The Best Gluten-free Vegan Pumpkin Crumb top Muffins!
I’ve always loved walking into the kitchen on a cool fall morning and baking something … but especially something pumpkin! This morning, though it wasn’t very cool, it still felt like fall and the girls and I felt like baking something yummy for breakfast.
When I first said “oooh let’s make some pumpkin muffins for breakfast” they both shouted “YAY!!” and got busy collecting bowls, the staple ingredients we use in most baking: gf flour, baking powder, salt… and of course they grabbed chocolate.
Unfortunately, I had to inform them they we would not be using chocolate this morning as they had been having too much ‘sugar’ too early in the morning this week … Halloween dreadfully showed up on a Monday and sugar has been used one too many times as a bribe this week to keep the peace (am I the only mom like this?!?!…maybe don’t answer.). Spoiler alert – this recipe does have sugar in it!
So, as we started getting to work with ingredients and I broke out a good ole can of pure organic pumpkin … as I didn’t have any fresh cooked on-hand to use, I cranked open a can and my youngest first reaction was:
“eeeww I not gonna eat that!“,
as my oldest said,
“Mooomm, we ate that for dinner last night, don’t put that in our muffins!“.
For the record, I explained, we had roasted butternut squash with a little cinnamon for dinner and albeit they are both squash and delicious with cinnamon, these muffins, I assured, would be different!
Well, after putting a little of this and a little of that (all listed below in the ingredients to be fair) in a bowl with the kiddos taking turns measuring, mixing and spilling, we scooped the batter into the muffin tins and whipped up the yummy crumb topping.
To be honest, I mention below in the directions to sprinkle remaining crumb topping evenly over the muffins but I am not sure how much really will be left if the kiddos are involved … I had to swat their hands away (lovingly) multiple times from eating pinch fulls from the bowl.
I’m sure you are ready to get baking, if anything like me you have limited time to read or bake and just want to reap the reward as soon as you can …
So enjoy this simple and OH SO delicious pumpkin crumb muffin that will totally confuse any gluten-free vegan skeptic out there! And, kids that don’t think they will like the pumpkin will be coming back for seconds … and thirds.
Enjoy!
Xxoo
Me & the girls
THE BEST Gluten-free Vegan Pumpkin Crumb Muffins
Equipment
- 1 Muffin Tin
- 1 Bowl
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 Cup Oat flour, gluten-free if making your own, make sure it's fine ground
- 1 Cup Gluten-free all-purpose flour we use King Arthur 1:1 or our own blend
- ¼ Cup Maple Sugar granulated maple sugar, not syrup
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice see note for substitute
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon or 1 tsp if you really want it to pop
- ¼ Cup Chia seeds
Wet Ingredients
- 1 Cup Pumpkin Puree pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling
- ½ Cup Apple Sauce
- ¼ Cup Maple Syrup
- ½ Cup Coconut Milk Soy would also work
- ¼ Cup Coconut oil melted
- 1 tsp Pure Vanilla
Crumb Topping
- ¾ Cup Gluten-free All-purpose Flour
- ⅓ Cup Maple Sugar granulated maple sugar, not syrup
- ½ Cup Rolled Oats, gluten-free
- 1 ½ tsp Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
- 5 Tbl Vegan Butter *Coconut oil will also work
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 °F and line muffin tin with unbleached muffin papers. Or you could spray with a non-stick cooking spray. *
- Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and whisk together well.
- Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl or use a large enough measuring glass to measure them out 'on top of each other'.
- Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Make sure to mix it well together so there is no flour mixture or chia seed clumps.
- Using a XX cup spring scoop or spoon, portion mixture into the 12 muffin tins.
- Once that is done, quickly mix all the crumb topping ingredients, except vegan butter, into a bowl. Then cut in vegan butter (or non-melted coconut oil) with a pastry blender or two larger forks until all is mixed together into 'crumbs'.
- Scoop one tablespoon of the crumb mixture on top of each muffin. If you have some remaining, continuing adding to the muffin tops (equally) or discard remaining (aka eat on something else, yum!!).
- Place muffins into a 375 °F oven, close the oven, set timer for 15 minutes and REDUCE HEAT to 350 °F (as soon as timer is set). Check muffins at 15 minutes, if a toothpick inserted does not come out clean put them back in for 1 more minute and check again. Note, they will cook fast from this point so do not leave them for very long!
Notes
- Gluten-free all-purpose flour: I have only tried this recipe with King Arthur 1:1 and our own blend with similar ingredients. I believe most gf 1:1 flours would work, but cannot guarantee the same results. If your blend does not have xanthum gum, add in 1/4 tsp to the recipe.
- Maple Sugar: you could replace with granulated sugar or coconut sugar, you could potentially replace with maple syrup but I am not sure how this would alter the consistency of the muffins - I will try and report back! (If you try it, please leave a comment below!)
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: blend of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. If you do not have this I would recommend substituting with 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.
- We have only made this recipe with coconut milk, I believe soy milk or other non-dairy milks would work well, but could alter the flavor of the muffins. Please report back if you try!
- Oats: we use organic, gluten-free rolled oats, not quick-oats. I am not sure how this would change the texture or topping.
- Coconut Oil: we used XXX Vegan butter to cut into the crumb topping, I have used coconut oil in place of this with similar toppings to breads and muffins. It changes the texture a little, but still tastes great!
- Muffin-tin liners: we use unbleached muffin tin papers for all cupcakes and muffins for ease (and less cleaning for mom!!), but especially with crumb topped muffins as they can be more challenging to take out of the pan. If you do not have these spray the tin with a coconut or avocado oil spray (or wipe on the oil with a paper towel) and ensure you get the top of the muffin tin too for easy removal!
