🧁 Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins for kids: the whole recipe

Let's bake soft, cinnamon-y pumpkin muffins that make the whole house smell like fall! This easy Halloween treat is for ages 7 to 12 (grades 2nd–6th), takes about 40 minutes and serves 12. Crumb, our tiny chef, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow along, and every hot or sharp step is marked for a grown-up.

Ingredients

• 1½ cups flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• a pinch salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• ⅓ cup oil
• ¼ cup milk (or oat milk)
• ½ cup chocolate chips (optional)

Tools

A muffin tin and paper cups, A mixing bowl, A whisk or a fork, Measuring cups, Measuring spoons, A big spoon, The oven (grown-up), Oven mitts, A toothpick.

Steps

1. Wash your hands with soap for twenty seconds.
2. Grown-up step: A grown-up heats the oven to 375°F. You put paper cups in the muffin tin.
3. Whisk 1½ cups of flour, ½ cup of sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of salt in a big bowl.
4. Crack 1 egg into a second bowl.
5. Wash your hands again: raw egg can carry germs.
6. Stir in 1 cup of pumpkin purée, ⅓ cup of oil and ¼ cup of milk till it's smooth and orange.
7. Pour the orange mix into the flour bowl and stir gently: lumps are OK!
8. Fold in ½ cup of chocolate chips.
9. Spoon the batter into the cups until each one is about ⅔ full.
10. Grown-up step: A grown-up bakes them for 18 to 20 minutes, wearing oven mitts.
11. Grown-up step: A grown-up pokes one with a toothpick: clean means done! Cool for 10 minutes.
12. Peel off a paper and take a big, warm, pumpkin-y bite!

Safety notes

• Hot! A grown-up does this part.
• Contains milk, eggs, wheat, soy. Tap "Allergies?" on the Kitchen's front page and the swaps fill themselves in where there is one.
• No tasting raw dough or batter: wait till it's cooked.
• Read the label on packets for allergies.
• A bit messy.

Kitchen science

Baking powder makes tiny bubbles of gas when it gets wet and hot, and the bubbles puff the muffins up tall.

Make it your own

• Sprinkle a little sugar and cinnamon on top before baking.
• Bake mini muffins: about 12 minutes.
• Swap the chocolate chips for raisins or dried cranberries.

More Halloween treats for kids

• 🍞 Ghost Toast (breakfast, 10 minutes)
• 🍕 Mummy Pizza (lunch, 20 minutes)
• 🎃 Roasted Pumpkin Seeds (snacks, 50 minutes)
• 🎃 Jack-o'-Lantern Quesadillas (lunch, 20 minutes)
• All 14 Halloween treats for kids, with party food ideas
• All our easy recipes for kids and no-bake recipes