Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins with Streusel
Soft and tender pumpkin muffins with a creamy cream cheese filling and a cinnamon streusel topping!
Servings 15 muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Filling
- 6 ounces [170 g] cream cheese, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Streusel
- 3/4 cup [107 g] all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup [180 g] toasted pecans
- 1/3 cup [65 g] granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup [65 g] light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons [70 g] unsalted butter, melted
Pumpkin Muffins
- 1 1/3 cup [265 g] granulated sugar
- 1 cup [227 g] unsweetened pumpkin puree
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup [112 g] vegetable or canola oil
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Pinch cloves
- 1 3/4 cup [249 g] all-purpose flour
Instructions
For the filling
- In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sugar, and lemon juice until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.
For the streusel
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine the pecans, flour, granulated and brown sugars, cinnamon, and salt. Pulse a few times until combined and the pecans are broken down, 5 or 6 pulses. Pour the melted butter over the top and pulse again until the butter is incorporated, 3 or 4 more pulses.
For the muffins
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350F [180C]. Grease or place liners in two twelve-cup muffins pan - or if you are using my preferred silicone Flexipans, do NOT grease. See note.
- In a large bowl, whisk the granulated sugar, pumpkin, oil, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and cloves together until smooth. Add the flour and use a spatula to stir it into the batter. Switch to a whisk and whisk the batter to eliminate any remaining flour lumps, about 10 seconds.
- Fill the cavities of the muffin pan 1/3 of the way full. Place a heaping teaspoon of the cream cheese filling in the center of each cup. Top each cup with batter, so it just covers the cream cheese, and there is about 1/4 inch [6 mm] of space left in the cavity for the streusel (see notes about scoops for filling muffin tins).
- Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of the streusel evenly over the tops of each muffin. Bake for 20 to 26 minutes until the tops are golden brown and a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (it should be clean of pumpkin – there might be some cream cheese filling on the skewer, which is normal).
- Move the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool, and when the pan is cool enough to handle, carefully remove the muffins from each one. Let the muffins cool completely on a wire rack. (Although, if you cut into one when it’s still warm, I completely understand.)
Notes
Notes
This recipe will work using a traditional 12-cup muffin pan or a Flexipan Nonstick Silicone Muffin Mold. (Use code SarahK20 for 20% off your purchase.) After using many different muffin pans over the years, I have to say that the Flexipan is a fabulous choice for this recipe. The muffins also bake up evenly, and don't get the tough outer edge that can often happen in a regular tin. The wells are just slightly deeper than a regular muffin tin, so all of the muffin batter, cream cheese center, and streusel topping fits perfectly inside. I highly recommend.
I used a Vollrath 1 1/3 oz scoop (red handle, size 24) for the muffin base - 1 scoop filled the bottom to about 1/3 full, and then a half a scoop over the top to cover the cream cheese. I used a Vollrath .33 oz (orange handle, 47404) for the cream cheese filling.
You may have some streusel leftover, if so you can freeze it in a ziplock bag for up to 1 month.