Maple Pecan Muffins

About These Maple Pecan Muffins

These maple pecan muffins are a quick-and-easy, healthy-ish muffin recipe full of fall flavors! Thanks to the generous use of ingredients like pecans and maple syrup, these muffins are super flavorful and moist! The muffins are made with both pecan nuts AND pecan flour in the batter. Both ingredients are packed with protein and give the muffins an extra nutty flavor. Similarly, the muffin batter is sweetened with maple syrup, and then each muffin is topped with a maple glaze.

For more delicious muffin recipes on Hummingbird High, check out my Breakfast Recipes archive! Popular recipes include these Mini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins and Small Batch Blueberry Muffin Recipe.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Now that I’ve convinced you to make these maple pecan muffins, here’s your shopping list for the recipe:

Shopping List for Maple Pecan Muffins

Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card for the exact ingredient amounts and quantities:

• all-purpose flour
• pecan flour
• baking powder
• kosher salt
• maple syrup
• unsalted butter
• large eggs
• whole milk
• pecan halves
• confectioners’ sugar

And let’s talk about some key ingredients and their substitutions:

What is pecan flour?

Pecan flour is similar to almond flour, but made from ground pecans as opposed to ground almonds. It’s a great, healthy-ish ingredient because it is both grain- and gluten- free, and contains 0 grams of net carbs. The best part? It adds a TON of flavor to baked goods, giving everything a subtle toasted, rich, nutty flavor.

For these maple pecan muffins, I used Fisher’s Pecan Flour. However, Amazon offers plenty of other brands and alternatives!

Can I make my own pecan flour at home?

Absolutely! To make the amount of pecan flour needed for these recipes, weigh out 3.5 ounces (99 grams) of raw pecans. Pulse the pecans in a food processor until a fine meal forms. Be careful not to over-process—if you do, you might end up with pecan nut butter!

How To Make The Recipe

Here are the basic steps to make maple pecan muffins from scratch:

First, make the muffins.

1. Prep the oven, pan, and muffin batter ingredients. (Prep Time: 5 minutes)
   While the oven is preheating, prep your muffin pan by lining the cavities with paper liners, and measure out the ingredients for the muffins.
   
   To save myself some dishes, I like to use a digital scale to weigh out all the dry ingredients in one bowl, tare-ing the scale back down to “0” every time I add a new ingredient. This keeps me from using too many measuring cups. I do the same with the wet ingredients. The recipe will instruct you to mix all those ingredients together, anyway!
   
   Note that the recipe instructs you to use melted butter. I start by using a microwave to melt the butter in the bowl I’m planning to use for mixing everything together. Once it’s melted, I add the maple syrup, eggs, and milk to that bowl.
   
   
2. Make the batter. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
   It is so incredibly easy to make the batter. All you need to do is whisk together the dry ingredients in their bowl, then the wet ones in another bowl. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients into the wet ones until just combined, then add the pecans. Boom! You just made the muffin batter.
   
   
3. Assemble the muffins. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
   Once you’ve made the batter, it’s time to assemble the muffins. I like to use a 1-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop to portion out the batter quickly and evenly between the different cavities. The recipe instructs you to scoop 4 generous Tablespoons of batter into each cavity. It will seem like a lot, but trust me! This is the secret to tall and domed muffin tops.

Next, bake and cool the maple pecan muffins.

1. Bake the muffins. (Bake Time: 22 minutes)
   The muffins need 22 to 24 minutes in the oven. When done, they’ll be golden brown with a nice dome. Cool them in the muffin pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn them out onto the wire pan directly to cool completely.
   
   
2. Cool the muffins.
   The hardest part about this recipe is waiting for the muffins to cool before glazing them. Although I enjoy muffins warm and fresh from the oven, they need to be cool when you glaze them. Why? The glaze won’t set properly if they’re still warm. Instead, they’ll run off the muffin tops and drip down the sides of the muffin, creating a sticky mess.

Finally, glaze the muffins.

1. Prep the ingredients for the glaze. (Prep Time: 5 minutes)
   Once the muffins are cool, it’s time to prep the ingredients for the muffins. Similar to what I recommended for the batter above, I suggest melting the butter in the mixing bowl first, then adding the rest of the ingredients to the melted butter.
   
   
2. Make the glaze, then glaze the muffins. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
   The glaze comes together VERY quickly. Once you’ve whisked all the ingredients together (a process that takes only 1 minute or so), it’s time to glaze the muffins. The easiest way to glaze each muffin is this: grab one muffin, turn it upside down, dip its top into the glaze, then turn it around right side up very quickly. You can also spoon the glaze over the muffins, but it takes longer and is much messier.

Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ

Help! My maple pecan muffins don’t look as tall and domed as yours. What did I do wrong?

In the recipe, I instruct you to fill each muffin pan cavity with 4 Tablespoons of muffin batter. That amount goes beyond the conventional wisdom that states that you should only fill muffin pans up to ⅔- or ¾- full of batter! So a lot of people tend to panic and stop at around that capacity. Many think that, if they follow my instructions, the muffin batter will overflow out of the pan and into the oven floor when baked.

And I get that, I really do. But it’s also likely why your muffins aren’t as tall and domed as mine. It turns out one of the secrets to super tall and domed muffin tops is filling the muffin cavities with a generous amount of batter. Don’t worry about the muffin batter overflowing out of the pan—the batter is fairly thick, and will hold its shape in the pan before, during, and after the baking process.

Help! My maple pecan muffin glaze was too thin, and it ran off the muffins’ tops and sides. What did I do wrong?

Uh oh! In the recipe, I instruct you to cool the muffins to room temperature before glazing them. If you glaze them while they are still hot, the glaze will melt and refuse to set properly!

However, if you DID wait until the muffins were at room temperature and still had this issue, it’s likely a glaze issue. Your glaze might have too much liquid in it. Its consistency should be fairly thick, similar to Elmer’s Glue. Anything thinner will cause it to run off the muffins.

If your glaze is too thin, don’t panic! You can fix it. Simply add 1 Tablespoon of confectioners’ sugar to the glaze, and give it a good whisk. Keep going, adding a Tablespoon of confectioners’ sugar at a time, until you achieve the thick consistency I described above.

Can I freeze maple pecan muffins?

Yes! You can freeze maple pecan muffins.To do so, freeze them after baking and before glazing. Follow the recipe instructions to bake and cool the muffins to room temperature. Once cool, individually wrap each muffin in two layers of plastic wrap. Freeze for up to 3 months.

When ready to serve, thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Rewarm by placing the muffins on a parchment-lined sheet pan, and bake at 350°F for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, then follow the instructions to make the maple glaze and assemble the muffins.