Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
There's nothing quite like the pairing of pumpkin and cream cheese whether it's in sweet or savory form. My homemade Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins are so soft and moist with the perfect balance of pumpkin and spice. They're filled with sweet cream cheese that bakes right in, and they're SO much better than Starbucks. Save yourself several dollars and whip up a batch of these with simple pantry ingredients at a fraction of the cost. They are incredibly delicious and they freeze well too so you can keep them handy for snacking and breakfast during cozy season. If you love this combo of pumpkin and cream cheese, check out my Easy Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, and if you love baking with pumpkin, try my Pecan Pumpkin Streusel Muffins and popular Chewy Pumpkin Cookies as well!
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
- Moist pumpkin muffins - these pumpkin muffins are so soft and moist without using a ton of oil and they don't have a mushy pasty texture that pumpkin recipes can sometimes have.
- Soft and fluffy texture - they are the fluffiest pumpkin muffins I've ever had!
- Starbucks copycat recipe - if you're a fan of pumpkin cream cheese muffins at Starbucks, then I know you will fall in love with this simple recipe that is way better!
- Perfect pumpkin spice - what's a pumpkin muffin without pumpkin spice? There's the perfect balance of spice which is sometimes hard to get right.
- Easy to make - all you need is a whisk, a bowl and a spatula to make this recipe. It is super simple. It's a one bowl recipe!
- Cream cheese filling - you only need a few ingredients to make the filling and when it bakes into the batter, it is creamy and smooth.
- Crunchy pepitas - you can skip adding the pepitas, but this makes them an authentic Starbucks copycat muffin.
INGREDIENTS FOR PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS
Here are some notes about the ingredients. For a full list of ingredients, check out the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Canned pumpkin - canned pumpkin is easily accessible and inexpensive. You can also make it yourself, but it is important to reduce it down so it is very thick otherwise the moisture balance will be off in the recipe. Make sure you use pure pumpkin and NOT pumpkin pie filling which has sugar and spices already added.
- Oil - I always recommend sunflower oil for baking because it has a clean taste and is very stable. Using oil in this muffin batter means that the muffins will be very soft.
- Brown sugar - brown sugar adds caramel-like flavor due to the molasses content and it really complements the pumpkin and the spices. You can use light or dark brown sugar here. Dark brown sugar has twice as much molasses compared to light brown sugar.
- Granulated sugar - simple white sugar will add the right amount of sweetness and also keep the muffins moist.
- Eggs - two large eggs will add nice structure and help with the moist spongy texture.
- Pure vanilla extract - vanilla will add earthy undertones. I like this Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract.
- Milk - I recommend using whole milk or 2% milk for this recipe and it helps if it is at room temperature.
- All purpose flour - regular unbleached all-purpose flour works just great for this muffin recipe.
- Pumpkin pie spice - use your favorite brand, or make your own from a blend of 1 part nutmeg, clove and allspice with 2 parts cinnamon and ginger.
- Cream cheese - the filling is a simple sweetened cream cheese that bakes to a creamy cheesecake texture. Use block cream cheese and not spreadable or whipped cream cheese.
WHAT IS PUMPKIN PIE SPICE?
Pumpkin pie spice is a blend of warm spices typically used to make pumpkin pie. It can be purchased in most supermarkets pre-blended for easy use. It is a blend of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and clove. Different brands will have their own recipe, however, it is so easy to make at home and I'm sharing my recipe below.
HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN PIE SPICE
To make pumpkin pie spice at home, blend certain proportions of ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and clove. Here is my recipe for homemade pumpkin pie spice that yields about 3 tablespoons of total spice.
HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS
- STEP 1). Make the pumpkin muffin batter. Combine wet ingredients. Combine pumpkin puree and both sugars in a large bowl and whisk until smooth and glossy. Add eggs, oil and vanilla and whisk to combine.
- STEP 2). Combine wet ingredients. Combine flour, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to blend evenly. Add dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and start to fold them in but before it is all incorporated, add the milk and fold it in until the batter is evenly combined. It may be a tiny bit lumpy but as long as there are no flour pockets, then it's fine. Cover the bowl and let the batter rest on the counter for 30 minutes.
