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These Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins are tender, moist and full of fall flavor. They have perfectly balanced spices, swirled with sweet cream cheese and topped with a delicious streusel topping. These are easy, moist and perfect for the weekend.
I think early fall means pumpkin everything! I’m talking iced pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin waffles and pumpkin cinnamon rolls. We love pumpkin around here. And these muffins join my collection of delicious pumpkin recipes. Let’s get into it.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Pumpkin puree. I like using canned pumpkin puree. My favorite brands are Libby’s and Whole Foods 365 brand. They’re both a beautiful bright orange color.
- Oil. I like using neutral oil. This results in super moist muffins.
- Cream cheese. The tartness from the cream cheese sings with the delicious spices and pumpkin.
- Spices. If you have my homemade pumpkin pie spice. You can use 2 teaspoons of this mix instead of the individual spices.
For the rest of the ingredients, please see the recipe index card below!
How to Make These Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
- Make the crumb topping. Mix together all of the ingredients in a small bowl.
- Make the batter. In a large bowl, whisk all of the ingredients together (except the flour). It should be very smooth.
- Add the flour.
- Mix just until you no longer see any speckles of flour
- Pipe dollops of cream cheese filling onto the batter. Using a skewer, make swirls.
- Add the crumb topping to half of the muffins. Bake. Transfer to the oven to bake for 20-22 minutes.
Recipe Tip
- Be sure not to overmix. This over-develops the gluten and will result in tough muffins. You want the batter to be just mixed.
- Skip the crumb topping. I love these muffins with or without the crumb topping. This is made for half of the muffins so simply double it if you want it for each of the muffins.
- To store the muffins, place them in an airtight bag (like a ziploc) and store at room temperature for up to 4 days.
FAQ
Yep! Place the batter into a 8×4-inch loaf pan or 9×5. Bake at 350F for about 40-45 minutes. Check it with a skewer to make sure it comes out clean. Let it cool in the loaf pan for about 10 minutes.
Sure! Skip the swirl if you don’t like it. It’ll still be super delicious.
I personally love to use it to make a pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin chili, pumpkin pupcakes, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin pasta alla vodka.
More Cozy Fall Recipes
Scones & Muffins
Honey Cornbread Muffins
Cakes
Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Winter
Apple Cinnamon Rolls
Breakfast
Apple Cider Doughnut Muffins
If you tried this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a ๐ star rating and let me know how it went in the ๐ comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Equipment
- 1 muffin tin
- 12 muffin liners
- 1 Whisk
Ingredients
Crumb Topping:
- 1/2 cup (65g) all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (50g) white granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 (57g) cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
Cream Cheese Filling
- 6 ounces cream cheese
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pumpkin Muffins:
- 3/4 (150g) cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 (104g) cup dark brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2/3 (133g) cup neutral oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ยผ (300g) cup pumpkin puree
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 3/4 (228g) cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
To Make the Crumb Topping:
- In a small bowl, pour in the all-purpose flour, sugar, salt and pour in the melted butter. Mix it up with a fork. I like the crumbs to be pea-sized. Set aside.
To Make the Cream Cheese Filing:
- In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, heavy cream and vanilla. Using an electric hand mixer, beat until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag or a ziploc bag. Set aside.
To Make the Muffins:
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Place muffin liners in the cavities of a muffin pan. In a large bowl, add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, oil, eggs, pumpkin puree, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk together until smooth.
- Pour in the all-purpose flour and mix until you no longer see any flecks of flour, being sure not to over mix the batter.
- Add a tablespoon of the batter to each muffin liner. And then add a teaspoon or two of cream cheese filling. Using a skewer, swirl the cream cheese. It needs to be a good layer of cream cheese so it doesn’t just melt into the batter as it bakes.
- Add the remaining a batter on top of each of the muffins evenly.
- Pipe on the remaining cream cheese icing. Swirl it into the tops of each of the muffins.
- Add the crumb topping to about half of the muffins.
- Transfer to the oven to bake for about 20-22 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
- I like to eat these on their own with a bit of butter.
- To store the muffins, place them in an airtight bag (like a ziploc) and store at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Notes
- Be sure not to overmix. This over-develops the gluten and will result in tough muffins. You want the batter to be just mixed.
- Skip the crumb topping. I love these muffins with or without the crumb topping. This is made for half of the muffins so simply double it if you want it for each of the muffins.
- To store the muffins, place them in an airtight bag (like a ziploc) and store at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Just made these this morning and they turned out absolutely perfect! So moist, not too sweet and dreamy balance of pumpkin and spices. Also had the perfect amount of pumpkin puree leftover to make Adrianna’s pumpkin spice syrup recipe for my morning lattes. 10/10!!
Hi Taylor! Thanks so much for the feedback. And OMG I love that you made the pumpkin spice syrup too! My heart! Haha.
Not too pumpkiny which I love. Perfect amount of pumpkin.
I also made the batter ahead of time and stuck it in the fridge overnight. Baked it the next day and it was good!
Definitely will make again
I made these today and while absolutely delicious, the crumb topping sort of melted off the top and slid to the sides. Iโm thinking if I get some of those tulip liners that would probably help keep everything up. Using regular liners made the tops sort of flat as everything spread out more. I also couldnโt get the cream cheese filling thin enough in order to swirl very well, despite softening the cream cheese and adding lots of extra cream. Not as beautiful as Adriannaโs but certainly tasty. Super moist and melts in your mouth. Yum!
Ahh yes you know I haven’t tried these with regular liners but now that I’m thinking of it the tulip ones definitely held all of that in! UGh sorry that that happened. But I’m so glad they’re moist and delicious!
I just made these and they are amazing! I did have to cook them about 8 min longer than suggested, but I think thatโs an oven issue, not a recipe issue. I put the strusel on 8 of them and I plan to freeze the 4 without it for a couple of quick bfasts in the future. Super fun and satisfying baking project.
Hi Chelsea, That sounds amazing!! Sorry about the 8 min longer. It might be an oven issue…hmm…I’ll recheck it ๐
These muffins turned out perfectly! The flavor was perfect and not overly spiced. I added the crumb topping to all of them because I like the texture. These are a lovely fall bake! I will definitely make them again.
Hi Jess, I love to hear it. Thanks so much for the feedback! ๐
Easy to follow recipe. I didnโt do the streusel topping but these muffins came out delicious!!
YAY!! I think they’re divine without the stresuel! ๐