Easy Oat Flour Pumpkin Muffins

These healthy oat flour pumpkin muffins, with just a few chocolate chips, have a tons of flavor, a super tender crumb and are naturally gluten-free.

As an oat flour expert and creator of a whole category of oat flour recipes, I’ll teach you the tips and tricks to making perfectly tender, moist muffins with this uniquely hearty flour and its natural sweetness!

Why this recipe works

This recipe ensures a moist, tender muffin with rich pumpkin flavor using only a single whole-grain flour for structure. It is packed with wholesome ingredients, a modest amount of sugar, and no added butter or oil, making it a healthy snack or on-the-go breakfast.

The secret to its success lies in a unique combination of ingredients and technique. We use plenty of pumpkin puree and sour cream to provide moisture and bind the batter. This, combined with a crucial resting period, prevents the muffins from being dry or crumbly.

For convenience, you can easily make the batter in a blender or by hand. If you’re using the hand method, starting with a high-quality, store-bought oat flour like Gold Medal or Bob’s Red Mill will give you the best results.

Key ingredients explained

Here’s an explanation of what each of the simple ingredients in these muffins does to create a tender, high-rising muffin.

• Oat flour – Adds structure and plenty of whole grain nutrition. You can use 2 1/2 cups of store-bought oat flour, or just grind 3 cups of old-fashioned oats in a blender. If you need your muffins to be gluten free, be sure your oats or flour are safe.
• Baking powder & soda – Provide rise and help the muffins brown in the oven. Make sure yours is fresh.
• Salt – Balances sweetness and brightens the other flavors.
• Pumpkin pie spice – This blend of warm spices makes pumpkin baked goods taste like we expect. To make your own, combine 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon + 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger + 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves + a dash of some freshly ground nutmeg.
• Brown sugar – Adds sweetness, helps trap moisture for a tender crumb, and adds some depth of flavor.
• Pumpkin puree – Adds moisture, some pectin, and flavor. My favorite brand of canned pumpkin puree is Libby, since it usually has a bright orange color and isn’t too watery. If you can see a lot of excess moisture, soak it up first with a paper towel before measuring 12 ounces.
• Sour cream – Adds moisture, some tangy flavor, and a bit of fat for tenderness. You can also use plain Greek-style yogurt in its place. Avoid fat-free varieties, which will make your muffins tougher.
• Vanilla – Adds some depth of flavor.
• Eggs – Add some rise, moisture, a little fat from the yolks, and help the muffins hold their rise as they cool.
• Chocolate chips – Just a few ounces of chocolate chips add a lot of complementary flavor to pumpkin, reduce the moisture content of the muffin batter a bit, and help them rise taller.

How to make oat flour pumpkin muffins (step by step photos)

You can make this entire batter in a blender, just blend old fashioned oats into oat flour and use a mixing bowl for everything else, or begin with oat flour and skip the blender altogether.

The full recipe with ingredient amounts is in the recipe card below. Here’s an overview with photos of how you’d make them in your own kitchen:

1. Whisk dry & mix wet ingredients

Whisk together the dry ingredients, including the oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, in a large mixing bowl. This bowl should be big enough for the combined muffin batter. Mixing the dry ingredients separately first ensures nothing clumps together and your batter is uniform.

In a separate, medium size bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and brown sugar until very smooth. Whisk vigorously until everything is well-combined to avoid overmixing the batter after adding the oat flour.

2. Finish the batter

Pour the wet ingredient mixture into the large bowl of dry ingredients, and mix with a spatula just until a thick, soft batter forms. Mix in most of the chocolate chips, reserving a few to scatter on top of each muffin. There aren’t a lot of chocolate chips in these muffins, and scattering a few on top means each muffin will have some visible chips.

Cover the mixing bowl and let the muffin batter sit for at least 20 minutes, and up to 1 hour, at room temperature. The oat flour will absorb some of the moisture from the wet ingredients, and thicken for taller muffins.

3. Transfer the batter and bake the muffins

Divide the muffin batter evenly between 12 cups of a standard muffin tin. I like to line the wells with greaseproof muffin liners to help the muffins rise tall and prevent the muffins from sticking to the wells.

Bake at 350°F for about 25 minutes, or until the center of the middle muffins in the tin springs back when pressed gently in the center. If the muffins are still wet after 25 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 325°F or even 300°F and continue to bake until done.

Expert tips

Don’t overprocess the oats

If you choose to make the batter in the blender, be sure to grind the oats first and remove them from the blender, blend the rest of the ingredients and mix in the oat flour at the end. Be careful not to overprocess batter that contains oats or oat flour, or your baked goods may turn out gummy and somewhat tough.

Let the muffin batter rest

After combining all the ingredients into the raw muffin batter, let it rest for at least 20 minutes and up to 1 hour. This allows the oat flour to absorb moisture from the sour cream, pumpkin puree and eggs. A thicker, sturdier batter will rise higher in the oven for tall muffin domes, but still make moist and tender muffins with plenty of moisture.

If you’d like to make the batter ahead of time, you can even transfer it to the muffin tin, cover it, and refrigerate it overnight. Let the batter come to room temperature before baking as usual.

Ingredient substitutions

As long as you use gluten free oats or oat flour, these muffins are naturally gluten free. They do contain other ingredients you may need to avoid. Here are my suggestions for altering them:

Oat free

If you’re avoiding oats, you should be able to use quinoa flakes in place of the oat flour. Please see my full discussion of how to substitute for oats in baking.

If you can’t have oats but need to be gluten free, try our traditional gluten free pumpkin muffins, made with an all purpose gluten free flour blend. They’re light, tender, and have an (optional) sweet crumble topping.

Dairy free

Since there’s no butter in these muffins, the only dairy is the sour cream. It can be replaced with nondairy plain yogurt, strained of liquid until it reaches the consistency of Greek-style yogurt. You can also use plain Greek-style dairy yogurt. 

Pumpkin

If you’d like to make these muffins with a different flavor, try our banana oatmeal muffins. They have similar ingredients, and are also made with oat flour.

Egg free

There are 3 full eggs in this recipe, which I think it too many for “chia eggs”or “flax eggs”. Instead try adding:

• 1/2 cup (60 grams) oat flour
• 90 grams plain (dairy or nondairy) yogurt
• 1 1/2 extra teaspoons baking powder, and
• 1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Pumpkin pie spice

If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, you can make your own as described above in the ingredients section, or just use 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon instead.

Chocolate chips & mix-in suggestions

I recommend replacing them with something, since having a mix-in reduces the moisture content of the overall muffin batter and helps them rise higher in the oven. Avoid anything that adds extra moisture, which may make the muffins fall as they cool. Here are a few dry mix-in suggestions:

• Cinnamon, milk chocolate, or white chocolate chips
• Chopped soft nuts like pecans, walnuts or cashews
• Small dried fruit like raisins, chopped dried apricots, or dried cranberries

Sugars

Instead of light brown sugar, you can use an equal amount, by weight, of granulated coconut palm sugar, which is about 3/4 cup.

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