Pumpkin cream cheese muffins
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I woke up to a chilly fall morning and really wanted a pumpkin cream cheese muffin from Dunkin Donuts…but that would mean a 20-minute drive for me.
The search for pumpkin muffin recipes
So, I thought, “Why haven’t I made pumpkin muffins yet this fall?” That set me on a search through my Pinterest pins.
I found so many, including three that made my mouth water. One recipe was Pumpkin Ginger Muffins, and two pumpkin muffin recipes were from Sally’s Baking Addiction. One was Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins, and one was a Simply Muffin Recipe that she added chocolate chips to.
I had the ingredients for all of the recipes, and I LOVE chocolate, and I LOVE ginger, but I went with the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins because that was my first craving.
Nutrition in pumpkin
I’ve written about the nutrition in pumpkin before.
I use it to justify my pumpkin addiction, but pumpkin really is nutritious, and I don’t know why we don’t sneak more of it into recipes like chunked up in stew and by adding it to chili.
The pumpkin muffin recipe I chose used only one cup of pumpkin puree, about half a can. But I found lots of ways to use leftover pumpkin puree, and Sally has that covered, too.
Changes I made to the pumpkin cream cheese recipe
- I didn’t melt the butter for the crumb topping. Full disclosure: I never melt butter for crumb topping, only soften it slightly, so I really didn’t read the instructions well.
>>Result: I seemed to work fine, and the crumb topping is nice and “crumb-y.”
2. I didn’t use a muffin pan because I don’t own one at the moment. I have 10 silicone muffin cups that don’t need to be put into a muffin pan because they stand up alone.
But I only have 10, as 2 have wandered off.
>>Result: I had to scramble and find a couple of other muffin “holders.” I used these coffee cups that I use exclusively for chocolate molten lava cakes. They worked great but needed about 7 more minutes of baking.
Changes I would make next time to the pumpkin cream cheese recipe
- I’d buy muffin tins. I have no idea what prompted me to get rid of mine. Probably, I got annoyed that I couldn’t get them very clean (I don’t have a dishwasher. Or, I’d just make 7 or 8 large muffins in the coffee cups because, let’s face it, who really eats just one pumpkin muffin?
- I wouldn’t fill the muffin cups as full. I would put a scant tablespoon in the bottom, a teaspoon of cream cheese filling, top with the pumpkin muffin mixture so the cups are less than ¾ full, then add the crumb topping. All of the muffins overflowed. Don’t get me wrong…I broke the overflowed muffin parts off, and they were delicious. But I could have made probably 2 more muffins with the mix that overflowed.
- I would change the cream cheese filling mix slightly.
- The recipe below incorporates my changes.
Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling
Ingredients
Crumb topping
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 2/3 cup flour
- 1/4 cup butter
Cream cheese filling
- 6 ounces cream cheese
- 1 tbsp milk
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Pumpkin muffin mixture
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Crumb topping
- Cut butter into cubes.
- Mix all ingredients together.
- Mix butter into the dry ingredients until the size of small peas using your hands or a pastry blender.
Cream cheese filling
- Add all ingredients to a small bowl and mix with rotary mixer until creamy and smooth.
Pumpkin muffin mixture
- Mix all dry ingredients together.
- Add wet ingredients and mix by hand until well mixed.
Making muffins
- Preheat oven to 425º.
- Line a muffin tray with papers or grease muffin cups.
- Add a tablespoon of pumpkin mixture to bottom of muffin cup or liner.
- Add a teaspoon of filling.
- Add another tablespoon of pumpkin mixture or enough to fill the cups about 3/4 full.
- Add a spoonful of the crumb topping and press into the mixture gently.
- Bake 5 minutes.
- Turn oven down to 350º.
- Bake 15-17 minutes.
Notes
- Either light brown or dark brown sugar can be used.
- An equal amount of applesauce or coconut oil can be used instead of oil.
How did my pumpkin cream cheese muffins turn out?
This recipe has a lot of moving parts: there is the crumb topping, the cream cheese filling, and the muffin mix itself.
But it didn’t take long to put the muffins together and it was worth it.
The muffins were yummy. The pumpkin spice flavor was excellent, and the muffins were moist. The recipe makes a good amount, and the muffins are pretty and a change from the usual pumpkin muffins.
Some had swirls of cream cheese instead of a cream cheese center because it baked out and overflowed in some muffins. That certainly didn’t affect the taste and the filling and muffin were still there for me to eat.
I will definitely make this recipe again.
The time it took was totally worth saving 20 minutes of driving—and I have 10 muffins, 2 huge coffee cup muffins, and all that overflow muffin stuff (think extra muffin tops) to eat!!!
Thankfully, fall has just begun, and I can make (and eat) my way through the other mouth-watering pumpkin muffin recipes. I plan to use the pumpkin puree in some pumpkin spice “nice” cream.
