These vegan pumpkin muffins are studded with sweet-tart cranberries and nutty, nutrient-dense chopped walnuts. They’re perfectly moist and just sweet enough. Serve these as part of a brunch spread or enjoy them as an afternoon snack—either way, the muffins are a perfect autumnal treat!

As soon as I can detect a hint of fall in the air–that telltale crispness and faint chill—I dive into pumpkin-themed baking.

I love all of the usual pumpkin treats, including classic vegan pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie. But I low-key think that vegan pumpkin muffins might be my favorite of all.

These aren’t any pumpkin muffins. They’re pumpkin muffins that channel the autumn theme fully. They incorporate sweet tart dried cranberries and chopped walnuts for crunch and nutty flavor.

I can’t think of a more satisfying snack. And the muffins are also a great thing to make if you’re hosting, whether for the holidays or just an every day get-together.

I especially love to give them to friends whom I’ve had over for dinner, as a breakfast treat to enjoy on the following morning!

Best of all, the pumpkin muffins are really easy to make. Let me tell you a little more about the process.

Vegan pumpkin muffin ingredients

The ingredients in the vegan pumpkin muffins are as expected, with the fun addition of dried fruit and nuts.

Cranberries and walnuts contribute much-needed texture, a festive touch, and a little complexity to these otherwise wholesome and straightforward treats.

Pumpkin

Be sure to use canned pumpkin purée, rather than canned pumpkin pie filling (which is pre-sweetened) when making the muffins.

I don’t tend to make my pumpkin purée from scratch, but if you’re so inclined, here are some instructions on doing so!

Flour

My go-to flour for baking is unbleached, all-purpose flour. Within that, I prefer the King Arthur brand.

There are some additional options. If you’d like slightly more whole grain content, you can use whole wheat pastry flour in place of all-purpose.

You could also do a 50/50 blend of light spelt or whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour.

And if you need to make the muffins gluten-free, that’s totally OK. Just substitute a gluten-free, all-purpose flour blend that you’ve worked with before and trust.

Once again, I prefer King Arthur: the Measure for Measure flour is excellent.

Avocado oil

Avocado oil is my go-to fat source for vegan baking. It’s neutral in flavor and can stand up to high heat.

In place of avocado oil, you can also use melted vegan butter, olive oil, or a vegetable oil, such as safflower, canola, or grapeseed.

Cranberries

I love dried cranberries! For me, they always signal that the holidays have arrived.

I love adding dried cranberries to grain salads, kale salad, and cashew cheese, in addition to sweet recipes, like chocolate bark or biscotti.

The add a lovely combination of tart and sweet flavor to the vegan pumpkin muffins, along with a pop of color.

Walnuts

Chopped walnuts also give the muffins more texture than they’d have otherwise.

Walnuts are a source of healthful fatty acids, and I love their nutty crunch.

If you’d like to make the pumpkin muffins even more holiday-themed, you could use my crispy baked vegan candied walnuts in place of regular chopped walnuts.

How to make vegan pumpkin muffins

And these muffins, like many of my vegan quick breads, come together easily.

Step 1: Mix the dry ingredients

First, you’ll whisk flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice together in a roomy mixing bowl.

Step 2: Mix the wet ingredients together and add them to the dry ingredients

The muffins’ wet ingredients are non-dairy milk (I usually use soy or oat), pumpkin purée, avocado oil, and brown sugar.

I also add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. This acid helps to activate the baking soda in the recipe, which in turn helps the muffins to rise.

Once the wet ingredients are mixed, go ahead and add them to the mixing bowl with the flour. Fold everything together, creating a batter.

You want to avoid any flour streaks or pockets of unmixed flour in the bowl, but small lumps are OK.

Step 3: Fold the cranberries and walnuts into the batter and fill your muffin pan

I think this is the fun part! Use a spatula to fold the dried fruit and chopped walnuts into your batter evenly.

Then, add the batter to a prepared muffin pan.

Muffins rise nicely when you only fill each well of a muffin pan about two-thirds of the way up, or three-quarters at most, so be sure not to overstuff your pan.

If you need to, you can distribute the batter into two pans and make fourteen muffins instead of twelve. But I usually get twelve.

Step 4: Bake

Finally, bake your muffins. They’ll need about twenty-five minutes at 375°/190°C.

The finished muffins should have beautifully domed tops, which are firm to the touch. They’ll be a lovely shade of orange, and they’ll smell amazing.

Let the muffins rest in the muffin pan for 10-15 minutes, then gently remove them and transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Let them cool for another 5-10 minutes before digging in.

Meal prep & storage

The muffins should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to three days. If you’d like to store them longer, you can freeze them for up to eight weeks.

Thaw the muffins overnight in the fridge, then continue storing them at room temperature.

More favorite vegan muffins

Having a batch of homemade vegan muffins to snack on or incorporate into my breakfast makes any week so much better. Here are a few more of my favorites:

• Vegan morning glory breakfast muffins
• Blueberry crumb muffins
• Banana walnut muffins
• Banana chocolate chip muffins
• Apple bran muffins
• Berry hemp spelt muffins

And without further ado, the recipe for the pumpkin muffins that fill my home with the scent of pumpkin pie spice every fall.

If you’re dying to make these and have different nuts or dried fruit at home—raisins, pecans, pumpkin seeds, dates, or whatnot—you can definitely make substitutions as needed.

Hope you’ll enjoy these sweet treats as much as I do!

xo