Pumpkin Spice Latte Muffins

I waited as long as I could, but I can’t put it off any longer- to me, autumn is officially here. Autumn is my absolute favourite month- I love the cozy, rainy evenings, the hot drinks, the crunchy leaves and the spiced bakes. In today’s post, it’s all about the latter: these Pumpkin Spice Latte Muffins are a quintessentially autumnal treat. Super moist, pumpkin muffins, flavoured with coffee and warm spices, topped with a cinnamon-y pecan streusel and drizzled with a maple glaze. So many of my favourite things, all in one delicious package.

Table of Contents

• Bakery-Style vs Regular Muffins
• Muffins: 101
• Making the Streusel Topping
  • Ingredients
  • Method
• Making the Pumpkin & Coffee Muffins
  • Ingredients
  • Method
• Making the Maple Glaze
  • Ingredients
  • Method
• Recipe

Bakery-Style vs Regular Muffins

If you missed my last muffin post, I did a deep dive into how to make the perfect, bakery-style muffins. Bakery-style muffins are big– they have super domed muffin-tops and that perfect, fresh-from-an-artisanal-bakery look. When I bake bakery-style muffins, I like to use tulip muffin cases, because a) they’re bigger, so there’s more room for all of the extra batter and b) they look fancy. You can make bakery-style muffins from any muffin recipe, including this one!

However, I realise that, sometimes, home-bakers would rather just make standard-sized muffins. Not only does baking regular-sized muffins help with portion control (who is she? I definitely don’t know her), but it also means that you can bake more muffins at once- when baking bakery-style muffins, you can only bake 6 muffins at a time (instead of 12), because bigger muffins need extra space to grow and puff up! So, with that in mind, I’ve written this post with instructions for both muffin styles!

For this recipe then, here’s a rundown of the two muffin types:

	Bakery-style	Regular
Quantity (from 1 batch)	8 muffins	12 muffins
Amount of batter in each case	2 regular-sized ice cream scoops	1 heaped regular-sized ice cream scoop
# of muffins that can be baked at once	6	12
Muffin case instructions	Place in every other cavity of muffin tin	Place in every cavity of muffin tin

I found that the bake time was pretty much the same for both muffin styles. While you might expect the bakery-style muffins to take longer, you’ll always be baking fewer at a time, so the heat can circulate more easily, which evens out the times.

All of this to say that, with a few little changes here and there, you can make these muffins in whichever way you want!

Muffins: 101

Whether you are making bakery-style or standard muffins, there are some rules in the muffin-verse that you should always follow:

• Don’t over-mix the muffin batter.

Over-mixed muffin batters produce tough, dense muffins. Don’t worry if you’ve got a few lumps/streaks of flour left in your batter- just go with it!

• Use the fan setting on your oven to bake the muffins.

Muffins are best baked quickly and at a high heat (at least, to begin with- more on that in a sec!), so the fan setting is your friend.

• Bake the muffins at a higher temperature for the first 5 minutes.

Bake the muffins at a high temperature (200°C fan, in this recipe) for 5 minutes. Then, turn the oven down (to 150°C fan, in this recipe) for the remaining time, to finish off the baking process. The initial high temperature helps to activate the raising agent in the muffins, which helps them to rise up and become big and fluffy, then the lower temperature helps to ensure that the muffins are fully and evenly cooked through.

Making the Streusel Topping

This cinnamon & pecan streusel topping is super quick and easy to make, but adds great texture and flavour to the finished muffins. If you just want plain muffins, you can absolutely leave it off, but I think it’s a really great addition (plus, it makes these muffins feel even more autumnal, which is a definite plus in my book!). The topping isn’t overly sweet, but, when paired with the super-sweet maple glaze, the flavours balance out perfectly.

Ingredients

To make the streusel topping, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• Plain flour

Don’t use self-raising flour, or your streusel won’t be crisp and crunchy.

• Granulated sugar

I usually use caster sugar in my baked goods, but granulated sugar is preferable here for its crunchier texture.

• Light brown soft sugar

Brown sugar adds a caramel-y depth of flavour to the streusel.

• Ground cinnamon

A small amount of ground cinnamon gives the streusel a warm, autumnal flavour, which compliments the spices in the muffins perfectly.

• Salt

Just a little pinch of salt is added to the streusel to balance the flavours and make it extra tasty.

• Unsalted butter

I prefer to use unsalted butter, so that I can be in control of how much salt goes into my baked goods, but if you only have salted butter, you can just omit the salt.

• Toasted pecans

Chopped pecans are tossed through the streusel topping to add even more crunch and nutty flavour. To get the most flavour out of the nuts, toast (or roast) them first and allow them to cool before mixing into the streusel. I do this in the airfryer (about 5 minutes at 180°C should be perfect), but you could also do it in a dry pan on the stove, or in the oven.

Method

To make the streusel, start by whisking together the flour, both sugars, the cinnamon and the salt, just until everything is nicely combined.

Next, melt the butter and add it to the dry ingredients.

Use a fork to mix everything together. The mixture should form little clumps and crumbles.

Finally, tip in the chopped, toasted pecans and mix until the nuts are evenly distributed throughout the streusel.