- STEP 3). Make the cream cheese filling. Combine soft cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla in a small bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer or use a wooden spoon to blend until smooth. Add milk and mix until combined and smooth. Transfer the filling to a small piping bag or a zip-top bag.
- STEP 4). Scoop and fill the batter. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups, filling them to the rim. Snip the tip off of the piping bag (or the corner of the zip top bag) and place it into the center of the batter. It doesn't need to be deep into the batter - it only needs to be about ¼ inch deep from the surface so the cream cheese shows at the top. Press down to squeeze, pulling up slowly in a circular motion to make a little swirl at the top to fill out about 1-inch diameter circle at the surface of the batter so you see it nicely. You will use all of the filling for the 12 muffins
- STEP 5). Garnish. Sprinkle chopped pumpkin seeds over the pumpkin batter (around and not over the cream cheese filling), pressing in slightly.
- STEP 6). Bake at 425℉ for 5 minutes. Then, turn the oven down to 350℉. Bake for another 12-15 minutes until they feel firm when pressed and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring muffins individually to the rack to finish cooling.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS (watch the recipe video at the bottom of the page for a full tutorial)
Combine pumpkin puree, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a large bowl.
Whisk to blend well and help dissolve the sugar.
Add eggs and oil.
Add vanilla and whisk until smooth.
Blend dry ingredients separately and add to the bowl.
Begin to fold in dry ingredients, then add milk.
Fold it all together until just combined.
Scoop batter into lined muffin pan.
Pipe cream cheese filling into the center of each portion of muffin batter.
Sprinkle chopped pumpkin seeds around the batter.
Bake until risen and the cream cheese filling is just set.
Enjoy the soft crumb texture with smooth cream cheese filling.
EXPERT BAKING TIPS FOR PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS
- Do not over-mix the batter. This is a very simple one bowl recipe so there are no fussy steps to guarantee softness - just don't over mix and they will be great.
- Have ingredients at room temperature. Bring ingredients like eggs, milk and cream cheese to room temperature before mixing. This helps create a smoother and more homogeneous batter and filling.
- Make your own pumpkin pie spice. You can replace the 1 ½ teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice with your own blend of ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon of ginger, ¼ teaspoon ground allspice, ⅛ teaspoon ground clove and ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg.
- Fill muffin cups generously. Use all of the batter to make 12 muffins so you get nice domed muffin tops. This way you get bakery-style muffins.
- Feel free to swirl the cream cheese through the muffin batter instead of the dollop in the middle.
- Do not over-bake. These muffins set quickly and as soon as they feel firm in the middle, they are ready.
- Use muffin liners for this recipe. Here are parchment paper liners that I like to use for these muffins as they won't stick at all to these ones.
- Don't let the muffins cool completely in the pan. Transfer them to a cooling rack after 10 minutes cooling in the pan or condensation will create moisture in the pan.
RECIPE FAQ
Yes, you can use melted butter to make this recipe and it still works well, however the cupcakes will have a slightly firmer texture.
Pumpkin pie spice is easy to make at home! Just blend equal portions of ground nutmeg, allspice and clove with twice as much ginger and 3 times as much cinnamon. For a small batch, you can combine ½ teaspoon each of allspice, nutmeg and clove with 1 teaspoon of ground ginger and 1 ½ teaspoons of ground cinnamon. This will give you 4 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice.
If you don't have pumpkin pie spice and you don't want to blend your own, then here are the individual spices you should add to this muffin recipe to replace the combined pumpkin pie spice and ground cinnamon:
1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon clove
I use canned pumpkin puree for baking for two main reasons: 1). Consistency - if I buy the same brand all the time then I am guaranteed to have the same results. Homemade pumpkin puree will vary in moisture content depending on how long you cook it; and 2). Ease! - it's so much easier to use canned pumpkin and the quality is just as good.
