Description

These Browned Butter Pumpkin Muffins are best when made the night before and stored overnight in an airtight container. The overnight rest yields a slightly weighty moist muffin with a tight crumb. And the extra full muffin tins yield a lovely muffin top. Note: This small-ish batch easily doubles or triples to your liking.

Ingredients

Scale

Brown Sugar Crumble

2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of kosher salt

Muffin

3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4. tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/2 c. pure cane sugar
2 tbsp. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. pumpkin purée (see notes)
1 large egg, room temperature
2 tbsp. plain whole milk yogurt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
sprinkle of pepita seeds (optional)

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Instructions

Make the brown sugar crumble. Add all the ingredients into a bowl and set aside for now. No need to get our hands messy just yet.
Make the muffins. Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat until melted and golden brown, swirling occasionally to keep from burning. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
Into the semi-cooled butter, whisk in the sugars to help quickly cool the butter. Next whisk in the pumpkin purée, egg, yogurt, and extract until evenly combined. (See for additional guidance on pumpkin purée thickness.)
Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture and stir together until just combined, no more. Line a muffin tin with liners and evenly divide the batter amongst the 7 liners. In order to create a muffin top, they will be quite full. Mix together the crumble between your fingers and evenly sprinkle over the muffins. Then, sprinkle several pepitas over each muffin if desired.
Bake for about 18 minutes or until the center springs back with a gentle tap or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for a couple minutes before finishing cooling on a cooling rack. Once cooled, store in a covered container overnight. By morning, the crispy-out-of-the-oven top will have softened to perfection.

Notes

Not all pumpkin purées are created equal. Freshly puréed pumpkin tends to be wetter compared to the canned variety, though the canned varieties can also vary quite. This recipe was tested with fresh pumpkin. See above picture for pumpkin consistency. If your pumpkin is not as wet and quite thick, you may need to add an extra tablespoon of milk or yogurt to the recipe.

Prep Time: 10 min.
Cook Time: 18 min.