It’s officially fall and you know what that means… It’s time to dust off your Halloween decorations, scour the internet for costumes, and most importantly, incorporate the best seasonal flavor into your diet. That’s right, it’s pumpkin time. 

If you’ve been to Starbucks recently, you will have noticed that they have added the seasonal pumpkin muffin on their menu and trust me, they’re delicious. So, today I’m going to teach you how to make the best Starbucks pumpkin muffin dupe there is.

Now, let me bring you through the process. Our very own Editor-in-Chief, McKenna, and I tested four different recipes of pumpkin muffins and then picked our favorite, baked them and filled them with our own cream cheese frosting recipe. 

We decided that the best recipe was the third one we tested for these reasons:

1. It used coconut oil in the pumpkin mixture instead of butter or vegetable oil
2. It used ¼ of a tsp of ground cloves 
3. It used dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar

The melted coconut oil helped with the smoothness and the consistency and texture of the muffin, the ground cloves added a richer, more prominent fall flavor, and the dark brown sugar (more molasses) was easier to sift into the dry ingredients because it disintegrated easier. 

So, now that you know these are the BEST Starbucks pumpkin muffin dupes out there, let’s get into the ingredients and the instructions:

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Prepare your muffin pan with either muffin liners or baking spray
3. In a large bowl combine flour, granulated and dark brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground cloves, and nutmeg
4. Melt coconut oil for 30 seconds in the microwave, stir until fully melted
5. Combine pumpkin puree, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and eggs in a medium bowl until you have a smooth mixture
6. Begin pouring pumpkin mixture into dry ingredients, about a cup of it at a time
   1. It is important to add the pumpkin mixture gradually instead of all at once to avoid overmixing the batter
7. Stir batter until fully incorporated- do NOT overmix
8. Scoop ¼ cups of batter into the liners. 
9. Bake in oven for 22-25 minutes
10. Take muffins out of the oven and let them completely cool until adding frosting

Now let’s make the cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients:

Cream cheese     8 oz
Butter (unsalted) 1 stick
Vanilla extract      1 tsp
Salt                           ¼ tsp

Powdered sugar  3-4 cups

1. Combine cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until smooth
2. Add salt and vanilla extract and stir until fully incorporated 
3. Gradually add 3-4 cups of powdered sugar until desired sweetness and texture is reached

Combining the frosting and muffins:

1. Wait for muffins to fully cool down
2. Scoop out ½ inch hole in the middle of each muffin
3. Fill each muffin with frosting or frost on top
4. Serve!