That’s it! Now your streusel is ready, you can set it aside while you make the muffin batter.

Making the Pumpkin & Coffee Muffins

This muffin batter is super easy to whip up- you don’t even need a mixer!

Ingredients

To make the pumpkin & coffee muffin batter, you will need the following ingredients:

• Plain flour

Make sure to use plain flour, not self-raising, otherwise the raising agent ratios will be off!

• Baking powder

One of the two raising agents in the muffin batter, this helps the muffins to puff up and be extra fluffy.

• Baking soda

The second raising agent in the muffin batter, baking soda is used alongside baking powder because of the acidic ingredients in the batter.

• Salt

A small pinch of salt helps to balance all of the flavours in the muffins.

• Spices

I’ve used a traditional combination of ‘pumpkin pie’ spices in these muffins: ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves and freshly grated nutmeg. These spices give the muffins a lovely, warming flavour.

• Caster sugar

Back to caster sugar for the batter- I prefer baking with caster sugar because it is finer and so dissolves more easily into batters than granulated sugar.

• Light brown soft sugar

Brown sugar adds depth of flavour and extra moisture to the muffins.

• Sunflower oil

Oil is used instead of butter in this batter to make the muffins extra moist.

• Pumpkin purée

You can buy pumpkin purée in cans in most supermarkets, or you can use homemade purée, if you prefer. If you use the canned stuff (like I did), just make sure it is 100% pumpkin (and no other flavourings/ingredients)!

• Eggs

I always use large eggs.

• Greek yoghurt

Greek yoghurt adds extra moisture to the muffins. If you don’t have greek yoghurt, you can use sour cream instead.

• Vanilla extract

Just a small amount of vanilla extract helps to bring all of the other flavours together.

• Instant coffee granules

Instant coffee granules are used to make these muffins into Pumpkin Spice Latte Muffins! Dissolve the granules in hot water before mixing into the rest of the wet ingredients, to ensure the coffee flavour is evenly distributed throughout the muffin batter.

Method

Start by preheating the oven to 200°C fan. Line your muffin tin(s) with cases and set aside. Remember- if you’re baking regular-sized muffins, you can go ahead and line every cavity in the tin with a muffin case, giving you a total of 12 muffins. If you’re planning to make bigger, bakery-style muffins, you’ll need to space 8 muffin cases out over 2 x 12-hole muffin tins, to give them plenty of room to puff up! You’ll have to bake the trays one at a time, but the muffins will be extra big and fluffy for it.

To make the muffin batter, start by placing all of the dry ingredients (the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices) into a bowl.

Whisk the dry ingredients together to combine them, then set aside.

Place the remaining ingredients (the ‘wet’ ingredients) into another, large bowl.

Whisk well until a smooth mixture has formed.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, then fold together, being careful not to over-mix the batter (it’s okay if there are a few streaks/lumps of flour left!).

And that’s it! The batter is now ready to be baked.

Divide the batter between the muffin cases. The muffin cases will be pretty full- for regular-sized muffins, I fill each case with 1 heaped, regular-sized ice cream scoop’s worth of batter. For bakery-style muffins, I fill each case with 2 level regular-sized ice cream scoop’s worth of batter!

Crumble a generous layer of the streusel topping over each muffin, making sure to get some pecan pieces on each muffin. It will seem like a lot of streusel topping, but the muffins will expand a lot, so it will look a little more sparse on the finished bakes!

Place the muffins into the preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes at that initial, high temperature, then turn the temperature down to 150°C fan and bake for a further 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the muffins comes out clean, or with only a few moist crumbs.

If you’re making bakery-style muffins, remember to turn the temperature back up to 200°C fan and wait until the oven has heated back up after baking the first tray of muffins! Then you just need to bake the second tray in exactly the same way.

I like to remove the muffins from the baking tin as soon as they come out of the oven, to prevent the bottoms of the cases from becoming greasy. The tulip cases make this super easy to do, because you can hold onto the papers and not have to worry about burning yourself on the hot muffins! Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

Making the Maple Glaze

This maple glaze is only 3 ingredients and is so quick to make! It adds an extra hit of autumnal sweetness to these cupcakes and helps to balance the flavour of the streusel topping.

Ingredients

All you need to make this sweet, maple glaze is:

• Icing sugar

You need to use icing sugar, or powdered sugar, for this- caster sugar isn’t fine enough!

• Maple syrup

Maple syrup adds a lovely flavour and texture to the icing.

• Water

Water is used to thin out the icing slightly, so it can be drizzled onto the muffins. You could use milk instead, if you prefer.

Method

To make the glaze, start by sifting the icing sugar into a small bowl.

Add the maple syrup, along with a splash of water, and stir to combine.

Check the consistency of the icing- you’re looking for a thin(ish) glaze that you can drizzle over the muffins, but that won’t all run off immediately! To make the glaze thinner, add a little more water. To make it thicker, add more sifted icing sugar.

Once the glaze is ready, you can drizzle it over the cooled muffins. The muffins can be enjoyed at room temperature, but they’re extra lovely if you warm them slightly in the microwave, before serving!

As with all muffins, these are best enjoyed the day you make them, but leftovers can be stored in an airtight container for a day or so at room temperature.

Recipe