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Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

The holidays have a way of making time go by both very slowly and very quickly, which is why it has taken me so long to get this post up even though I intended to do it days ago. Fortunately for me, despite the fact that Thanksgiving is now over, pumpkins are considered to be winter fare, as well as fall. Of course, canned pumpkin means that you have have pumpkin all year long, though…. I digress. The point is that these are delicious muffins – delicious enough to make up for my delay in posting them.
Pumpkin muffins can often be rather heavy and dense due to the fact that there is so much moisture in the pumpkin. These muffins are neither. They have a very tender crumb that is fluffy and light, but very moist. Because they use both butter and sour cream, they can be quite rich, but you can cut back on the amount of fat slightly by using yogurt, either low fat or fat free. The taste will probably make up for any guilt you might feel from eating these, though. They have a good pumpkin flavor, but not overwhelming enough to put off even people who aren’t particular fans of pumpkin. The spices, and the hint of cinnamon in the streusel, really round out the overall flavor of fall.
I should also note that the instructions for the streusel below will make a bit more than enough to cover the muffins. You can either try to stack the extra on top of the muffins or store it in the fridge for a couple of days to use on a second batch. You can also half the recipe – but isn’t it better to have too much stresel than too little?

I really love pumpkin in any form that it comes in and I have to say that, in my opinion, these are realy excellent muffins. They can also be dangerously addictive, so you might want to have some people in mind to share them with.

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
1/2 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugarStreusel Topping
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
pinch salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400° F. Line twelve muffin cups with paper liners or lightly grease the tin.

Make the streusel:
In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and rub the butter in until the mixture is crumbly. This will be a bit of a sticky operation because the butter is soft, but take your time. Once it is crumbly, gently squeeze bits of the mixture together to form larger pieces of crumble/streusel. Set aside.
Make the muffins:
In a large bowl, combine melted butter, pumpkin, yogurt/sour cream, eggs, and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
In another large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, spices and salt, then stir in the sugar. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture and sir until just combined. Divide batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups and top with streusel.
Bake for 16-19 minutes at 400F, until a tester inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
Cool muffins in the pan for about 5 minutes to allow the topping to set up, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 12 muffins.

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22 Comments
  • cannella
    November 27, 2006

    Hi, I love your blog, your simplicity and your recipes. Kisses from Spain

  • Joe
    November 27, 2006

    Nic – More streusel is better in my book too! I do have a question, when I click on your pictures for a larger view they come up cut in half… have any idea why?

  • Scott at Real Epicurean
    November 27, 2006

    Pumpkin is one of my favorite ingredients…

  • Nicole
    November 27, 2006

    What a beautiful muffin! I have an extra can of pumpkin left over from Thanksgiving and I’ve been trying to decide between muffins, cake or bread…your photo helped me make up my mind!

  • Nic
    November 27, 2006

    Joe – I guess blogger is being strange with uploaded photos. There’s not much I can do about it – sorry!

  • chicopants
    November 27, 2006

    thanks for your post. i just made pumpkin bread myself:)
    amy
    sillypants.com

  • Kristen
    November 27, 2006

    Your muffins look incredible… so good that I’m going to give them a try this weekend. Thanks for sharing the recipe and the gorgeous photo!
    Kristen
    dineanddish.squarespace.com

  • Julie
    November 28, 2006

    I know what you mean about the holidays just sort of making the time disappear. I went a whole week without posting over Thanksgiving even though I intended to only go a few days. Oh, well, hopefully more people spent the weekend eating actual food than reading food blogs. I know I did. That’s a nice muffin recipe. Have you ever had pumpkin donuts? I would love to try those this year. I just made my annual batch of mini pumpkin-cranberry-walnut bread on Sunday. I’ll post that recipe soon.

  • Elle
    November 28, 2006

    Nic – These look wonderful and there isn’t such a thing as too much streusel. My local bakery makes something similar, but by the sound of it heavier, too. Yours sounds better. One difference is that they put about a tablespoon of sweetened cream cheese in the middle of each muffin. Pumpkin, spice, streusel and cream cheese. Yum. Have you tried a filling?

  • La Vida Dulce
    November 29, 2006

    Missed you, good to see you back. Lovely little muffin, I like that streusel topping.

  • Nic
    November 29, 2006

    Julie – There is a pumpkin donut recpie in my archives.

  • Helene
    November 29, 2006

    I can eat the streusel part with a spoon on its own, oh wait I have just done that with the coffee cake. These looks scrumptious. Great simple recipe. Thanks!

  • Brady
    November 29, 2006

    This post is a bit late, but I just made these today. We love pumpkin here and I must say these were delicious. My son was worried that they would be too sweet like the ones he tried at the “coffee store” aka Starbucks. He was so disappointed in those. Instead he loved your recipe. They are perfectly spiced, light in texture and not at all too sweet. Thanks so much!
    Brady

  • IndyFoodie
    November 29, 2006

    Oh this is making my mouth water…anything with the word Streusel will be a given that it’s good!

  • yaezakura
    November 30, 2006

    Wow! Pumpkin is very delicious!

    I love your recipes!

  • miriam
    May 2, 2007

    i just made these and they were a little greasy; did anyone else experience that? side note, what have been your experiences with silicone muffin pans?

  • Pumpkin
    September 18, 2007

    I just tried this recipe and it was soooo fabulous! I used oil instead of butter, because I do find that butter makes muffins that are a little too greasy for my taste. Other than that, I made it to the letter, and my muffins came out as lovely and picturesque than bakery muffins, and twice as tasty! (And probably waaaaay healthier!)

  • Michelle
    October 22, 2008

    Thanks for the great pumpkin recipe, it will make a nice holiday treat, my kids are going to love them I’m sure.

  • Jackie
    December 29, 2008

    This looks absolutely delicious. We have a lot of leftover pumpkin from the holidays. It sounds like this will be our New Year’s breakfast!

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