Vegan Pumpkin Banana Muffins – Easy & Healthy

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These soft, moist and fluffy vegan pumpkin banana muffins are healthy and easy to make; yet so delicious and bursting with flavours of pumpkin and cosy spices. They are so much healthier than store-bought muffins, perfect to have for breakfast or afternoon snacks. 

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I know the Halloween season is over but does that mean I have to stop baking with pumpkins? Hell no. Pumpkin in baked goods all year round for me!  If you haven’t noticed, pumpkin is one of my favourite things to bake with – some of my more popular recipes are made with pumpkins such as: my vegan chocolate chip pumpkin bread and vegan pumpkin brownies – they are all delicious so try them out if you like pumpkin baked goods, like me!

And today I have a lovely addition to my pumpkin recipes. Vegan pumpkin banana muffins! They turned out incredibly soft and moist, yet so fluffy and full of autumn flavour. There were 2 things I focused on for this recipe. One is obviously to make them delicious, and another is to make them healthy so that they are perfect to have for breakfast. And yes, I made them a whole lot healthier without compromising the taste. Yay!

If you’ve got ripe bananas laying around on the kitchen counter that need to be used and some pumpkin puree in your cupboard, you have come to the perfect recipe.

Must Read: The Ultimate Guide to Perfect Muffins – A complete guide to baking your perfect vegan muffins with easy and delicious muffin recipes!

Main ingredients and substitutions

Wholemeal flour: I used half wholemeal flour to make this recipe healthier and more wholesome. I love the nutty flavour that wholemeal flour gives to baked goods. If you want to make them gluten-free, you can use a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend.

Plain flour: I used plain flour alongside wholemeal flour. Wholemeal flour alone is very difficult to raise and get a fluffy texture, so by using half plain and half wholemeal you can achieve a fluffy texture as well as make it healthy. As mentioned in the previous section, use 1:1 gluten-free flour if making this recipe gluten-free.

Mashed banana: I used 1 and a half bananas mashed into a paste in this recipe to naturally sweeten the homemade muffins and to make them nice and moist. I highly recommend you use mashed bananas for the sake of this recipe -called pumpkin banana muffins- but in case you don’t want to use bananas, you can possibly replace it with applesauce, though I’ve not yet tested it so let me know if you try it!

Pumpkin puree: The main ingredient, pumpkin! I used some homemade pumpkin puree for this recipe but store-bought canned ones that are made with 100% pumpkin will do too. Don’t use canned pumpkin PIE filling as it has sugar and other spices in it already. 

Maple syrup: I love the flavour of maple syrup, it goes so well with the taste of pumpkin. Using maple syrup also makes this recipe refined sugar-free and healthier.

Soy yorghurt: I used some soy yoghurt in this recipe. You can substitute it for any other plant-based yoghurt of your choice!

Coconut oil: When I was testing this recipe I struggled to make the muffins healthy and moist, but then I added coconut oil and everything turned out perfectly moist and fluffy, and healthy! You can also use melted vegan butter or other vegetable oils instead if you don’t have coconut oil but coconut oil is highly recommended if you want to make this recipe healthy. However, the buttery flavour that vegan butter adds to the muffins is absolutely amazing too!

Soy milk: I used soy milk as one of the liquid ingredients as soy milk curdles the best when making vegan buttermilk but feel free to use any of your favourite plant-based milk in place of soy milk if you prefer.

Cornflour: Cornflour helps bind the muffins as well as create a soft and fluffy texture. You can sub for tapioca flour or potato flour if you like.

Other ingredients: pumpkin spice(I used Frontier Co-op’s pumpkin spice mix!), baking powder, baking soda, and apple cider vinegar.

*I use bone char-free sugars for all of my recipes. I cover the topic in my article Vegan Baking 101. Go to the “Is sugar vegan?” section to learn more!

Recommended equipment for this recipe

Muffin tray: I have muffin tins that can bake either 6 or 9 muffins at once. Use an appropriate size of muffin tray depending on the size of your oven.

Muffin cups: I love using muffin cups when baking muffins as it’s so much easier to remove from the muffin tin. It also eliminates the need to grease with oil or melted butter. But most of all, I think muffins just look cute in muffin cups!

Wooden spoon/silicone spatula: I prefer to mix my muffin batter with either a large wooden spoon or a silicone spatula rather than mixing with a whisk. You can easily over-mix the batter with a whisk and develop too much gluten, which will impact massively on the texture of the final product.

*The ingredient list and measurement for this recipe can be found in the recipe card at the bottom.

How to make vegan pumpkin banana muffins

Step 1: Make vegan buttermilk and mix the wet ingredients

Preheat the oven to ​​180°C(350°F).

