel
ingredient notes & swaps
- Pecans are so deliciously buttery and rich, and they don't have that bitter astringency like walnuts nor a hard crunch like almonds. They are soft and toasty - just the type of friend that creamy pumpkin and autumnal spices need in their lives! I like to use whole pecan halves so that I can break them down myself and ensure there are a few larger pecan pieces on top of each muffin. If you want to go nut-free, oats are a great swap, just use ½ cup rolled oats instead of 1 cup pecan halves.
- Using maple syrup in your streusel topping gives it an even stronger fall-like flavor that goes so well with buttery pecans and warm cinnamon. It's too liquidy to serve as the only source of sugar in the topping, so you'll blend it with some brown sugar for more body and delicious crunch.
- It's really important that the butter is cold when you go to blend it into your streusel mixture. I recommend dicing it while it's cold, then keeping it in a small dish in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
- Cooking with store-bought pumpkin pie spice blend is one of the best ways to make sure that no one spice (I see you, cloves and nutmeg!) dominates the flavor profile of your pecan pumpkin muffins. If you want to make your own and have everything on hand though, it's easy! A good basic ratio for homemade pie spice is: 4 parts cinnamon, 2 parts ginger, 2 parts nutmeg, 1 part allspice, and 1 part cloves.
Is it better to use baking powder or baking soda in muffins?
It depends on the other ingredients in your muffin recipe. Baking soda requires acidic ingredients to create lift in your muffin batter, while baking powder has a dry acid in it already so it is able to aerate the batter all on its own. This pumpkin streusel muffin recipe uses both leavening agents because while it does have a couple of mildly acidic ingredients such as brown sugar and pumpkin puree, it's not quite enough to lift the muffins without the help of some baking powder too. A combo approach creates the best, most tender and fluffy muffins here!
pumpkin muffins with pecan streusel recipe
Warmly spiced pumpkin muffins crowned with a buttery, cinnamon-scented pecan streusel topping. Baking up a cozy batch of these pumpkin muffins with pecan streusel will instantly have your home smelling like fall!
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
Ingredients
for the pecan streusel topping:
- 1 cup pecan halves
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ⅔ cup lightly packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 6 tablespoons cold butter, diced into cubes
for the pumpkin muffin batter:
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- ¾ cup lightly packed brown sugar
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 ¾ cups pumpkin puree (the amount from a standard 15-ounce can)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla paste or extract
- 1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ and prepare the pecan streusel topping. Reserve a handful of pecan halves (about 10-12 pieces should do it!) and toss the rest into a food processor or blender. Pulse a few times until lightly chopped, then add the flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, and maple syrup. Pulse a few more times until combined, then add the cold diced butter. Pulse lightly, just until the mixture turns to a chunky crumble. It's good to have some fairly large clumps of butter in the mix; these are what turn into the crisp streusel topping later! Fetch that handful of pecan halves you set aside earlier and just use your hands to break each into a few pieces, adding them to the bowl of streusel topping. Refrigerate the topping while you work on the pumpkin muffin batter next.
- Add the muffin batter dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice) to a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- Combine the wet ingredients in a separate mixing bowl: whisk the room temperature eggs, brown sugar, olive oil, pumpkin puree, vanilla, and orange zest together until smooth.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredient mixtures together in a large mixing bowl and stir gently, just until the batter comes together. It's okay if there are a few lumps remaining, they'll work themselves out during baking.
- Grease a 12-hole muffin pan (or 2 sixes like I have here) and equally distribute your pumpkin muffin batter between them. The cups will be pretty full! This will give you tall and fluffy, super moist muffins at the end.
- Now it's time for the fun part: adding that buttery pecan streusel! You want to top each muffin with a hefty pile of the topping, then press down gently so that the mixture sticks to the muffin batter. If the larger chunks of pecan end up unevenly distributed, just rearrange them so that each of your streusel topped pumpkin muffins has a pecan piece or two on top.
- Transfer your muffin tins to the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the topping is crisp and golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs on it.
- Cool the muffins in the pan for about 5 minutes, then gently remove them. If you have buttered the muffin cups enough (or used paper liners!) they should release cleanly and easily. Arrange your pumpkin pecan streusel muffins on wire cooling racks to cool completely and enjoy as soon as you like!
Notes
- The secret to this recipe is to really load each pumpkin muffin with streusel topping. That said, you'll likely end up with more pecan streusel topping than you can use. Feel free to reduce the proportion if you don't want leftovers. Personally, I grab an apple from the fruit bowl and use the leftovers in a quick Apple Streusel bake, so keep an eye out for that recipe 😉 Or, simply bake the streusel on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for 15 minutes alongside the muffins and then enjoy it as a topping for yogurt or ice cream.
- These pumpkin pecan streusel muffins are best enjoyed the day you bake them, as the crispy streusel topping loses its crunch when stored in an airtight container overnight. They're still great though! We have happily eaten these days later and they are always delicious as ever.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Baked Goods
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 454
- Sugar: 29 g
- Sodium: 176.9 mg
- Fat: 22.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 59.2 g
- Protein: 5.9 g
- Cholesterol: 46.3 mg
FAQs
What is the difference between streusel and crumble?
These two toppings are indeed very similar, but one important defining feature of streusel is that it has large, uneven clumps of sugary, buttery goodness while crumble topping tends to be more uniform and sandy.
Do you put streusel on muffins before or after baking?
Before! You might worry that it would melt off in the heat of the oven (I did too at first!) but trust me, the streusel topping stays put and becomes caramelized and crisp as the muffins bake.
What is the secret to moist pumpkin muffins?
I've got good news for you: pumpkin muffins usually come out nice and moist without any fussing because of the pumpkin puree! This ingredient has a naturally high moisture content, and when combined with a fluid source of fat such as oil, forms a moisture-rich batter that gets tender in the oven instead of dry. Another tip which applies to not just this pumpkin pecan muffins recipe but all types of muffins: take care not to over-mix the batter or the muffins could turn out tough and dense. This is why we mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately at first, that way you can combine them at the end with minimal stirring needed.
dig in!
Enjoy & let me know what you think 🌙 💛
