The best sourdough pumpkin muffin you’ve ever eaten. They are soft, sweet and are topped with an irresistible, spiced oat crumble. The ultimate fall treat that you will want to make again and again. Make them the quick way or ferment for more health benefits.
This may be one of my favorite fall recipes yet! These sourdough pumpkin muffins are soft, delicious, and topped with a sweet, brown sugar and oat crumble that gets nice and crunchy on top.
The perfect mix of soft and crunchy, while also making your house smell amazing.
One of my favorite things to grow are pumpkins. They are easy to grow, they stay fresh for a really long time, and they are also beautiful to use in fall decor. On top of all that, they are delicious to use in recipes.
If you are new to preserving, pumpkins and squashes are a favorite of mine. Properly cured, some squashes can last at least 6 months at room temperature.
From sweet to savory, pumpkin can go a long way. Make a creamy pasta sauce, nachos, soup, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and so much more. It is probably one of my favorite veggies to use.
For this recipe, I used some jerrandale pumpkin puree that I made last year. I needed it out of my freezer to make room for more pumpkin puree this year.
Sourdough Pumpkin Muffin Making Tips:
- If you don’t want to add the crumb topping, I would suggest adding 1/4 cup more brown sugar to the batter. Without the crumble, it loses some of the sweetness.
- For a more tangy flavor, use sourdough discard that hasn’t been fed in a day or allow to long ferment. For a less tangy flavor, use an active sourdough starter.
- This recipe can be long fermented for more health benefits, or made into a quick version for a yummy, fast recipe.
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Ingredients
Butter – When baking, almost always use unsalted butter. This allows you to have more control over the amount of salt added.
Brown sugar – Adds a wonderful warm flavor to the muffins.
Pumpkin puree – Canned or homemade. If you are using homemade pumpkin puree that has been frozen, I would suggest thawing completely and then straining off any extra liquid.
Eggs
Sourdough starter discard – Active sourdough starter or sourdough discard can be used in this recipe since the rise comes from chemical leaveners.
Vanilla
All-purpose flour – Nothing fancy here.
Baking soda & baking powder – This gives this sourdough pumpkin bread it’s rise.
Salt – Salt is an important ingredient that brings out all the flavors and sweetness.
Pumpkin spice – What’s a pumpkin dessert without pumpkin spice?
Crumb Topping
Oats – Old fashioned or quick will work just fine.
All-purpose flour – Could also substitute with einkorn flour.
Brown sugar – Mixed with butter and oats, this make the topping sweet and crunchy.
Pumpkin spice
Butter – Softened, so it easily incorporates with the other ingredients.
Tools:
Stand mixer or hand mixer
Measuring cups and spoons
Muffin pan
FAQ:
Why are my pumpkin muffins so dense?
Most likely they are dense from over mixing. You want to mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until everything is just incorporated.
Is pure pumpkin the same as pumpkin puree?
Yes. The only ingredient in both is just pumpkin. You don’t want to use pumpkin pie filling, because this includes other ingredients, including sugar, that you don’t need.
What can I do with pumpkin?
- Pumpkin bread
- Pumpkin pie
- Creamy Pumpkin Pasta Sauce
- Homemade ravioli
- Nachos
- Latte
- Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
- Sourdough Pumpkin Roll – It’s delicious pumpkin cake, smothered with frosting and rolled up.
- Cobbler
- Scones
- Pumpkin Shaped Sourdough Bread
- Chili
- Roasted Pumpkin Soup
- Rooibos Latte
- Pumpkin Chipotle Spaghetti Squash With Meatballs
Do pumpkin muffins need to be refrigerated?
No, they can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for 3-4 days. Or add to a freezer safe bag and freeze for up to 6 months.
How To Make Quick Sourdough Pumpkin Muffins
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease a muffin tin or line with cupcake liners.
In a stand mixer or bowl, mix melted butter and brown sugar for five minutes until light and fluffy.
Add in eggs, vanilla, pumpkin puree, and sourdough starter.
Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and salt) well in a medium bowl.
Add in dry ingredients 1/3 at a time and mix until just incorporated. You don’t want to over-mix.
In a small bowl, add softened butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and pumpkin spice and mix until well combined. I find my hands to be the best tool for this job.
Add equal amounts of batter to each muffin well. For super easy distribution, use an ice cream scooper like this one.
Top each muffin with crumble.
Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Test with a toothpick or cake tester. When it comes out clean, it is ready.
Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes and transfer to a baking rack.
Long Fermented Sourdough Pumpkin Muffin Directions:
At 12-24 hours before you plan to make the pumpkin muffins, mix together sourdough starter, melted butter, eggs, and flour. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and allow to ferment at room temperature for 6 hours. Put the batter in the fridge and allow it to ferment for another 6-18 hours.
