Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Muffins are hearty gluten-free, dairy-free muffins made from rolled oats, pumpkin puree, and warm fall spices.
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It’s pumpkin spice season again, and muffins are one of the easiest and most versatile baking projects you can tackle. These ones are made from oats, and they’re only lightly sweetened, but the generous amount of spices added to them makes up for it.
So go ahead, and make a batch of these Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Muffins. Eat them for breakfast or anytime to get you into the fall mood, even if it’s still hot enough to wear shorts outside. Scarves and cozy sweaters are optional.
How to Make Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Making these spicy muffins starts the same as making any oatmeal muffins – grinding half of the oats into flour. Note that if your oats are very thick, you may consider grinding all of the oats if you don’t want your muffins to have a noticeable “oaty” texture.
Whisk together the oats and oat flour, along with the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Then whisk together the wet ingredients (pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, and grated ginger).
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a hand mixer on low speed until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Increase the mixer speed to high and continue mixing for 2 minutes. Note that while we don’t want to mix gluten-containing muffins in this way, it’s an important step for gluten-free muffins to help them rise better, which gives them a lighter and fluffier texture.
Cover the bowl of batter with a lid, plate, or plastic wrap and let the batter rest in the fridge for at least an hour, or overnight.
When you’re ready to bake, prepare a muffin pan by lining it with paper or silicone liners, or generously greasing the cups. Give the batter a stir before dividing it between the cups and sprinkling the pumpkin seeds over the batter.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it. Allow the muffins to cool on a wire rack. Store any leftovers in an airtight container or zipper bag for up to 2 days at room temperature or for a longer period of time in the freezer.
Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Muffins Ingredients
- Rolled oats – Note that the rolled oats that you choose will affect the finished texture of the muffins. Normally, I use Quaker Large Flake Oats to make my oatmeal muffins. These oats are thinner, but larger/thicker than quick-cooking oats. I can barely notice any oaty texture in my muffins with these oats. However, this time I used Rogers Large Flake Oats, and they were much thicker. This batch of muffins resulted in the oats being very noticeable and quite chewy – not bad, but maybe not what you’re looking for in a muffin. If your oats are very thick, you could grind all of them vs. just half in step one. Do not use steel-cut oats here.
- Sugar – I used granulated sugar, but using light brown sugar would work here, too.
- Baking powder
- Ground cinnamon
- Baking soda
- Table salt
- Freshly grated nutmeg or ground nutmeg – Ground nutmeg (and all ground spices) start losing their flavor quite quickly after grinding. I recommend using whole nutmeg and grating it with a microplane to get the freshest flavor possible. Just be careful not to go overboard – freshly grated nutmeg can be very potent.
- Pumpkin puree – If you’re buying canned pumpkin puree, make sure that it’s actually pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling is already sweetened and seasoned, which can lead to the muffins being too sweet and/or over-seasoned.
- Canola oil – Or use another neutral-flavored cooking oil of your choice.
- Large eggs
- Fresh ginger – I highly recommend using fresh ginger in baked goods vs ground ginger for the best flavor. For maximum convenience, keep ginger in your freezer at all times (store it in a small zipper bag). Simply grate it from frozen using a microplane as needed.
- Pumpkin seeds – these are optional, for sprinkling on top of the muffins. Alternatively, you can use chopped pecans or walnuts, or sunflower seeds.
Want more pumpkin spice recipes?
Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Muffins Nutrition Notes
The nutrition information in the recipe below is for one muffin if you use the recipe to make 12 muffins. If you make fewer (larger) muffins, the nutrition information will vary accordingly. Note that the nutrition calculations do include the optional pumpkin seeds.
This recipe is dairy-free as written. Note that while oats are technically gluten-free, many people who require a gluten-free diet cannot tolerate them, so be sure to check before serving them to someone who follows a gluten-free diet.
Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
Instructions
- Add 1 ¼ cups of the rolled oats to a clean coffee grinder or mini food processor. Pulse until the oats are finely ground, to the texture of flour (you might have to do this in a couple of batches if using a coffee grinder).
- Whisk together the ground oats, the remaining 1 ¼ cups rolled oats, ½ cup sugar, 1 Tablespoon baking powder, 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon table salt, and ⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a small bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together 1 cup pumpkin puree, ¼ cup canola oil or other neutral-flavored cooking oil, 2 large eggs, and 1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a hand mixer on low speed until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Increase the mixer to high speed and mix for an additional two minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a lid and place in the fridge to rest for at least an hour, or up to 12 hours, or overnight.
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by lining the cups with paper liners or greasing them generously. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Divide ½ cup pumpkin seeds evenly among the muffins, sprinkling them on top of the batter.
- Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool the muffins for 10 minutes before serving. Store any leftovers in a zipper bag in the freezer and thaw at room temperature or for a few seconds in the microwave.
Nutrition
Notes
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