Last updated on December 14th, 2021
What tastes better than pumpkin and spice and cheesecake all wrapped up in one (or two) delicious bite(s)? Why, it’s these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins I say. I made this batch of 24 and in my house, they were gone in a day.
Okay, okay I’ll see myself out. On, to the recipe…
Tips & Tricks for making Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Sometimes I can’t wrap my head around the “Pumpkin Spice” craze. And then there was the movement to get actual pumpkin into desserts…because someone heard “pumpkin” (and missed “spice”) and insisted it be added to everything. So as a result I’m not a super huge fan of things with the squash pumpkin in them. However, adding the word “cheesecake” to anything will change my mind.
Ingredients:
Muffins
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt (kosher)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup water
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
Cream Cheese Filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
These ingredients are fairly straightforward, but one little side note: be sure to use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. If you only have the pumpkin pie filling on-hand, feel free to swap out the puree, spices and half of the sugar in the recipe. The recipe should theoretically still work, but your mileage may vary and has been untested – in my kitchen.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare Muffins
You can either line muffin trays with paper cups or liners or you can grease the trays liberally and pour the batter straight in. I have done these muffins both ways and for the sake of simplicity, I prefer pouring the muffin batter straight into the tray. This does however, require more clean up.
I used a stand mixer and had 3 separate bowls to dump the ingredients in on standby for each step to expedite this process but you can use an electric handheld mixer or even use a good old fashioned whisk to get the job done just fine.
I did the first set of mixing with the all-purpose, whole-wheat flour, the sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt – until thoroughly combined.
Second set of mixing was the oil, eggs, water and pumpkin puree until completely combined. I’ve had people ask me about mixing eggs together one at a time carefully and I only do this for certain types of dishes – this is not one of them.
Once the puree mixture is thoroughly combined, I then added the flour mixture a little bit at a time until JUST combined, stopped and set aside in a separate bowl. If using a hand mixer or whisk placing the mixture in a separate bowl is unnecessary.
Prepare Cream Cheese Filling
The third set of mixing was for the cream cheese filling, and beat the cream cheese, sugar, milk and vanilla until whipped together nicely. Set this aside.
Assemble Muffins
Pour the batter into the prepared muffin trays, no more than two-thirds of the way full. I used an ice cream scoop to make this process a little easier.
Use a spoon to add a dollop of the cream cheese filling into each one of the muffin cups.
Then use the back of the spoon to push down into the muffin batter.
Use a toothpick or a butter knife to swirl the cream cheese filling around in the muffin batter.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 – 30 minutes, or until muffins are cooked through. Test by inserting toothpick into one of the muffins. It should come out with very few crumbs – if any.
Cool in the muffin tins on a wire rack for at least ten minutes before removing from muffin pan.
Serve warm or refrigerate.
You can freeze these like any bread product and thaw in the microwave, the oven or in the air fryer (minus the paper muffin wrapper) for under a minute.
Related Recipes
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt (kosher)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup water
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree* see note
Cream Cheese Filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line muffin tray with paper liners or grease and flour trays – depending on preference.
- Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, sugar, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cloves and salt in large bowl until combined.
- In separate bowl combine oil, eggs, water and pumpkin puree until thoroughly blended.
- Slowly add flour mixture to pumpkin puree mixture and stir until just combined.
- Use an electric hand mixer (or stand mixer) to prepare cream cheese mixture. Combine softened cream cheese sugar, milk and vanilla together until light and creamy. Set aside.
- Pour pumpkin batter into muffin cups 2/3rds of the way full.
- Add spoonful of cream cheese filling to each muffin cup and press down into batter with back of spoon.
- Swirl with toothpick or butter knife.
- Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out with only a few crumbs, or clean.
- Remove from oven and allow muffins to cool in tray on wire rack for at least ten minutes.
- Serve.
