Welcome fall with these pumpkin cream cheese muffins! With a sweet cream cheese filling and a streusel-like topping, what’s not to love?
My budding baker is at it again! This time, Addie is bringing us some fun fall flavors with these pumpkin cream cheese muffins. We already had canned pumpkin at home so all we needed to buy for this recipe was some cream cheese.
This recipe is slightly more complicated than your average muffin. It requires two more steps, which are oh-so-worth-it. First, you’ll need to make yourself a cream cheese log and freeze it for 2 hours (or up to overnight). Make sure you plan accordingly! Next, you’ll need to make some streusel topping, which as we all know, is absolutely mandatory for a muffin like this. If you decide to skip the streusel, you and I can no longer be friends (half kidding).
Once your individual components are done, the assembly is simple. You just need to layer them, like layers of Jell-O. Easy peasy, right?
The most difficult part about the recipe is waiting for them to cool so you don’t burn your mouth on the hot cream cheese filling. Easier said than done!
While the original recipe claims to make 24 muffins, Addie only got 17. She altered the ingredients from the original recipe, which I have reflected below. She decreased the amount of oil and also adjusted the spices. I loved her alteration and found them to be fabulous.
The muffins tend to soften significantly overnight, so I recommend placing them in the refrigerator if you’re not going to eat them all on the day they are baked.
Husband’s rating: 4 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
My rating: 4 out of 5
Pumpkin cream cheese muffins
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 8-ounce package cream cheese softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Muffins
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups pumpkin puree (one 15-ounce can) note that this is NOT the same as pumpkin pie filling!
- ¾ cups vegetable or canola oil
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 and ½ teaspoons baking soda
Crumb topping
- ½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 6 Tablespoons cold butter cut into small cubes
Instructions
Make the filling
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the powdered sugar. Mix well until smooth.
- Get a piece of plastic wrap and place it on a clean surface. Using a spatula, scoop out the cream cheese mixture and place it onto the plastic wrap, making sure to create a log shape. It should be about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter.
- Wrap the log of cream cheese in the plastic wrap and transfer to the freezer. Allow it to chill for 2 hours or until firm (you can keep it there overnight if needed). The cream cheese needs to be firm enough to be sliceable.
Make the muffins
- Generously grease or line two standard muffins pans and set aside (Addie used silicone muffin pans and did not grease or line them).
- In the bowl of a clean stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, beat the eggs on medium speed until light and airy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the sugar, pumpkin puree, and the oil. Mix on medium speed until well blended.
- Turn the mixer off and add the flour, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda. Use a spatula or spoon to gently stir this into the bowl so it's somewhat mixed. Turn the mixer to low and mix until everything just comes together - do not over mix (alternatively, you can mix this by hand if you like). Place this into the refrigerator to cool for 20 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 425℉.
- In a medium sized bowl (or in the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon together. Add the cold butter and mix with a pastry blender (or mix on low if using a mixer). Keep mixing until it looks a bit like wet sand, with some small bits of butter the size of peas.
- Fill each muffin well with about a Tablespoon of batter. Then slice the cream cheese log into 17 equal pieces. Place one slice of the cream cheese on top of the batter. Then fill the well with more batter until it is about ¾ full. Sprinkle the top with some of the cinnamon-sugar butter crumb. Repeat with the remaining batter.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 6 minutes. Without opening the oven door, decrease the oven temperature to 350℉ and bake for an additional 13-15 minutes. The muffins are done with a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with no batter (it might have some melty cream cheese filling, and that's OK).
- Allow the muffins to cool before serving.