Inside: These pumpkin muffins with cream cheese filling and streusel topping are far from easy, but they are oh, so worth it. The perfect baked treat for fall!
My 16-year-old came out of her room to join me in the kitchen. The baking supplies were pulled out onto the kitchen counters, ready to go, but I hadn’t started baking yet because man, this recipe is a doozy!
She locked eyes with me and said, “Alright mom. I’m here. It’s time to lock in.”
My ADHD self needs body doubling to make these absolutely delicious and totally worth it, but very much not easy pumpkin cream cheese muffins, happen.
Call pumpkin spice overrated all you like, but every fall, like clockwork, I’m over here craving all things pumpkin. I must have at least a few pumpkin spice lattes per season (with 4 pumps of pumpkin sauce, instead of 6) and pumpkin baked goods galore.
And these muffins are at the very top of my fall baking list! Right up there with THESE pumpkin scones.
I used to only make them once a season because they have SO many ingredients and were SO much work. But then, I had an epiphany and decided to simplify the process of the original recipe in order to enjoy them more often, all season long.
They remind me of pumpkin cream cheese muffins Starbucks used to make years ago. YUM. If you never had them (ok, now I feel old), you can now experience them with this recipe.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (The Perfect Fall Muffin)
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I originally discovered this recipe from Annie’s Eats (now Everyday Annie) years ago.
But her process of creating a roll of the cream cheese filling and freezing it for two hours stopped me from making them more than once a year. It was just too complicated, was seriously messy and took way too long.
I came up with a new method to make it easier, and now I make them far more often!
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For the filling, I beat the confectioner’s sugar and softened cream cheese together. Then, instead of that complicated log nonsense, I scrape it all into a Ziploc bag, seal it and leave it in the freezer while I make the muffin batter.
When the batter is finished, I simply pipe the frosting into the muffins, using kitchen scissors to cut each section as I go (see photos for a better visual).
The multiple steps for filling, batter and topping are still a pain and rough on the ADHD brain, but it’s way more manageable without having to deal with creating a log of filling wrapped in plastic wrap and waiting two hours – trust me.
Can You Make These Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins Without the Filling?
Um, yes, but 0/10 stars, do not recommend.
The last time I made these, a couple of family members who shall remain nameless desecrated these muffins by scraping out the cream cheese filling. HOW DARE THEY.
But in the name of feeding the entire family, I begrudgingly made a few filling free this time around.
If you must make them without the filling, it will go faster, buttttt you will miss out of the awesomeness that is this muffin. Just sayin’.
I hope you love these pumpkin cream cheese muffins as much as we do!
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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Equipment
- 3 Mixing Bowls (or 1 & clean as you go)
- 1 Scraper
- 1 Quart-Sized Ziploc Bag
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Hand Mixer
- 1 Pastry Cutter optional
- 1 Kitchen Scissors
- 2 Muffin Tins
- 1 Set of Measuring Cups
- 1 Set of Measuring Spoons
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 8 oz package Cream Cheese, Softened
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar
Muffins
- 3 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 tsp Cloves
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 4 large Eggs
- 2 cups White Sugar
- 1 15 oz. can Pumpkin Puree (About 1 3/4 cups)
- 1 1/4 cups Vegetable Oil
Topping
- 1/2 cup White Sugar
- 5 tbsp Flour
- 1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- 4 tbsp Cold Salted Butter, Cut into Pieces
Instructions
- Beat softened cream cheese and confectioner's sugar together for 1-2 minutes. Scrape into quart-sized Ziploc bag (sandwich sized can work, too). Seal and put in freezer until ready to assemble muffins.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with muffin wrappers. Add the flour, spices, salt and baking soda from the muffin ingredient list to large mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Add the sugar, eggs and vegetable oil to separate mixing bowl and beat with hand mixer until combined. Add wet muffin ingredients to dry muffin ingredients. Mix until dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Add a little less than 1/8 of a cup of batter into each muffin tin. Next, remove cream cheese filling from the freezer and cut a small corner of the Ziploc bag. Pipe a little more than an inch of filling from the bag per muffin and use scissors to cut off at an inch length (see recipe photos). Once filling is evenly distributed across all muffins, add another 1/8 of a cup of batter to each muffin cup to cover the filling.
- Mix topping ingredients flour, cinnamon and sugar together in small mixing bowl. Add pieces of cold butter to dry ingredients and use a pastry cutter (or fork) to combine. Add topping to muffins evenly.
- Bake 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool at least 10 minutes if you can wait. If you can't, be careful! The filling is hot. Enjoy.
Notes
