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PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE STREUSEL MUFFIN RECIPE
This recipe was posted over two years ago and it continues to be so popular every Fall. I figured it was about time to update it with new pictures, tips, and helpful hints. Enjoy friends and thank YOU so much for visiting.Â
I’m officially addicted to all thing Fall & Pumpkin Spice!! I went grocery shopping the other day and could not pass by anything labeled ‘pumpkin spice’ and not put it in my cart; I have no self-control when it comes to the pumpkin spice stuff.
There a few extra steps with these muffins; the cinnamon streusel, the cream cheese center, and of course the pumpkin muffins. They’re not easy mix and dump type muffins, but trust me, these muffins will be worth the extra steps.Â
The pumpkin muffin is so soft and full of pumpkin flavor and warm pumpkin spices. The inside is a creamy and sweet cheesecake mixture, and the tops are sprinkled with an easy cinnamon streusel. There is NO way I can ever eat just one!
How to make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Streusel Muffins
First you want to make the cream cheese center as it has to sit in the freezer while you make the muffins and streusel. It’s a simple mixture of cream cheese and powdered sugar. Be sure your cream cheese is softened so there are no lumps in it when you blend it with the sugar.Â
Put that in the fridge and start on your pumpkin muffins.Â
Combine all your dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir with a wire whisk. And yes, it is 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice + the other spices. Trust me. It’s delicious.Â
In a bowl of a stand mixer, or use a handheld beater in a mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, oil, and pure pumpkin. Once that is smooth and combined, add the dry ingredients and mix just until there are no flour streaks or pockets remaining.Â
Fill each muffin cup 1/3 full and then place a dollop of cream cheese on top. Cover the cream cheese with some more pumpkin muffin batter (see above picture for how to). Each muffin cup will be nearly to the top. It should not be overflowing, just slightly below the tops of the muffin liners.Â
Prepare the streusel. It’s easiest to use your clean hands to mix it. Sprinkle that on top of each muffin and bake!
These muffins bake up so nicely in the oven with a nice rounded top. I am betting that they would also be really good without the streusel topping, if you are short on time or whatever. But, you should probably just make the streusel cause it’s to die for.Â
The recipe calls for 2 cups of pure pumpkin NOT the pumpkin pie filling. You just want the 100% pure pumpkin. I always buy the Libby’s brand. One 15 oz can will not be enough so you will have to break out the larger can. With the pumpkin leftovers make these honey wheat pumpkin muffins. Don’t be fooled by the title, they are surprisingly so good and easily one of my favorite versions of a pumpkin muffin.Â
I had to send these in with my husband to work because like I mentioned earlier, I have zero self-control when it comes to pumpkin.
More pumpkin recipe have already been requested by his office so I’ll be busy. People who love pumpkin treats as much as me are my favorite kinds of people 🙂
Tips for making Pumpkin Cream Cheese Streusel Muffins
- Just mix the muffin batter until no flour pockets or streaks remain. You want to make sure it’s mixed but take care not to over mix as that can sometimes result in more dense muffins. But, with all the pumpkin & oil and goodness in these, you’ll probably be fine.Â
- Be sure to make the cream cheese filling first. It does need to sit in the freezer to get cold as you prepare the muffins. I’ll admit, I forgot to make it first one time and just made it right before I added it to the muffins, and it was fine. It spreads slightly more if it’s not cold, but nothing that makes the muffins not turn out.Â
- I would highly recommend using regular, full-fat cream cheese. The 1/3 less fat and fat free stuff is more watery which tends to make the cream cheese center not as thick and delicious.Â
- I have never tried making these muffins with whole wheat flour and I would not recommend it. Whole wheat flour lends to a more dense tasting muffin, almost dry like, so I would stick with the all-purpose flour.Â
- I like to lightly spray the lined muffin cups before adding the batter, just to make sure that there is no sticking.Â
- I’ve never tried freezing these muffins so I can’t say for sure if you can freeze them. I would imagine they would freeze just fine, so it’s worth a try.Â
- Store these muffins covered in the fridge. Or if you’re like my house, they’ll be gone in no time and you won’t have to worry about storing them 🙂Â
Try these other family favorite Pumpkin Recipes
- Pumpkin Pie Pecan Cobbler
- Pumpkin Pie Crumble Bars
- Cinnamon Streusel Pumpkin Cake
- Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Whoopie Pies
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Streusel Muffins
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Filling
- 1 bar (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Pumpkin Muffins
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups pure pumpkin (from a 28 oz can)
- 1 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
Cinnamon Streusel
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons cold butter, cubed small
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Line two muffin tins with paper liners.