Since you don't need a whole can of pumpkin puree for this recipe, I always freeze the rest and use it for another recipe later on - it works so great! You can freeze it in an ice cube tray or just spoon portions of it into a ziptop bag and freeze. You can also stir it into soup, which is so delicious!
If you prefer to make plain pumpkin muffins, you can absolutely leave out the cream cheese filling and the baking time will remain the same.
If you love muffins, check out these recipes!
Apple Cinnamon Muffins THE BEST Double Chocolate Chip Muffins Sugar Free Banana Muffins Moist Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins THE BEST Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins Small Batch Double Chocolate Banana Muffins The BEST Blueberry Muffin Recipe Small Batch Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins Moist Chocolate Fudge Swirl Banana Muffins Banana Blueberry Oat Muffins BEST Banana Oat Muffins Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Muffins Chai Spice Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins Chocolate Swirl Pumpkin MuffinsMore Fall baking:
Looking for other recipes with Fall vibes? Try these:
Baking with pumpkin...
Do you love baking with pumpkin? Check out these recipes:
Video
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (Starbucks Copycat)
Ingredients
Pumpkin muffin batter:
- 1 ½ cups (360ml) pure pumpkin puree
- ½ cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup plus 2 tbsp (125g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ½ cup (120ml) sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (284g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or make your own homemade pumpkin pie spice)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup (80ml) whole milk
Cream cheese filling:
- 5 oz (142g) cream cheese, softened
- 2 ½ tablespoon (32g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon (3g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoon (10ml) whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Here are parchment paper liners that I like to use for these muffins as they won't stick at all to these ones.
- Make the pumpkin muffin batter. Combine pumpkin puree and both sugars in a large bowl and whisk until smooth and glossy. Add eggs, oil and vanilla and whisk to combine.
- Combine flour, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to blend evenly. Add dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and start to fold them in but before it is all incorporated, add the milk and fold it in until the batter is evenly combined. It may be a tiny bit lumpy but as long as there are no flour pockets, then it's fine. Cover the bowl and let the batter rest on the counter for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the cream cheese filling. Combine soft cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla in a small bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer or use a wooden spoon to blend until smooth. Add milk and mix until combined and smooth. Transfer the filling to a small piping bag or a zip-top bag.
- Use a 2 oz scoop to divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups, filling them to the rim. Snip the tip off of the piping bag (or the corner of the zip top bag) and place it into the center of the batter. It doesn't need to be deep into the batter - it only needs to be about ¼ inch deep from the surface so the cream cheese shows at the top. Press down to squeeze, pulling up slowly in a circular motion to make a little swirl at the top to fill out about 1-inch diameter circle at the surface of the batter so you see it nicely. You will use all of the filling for the 12 muffins, and it will be about ½ tablespoon of filling per muffin. If you have any excess batter feel free to push the tip back into the center of the muffin batter and squeeze some remainder throughout each. Sprinkle chopped pumpkin seeds over the pumpkin batter (around and not over the cream cheese filling), pressing in slightly.
- Bake at 425℉ for 5 minutes. Then, turn the oven down to 350℉. Bake for another 12-15 minutes until they feel firm when pressed and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring muffins individually to the rack to finish cooling.
I dont usually leave comments on the recipes I follow...These pumpkin muffins are AMAZING! Definitely going to make these again and again! My family loves them, they turned out so pretty 😍, and keeping them in my muffin container has kept them so moist.
Only thing I did differently; I chopped the pumpkin seeds a bit beforehand to sprinkle around the edges.
Thank you so much for the recipe!!
You are welcome Jordanne! Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the muffins. 🙂
How do you store them?
Hi Deb, store these at room temperature overnight, and then keep any leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container.
I will be trying these out this weekend, what I want to know is - this recipe calls for Muffin Tins, however I want to use cupcake size tin. is the temp & baking times still the same??
Hi Linda! I am not sure what size pan you are referring to as they are the same size where I live. You will need to decrease the baking time if it is significantly smaller.
I have been making all things pumpkin this time of year and these muffins are so yummy my four year old daughter asks for them in her lunch now 🙂 So good!
