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This recipe is Ahh-mazing! Made these today, and they’re super easy and super delicious. They smell SO good while baking and, the glaze? OMG… l.o.v.e. Thanks for the recipe!
Susan
The conversation in my head went something like this:
I need pumpkin muffins NOW.
But that oil and sugar. Dern.
And so began the quest for a healthy pumpkin muffin that still tasted like a yummy pumpkin muffin. The original version of these Maple Glazed Pumpkin Muffins was actually a recipe from a bed and breakfast – cute, right? This “healthy” version follows a basic rule of halves.
- Half the sugar of the original, subbing real maple syrup for some but not all because DANG girl that stuff is expensive.
- Half of the flour swapped out for whole wheat. Fiber. Healthy. Simple as dat.
- Half of the total oil, using olive oil. Guess what? NO TASTE. I served it at a brunch with friends and they were all surprised when I mentioned the olive oil. And ironically my other friend who had brought pumpkin bread also made hers with olive oil. This is one where you can get away with that sort of healthy debauchery.
- Half of the glaze. NOT! Hello? The maple glaze is the bedazzling crown of this puffy little muffin.
This recipe is basically five simple things: mix the wet, mix the dry, mix them both together, bake, and glaze. I love recipes that can be explained in one sentence.
Let’s talk muffin tops. I mean jumbo, puffy, extra large, over-proportionate, why even bother with the little nubbin base kind of muffin tops. Muffin tops are basically the heart and soul of the muffin, and I won’t take no for an answer.
I’ll let you in on one of my most professional baking tips: I get extra perfect domes for my muffin tops by scooping them into the muffin tin using an ice cream scoop with a thumb button. What are those called again?
Yes, they’re going to be huge. But don’t doubt for one second whether or not you’re going to die and go to muffin top heaven when those fluffy things come out of the oven. The scoop just works, yo.
Reason #8274 why I love these muffins: they are rough and bumpy and just weirdly beautiful when they come out of the oven.
It’s like this rough baked pumpkin terrain that is somehow perfectly puffed up right in the middle is just begging to be smothered with smooth maple glaze to make the most incredible muffin top art.
Which brings me to the glaze.
THE GLAZE. I couldn’t love it more. I did not skimp on the butter and sugar for the glaze because this glaze is not to be messed with. Like, wowz. I’d be sad if you didn’t make the muffins, but I’d be sadder if you never gave yourself the chance to make the best glaze ever.
It tastes like maple and butter, maintains this thick and creamy consistency, and sets within seconds. When you get it just right, it runs down the sides just enough to get you those dramatically gorgeous drips but stops dripping before hitting the counter. That’s what I call winning. When it sets, it gets that nice dry to the touch kind of thing going on, but then you bite in while it’s still warm and you get the creamy cream-ness of the butter and maple up in your mouth.
I can’t even. ♥
The time is now. Go forth and make your muffins.
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Healthy Maple Glazed Pumpkin Muffins
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
Description
These Healthy Maple Glazed Pumpkin Muffins use whole grains, less oil, and less sugar to make a jumbo fall muffin. Yummm.
Ingredients
For the Muffins
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon each cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup real maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 3 eggs
For the Glaze
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 tbs. maple syrup
- 1–2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Mix the dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and sugar). In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients (pumpkin, oil, maple syrup, milk, and eggs).
- Combine the dry and wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl, stirring until just combined. Fill each muffin tin almost to the top with a scoop of batter – I like to use an old fashioned ice cream scoop with the little thumb press to get a nice rounded top.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are puffy and spring back when you press them. Remove from the muffin pan and let cool before glazing.
- For the glaze, melt butter in saucepan. Add powdered sugar and vanilla – it will be thick and sticky. Stir in maple syrup. Add water until desired consistency is reached.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: healthy maple glazed pumpkin muffins, healthy pumpkin muffins, pumpkin muffins
These are very good! My large muffin cups were over-the-top filled and they baked fine (a couple extra minutes til they sprung back). For my high altitude, I used my standard tweaks of (in this case) 2 tbsp more flour, a tad less leavening, used a little less sugar (2/3 cup), and a little more maple syrup. This formula really helps my baking rise properly, and I got nice high domes. They’ll go into the freezer for our Canadian Thanksgiving next weekend, when I will thaw them and glaze them. They’re delicious without the glaze, but will be perfect with the maple glaze. And you’re right… Canadian maple syrup is expensive! But so worth it.