- Make the cream cheese filling. Beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar until well blended in a small bowl. Put it in the freezer to chill while you prepare the muffins.
- Make the pumpkin muffins. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a large bowl with handheld beater, or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and oil until combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Fill each muffin cup 1/3 full of pumpkin muffin batter. Top with a heaping tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture. Fill the remaining of the muffin cup with more pumpkin batter. It should be almost to the top. Make sure that the muffin batter on top covers the cream cheese center.
- Make the cinnamon streusel. Combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and cold cubed butter in a small bowl. Use your hands or a pastry cutter to mix together until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle some on top of each muffin.
- Bake 20-25 minutes or until the muffins have formed a nice peak and spring back when touched lightly. Remove and let cool before serving or eat one warm.
Video
Notes
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Should these muffins be kept refrigerated?
Technically they should be because of the cream cheese in the center. I actually prefer these cold from the fridge. So, I would say yes keep them in the fridge and then if you prefer them room temperature, just let them sit out on the counter for a short bit before serving. Hopefully that helps!
Does it make 24 muffins
18-24 muffins. I will add that into the recipe. Thanks!
Just made these…..they are wonderful had on iFit out of the oven!!!
Awesome! You can’t go wrong with cheesecake and pumpkin 🙂
Does it really call for 2 cups of sugar????
Yes it does 🙂 The recipe makes quite a bit so just don’t eat all the muffins.
Tried this the other day. I didn’t have pumpkin pie spice. I had a pumpkin pie spice extract so I used a couple dashes of that instead. These muffins turned out to be absolutely amazing! I will definitely make these again. Thanks for a great recipe!
Awesome! Good to now the pumpkin pie extract works in this recipe. I have actually never seen that at my grocery store! So glad you loved them and thanks for coming back to let me know.
What size cans of pumpkin purée did you use?
I just measure out 2 cups from a large can (28 oz) of pure pumpkin. A 15 oz can is about 1 3/4 + 2 tablespoons cup of pumpkin. I hope that makes sense, haha 🙂 Let me know if you have more questions. I have a friend who has made this recipe with just the 15 oz can and it’s worked fine.
READ the ingredients list!! Why do people ask questions about ingredients when they are right in front of their faces? I see this so often on other sites. Just read the ingredients and directions carefully!
Do you know if these freeze well? They sound great, but I will keep eating them if they are there!
haha, I know what you mean 🙂 I’ve never tried freezing them but I think that would work just fine. Let one sit out at room temperature for a bit or warm it in the microwave. It should work well.
I just made these, and they’re AWESOME! My family LOVED them. Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂 (I don’t know if I did something differently, but I was able to get 36 muffins out of your recipe instead of 24. Worked out for me! 😛 )
Yay! So happy to hear they are a hit. I might have indicated the wrong yield from the recipe, not sure? I’ll just have to make these again to get the accurate count, haha 🙂 I know the recipe makes a lot of batter so it’s very possible 36 is the amount of muffins. Thanks for coming back to comment.
My daughter just made these and they are “The Bomb”. They are so good and moist. We loved them and will definitely make again and again.
Can you make Texas size with this recipe if so how long would you cook for?
I would set the timer for the time on the recipe and then maybe check them every few minutes after that. I am not sure of the exact size of Texas sized muffins, but I am assuming an extra 5-10 minutes may be plenty of time.
I made these and cut the sugar in half and replaced it with honey and then replaced half of the oil wth applesauce. I left out the streusel part just because I didn’t want more sugar. They turned it great and my kids loved them too. Will for sure make it again!
