Description
Golden brown pumpkin cream cheese muffins with crumb topping arranged on a wire cooling rack, showing the creamy white center filling
Ingredients
For the Cream Cheese Filling:
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened (leave it out for like 2 hours, don’t microwave it!)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
For the Pumpkin Muffins:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups pumpkin purée (Libby’s is what I use)
- 1¼ cups vegetable oil
For the Crumble Topping (skip if you’re lazy, but don’t):
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
No pumpkin pie spice? Mix 3 tablespoons cinnamon, 2 teaspoons ginger, 2 teaspoons nutmeg, 1 teaspoon allspice, and 1 teaspoon cloves. Store the extra in a jar.
Instructions
1. Get That Cream Cheese Ready First Beat your cream cheese with the powdered sugar until it’s completely smooth – no lumps allowed here. Stick it in the freezer for about 15 minutes until it’s firm enough to scoop without making a mess. This step is non-negotiable.
2. Mix Your Dry Stuff Preheat your oven to 350°F and line those muffin tins. Whisk all your dry ingredients in a big bowl – flour, spices, salt, baking soda. Make sure everything’s evenly distributed because nobody wants a bite of straight cinnamon.
3. Combine the Wet Ingredients In another bowl, beat your eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and oil until it looks uniform. Don’t worry about making it perfect – just get everything combined well.
4. The Critical Mixing Step Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir just until you can’t see dry flour anymore. Seriously, stop stirring the second everything comes together. Overmixed muffins are tough, chewy disasters.
5. Make That Crumble Topping Mix sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in cold butter with a fork until it looks like coarse crumbs. Keep this cold until you need it.
6. Assembly Time Put about 2 tablespoons of batter in each muffin cup. Add a good spoonful of that chilled cream cheese filling right in the center. Cover with more batter until cups are about 3/4 full. Top with crumble if you’re using it.
7. Bake These Beauties Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden. Test with a toothpick in the pumpkin part, not the cream cheese center – that’ll always be gooey.
8. Cool Down and Dig In Let them cool completely in the pan. I know it’s torture, but the cream cheese needs time to set properly. Trust me on this one.
Notes
The mixing technique makes or breaks these muffins. Mix the wet and dry ingredients just until you can’t see flour anymore. A few lumps are totally fine – actually, they’re preferred. I used to overmix everything until I learned that tough muffins are the result of good intentions gone wrong.
If your muffin tops are browning too fast, tent them with foil during the last 10 minutes. My oven runs hot, so I do this every time.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 285
- Sugar: 24g
- Sodium: 180mg
- Fat: 12g
- Saturated Fat: 4g
- Unsaturated Fat: 8g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 42g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 5g
- Cholesterol: 45mg