It’s no secret that I absolutely love fall food; I’m going to go ahead and say it’s my favorite food time of the year. And my favorite fall food, hands-down, is pumpkin. I have yet to meet a pumpkin food I didn’t like, from the sweet (pies, breads) to the savory (soups, sauces, pastas). Basically, as soon as the air turns one little bit chilly, I’m shoving as much pumpkin in my mouth as I possibly can, skinny jeans be damned. Besides, pumpkin has VITAMINS, okay? It’s a fruit (and yes, I just Googled that to make sure).
But in my mind, pumpkin’s deliciousness is also its culinary curse. Because I love EVERYTHING pumpkin, sometimes it’s hard for me to find something super special, something that stands apart from the pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin chocolate chip loaves that become so ubiquitous at this time of the year. I need a little pumpkin boom-boom-pow, ya know?
Well, if you’re anything like me, just a guy or gal on a search for pumpkin perfection, you can stop here. These cinnamon streusel pumpkin muffins are the ideal pumpkin food. They are everything you want in a pumpkin muffin – the moistness, the subtle sweetness, the hit of those warm fall spices – jacked up to a whole other level. With a cinnamon-brown sugar middle layer that keeps the entire muffin moist for days and a cinnamon streusel topping that provides an incredibly textural, flavorful crunch on top, these muffins are out-of-this-world good. It’s no secret that cinnamon goes incredibly well with pumpkin (you’d be hard-pressed to find a pumpkin dessert without it) so the triple hit of cinnamon-sugar deliciousness in these babies makes for some serious fall flavor harmony. What I’m trying to say is…stop reading. Go make these. Now.
PS – I think these muffins would be a perfect Thanksgiving breakfast (get ready, Green family!), as long as you are prepared to physically remove yourself from them so that you can still have room for the main event. You’ve been warned.
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tbsp cinnamon
- 1 ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ½ cup canola oil
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 cup canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling, make sure!!)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 ¼ cup oats
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Dash of nutmeg
- 6 tbsp cold butter, cut into chunks
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line 14 muffin cups with paper liners. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg). Set the bowl aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, water, pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla extract. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and combined. Slowly stir in the flour mixture, a little at a time until all combined.
- In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon for the filling. In another small bowl, mix together the oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix in the butter with your hands until the mixture is crumbly.
- Fill each muffin cup ½ full with pumpkin batter. Sprinkle on a layer of the brown sugar cinnamon mixture, then top with the rest of the pumpkin batter. Top each muffin with the streusel topping. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean (can be kind of hard to tell with the brown sugar layer, but the muffin should look + feel cooked through). Remove the pans from the oven and cool for about 20 minutes. Remove the muffins + enjoy!
- These portions for the cinnamon-sugar filling and the streusel both made a little extra for me, but it’s worth it to make the whole batch + control your own “extras” situation!
