I know it sounds impossible.
I was skeptical too.
My friend brought these to a church function and—as I do with most things pumpkin—I freaked out. What. Are in. These muffins??
She laughed and told me the recipe is super easy. There are only 3 ingredients!
Haah.
Maybe you already know this too?
It’s probably one of those things that’s been floating around Pinterest for years, and I’m totally late to this pumpkin game.
But here it is! Now you can impress all of your friends too.
And if you end up eating 1/2 of the batter straight from the bowl, I won’t judge.
Okay.
Drumroll….
3 INGREDIENT PUMPKIN MUFFINS
Makes about 12-16 muffins
1 small can of pumpkin, 15 oz
1 bag of mini cinnamon chips, 10 oz (such as Hershey’s)
1 yellow cake mix, from a box
• Mix the canned pumpkin and cake mix in a bowl. The batter will be thick, so mix slowly to avoid cake mix powder in your face.
• Mix in the cinnamon chips.
• Spoon the batter into cupcake holders (a Cookie Scoop
• Bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes.
• Cool on a baking rack and enjoy!
VARIATIONS on the recipe:
I’ve tried making these a few different ways, and to be honest I keep going back to the three main ingredients because they taste the best, and the size of the mini chips works really well.
But here are some things you can try:
• Use half cinnamon chips, half chocolate chips.
• Spice Cake mix with white chocolate chips.
• Spice Cake mix with semi-sweet chocolate chips.
• Substitute something else for the pumpkin?? I’m still playing with this idea. Would it work with 15 oz (about 2 cups) of mashed up bananas?? I’ll have to try it out….
Happy one week till Thanksgiving!
And if you’re a pumpkin lover like me, check out our other recipes:
Okay, we just made these and they’re amazing. They’re like candy. I like the idea of using banana in place of pumpkin. That would be a fun twist.
Hi Dana! What if you want to do it with natural smashed pumpkin? And homemade cake mix? Would it work? I have to go with chocolate chips because here in Argentina you dont have more choices….
I do this with spice cake mix and nuts. Pecans, cinnamon, and pumpkin are a trio that always taste spectacular together 🙂
Thanks for sharing this timely recipe, Dana!!! These sound super yummy – can’t wait to make them! Regular yellow cake mix or with pudding in? thanks.
Me and pumpkin, we are thick as thieves. But I have somehow never heard cinnamon chips or this recipe…and I am all over Pinterest! I love that they cook up with that unpolished natural look. They look delicious. I have to track down some cinnamon chips now…where did you find yours?
Walmart usually carries the cinnamon chips if your grocery store doesn’t.
It works with whatever cake mix you want. I’ve made these for years! They always turn out great! I’ve used a yellow cake mix & add pumpkin pie spice to it as the spice cake mixes I’ve gotten sometimes have a gritty component to them. Also, caramel chips( not the same as straight caramel) are delicious in them!
Dana, thank you for your fabulous blog. Your layout and colors are so fun to look through and your content consistently creative. Keep it coming, please! These muffins look delish. Here’s a tip to make them even easier; use a “trigger” ice cream scoop (#16) to dish the batter from the bowl to the pan instead of that half cup measure. Kids love to do this. Bada boom, bada bing — perfectly portioned muffins.
We make these with dark chocolate cake mix and chocolate chips. If you didn’t know that pumpkin is in it, you’d never guess. 🙂
I wonder if it would work with GF cake mix?
I may have to give it a try!
We make this exact recipe into cookies – just do a tablespoon of batter on a cookie sheet instead of filling a muffin tin, bake for about 10 minutes, and voila! Soft pumpkin spice cookies! I’d never heard of doing them as muffins until you posted this.
Gah!! I have never seen tinned pumpkin in Australia. I’m thinking I might just cook some butternut pumpkin until it’s mashable and use that, but I somehow suspect that tinned pumpkin is sort of sweet. Is it? I want to make a bunch of this stuff but without getting the pumpkin sort of right it’s bound to be a failure 🙁
Hi, Angelica! Canned (or tinned) pumpkin in the U.S. is not sweet. The sugar in the cake mix and the chocolate chips sweetens the pumpkin.
Thank you 🙂 so its not sweet? OK. Is it pumpkin chunks in some sort of juice inside the can or is it basically a puree? Just trying to get a better idea of what texture to aim for.
No, it’s like a puree. Very smooth, no chunks.
Angelica- You can find US tinned pumpkin at the USA Foods shop in Australia.
usafoods.com.au
They have outlets in Moorabbin in Victoria and Sydney, but you can order online as well.
Good luck!
These sound amazing! It’s my first Thanksgiving away from home as I’m studying abroad, so I will definitely be making these for my mini Thanksgiving dinner! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I’ve had these before but forgot about them. Thanks for the delicious reminder!! I made them today in cookie and mini muffin form. Both yummy and my whole family loved them. I can’t wait to try them with a spice cake mix and some of your other ideas. Thanks for all the time you put into such a great blog!
Anything with only three ingredients is a sell for me!! Love it! Thanks for sharing!
http://www.threewhims.com
Nice one dear
daina I cant wait to try them they sound supper yummy
Saw your 3 ingredients pumpkin muffins – I’ve mini muffin tin…so for how much time should I bake?
Pls reply to my email. Thank you.
Maybe about 8-10 minutes? Start there and test it with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean.
I use my mini muffin tin all the time with this recipe and I bake for 12 min. Yum!
I use my mini muffin/cupcake pans for these also and get approx 4 dozen bite sized muffins from this recipe.
Don’t forget to spray your pan with cooking spray if you are not using paper cups.
I love this. But I would use 1/2 bag of pumpkin chips. 1 bag is too much.
Hi
When I saw your recipe for these pumpkin muffins about a month ago I thought it was a great idea .
However ever since then I have been looking for cinnamon chips and have not been able to find them anywhere .
I bought the cake and the pumpkin now I’m not sure what to do .
You had mentioned something about a substitute when I saw the recipe but I was interested in using Cinnamon chips .
Thank you
Patti ????
Bummer sorry! You can use other chips…like chocolate chip, or white choc chip. The cinnamon ones are the best (in my opinion) but go ahead and try other variety!
You can get the Cinnamon Chips on Amazon, I also use Andes Peppermint Baking chips, also on Amazon. I make half and half cinnamon and peppermint at Christmas time. Using my mini cup cake pan I get approx 4 dozen mini bite size muffins out of this recipe.
Can these be made ahead of time and frozen? They are delicious and I don’t want to ruin that taste if freezing is not a good idea.
Absolutely, I froze some last year after our son couldn’t make it to a family holiday party. It’s best if they are made in the mini paper cups though. Sometimes I don’t use them when baking these.
I put them in a 1 gallon ziplock bag in a single layer and placed them in the freezer.
The next time I knew I was going to see him (approx 3 wks later) I took them from the freezer and removed them from the baggie. Then placed them on my cooling rack to thaw and let the moisture/ice that had built up in the baggie dry out. They were just as yummy as the day I made them.
My sister showed me how to make these about 25 years ago and they have been a family favorite since.
Last Christmas I was going to make them to take to a Family Holiday Party but could not find the cinnamon chips anywhere. I did however find some Andes Peppermint baking chips so I thought, “Why Not?”
They too were a huge hit with the family and fit quite nicely with the Christmas Holiday.