Savour the essence of autumn with our mini pumpkin spice muffins, topped with a sweet maple syrup drizzle. Picture the blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves mixing with pumpkin puree and vanilla, creating a warm, inviting aroma. These golden muffins are perfectly spiced and finished with a glossy maple syrup touch, making each bite a delightful autumn treat.
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Lazy Sunday baking
It’s that time of year again when segments of gorgeous, organic, vibrant orange sugar pumpkins arrive in my veg box.
My favourite thing to make with these pumpkins is my adaptation of my grandmother’s pumpkin loaf recipe or roasted pumpkin soup with fried sage and white truffle oil. Last rainy Sunday, I fancied jazzing up my traditional pumpkin loaf recipe by halving it, making a batch of mini muffins in my new non-stick 24-hole mini muffin tin, and drizzling a gorgeous Canadian maple syrup icing over the top.
It was a wholly successful experiment, even if the rainy-day photographs are a bit moody and dark!
Non-stick bakeware, does it work?
I have to confess that when it comes to baking tins, I’m wary of not using paper cases. I’ve had so many recipes stick in the pans, and there is nothing worse than spending time preparing a recipe only to have half of it stick in the pan when you turn it out. It’s a surefire way to put me in a bad mood!
So last weekend, when I made these mini pumpkin spice muffins, I thought I’d test out the non-stick capabilities of my new bakeware. Made from carbon steel with a double layer of Quantum II non-stick coating, the manufacturer claims their bakeware ensures easy release every time.
As you can see from the photographs – it works! No paper cases are needed!
These muffins (I made 24 mini muffins and the rest of the batter was spooned into a loaf tin) disappeared rather quickly with my children making repeat visits to the kitchen to pop a little morsel of sweet but almost savoury Autumn into their mouths.
Another batch was needed, but this time I wanted to compare the difference between a supermarket pumpkin (£1 from the Co-op – how could I resist?) and my gorgeous organic veg box pumpkin.
Ingredients you’ll need
- 0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 whole cloves ground
- 0.25 tsp ground ginger
- 2 free-range eggs
- 0.5 tsp Shetland sea salt
- 125 ml sunflower oil
- 150 grams caster sugar
- 150 grams light brown muscovado sugar
- 150 grams pumpkin puree
- 90 ml water
- 265 grams plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 100 grams icing sugar
- 3 tbsp Canadian maple syrup
- 0.25 tsp Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon
How to make pumpkin spice muffins
- Preheat oven to 180 C/ 160 C fan and lightly grease your mini muffin moulds with some vegetable shortening.
- Whisk together the sugars, sunflower oil, eggs, salt and spices until well combined.
- Stir in the pumpkin puree and water.
- Sift over the flour and bicarbonate of soda and stir until well combined.
- Spoon into the prepared muffin tins (or divide in half spooning half into one tin and the remaining batter into a greased loaf tin).
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes (60 minutes for the loaf, if making).
- Leave the mini muffins to cool for five minutes in the tin before gently removing them and transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Prepare the drizzle by combining all the ingredients together and stirring well. Drizzle over the cooled cakes/loaf and leave to set.
A note on pumpkin spice
I make my own pumpkin spice blend and recommend you try too. I know you can buy ready-made blends in North America, but given that I have all of the spice components on my spice rack year-round, I don’t see the point in going out and buying them (I’m not even sure we can get that ready-made blend in the UK?).
Besides, I’m fond of the taste of freshly ground cloves and nutmeg. I use this tiny little mortar and pestle, which grinds them up perfectly in no time. Feel free to replace the spices in this recipe with 1.5 tsp ready-made pumpkin spice.
The maple syrup drizzle on these little mini muffins is awesome — true story. Real Canadian maple syrup is stirred into icing sugar with a pinch of cinnamon and a touch of Madagascan bourbon vanilla bean paste.
So…. very…. good!
If you can get a pumpkin directly from a local grower, I highly recommend you do that, as the colour and taste are worlds ahead of what you can get in the supermarket. Failing that, you could always pick up some ready-made pumpkin puree and save a bit of time.
Either way, happy non-stick baking, my friend!
Recipe Difficulty Levels
Easy
Requires basic cooking skills and ingredients you most likely already have in your kitchen.
Moderate
Requires more experience, preparation and/or cooking time. You may have to source special ingredients.
Challenging
Recipes requiring more advanced skills and experience and maybe some special equipment.
Mini Pumpkin Spice Muffins with a Maple Syrup Drizzle
Ingredients
for the pumpkin muffins
- vegetable shortening for greasing the pans
- 0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 whole cloves ground
- 0.25 tsp ground ginger
- 2 free-range eggs
- 0.5 tsp Shetland sea salt
- 125 ml sunflower oil
- 150 grams caster sugar
- 150 grams light brown muscovado sugar
- 150 grams pumpkin puree
- 90 ml water
- 265 grams plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
for the maple syrup drizzle
- 100 grams icing sugar
- 3 tbsp Canadian maple syrup
- 0.25 tsp Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon
Affiliate Links
This recipe card may contain affiliate ingredient and equipment links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C/ 160 C fan and lightly grease your mini muffin moulds with some vegetable shortening.
