Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Pumpkin, spices and sweetened cream cheese combine in these perfect fall muffins.
Can you guys believe it’s fall already!?! Like I said before, I’m actually looking forward to fall this year. For most people, the changing of the leaves indicates that it’s time for pumpkin EVERYTHING. From coffee to candles and everything in between, we all go crazy for pumpkin this time of year.
I personally, enjoy my love of pumpkin baked goods year-round. I made the muffins to share at a work breakfast potluck. We were raising money for the United Way and had a recommended $5 donation that was collected at the door. I was impressed with the spread! My co-workers are pretty talented in the kitchen.
It’s no surprise that these muffins were a hit. They’ve got all the warm fall flavors expected in a pumpkin muffin, along with a fun surprise of the cream cheese filling. Since making these the first time, I’ve made them a couple more times, with and without the topping. They’re tasty both ways, just a bit more sweet and indulgent with the topping included.
If you are looking for yet ANOTHER pumpkin recipe to try out this fall, give this one a shot.
Two Years Ago: Pumpkin Vanilla Cocktail with Spiced Sugar Rim and Apple 7-Layer Magic Bars
Three Years Ago: Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Risotto and Neapolitan Cheesecake Cake
Four Years Ago: Smores Cupcakes
Six Years Ago: M&M Cookies
Don’t forget to enter in my Power of Pink Challenge for your chance to win a $100 donation to the charity of your choice.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Pumpkin, spices and sweetened cream cheese combine in these perfect fall muffins.
Yield: 24 muffins
Ingredients:
For the cream cheese filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup powerdered sugar
For the muffins
3 cups flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 can pumpkin puree (~2 cups)
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
For the topping
1/2 cup sugar
5 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Directions:
For the filling
Combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a bowl and mix until well blended and smooth. Transfer to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log and wrap with a piece of foil. Chill in freezer until firm, ~2 hours.
For the muffins
Preheat the oven to 350 degF. Line muffin pans with muffin liners.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda. Whisk dry ingredients to blend.
In the bowl of a mixer, combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil. Mix on med-low until blended. Put mixer on low and add dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated.
For the topping
Combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Whisk to blend. Add the butter and cut in to the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or two forks until crumbly and coarse. Chill in fridge until ready to use.
To assemble the muffins
Remove the cream cheese filling log from the freezer and slice in to 24 pieces.
Fill each muffin liner with a small amount of batter. Add a slice of cream cheese into the muffin batter. Divide the rest of the batter between the muffins, covering the cream cheese filling.
Sprinkle some of the topping over each muffin.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before serving.
Recipe from Kristine's Kitchen
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
These look fantastic and are so festive!
Oh my, these look divine! I recently made something similar, but with no chocolate – just a pumpkin batter with cream cheese topping. But I definitely think I must try these too.
These are absolutely beautiful!
Look wonderful!
These look awesome. I just wish it made a bigger pan!
They’re pretty rich, but I would imagine you could just double it and make it in a 9×13 pan if you wanted!
I made pumpkin spice brownies on Friday and they were delish so I bet these are EVEN BETTER! Thanks for sharing and I’ll be following your tweaks!
~ingrid
i always make a pumpkin cheesecake in the fall with a ginger cookie crumb crust, but i’m liking the chocolate component in your recipe even more.
oh yum – love pumpkin, and the chocolate/pumpkin combo looks wonderful!
These look great! Is there a way I can make them non-dairy? Something I can sub the cream cheese for? Thanks!
Heather – I’ve had great luck subbing Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese in cheesecake recipes in the past. I think that would definitely work and you could use Earth Balance in the brownie portion. Let me know how it turns out if you try it.
Hi Jenn! I just wanted to let you know that you won the giveaway on my blog last week. I emailed you, but never got a response. Could you email me your mailing address to jennharton@paducah.com. I have to pass it along to myblogspark so they can send you your prize package!
Thanks, Jen…I’ll let you know how they come out!
OH wow these do look delicious! I love all that swirled pumpkin…yum!
Those look amazing!
Wow, I love these! My husband would die of happiness of I made these for him – pumpkin cheesecake is his favorite thing for fall.
They look like tiger fur – very cool! What an interesting flavour combination.
We love these at my house! I like your idea of dark chocolate – I will have to try that next time.
beautiful! And they look so delicious!! I agree I don’t normally think of pumpkin with chocolate… but you have me convinced!
The tops of these are a work of art! Love it!
Three of my favorite thi ngs in one dessert! Chocolate and pumpkin and cheesecake! How perfect…
~Nancy
Three of my favorite thi ngs in one dessert! Chocolate and pumpkin and cheesecake! How perfect…
~Nancy
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The side-view shot totally won me over. These look delicious!
This looks so yummy.
I now know what to make for the office potluck!
Those look amazing. I love pumpkin with chocolate, I plan on making these soon.
Your brownies look delicious! I am curious since I would like mine to taste more like pumpkin pie than plain pumpkin should i add pumpkin pie spices or follow your recipe for the spices?
Thanks!
fawkes – There are a decent amount of spices in the pumpkin portion of the batter. I would recommend making is as the recipe states, then taste it before you pour it into the pan. Maybe then add some pumpkin pie spice if you’d like.
I made these over the weekend and they were scrumptious!! I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin but this recipe is now a fall staple. I plan on making them for the family on Thanksgiving…thanks for sharing this!
I made these the other day and they were great! a hit at work! yum! thanks!
I stumbled across your blog from a Facebook friend and made these brownies last night. DELICIOUS!! I doubled the recipe and it does just fit in a 9×13 pan and took about 60 mins to bake. It’s worth the wait for them to be chilled in the fridge. The flavors are even more delicious that way.
Oh YUM! And gorgeous, to boot. I never thought pumpkin and chocolate go together either, until I tried it! 🙂 Now I’m hooked. Good idea to double up on the cheesecake layer…you can never have enough pumpkin cheesecake after all!
Thank you so much for participating in our event! These brownies look amazing. They say Halloween to me for sure!
I made these– now I love them! Will be repeated each fall 🙂
Amazing! I loved these so much I played with them a bit and made cranberry cheesecake brownies for my christmas baking.(I didn’t stumble on to these till christmas.) I’ll let you know when I put those up on my blog! With credit to you of course!
Lexi – cranberry cheesecake brownies sound very intriguing. Can’t wait to see them.
Hi Jen! I made these for Heather@BFM’s (comment listed above) birthday and she loved them! Unfortunately I could not find the Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder (I tried 3 stores) so I had to make them with the regular cocoa powder. Can you tell me where you found the Hershey’s Special Dark??
Kasey – I have actually had a hard time finding it as well. I had actually all but given up on it until one day it caught my eye at the grocery store. I proceeded to buy all three containers. I would say just keep an eye out for it and good luck!
1/2 cup of flour seems like very little. Is that correct?
Pup – Yes, that is the correct amount of flour. Most brownie batters have very little flour in them.
Just made these- delicious! I only had the milk chocolate powder, so I’m excited to try it again with the special dark powder.
I doubled the recipe and it perfectly filled a 13×9 pan so you might try it. 🙂 And they are amazing. Also I used margerine not butter and found they were more moist. Happy Baking!
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I made these with my nieces and over all they were pretty good, but something about the pumpkin part tasted off. Still, fun and festive to make!