The next day, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease muffin tins.
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add brown sugar, vanilla, pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to the mixing bowl.
I highly recommend using a stand mixer, because the fermented dough will be stiff and difficult to combine with the other ingredients by hand.
Set on low to medium speed until completely combined.
Pour into the muffin pan.
Top with crumb toppings.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes and transfer to a baking rack.
How To Store:
Store at room temperature, in an airtight container (or in a ziplock bag), for up to 5 days.
You can also store the muffins in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Find More Fall Recipes:
- Cinnamon Maple Sourdough Apple Pie
- Gingerbread Cake With Einkorn Flour
- Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce
- Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash
- Maple Roasted Chicken With Sweet Potatoes And Apples
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Thank you! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Sourdough Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter discard
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice
Crumble Topping
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup oats
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 4 tablespoons softened butter
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly grease a muffin tin or line with cupcake liners.
- In a stand mixer or bowl, mix melted butter and brown sugar for five minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in eggs, vanilla, pumpkin puree, and sourdough starter.
- Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and salt) well in a medium bowl.
- Add in dry ingredients 1/3 at a time and mix until just incorporated. You don’t want to over-mix.
- In a small bowl, add softened butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and pumpkin spice and mix until well combined. I find my hands to be the best tool for this job.
- Add equal amounts of batter to each muffin well. For super easy distribution, use an ice cream scooper like this one.
- Top each muffin with crumble.
- Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Test with a toothpick or cake tester. When it comes out clean, it is ready.
- Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes and transfer to a baking rack.
Notes
- If you don’t want to add the crumb topping, I would suggest adding 1/4 cup more brown sugar to the batter. Without the crumble, it loses some of the sweetness.
- For a more tangy flavor, use sourdough discard that hasn’t been fed in a day. For a less tangy flavor, use an active sourdough starter.
- This recipe can be long fermented for more health benefits, or made into a quick version for a yummy, fast recipe.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I love this recipe! I’ve made this several times (long-fermented) and it’s always fantastic. Over time I find that they become crumbly. I do wish that they kept better but they still taste amazing. They just get a little bit messier.
I always use bread flour instead of AP. Is that ok?
That’s fine.
Okay these are the best muffins ever!!!!!!! My family really really loves them and we have made a bunch and froze them….. thank-you for your recipes.
These Muffins are soooo moist. I love them!!!!
Great flavor! I read all the comments but found no problem like mine so I wanted to let readers know my difficulty mixing up the refrigerated dough the next day. You mentioned it would be stiff, it was very stiff and left hard streaks of dough that wouldn’t incorperate into the batter. I did cover the dough so it wouldn’t dry out during long fermentation. I did a test bake of a small portion to see if the smaller streaks would bake up and they did fine. However I did hand pick out the biggest ones before scooping into the muffin pan. I will make these again but make sure the batter is well mixed in the mixer instead of hand mixing and thinner before putting in the refrigerator for long fermentation. Thanks for the yummy recipes, keep them comming!
This recipe worked out exactly like the recipe said. Instead of one cup of sugar I put one cup of raw honey and it worked exactly like planned.
Wow! I wouldn’t think it would work with substituting sugar with honey. Glad to know it does.
I made the sourdough pumpkin muffins. They were very good. Did exactly like the recipe.
That is wonderful to hear!
I did the long fermented version of these and they turned out so good! My 3-year-old, who is a bit picky, really liked them too. A great recipe to use sourdough discard. Thanks for sharing this!
So glad you enjoy the recipe!
I made the pumpkin sourdough muffins. I altered recipe a bit by using the longer fermentation method, reduced sugar to 1/4 cup and opted out of topping. I didn’t have pumpkin spice on hand so I made my own. I had extra pumpkin in fridge so I just baked, cooled and mash it up. I don’t like super sugary muffins and this was perfect. The interior is light and fluffy with a few random chunks of soft pumpkin. I think some sort of nut might be good and I’ll add it the next time I bake the recipe. Very yummy though and a great way to help me make use of the extra sourdough starter discard and pumpkin. I did bake it at 180 C and it took a bit longer but that was okay.
Thanks for sharing!
Love this recipe- thank you so much!
For long ferment, at which stage would I cover and let sit and for how long?
Thank you.
The long ferment directions are in the post. Another way you can do it is mix together water, flour, brown sugar, starter, and melted butter together. Cover allow to ferment for 12-24 hours at room temp. The next day, with a stand mixer, add remaining ingredients. Top with oat crumble and bake.
Thank you for sharing this recipe, Lisa. You mentioned this second option for a room temperature ferment, but you instructed to mix water into this first step. There isn’t any water in the recipe. Do you mean the melted butter by chance? Thank you!
P.S. Is it a 1/2 cup of oats? The measurement was left off, so I had to guess this morning! 🙂