So good to hear! That’s good to know that you can replace some of the oil with applesauce and reduce the sugar. Thank you!
I make double batches of these puppies and stick them in the freezer. I believe that makes them even moister (is that a word??)!! They are delicious! I have my Mom hooked! Thank you so much for the recipe!!
I think it’s a word! Moister 🙂 I love it and yes it perfectly describes these muffins. So glad you and your mom love this recipe.
Have you tried the recipe as a cake?
I have not. I am sure it would work as a cake but not sure about the cream cheese. Try this yummy streusel pumpkin cake I have on the blog. Same idea but it’s made to fit in a 9×13 baking dish https://togetherasfamily.com/cinnamon-streusel-pumpkin-cake/
These are so delicious! I like that that they made 2 dozen muffins. I kept a few out to eat and froze the rest. I just ate one now that I froze and they are as good as fresh.
These are the most delicious muffins I have eve made!!! They are super moist and busting with flavor! They are 13 WW points. My batch made 21 nice size muffins. They are worth every bite:) I might try to skinny them down for myself, but I was making them for my husband’s students, if I can get them there? My family loves them!!
Love this recipe for cupcakes. So good. Can this be made as a loaf (or 2)? Just baking for longer?
I have never made a loaf out of this recipe so I am not sure. So glad you love this recipe and you could always experiment with a loaf pan and see 🙂
I made this again, this time as 2 loaves. Baked at same temp as the recipe called for, and they took 60 minutes. I checked them with a toothpick just to be sure. Hope they are good as they are for a women’s coffee group I go to.
We are obsessed with these muffins. They are great as is but I had stuff in my pantry I needed to get rid of and didn’t have enough of other ingredients so I experimented with modifications for those interested:
– I only had pumpkin pie mix (already has the spices and some sugar) so I didn’t need to add spices and only added one cup of sugar (instead of two like the recipe calls for when using plain pumpkin puree) to the dough.
– I used half white flour and the other half with whole wheat flour so I added a tad more baking soda.
– I only had three eggs so I substituted the the fourth with flax seed meal (about a tablespoon or two). I like to add this when I bake anyway for health benefits.
– I only used one cup oil but baked them 2-3 minutes less (I checked for doneness with a toothpick). I like my muffins really moist.
Let me tell you… even with all those modifications, they are to die for. My husband complimented me for making do with what we had since we are trying to avoid shopping often due to this Corora virus crisis. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks!
So glad you’re loving these! Especially during these quarantine times. Stay safe and thanks for your comment.
Hands down these are the best pumpkin cream cheese muffins, always double the recipe. I put the cream cheese mixture in the fridge and then use a neon scoop to place in the muffin batter:)
These were really, REALLY good. Don’t be afraid of the amount of sugar or spices. It yielded about 27 muffins but I did not have enough cream cheese. So I just threw some chocolate chips in the last 7.
I love these ! I made 24 mini muffins and 12 regular sized muffins in silicone baking pans. I just sprayed them with cooking spray and they popped right out ! I also doubled the cream cheese mixture to add a bit more ! So delicious!
Made these for Thanksgiving and the entire family loved them. Asked for me to make more. So this is definitely a keeper recipe for my home. There was no option to post a picture
So happy to hear this!
Made half of these muffins and they were delicious! We added our own homemade crumble top and it turned out fantastic! Will make again. I like that it wasn’t dense but rather quite fluffy.
I’m just sorry it took me so long to find this recipe because they are amazing! I thought since it was a bigger batch they would last more than one day but I was wrong. And I’ll be making these again tonight because I’ve had so many requests for more! Thank you for my kicking of my fall season so deliciously! I’ll be making these for years to come I’m sure!
Forgive the typos. I’m obviously over-excited! Ha
Yeah, one batch is never enough at my house! So glad your family loved them!
Absolutely delicious! I made them a few days ago. I will definitely be keeping this recipe in my “go to recipe file”. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you Theresa! So happy to hear you liked the recipe!