Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

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You know fall is in the air when you smell the lovely scent of pumpkin and spice! Follow your nose to your kitchen and whip up these delicious, moist pumpkin cream cheese muffins in less time than a walk in the pumpkin patch! Pairs perfectly with spicy hot chai tea or your favorite cup o’ joe. You’ll love the wholesome goodness of pumpkin, bundled underneath the oozing cream cheese and sweet sprinkling of a crunchy pecan topping!

Here’s where you may be expecting a poetic essay about the wonders of fall. A tribute to pumpkins and apple cider and frolicking in fields of fallen leaves, wearing leggings and bulky sweaters, sipping pumpkin spice lattes and lighting cinnamon scented candles.

Actually, I don’t particularly like fall. To me it’s a sad goodbye to my favorite season of summer. I miss the long sunny days, the warm sunshine on my skin, the time spent enjoying my favorite water sports. But change is inevitable, and so I choose to be grateful. In the fall, I am grateful for these small pleasures. So let us celebrate by trying a new fall recipe. For me, it was these pumpkin cream cheese muffins.

The Mellow Muffin

I was looking for a copycat recipe of the pumpkin cream cheese muffins they sell at Starbucks. While I can’t say these are exactly the same, they definitely come close. If you’re expecting a super spicy type of muffin, you may be disappointed. If, however, you’re more in the mood for something mellow and pumpkin-y, these may be just what you’re looking for! (If you still crave more spice, I would add 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice or a blend of cloves, nutmeg and allspice.)

One last caveat, “oozing cream cheese” might be a bit of an exaggeration, as the cream cheese does more of a melting into the muffin, and isn’t actually visible once baked. To change that, you could just double the ingredients of the cream cheese filling: double the cream cheese, eggs, vanilla and brown sugar. Then watch it ooze!

Boom, boom, boom!

If you’ve already glanced at the recipe below and you’re at all like me, you may be thinking, “whoah! Look at that long list of ingredients! Do I really want to make these?” Rest assured, these are actually some of the same ingredients, used more than once in different steps of the process. Like anything worth doing in life, it’s always easier if you break it down into smaller steps. Just like this recipe.

First, you make the cream cheese topping in bowl #1. Set it aside. Next, you make the crumbly streusel topping in bowl #2. Set it aside. Then, you make the pumpkin muffin batter in bowl #3.

Finally, you line up the 3 bowls, a big spoon for each, and your muffin pan filled with cupcake papers or reusable muffin cups. Scoop that first spoonful of pumpkin batter, plop some cream cheese mixture in middle, and sprinkle on the streusel. Boom, boom, boom! Over and over till they’re ready for the oven.

The Right Tools for Muffin Making

Breaking down your recipe into smaller steps is important for simplifying the process. It also helps to have the right kitchen tools. For this recipe, there are three things that I can’t help boasting about:

1. a pastry blender . Making the streusel topping requires cutting up cold butter into the flour and chopping it until the texture is crumbly.  This can be done with a couple table knives, but it’s messy and clumsy and I’ve never enjoyed that part of baking.  So having a pastry blender like the one pictured below is big help!  They’re fun to use, and the one below even comes with a professional dough cutter as well, which would be great for my upcoming recipe for blueberry scones!                        

2. a hand mixer. 

    

The hand mixer shown above is more than just helpful, it’s sentimental.  This old avocado green mixer was passed down to me from my grandmother, and is a product of the retro 70s.  I’m in awe that it still runs just fine, despite the many years it’s been used by my grandmother, and now it’s been with me for about 30 years!  I am known to be rather harsh with my appliances, so I have to credit the Sunbeam company for making such a hardy product.  Hopefully their current hand mixers  are just as durable as this one.  (Sorry, I can only give true credit to my 40-year old mixer at this time!)

     3. reusable muffin cups     

For years I’ve used my silicon muffin cups and am still amazed at how much of an improvement they are over the paper ones.  Unlike the paper cups that can often stick to the muffins, resulting in a mess of paper shreds and the misery of eating half the paper with your muffin, these silicon muffin cups cook the muffins perfectly and slide right off.  They’re easy to wash, too.  They’re dishwasher safe, but I prefer to handwash them, just to make sure I get every last crumb. (I actually enjoy washing them, they’re so fun and squishy to sploosh through the water!)

And now, without further ado, the recipe. Catch you on the other side!

Did you try this recipe for pumpkin cream cheese muffins? How did it turn out? Would you change anything if you made it again? What are your favorite tools for baking? Let me know what’s on your mind, in the comments below.

Thanks, and happy fall baking!