Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins | An Easy, Soft & Moist Pumpkin Muffin Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

Why are my pumpkin muffins so dense? ›

If your pumpkin muffins are overly dense, there may be a couple reasons why: Over-mixed batter. Be sure to mix the wet and dry ingredients together only until just combined. Mixing the batter too much can result in extra gluten development which can make the muffins dense or even gummy.

Too little fat will result in dry, less tender muffins. Carefully cut on lines found on the butter/margarine stick wrapper. Or, pack it into dry (nested) measuring cup, then use a spatula or straight edge of a knife blade to level even with the top of the cup.

Use a steamer. Steaming is a great way to add moisture to past-their-prime muffins. And according to a TikTok user, you should also be steaming your muffins when you bake them since the hot air and steam allow more time for the centers to rise, resulting in tender and airy muffins.

The idea here is to start the muffins in a very hot oven for just a short amount of time. This activates the baking powder and allows the muffins to shoot up in height quickly. We then turn the heat down and continue to cook for longer. This is done to avoid over-browning and overbaking.

Creaming SOFT butter with sugar suspends the sugar in the soft butter, making a fluffier batter or cookie dough .. which gives a more tender and lighter final product. Melted butter will make a dense and unpleasantly tough product.

In an oven (NO MICROWAVE PLEASE), keep a tray of water and Preheat the oven for 10 minutes and 200 degrees. Place the muffins in another tray over the water, possibly may need a stand. Lower the heat to about 100 and leave on for 5 minutes and switch off the over and let the muffins stand for about another 5 minutes.

With recipes that don't have heavy or juicy add-ins, soggy bottoms are often caused by leaving muffins to cool in their pans for too long. This is problematic, as it traps steam. When baked goods come out of the oven they're naturally very hot, and internal steam needs to escape while they cool.

Rest the Muffin Batter

The first, most hands-off way to make your muffins pop (literally) is to let the batter rest. Make the batter, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the batter rest at room temperature for about 1 hour. If you're short on time, just 30 minutes can make a difference.

There's no question that the standard oven temperature of 350°F gets the job done for baking up muffins and quick breads. But you don't want baked goods that just “get the job done.” No, you deserve better — and for that, you need two temperatures.

How do you make muffins taste better? ›

Using nutritious pumpkin instead of eggs, oil and butter is a delicious way to feel good and enjoy the recipes you love.

Not only does pumpkin purée act as a sweetener, a creamy moisturizer, and a fat substitute in everything from muffins to soup — but it also tastes delicious in everything! But because canned pumpkin is unlike any other baking ingredient, it tends to be mistreated in recipes.

Overbaking or underbaking the muffins.

Take the muffins out of the oven too soon and they're sticky and uncooked at the center. Bake them a few minutes too long, and those once-moist and fluffy muffins run the risk of turning dry.

Over-mixing – If you mix the muffin batter too much it can create a VERY dense muffin with huge pockets of air inside.

The recipe, as originally written, produced wonderful muffins but they dried out quickly and tasted overly dense. In the past few years, I've worked to improve it by replacing some of the oil with melted butter, some baking powder with baking soda, and adding sour cream for moisture and lightness.

Pumpkin bread can become dense if there is not enough hydration or wet ingredients in the recipe. Another cause is overcooking the bread which can cause it to dry out. Remember, it's always easy to keep cooking if it isn't done but impossible to take cooking time back.

First of all, try cutting back on the leavening. For every cup of flour, you only need 1 teaspoon of baking powder or 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. Too much leavening actually results in a denser texture because the cake rises and then collapses back onto itself when the gases escape.