Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

This soft and flavorful pumpkin doughnut muffins recipe is one of the best ways to use canned pumpkin! The cinnamon sugar coating takes these muffins over the top.

Why we love this recipe

I love a pumpkin pie as much as the next girl, but I figured there had to be something more I could do with all those tempting cans of pumpkin puree in the baking aisle.

While I was pondering this, I happened to be making cinnamon butter muffins, and a lightbulb went off. What if we took that muffin recipe and added a few other ingredients…starting with that pumpkin puree!

And what if we coated these pumpkin muffins with a little butter and rolled them in cinnamon sugar?

Let’s just say the batch I just made went like hotcakes, and my taste testers declared them to be pumpkin pie in muffin form. In other words…PUMPKIN HEAVEN.

Ingredients you need

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

How to make this recipe

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

Step 2: Put flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, allspice in a bowl and stir them up until everything is combined.

Step 3: Mix up some pumpkin puree and buttermilk in another bowl.

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Step 4: Mix some soft butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl until it is fluffy.

Step 5: Beat a couple of eggs one by one into the sugar mixture.

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Step 6: Add the flour and the pumpkin buttermilk to the mixing bowl. Your pumpkin muffin batter is ready!

Step 7: Divide the batter among the 12 cups in your muffin pan. The batter will come to the top of each opening, but don’t worry, it’s going to bake up just fine. Pop them in the oven for 30 minutes.

Step 8: While the muffins are baking, mix up some white sugar and cinnamon and melt some butter.

Step 9: Let the muffins cool for ten minutes (at this point you will be fighting off people who have gotten a whiff of the aroma), then brush the muffins with butter and roll them in the cinnamon sugar.

Step 10: Let the muffins cool on a rack, guarding them closely from muffin pilferers.

Recipe FAQs

Want to round out your meal?

We love a cup of fresh mint tea with these muffins, and if we are feeling extra sassy we go for a cup of red wine hot chocolate. I know, so naughty!

Other muffin recipes we love

Looking for more muffin inspiration? Here is our complete collection of muffin recipes!

Could you leave us some stars?

If you try this recipe, we would love to hear how it came out for you! I’d be super grateful if you could leave a star rating (you pick how many stars! 🌟 ) and your thoughts in the Comments section.

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

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★★★★★

5 from 1 review

This soft and flavorful pumpkin doughnut muffins recipe is one of the best ways to use canned pumpkin! The cinnamon sugar coating takes these muffins over the top.

• Author: Kate Morgan Jackson
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cooling Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 12 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American
• Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 10 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray.
3. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and allspice.
4. In another bowl, stir up buttermilk and pumpkin puree.
5. Beat 10 tablespoons of butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until it is nice and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
6. Add flour mixture in three portions, alternating with two portions of the pumpkin mixture, until everything is nice and combined.
7. Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cup openings and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
8. While the muffins are baking, mix the white sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Let muffins cool for 10 long minutes in the pan.
9. Take the muffins out of the pan, brush them all over with butter, then roll them in the sugar mixture.
10. Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack and serve ’em up!

Notes

• Make sure you are using pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie mix – the cans look super similar!  Look for it in the baking aisle.
• Take the wrapper off the butter before you bring it to room temperature so the soft butter doesn’t stick to that wrapper.
• If you want, you can just coat the top of the muffins with the butter and cinnamon sugar mixture.  They are a little neater to eat that way (although I’ve never heard a complaint about a messy muffin!)
• These are best the day you make them, but they will keep for a few days in a covered container.  If they last that long!