Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

November 12, 2020

We dare you to resist these pumpkin cream cheese muffins! They’re moist, cozy spiced and the creamy topping is to die for.

Um, WOW, is what I mumbled at first bite of these pumpkin cheese cake muffins. Because wow, will that beautiful bite will have you meditating on it for hours. The moist cake is cozy-scented and just sweet enough, since after all it really is a muffin. Top that with a generous gooey mound of maple cream cheese, and each bite is like eating cheesecake and a muffin all at once. It’s really a bit of heaven in a muffin wrapper. (Insert contented sigh here.)

Ingredients in pumpkin cream cheese muffins

What I love most about these pumpkin cream cheese muffins is they really are a muffin, even though they sound decadent. The flavor is gorgeous and just sweet enough, but not so sweet you feel like you’re eating a cupcake. There’s even some healthy ingredients like oatmeal and applesauce! We modeled these treats after our Healthy Pumpkin Muffins, but swapped a streusel topping for a lump of maple cream cheese. Here’s what you’ll need:

All purpose flour
Rolled oats: Rolled oats help to make them more filling and add fiber
Light brown sugar
Pumpkin pie spice: Use purchased or make your own
Baking powder, baking soda and salt
Pumpkin puree: steer away from pumpkin pie filling
Applesauce: using applesauce makes them moist and lets you use less oil
Oil: any neutral oil works, like grapeseed, organic canola, vegetable or sunflower
Vanilla extract
Cream cheese
Maple syrup

How to add the cream cheese topping / filling

These pumpkin cream cheese muffins are pretty simple to put together. It’s a typical muffin where you mix the wet ingredients, mix the dry ingredients, and then put them together. The only part with a little technique involved is the cream cheese topping! Read this before you attempt the muffins:

The cream cheese functions as both a topping and a filling. You’ll see most of it on top, but a bit of gooey cream cheese will remain inside the muffin too.
Place dollops of maple cream cheese on top of the batter. Use a heaping 1 tablespoon.
Use a spoon to push the cheese into the batter. Push it down until it sinks and batter slightly rises over edges of the cheese. You’ll still have an exposed circle of cheese at the top of the muffin.

When the muffins bake, the cream cheese portion will get larger. But you’ll still have a bit of creamy cheese on the inside. It’s delicious! These muffins are a lovely fall recipe idea, and they’re ideal for Thanksgiving.

Storage info for pumpkin cream cheese muffins

Because there’s cream cheese on top, the storage info for pumpkin cream cheese muffins is a little different than most. Here are a few pointers:

The muffins are the best the day of making. Wait after baking until they’re about room temperature, then devour. They taste incredible the day of.
Refrigerate for 5 days. Because of the cream cheese topping, avoid storing these muffins at room temperature. Pop them into the fridge and let them warm back to room temp for a minute or two before you enjoy them.
Do not freeze. The cream cheese topping doesn’t hold up well in the freezer, so we don’t’ recommend freezing them.

Variations: more cream cheese muffins to try!

If you’re anything like me, after you take one bite of these pumpkin cream cheese muffins you’ll think: What other cream cheese muffins can I try? The sky is really the limit: you can put the maple cream cheese topping from this recipe on just about any muffin. Here are a few we’d recommend:

Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins: Add the topping to our Banana Blueberry Muffins.
Apple Cream Cheese Muffins: Drop the streusel and add it to our Apple Muffins with Streusel.
Banana Cream Cheese Muffins: Add it to Healthy Banana Bread Muffins or better yet, Chocolate Banana Muffins!

This pumpkin cream cheese muffins recipe is…

Vegetarian.