These Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Pecans & Chocolate are a delicious autumnal treat.
Arrival of Autumn
One sure sign that autumn has arrived in Europe is the welcoming array of pumpkins and squashes at the farmers’ market. That and the fact that ballet flats are not the best choice of shoes anymore, now that the temperatures have taken a sudden dip.
My favourite way to celebrate the onset of autumn is to make a big batch of Roast Pumpkin Soup, with either a tray of savoury scones or a Bacon & Cheese Savoury Cake to go alongside.
And as I am always looking for ways to sneak vegetables into our children’s diet, autumn is the perfect time to start adding pumpkin to cakes and bakes. Whilst I wouldn’t quite concede that a slice of pumpkin pie or carrot cake counts as part of their daily vegetable intake, it is certainly a fun way of making children understand that vegetables can be tasty, whether served sweet or savoury.
Growing up in Australia, pumpkin scones were a familiar tea-time treat. But the American classics, such as pumpkin pie, pumpkin mousse and even the Pumpkin Spice Latté from Starbucks, were foreign concepts to me until several years ago when we moved to Chicago.
Once autumn rolled around and the shops started to prepare for Halloween, my husband and I couldn’t wait to sample all of the pumpkin delights … and pumpkin donuts were high on that list!
Pumpkin Spice Muffins
After loading my market bag with a few too many pumpkins the other day, I decided to bake a treat for the children for their afternoon tea.
These pumpkin spice muffins are deliciously light and sweet, and the crunchy pecan and chocolate topping provides a nice contrast to the fluffy cake underneath.
Nothing beats the feeling of seeing your children all excited about something you’ve made, and especially when they ask for seconds.
More Pumpkin Recipes
If you are looking for more pumpkin recipes, you might also like:
PrintPumpkin Spice Muffins with Pecans & Chocolate
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 45 mins
- Yield: Makes 12 muffins
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
These Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Pecans & Chocolate are a delicious autumnal treat.
Print
Pin Recipe
RateIngredients
- 80 g (1/3 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 100 g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 350 g (about 1 1/2 cups) pumpkin purée
- 240 g (1 2/3 cup) plain flour (all-purpose flour)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 125 ml (1/2 cup) milk
- 100 g (1 cup) pecans, roughly chopped
- 100 g (1/2 cup) dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (without fan).
- Line a muffin pan with paper muffin cases.
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla extract and eggs.
- Beat until well incorporated.
- Add and mix through the pumpkin purée.
- Gently fold in the flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- Add the milk.
- Gently mix until everything is just combined. Be careful to not over-mix the batter.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
- Mix together the chopped pecans and chocolate. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over each muffin case.
- Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.
- Leave the muffins to cool in the tray for about 5 minutes before removing them from the tray.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
Kitchen Notes
HOMEMADE PUMPKIN PURÉE
Peel and remove the seeds from about 500 g of pumpkin. Cut the pumpkin into large pieces of roughly equal size. You can either boil or steam or the pumpkin. To boil, bring a large pot of water to the boil, add the pumpkin and cook for about 30 minutes until the pumpkin is tender. To steam, bring a large pot of water to the boil, place the pumpkin in the steamer basket and steam for about 50-60 minutes until the pumpkin is tender. Place the cooked pumpkin into the bowl of a large food processor and blitz until you have a fine purée. Leave the purée to cool completely before using in this recipe.
OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly.
CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: Nutritional info per muffin
- Calories: 257
- Sugar: 14.9g
- Sodium: 78mg
- Fat: 11.2g
- Carbohydrates: 36.2g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 4.5g
- Cholesterol: 45.8mg
Update
This recipe was first published on 7 October 2016. It has been updated with more comprehensive recipe notes.
Your photos are gorgeous – those squash are so pretty! And these muffins…wow <3 How I long for one of those with my cup of coffee right now!
Thanks, Beeta! I’m really enjoying the pumpkins and squash which are in season now 🙂 I think there will be a few more pumpkin-related recipes in the pipeline!
You make the most beautiful baked goods! I love the chocolate chips and pecans in these muffins too! Well done!
Thanks, Lisa! We eat a lot of chocolate in our home, so it invariably goes in a lot of my baking!
These muffins looks wonderful and how lucky are you to be able to spend time at a farmer’s market in Zurich with so much to chose from. I love the ingredients in these muffins. It makes breakfast or snack time something special.
I go to the farmers’ markets 2-3 times a week as it is just a 10 minute walk from our home, and the one on Thursday is right in front of our closest supermarket! I love shopping at the farmers’ markets for various reasons, not least because it’s easier to go shopping there with the children than to drag them through a supermarket 😉
Although autumn is still a way in the future, I could happily eat pumpkin spice flavours all year round. These look great!
I agree! I love all pumpkin spice desserts 🙂
Ohhh yes, these look so delicious and I love that there’s a veggie hidden in there 🙂 Any kind of chocolate chip muffin is a winner in my eyes!
My thoughts exactly! 😉
These muffins looks delicious! I look forward to fall for all the pumpkins and squashes. Hydrangeas are a favorite flower of mine as well.
I adore hydrangeas! I can’t wait until they bloom again soon 🙂
This is a simple and delicious recipe! Thanks also for the tips on making pumpkin purée from scratch.
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What could be better? It looks incredible! I definitely want to try it! Thank you for the recipe!
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Hi there. I am just about to make these muffins. You list milk in your ingredients but in the instructions it’s not included when to add it. 🙃
Hi Zsuzsanna,
So sorry about that! I’ve just updated the recipe to show when to add the milk. Thanks for pointing this out. Hope you will enjoy this recipe!
Hello again,
I made your muffins and we really enjoyed them. I like how they are not too sweet, and the pumpkin flavour comes through very nice. The only thing I changed was that I mixed half of the pecans and chocolate chips in the batter, and sprinkled the other half on top. Delicious. Thank you for the recipe!
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Hi Zsuzsanna,
That’s wonderful to hear! So glad you enjoyed this recipe. I’m going to try your tip next week when I make these muffins again 🙂
Thank you for sharing your recipes we made pumpkin scones use muffin tray with patty papers turned out lovely
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