- Whisk together 150 grams caster sugar, 150 grams light brown muscovado sugar, 125 ml sunflower oil, 2 free-range eggs, 0.5 tsp Shetland sea salt, 0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg, 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon, 3 whole cloves (freshly ground in a mortar and pestle) 0.25 tsp ground ginger until well combined.
- Stir in 150 grams pumpkin puree and 90 ml water.
- Sift over 265 grams plain flour and 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda and stir until well combined.
- Spoon into a prepared muffin tin (or divide in half spooning half into one tin and the remaining batter into a greased loaf tin).
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes (60 minutes for the loaf, if making).
- Leave the mini muffins to cool for five minutes in the tin before gently removing them and transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Prepare the drizzle by combining 100 grams icing sugar, 3 tbsp Canadian maple syrup, 0.25 tsp Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste and 1 pinch ground cinnamon together and stirring well. Drizzle over the cooled cakes/loaf and leave to set.
Notes
Nutrition
Other pumpkin recipes from Elizabeth’s Kitchen
Other pumpkin spice recipes you might like
Healthy Pumpkin Spice Latte by Hungry, Healthy, Happy
Pumpkin Spice Crumble Muffins by Kerry Cooks
Slow Cooker Pumpkin Spice Pudding Cake by Baking Queen 74
Bacon Pumpkin Bread by Recipes from a Pantry
Carving Pumpkin Tomato Soup with Herbed Croutons by Coffee & Vanilla
Pumpkin Pear Amaretto Trifle by How to Cook Good Food
Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls by Little Sunny Kitchen
Hike Shetland: Burra Ness Broch
You did a fab job with those they look perfect and I bet they taste wonderful especially with the drizzle.
These look delicious. Thank you for entering #TeaTimeTreats!
Yessss! These look delicious! With all the pumpkins we have lying around, this will give me something tasty to do. I’m like you, I love the smell of nutmeg and cinnamon, something so comforting about them!
Kat x
These muffins look so yummy. Your kitchen looks fab too! I have major kitchen envy right now. Kat x
Pumpkin and maple syrup – two of my favourite things! Thanks for linking up with #TreatPetite
Oh my, how delicious do they look? Perfect for autumn and Halloween 😉
I do love Mini muffins and I am jealous how you have got them all to look the same size!
These look delicious, I love a good muffin – don’t have one often though x
They look so delicious. Love the bakeware so much.
What beautiful bakes! I make my own pumpkin dice mix and use it sparingly. I might need to find it (from last year’s batch) and source a locally grown pumpkin. And the JO bakeware.aybe is very classy. I’d love some myself!
Ooh these look so good. I love anything with pumpkin in and the maple syrup drizzle sets it all off very nicely. I must confess when it comes to baking I tend to use silicone, cos I can’t bear things not turning out easily. So interesting to hear there are tins!
That bakeware is absolutely gorgeous Elizabeth… love the blue dipped handles!!!!! I’m also very taken with the idea of those spiced muffin with the drizzled icing… one for half term me things…
Delicious – I love making my own spice blend, but not too much nutmeg for me please!
That JO bakeware looks amazingly good quality.
omg how spongy look those muffins! Never tried a pumpkin muffin or any kind of dessert with pumpkin but it has to taste awesome… I’m getting hungry! x
Oh they look delicious, I definitely want to try this out. It’s amazing the difference an organic pumpkin makes. I like the sound of the Jamie Oliver Bakeware to, sounds like it’s really good quality.
You make me want to drop everythign and make these. So, so lush.
Oh these are too cute, love the glaze and that mint-green bakeware looks so fab. I used to make lots of mini muffins for my 3 year old, but he now complains they are far too small so gets fairy cake sized ones instead!!
I love the maple syrup on these
Oh! That maple drizzle looks divine! Wow do I want the whole batch of muffins!
they look adorable! love that drizzle… and love that duck-egg blue, they’d look so good in my kitchen!
Loving your muffins Elizabeth they look just perfect! Also loving the Jamie Oliver spoons, I have one of his boards which is a favourite of mine:-)
Beautiful photos! Love that maple syrup drizzle. Such wonderful muffins for autumn.
These look incredible and your kitchen is gorgeous!!
I am a big fan of mini muffins – it’s all the pleasure without the guilt and commitment of a regular sized muffin! Your maple glaze looks fantastic! Pinning!
Is that your kitchen? It’s utterly gorgeous, love all that turquoise! These mini muffins look gorgeous too – the sort of thing that would make me say ‘just one more…’ 😉
Love the drizzle, and you kitchen is beautiful!
I love these mini muffins! First the recipe, then the photos and lastly, their size! Thanks.
That set is gorgeous though. Glad that it’s really non stick. I tried another pan that professed it was and I had a mess lol. These muffins look divine
These muffins look delicious!! I can’t believe how different these muffins turned out.