Pumpkin Spice Muffins With Streusel Topping

Made with just 2 ingredients (including spice cake mix), my easy pumpkin spice muffins are ridiculously moist and bursting with pumpkin flavor. Add a crumbly streusel topping to take them to the next level.

I don’t know if pumpkin is necessarily a Southern thing. You always hear of pumpkin pie on Southern tables at Thanksgiving and such, but no one else in my family has ever actually made a pumpkin pie to my knowledge. I had never tasted anything at all with pumpkin until about three years ago. While on a quilting retreat, we were served these delicious spice muffins and I just HAD to have the recipe. Imagine my surprise when we found out they were pumpkin!

No, these aren’t the ones we had on retreat. They are actually better! A neighbor of a friend gave me this recipe when I was telling her about the muffins. She was of the Northern persuasion and, thinking pumpkin was a Northern thing at the time, I asked her if she happened to know how to make pumpkin muffins. Her face immediately lit up with glee at getting to pass this recipe on to one more person and now I share that glee in passing it on to you. To quote the person who first gave it to me…”If you want to make the BEST pumpkin spice muffins on earth…”

The best part… I added the streusel topping from Grandmama’s sweet potato casserole to them! They were good before but now – WOW! Tastes like something you’d get in a coffee shop. Go ahead, impress someone with your culinary skill today!

What You’ll Need to Make Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Streusel Topping:

Ingredients:

• Spice cake mix
• Canned pumpkin puree
• Butter/margarine
• Plain flour
• Brown sugar

How to Make Pumpkin Spice Muffins:

Dump your can of pumpkin and your box of cake mix in a mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup of water. Mix it all together to make the batter!

That’s it. Seriously. Can it get any easier?!

Grease your muffin tin wells with either cooking spray or shortening.

 

Measure out your pumpkin spice muffin batter into the prepared muffin cups. These muffins don’t rise too much so you can fill them a bit fuller than you normally would!

Now let’s make our streusel topping!

In a bowl, place your margarine or butter, brown sugar, and plain flour. This recipe does make a lot, but I will tell you exactly what to do with the leftovers!

With a long-tined fork or pastry cutter, cut in your margarine.

Just keep pressing down with your fork to mix. You’ll need to stir a bit as you cut. If your margarine is not room temp, this is going to be pretty difficult so plan ahead a bit for this.

And with that the topping is complete!

Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the unbaked muffins. 

If you have any topping left, just put it in a plastic bag and store it in your fridge to use as a topping on other muffins, coffee cakes, or the like in the next few weeks. If you don’t know when you are going to be able to use it, just stick it in the freezer!

 

Bake pumpkin spice muffins at 350 for 20-24 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove them from the pan and let them cool.

Don’t these look lovely? You can only imagine how wonderful they make your house smell!

Storage

• Store pumpkin spice muffin leftovers in an airtight container either at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 5 days.
• You can also freeze muffins for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before serving. Feel free to warm them up in the oven or air fryer.

Recipe Notes

• Want to add something extra? For pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, fold in up to 3/4 cup of chocolate chips. Other options include butterscotch chips, cinnamon chips, chopped nuts like pecans and walnuts, crystallized ginger, raisins, or chopped dried cranberries.
• These pumpkin muffins are delicious as is, but I also recommend adding a spread of butter or nut butter.
• You want to use canned pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling, as that has extra sugar and sweetness we don’t need.
• If you don’t want to add the streusel topping, you can serve them as is, sprinkle some oats on top, add a cinnamon sugar topping instead, or add a simple powdered sugar glaze.
• You can use a box of yellow cake mix or chocolate cake mix instead. However, if you do this I’d add a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to the batter.

Check out these other pumpkin treats:

Pumpkin Praline Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Bars With Cream Cheese Frosting & Candied Pecans