Just made your Maple glazed pumpkin muffins….wow! I’ve been looking for a new recipe to switch up from the one I’ve been using for many years and this is it! Just delicious and I could eat the glaze with a spoon. Thank you for an easy, yummy recipe. 🎃🧡🍁. @pinchofyum.
Instructions should add to grease the muffin tins!
Could you make this using just the all purpose flour instead of half whole wheat and half AP?
Made these this weekend and they are so good!! Do you think these could somehow be made into a cake? I want to make it for my daughter’s birthday!
Hi, Jillian! We haven’t tested this recipe as a cake version yet, but we have this pumpkin cake recipe that would be delicious! https://pinchofyum.com/pumpkin-bundt-cake
Total of 3.5 cups of flour? Just checking.
Thats correct!
So good!! My whole family loved them. We skipped the glaze as we’re not fans of super sweet things and they were still amazing! I also have a gluten allergy and subbed the whole grain flour for gluten free oat flour and regular flour for same gluten free version.
So glad you liked the recipe, Andrea!
Absolutely delicious! My kids told me I NEED to make them again!
I notice the recipe takes two cups of pumpkin puree so you use 2 cans of pumpkin? Trader Joe’s is a 15 oz can.
Love the recipe, perfect mix of sweet and savoury. I have tried this recipe three times, but I can’t get the glaze to set properly when poured over muffins. Going to give it another go next week, any tips?
Can you explain a bit more about the consistency of your glaze?
We found these quite bland definitely would double the spice next time.
I am a gluten free person for health reasons and I’ve gotten to the point I can just adjust most conventional recipes myself. All I did was substitute the flours in this recipe for gluten free (I used slightly less because they usually absorb more of the moisture it seems and that makes it crumble). I added about a teaspoon or so of pumpkin spice to the glaze because I love spicy. It was amazing! This isn’t the first recipe of yours I have tried and it definitely won’t be the last. Thank you for making GOOD FOOD! So many recipes online are garbage when you make them. These are legit. You are awesome.
-Picky Eater
So happy to hear that, Kristin! Thanks for the gluten-free tips, too! 🙂
These are my kids very favourite muffins.
I’ve made them exactly as in the recipe but I’ve also taken the following liberties:
1) Increased the maple syrup quantity to 1/2 cup (and decreased the sugar to 1/2 a cup). I use dark maple syrup because I think it tastes much better. I think I might try to change the ratio even further to 3/4 cup maple syrup and 1/4 sugar because we are all about the maple syrup.
2) I’ve substituted butternut squash for the pumpkin many times, only because I’m far more likely to have one on hand than J am a pumpkin.
They always turn out perfect!
Thank you for this recipe.
These were delicious! Will definitely make again! Thanks for the yummy recipe.
I followed the recipe exactly and ended up adding 1/4 c more of oil, 1/2 c buttermilk, and 1/4 c milk because the proportions of wet:dry ingredients in the original recipe were off. Even after a LOT of stirring there was a ton of flour that could not be absorbed by the wet ingredients. They were terrific after I made those changes. I also added 1/4 c of raisins and 1/4 c of chopped walnuts once I got the batter issue sorted out. Thanks for sharing your recipes.
Sounds soooo yummy! If I don’t have clove powder, nutmeg and cinnamon can I sub for pumpkin spice mix instead? Im drooling just thinking about them! 🙂
Yes, definitely!
Can you freeze these after they’ve been glazed?
Just made these today, I love everything pumpkin even though its still summer!
I love baking with Olive oil also
These are Amazing!!! And yes your right, the glaze makes them sooooo good. Gotta hide them or I’ll eat more than one in a day!! 🍁❤🍂😊
So, so good!!
I didn’t change a thing and they were perfection.
I’ve just moved from NZ to Canada and one of my must-dos was buy a can of pumpkin (don’t really find that stuff back home!) and bake something pumpkin spiced. I added half a cup of chopped pecans to the mix and these have exceeded all expectations at pumpkin spiced flavored goods – not too sad I’m missing out on spring if I can eat these for the rest of fall 😀
Can you give some additional tips about how to get the glaze right? Mine turned out more clear than white? Not sure what I did wrong.
(1) Does it matter if what kind of olive oil (EV? light?) and (2) did you line the tins w/ butter – no paper cups? (I’m a beginner)
just wondering, why no vanilla extract?
Just a preference. 🙂 Feel free to add it!
How do you prep your muffin tips?
Usually just a little bit of baking spray!
Do you think I could make these as mini muffins? Any guess how long the baking time would be? They sound divine.
Yes! I’d start with cutting the bake time in half, and check to see until they’re done.