Here’s the Christmas muffin me and my little pumpkin baked this year as a single-serving to share treat to practice baking and enjoy eating.
To add a little Christmas flare, we topped our yummy, soft, muffin with crushed pecans and a sprinkle of candy cane (her fav winter treat). For that extra crunch we recommend sprinkling with some coarse sugar (turbinato sugar) as well.
Your bakery-style pumpkin muffin will come out of the oven perfectly domed with a crusty muffin top and a soft decadent cake underneath.
Pro-tip for a really dome-y muffin: Bake the first 5 minutes at 425F and then reduce the temperature to 350F.
The closest thing to this muffin is a Starbucks pumpkin & pepita loaf slice. It has the exact same texture, somehow, with a fraction of added oil, sugar and calories. If you’re going for an exact replica, top your muffin with chopped pepitas (pumpkin seeds).
If you’re into the chocolate+pumpkin combo, fold in 1 tbsp chocolate chips in the batter. If you’re into the pumpkin+cheesecake vibe, add a dollop of cream cheese in the center of your muffin batter.
Both will be amazing!
It’s best to enjoy straight out of the oven (after cooling of course, don’t burn your LO’s mouths, which unfortunately I may have done on a few occasions!) but it also will keep a few days totally moist and delish.
Hope you give this recipe a try and let me know what you think!
Single-serving Pumpkin Muffin
Equipment
- Jumbo/regular muffin pan or ramekin
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup pumpkin puree (60 g) sub applesauce or mashed banana
- 1 tsp oil (5 g)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar (12 g) sub regular table sugar, maple syrup or other sweetener
- 1/4 cup flour (30 g) gf all purpose if desired
- 1/8 tsp baking soda or use total 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice or ground cinnamon + pinch of nutmeg, clove, ginger
- pinch of salt
- 2-3 tsp any milk/yogurt or water (10 g) I use unsweetened almond milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and grease/line one jumbo muffin cavity (or two regular).
- In a small bowl blend pumpkin, oil, sugar.
- In a mug whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, salt.
- Add dry into wet and combine via folding (don't overmix). If the batter seems too dry add 1 tsp water/milk at a time and mix. I used 2 tsp unsweetened almond milk.
- Transfer to muffin pan and (optional) sprinkle with any toppings. We used chopped pecans / crushed candy cane (I also like to add some coarse sugar).
- Bake 25 minutes or until the center is done, cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
Notes
- This muffin is as soft and yummy as they come but if you want an even richer tasting muffin, increase oil another tsp or so and reduce milk/yogurt by the same amount.
- You can make 2 snack sized muffins out of this recipe, just reduce baking time to 20 min or so.