Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling are the perfect fall treat! Made with pumpkin spices and pumpkin puree, these pumpkin muffins are incredibly moist and tasty. Stuff them with a simple and sweet cream cheese filling and you've got an easy, decadent pumpkin muffin. They make an excellent snack or breakfast muffin on a crisp fall day.
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It's barely September but I am totally into fall baking and holiday planning! This is my favorite time of year, when the coffee shops bring back pumpkin spice flavored everything and the stores fill with orange, yellow, and brown autumn decor. And we can't forget about Halloween. My kids are already deciding on their costumes. I had to show my oldest today that the costumes were not in stores yet. They are so excited, and so am I!
What better time than now to start perfecting all those fall and holiday recipes, with vacations over and done with and while we are hanging around waiting for school to start?
These Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling are definitely going to be on constant rotation this fall. They came out perfect! Super moist and super flavorful. While they are excellent even without the cream cheese filling, the filling gives it a nice creamy addition to end with.
These muffins are a combination of these strawberry cheesecake muffins and my tried and true pumpkin spice muffins.
They are made with real pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice, which create a burnt orange colored muffin, the perfect color to put you in the mood for fall! Pair cream cheese filled pumpkin muffins with a hot pumpkin spice latte and you've got a fantastic autumn breakfast!
Just look at how moist and creamy that pumpkin muffin looks!
📋 Ingredients
To make Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling you need the following ingredients:
- all-purpose flour
- sugar
- baking powder
- pumpkin spice
- salt
- olive oil
- vanilla extract
- whole milk
- egg (or flax egg for egg free muffins)
- pumpkin puree (canned or homemade)
To make the simple cream cheese filling, you need softened cream cheese and sugar. You can use white or brown sugar.
You can also substitute canola, vegetable, or coconut oil for the olive oil, or use butter. I use olive oil in all of my muffins for a slightly healthier muffin as opposed to those with butter in them. Olive oil has less saturated fat than butter and no cholesterol.
🔪 Step-By-Step Directions
Follow these steps to make cream cheese filled pumpkin muffins:
- Mix the wet ingredients together (oil, milk, egg, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract).
- In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and pumpkin spice).
I normally try to make my muffins in 1 bowl by combining all of the dry ingredients and then making a hole in the center for the wet ingredients.
I do not recommend that here. Why? Because you need to mix the wet ingredients thoroughly to get the pumpkin puree evenly distributed. And since over-mixed muffin batter creates dense muffins, it's better to blend the pumpkin puree with the other wet ingredients separately. Then combine with the dry.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined.
4. Fill greased or line muffin cups ½ of the way with batter. Mix the softened cream cheese and sugar and scoop about 1 tablespoon into each cup. Press down gently to push the cream cheese filling into the batter.
5. Pour more batter into each cup to cover the cream cheese, so that each cup is filled ⅔ to the top.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Wait about 5 minutes and then transfer the muffins to a cooling rack. Be careful here, as the warm muffins will be delicate and the tops may break open if handled too roughly while cooling down. After they are cooled, they will no longer be fragile like this.
You can see that some of the muffins had cream cheese "break through" the tops. This is perfectly fine!! As the muffin settles, it may close a bit. And if it doesn't, no biggie.
Once your pumpkin muffins have cooled for about 15 minutes, they are ready to serve. Enjoy!
📖 Recipe
Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup all purpose flour
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp pumpkin spice
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 egg
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
Cream Cheese Filling
- ⅔ cup cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° and spray 12 muffin cups with cooking oil (or fill with muffin liners).
- In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin spice and salt.
- In a measuring cup, mix the milk, vanilla extract, egg, pumpkin puree and oil until well blended. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix with a fork until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
- Fill muffin cups ½ way with batter.
- Mix the cream cheese and sugar to make the cream cheese filling. Scoop about 1 tablespoon onto the batter, pressing down gently to flatten the cream cheese. Pour another layer of batter on top to fill the cups ⅔ to the top.
- Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Notes
Nutrition
🍽 Serving and Storing
These muffins are delicious paired with your breakfast coffee or tea, or snack time hot cocoa. They make a nice Thanksgiving treat for the dessert table, or even the appetizer table!
Store your cream cheese filled pumpkin muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days. They can be stored in the fridge for 1 week or in the freezer for around 6 months. I usually make a double batch and store half in the freezer for easy breakfast and snacks throughout the fall.
I hope you enjoy these Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling! Let me know what you thought in the comments below.
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