I had 8 oz of cream cheese in my freezer which I defrosted to make a pasta crab casserole that only needed 4 oz of cream cheese. I had to use up the other 4 oz so I decided to make these muffins.

I came across this recipe on Facebook either last year or the year before. It is a yummy muffin but there a few process things that I changed in my recipe below.

First, I found that mixing the wet ingredients then the dry, combining them and folding in the pumpkin at the end works best. Doing it the way they described had the oil floating on top because of the liquid in the pumpkin.

Second, the recipe calls for a full block of cream cheese but it makes WAY too much filling. Half is much better for the number of muffins it makes. You do have to figure out how to halve an egg yolk but it is doable.

Third, the recipe for the pumpkin pie spice made over 2 Tbsp but the recipe only calls for 1 Tbsp; could be confusing for a not well- seasoned baker. I reduced the recipe so it makes just over 1 Tbsp so even if you use it all it wouldn’t be a big deal.

Fourth, I highlighted the Tbsp of vanilla. Most recipes only ask for a tsp.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups flour

1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice (the mixture below makes 1 1/3 Tbsp)

  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1/2 tsp cloves
  • 1/4 tsp all spice
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 796 ml can pure pumpkin or 2 cups pumpkin purée (let purée drain in a colander)

Cream cheese filling

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 egg yolk

Directions

Beat the sugar and eggs. Add the oil and vanilla mixing till combined.

In separate bowl, stir together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.

Mix the wet with the dry then stir in pumpkin purée.

Spoon into muffin tin liners about 2/3 full.

Cream Cheese

Soften cream cheese for 30 seconds in microwave

Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and 1/2 egg yolk till smooth.

Spoon on top of each muffin.


Using a toothpick pull batter up and over cream cheese from the four corners.


Bake at 375° for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.


Another option when making these is to just put muffin batter, add cream cheese and cover with batter. This creates a pocket of cream cheese in the middle like a filled donut.

Perhaps you need to use up some pumpkin pureé left over from making pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. This combination of the pumpkin muffin with cream cheese filling is quite tasty. Enjoy them warm out of the oven or the next day cold out of the fridge. I suggest refrigeration after they cool just because of the cream cheese.

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