Oat Flour Pumpkin Muffins
Soft, fluffy and fall flavorful pumpkin muffins made with oat flour. This is a make ahead, one bowl, gluten-free recipe.
Recipe overview
Once the banana muffins had taken (perfect) shape, I immediately knew I wanted to do a pumpkin version: pumpkin muffins made with oat flour.
Pumpkin puree is not a direct swap for banana though; it lacks both the added fat and sugars and compositionally is more water than banana. So while it’s a great moisture addition, you can still make a dry pumpkin bake – which is close to impossible with a banana bread.
For those reasons, technically this recipe has more in common with my brown butter muffins than it does the banana oat muffins. The goal, as always, is to find a balance of ingredients that yields a tender, moist muffin that’s not as soft as a cupcake but never dry. Also, my favorite part: to get a good dome!
Recipe Ingredients
Butter: Unsalted, but if you are using salted, you can halve the salt listed below. No need to soften but careful when melting, if butter starts spitting then you’ve lost some precious fat and moisture and the muffins will come out dry.
Pumpkin puree: I used to be a proponent of making my own pumpkin puree with those cute sugar pumpkins but those are incredibly watery. Some cans you get from the store are also fairly ‘wet’. Libby’s pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling!) is a good one because it’s quite thick.
Sugar: Light or dark brown is fine. If you like you can add some turbinado or organic sugar on the tops of the muffins before they bake for a crunchy topping.
Spices: Unless you are a regular baker/cook you might not have all the spices listed below. You can use pumpkin pie spice as a swap for all the spices listed (2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice). And if you like you can add a pinch of clove to the mix for a little punch although I know clove is divisive.
Milk: Whole or 2% milk.
Oat flour: The question I get most often about oat flour is; can I make it myself? And what brand to you use? To the latter: arrowhead mills, anthony’s or bob’s red mill. To the former, if you’ve had success processing rolled oats into a very fine flour before then I believe it will work here.
Tricks to getting those perfectly domed muffin tops
- Don’t overmix the batter: flour goes in last and should just be stirred in until you can’t see it. No more! This is especially true with muffins that have gluten in them so it’s less important here but still no need to over mix.
- Rest the batter: For at least four hours in the fridge but preferably overnight. While I do this with these brown butter muffins for a good dome, it’s not just for looks in an oat flour muffin because this rest/chill time allows the oat bits to dissolve and bind into the batter.
- Bake at a high temperature: Some people suggest getting a dome by starting the oven out at 425 or even 450 for the first five minutes then baking at the average 350. I’m the type of person that needs to put something in the oven and move on to the next project, so I just do a full bake at 400F which gives me perfect domes without fussing over the oven temperature.
- Fill every other muffin cup: Whenever I make a muffin video you see me use two 12 cup pans to make just one batch of 12 muffins. This is I trick I learned from Michelle at HBH; it allows for better heat circulation around the individual muffins so they rise and dome perfectly.
Oat Flour Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 113g or ½ cup butter
- 200 g or 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
- 200g or 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ tsp ginger
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 240g or 2 cups oat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 160 g or ⅔ cup whole milk
Method
- Melt the butter in a large, heatproof bowl. Stir in the sugar, whisking very well. Add the eggs and whisk until thick and fluffy.
- Add the pumpkin puree, salt, spices and vanilla and whisk to combine.
- Add the oat flour, baking soda and milk and whisk to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the fridge overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line two cupcake tins with muffin cups, alternating so each tin only has six cups and no two cups are next to each other.
- Fill muffin cups with ¼ cup batter (almost to the top). Bake for 20 minutes until the tops spring back when pressed.
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Delicious high fiber breakfast muffin. I’ve made 5+ times… and never let sit overnight, straight to oven for this busy Mom and they’re fantastic.
These muffins are exactly what we wanted for a fall breakfast treat! Soft, chewy and full of spiced pumpkin flavor. I’m always on the hunt for gluten free options for the kiddos and these will now be in rotation.
In my previous comment, I totally forgot to mention that I also swapped out the whole milk for unsweetened almond milk. For those of us who are dairy-free and gluten-free, my swaps made the recipe safe for our sensitivities. 🙂
Glad the swaps worked out for you Cyndi!
This recipe, as written, is no doubt delicious. I decided to make it a bit healthier by making the following swaps: 1) instead 1/2 cup of butter, I used 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil & 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce; 2) instead of brown sugar, I used coconut sugar. I followed the instructions regarding leaving the batter in the fridge overnight then baked as the recipe suggests. They came out absolutely perfect – nicely risen with domes and the texture is spot on! I will definitely be adding this recipe to my list of favorites. 🙂
These came out amazing!! I’ve tried numerous oat flour pumpkin recipes and yours stands out from all of them! The flavor and the texture most of all is absolutely divine!
Fantastic! Made them dairy-free with coconut oil and oat milk and they came out perfectly. Also did not refrigerate overnight or use two pans to alternate muffin cups. Still rose nice and high and perfect light texture. Added a bit of mini chocolate chips. A keeper for sure!
Vanilla is listed in the ingredients twice…..was an ingredient not listed?
Nope, just an accidental repeat
Well, I did let them sit overnight and baked them this morning..so good. My grandkids liked them as well.
Why overnight and why spread the cups out?
so that they rise higher
These were so tender, fluffy, and flavorful. I will definitely be making these again. I also love the fact that the batter can be made ahead of time.
regarding oat flour pumpkin muffins. Some of the ingredients are not converted to cups. Wish this could be updated as the reviews are really good
done!
I’ve made these a handful of times, and let me say this recipe is what caused me to take the plunge and try packaged oat flour! Sam, you are right that the packaged stuff is so much finer and more consistent than what I could make at home. It impacts the texture a lot! With homemade oat flour this recipe tasted more like baked oatmeal, but with the packaged kind the texture is much more of what you’d expect from a muffin.
After making the recipe exactly as written, I have also made it a couple of times with half of the sugar with good results!
I had some frozen pumpkin puree and oat flour I wanted to use up and found this recipe. It was a hit! Instead of muffins, I made one loaf and two mini bundts in an electric bundt pan maker (sort of like a waffle iron) and they came out great. Moist, spicy and just a little crumbly. Thank you, Sam!
AMAZING! I loved the idea of making these the night before and being able to bake them fresh the next morning (perfect with coffee). 🙌🏼 This is my new go-to recipe. Such a delicate muffin but packed with flavor and moisture. I’m not even gluten free, but Sam’s oat flour CCC recipe got me hooked on using oat flour, and these muffins are unreal. Follow the instructions and you’ll have perfection. Thank you for another amazing recipe, Sam!
this is awesome to hear! and lol, I am so glad I’ve converted another someone to oat flour. I have plans for more recipes with it for this year – it’s just so good!
Loved this oat flour pumpkin bread recipe. Nice texture, crumb and was plenty moist. Added chocolate chips and made in loaf pan. It didn’t last long.
excellent recipe! I love the flavor oat flour brings.
thank you Gwen! it really does add something special 😀
i have a big batch of homemade roasted butternut puree in my fridge, I’ve searched “pumpkin” on your blog like 4 times last week lol, this recipe comes at the perfect time, will try it asap!