Let’s make vegan buttermilk first! It’s very simple, all you need to do is mix the soy milk and apple cider vinegar together. Let it sit for a few minutes to curdle. Next, mix the mashed bananas, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, soy yoghurt, coconut oil, and vegan buttermilk until they are well combined with a whisk.

Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients

In a large mixing bowl, mix the plain flour, wholemeal flour, cornflour, baking soda, baking powder, and pumpkin spice with a whisk until well combined. 

Step 3: Mix the dry mixture and wet mixture

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix gently with a large wooden spoon or a silicone spatula until they are just combined. Do not over-mix! Gentle touches are the key here. If you see little lumps of flour left in the muffin batter, it’s totally ok! Proceed to the next step.

Step 4: Pour the batter into muffin cups and bake

Pour the muffin batter into each muffin cup lined in a muffin tin using an ice cream scoop. Fill the cups about 3/4 leaving a little room on top for the muffins to rise.  Pop the muffin tin into the oven and bake for 23-25 mins. To see if they are baked, insert a toothpick in the centre of a muffin and if it comes out clean it’s done! If not, bake for another 2-3 mins and test again.

When they are baked, take them out of the oven, let them cool down in the tin until it’s not too hot to the touch, and carefully transfer them onto a cooling rack. Enjoy as-is, or with some spreads like vegan butter, peanut butter, etc.

Expert tips and tricks

Mix the batter gently

As I always say, mix the batter with a little care and love, your muffins will appreciate it! Over mixing the batter will result in a tough, chewy, rubbery texture in baked goods, and muffins are no exception. I usually use a large wooden spoon or a silicone spatula when combining the wet and dry ingredients, using a cutting motion rather than a whisking motion.

If you are not sure, mix just until it’s combined. It’s totally ok to have little lumps of flour left in the batter, it will incorporate later in the baking stage! See the photos above for a reference to the look of the batter too.

Recipe variations

• Chocolate chips – add 1/2~1 cup of chocolate chips to make it chocolate chip pumpkin muffins!
• Pumpkin seeds – sprinkle some pumpkin seeds on top before baking to achieve a cute look!
• Pecans – pecans are one of my favourite nuts I like mixing in in autumn baking, they go very well with pumpkin muffins! Try adding other nuts of your choice like walnuts, pine nuts, etc.
• Cream cheese frosting – go a little fancy and frost them with vegan cream cheese frosting to make them like cupcakes!

How to store

You can keep the muffins at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 3 days. Put them in an airtight container to keep them nice and fresh. When serving, I recommend you warm them up a little in a microwave, for about 15 to 20 seconds depending on the power of your microwave so it feels like they just came out of the oven!

To store them for longer, put them in a freezer-friendly airtight container and store them in the freezer for up to 2-3 months maximum. Heat up the muffins in a microwave until they are soft and fluffy again when serving.

Q & A

Why are my pumpkin muffins dense/rubbery?

Baked goods made with pumpkin puree are dense and moist by nature, but If your muffins turned out way too dense or even rubbery, chances are you mixed the muffin batter too much and developed too much gluten in it. Gluten is an important element in baking but if developed too much, it will result in a dense, rubbery texture. Try mixing the batter gently with either a large wooden spoon or silicone spatula until just combined.

Another reason could be that you added too much leavening agents. When you add too much baking soda or powder, the muffins rise rapidly and then sink in the centre afterwards. This is tricky and it is tempting to add a lot of baking powder in the hope of getting the muffins to rise nice and tall, but try to stick to the recipe and see if it helps.

Want to master the basics of vegan baking?
Check out Vegan Baking 101 – the beginner’s guide to vegan baking for you to become an excellent vegan baker and familiar with the basics of vegan baking, ingredients, and techniques with useful tips!

You will LOVE these homemade pumpkin banana muffins because they are

• soft, moist, and fluffy
• so delicious
• perfect breakfast
• easy to make
• healthy
• full of pumpkin flavour
• naturally sweetened
• best autumn muffins

Want more recipes like this?

Try my other delicious recipes you might enjoy!

• Chocolate chip pumpkin bread
• Pumpkin pancakes
• Pumpkin brownies with milk chocolate swirl
• Pumpkin spice cookies
• Double chocolate muffins
• Gluten-free banana bread
• Apple cinnamon muffins
• Chocolate chip banana pancakes

Visit the muffins page and recipe page for more delicious recipes!

Please leave a comment and rate this recipe in the comment section below if you like this recipe! Let me know and tag me @thechestnutbakery on Instagram too. Thank you for making my recipe, friends!

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