Thanks Aggie! I'm so glad your daughter likes the muffins!
Just made these with what I had on hand, and turned out great! The spice mix is great, full-bodied flavour without any single spice standing out too much. The moisture content is just right, they came out more like a fluffy cake.
Thank you Aria! I'm so glad you enjoyed the muffins!
Insanely good. Easy enough to nail it on the first try! Better than Starbucks for sure. I doubled the cream cheese filling as suggested by several comments, but I didn’t use all of it, probably used 1.5x. Piped a generous amount of filling (not deep as suggested) and it looked so gorgeous both before and after the oven. Spread crushed roasted salted pumpkin seeds and the salt in them balanced the sweetness of the muffin so well. If you’re thinking about making these, just do it!!
Thanks for the feedback Tiffany! I'm so glad you enjoyed the muffins!
So delicious! I did not let my batter rest the full 30 minutes and my muffins were HUGE. But gorgeous!
Thank you RZH! I'm so glad you enjoyed the muffins!
Sooo delicious!! Definitely a Starbucks copycat but way better! My husband loves them! Any tips on making the batter in advance? Can it be refrigerated/put in the freezer until ready to bake?
Thank you Lytrice! I wouldn't recommend freezing the batter, but you can freeze the fully baked muffins.
These are wonderfully fluffy, perfect muffins! I actually got 14 well-domed muffins from this recipe.
I used a little less than quarter cup of the brown sugar because my husband is not into super sweet baked goods, so I wanted to limit the amount of sugar used. They are still so fluffy and bakery quality, and so tasty! I think I could have used all of the sugar in this recipe and they still wouldn’t be too sweet.
I prefer more cream cheese for my muffins, so I used closer to 8 ounces of cream cheese, and the ratio is perfect for me 🙂
I get nervous when I try a new recipe because I struggle with baking sometimes and I hate using so many ingredients for something to not turn out like I thought it would, but this is truly a great recipe. Thank you!
You're welcome Courtney! I'm so glad you and your husband enjoyed the muffins!
Heavenly! These are so good.
Thanks Ainsley!
Very good. Doubling cream cheese is a must. Also I used roasted salted pumpkin seeds.
I bet it would be good as a pumpkin muffin with chocolate chips recipe. omiting the cream cheese
Thank you Lucas! The addition of roasted pumpkin seeds sounds delicious!
The only suggestion I would make is more cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. I added almost double the measurements for the spices that's when I tasted the batter it wasn't a strong spiced taste, but I've bookmarked this recipe causr this is going to be my go-to muffin recipe. I genuinely can't get over how fluffy they are.
Thanks for the feedback Jenn! I will consider it! 🙂
This is a great recipe!! I made one batch with King Arthur's Flour "golden wheat" and used the erythritol /monk fruit blend in place of granulated sugar. Also, I used light tasting (cooking) olive oil. It was wonderful! I also made a batch per recipe, and they are excellent as well. I bet this would be good with crushed pecans on top, since I don't typically have sunflower seeds.
Thanks for sharing Cece! Glad to hear the recipe worked with your substitutions. Pecans on top would be delicious!
Doubled the batch and everyone loves them! They are cafe quality in taste and looks!
Thank you Meg! I'm so glad everyone loved the muffins!
I've never had a Starbucks muffin and now there's no reason to! These are perfect. They're tall, fluffy and absolutely delicious. Thanks for another amazing recipe.
You're welcome Kellie! I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for the feedback! 🙂
I’d recommend doubling the cream cheese filling because if you try to make them look like yours, 4 oz doesn’t seem to be enough.
Hi. What is the baking time and temperature using the regular muffin cups?
Hi Irene! Bake at 425℉ for 5 minutes. Then, turn the oven down to 350℉. Bake for another 12-15 minutes until they feel firm when pressed and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Can I substitute Splenda Sugar Blend for the sugar.
Hi Carolyn! I haven't tested it so I can't recommend it.
My cream cheese mixture fell in the middle. Any suggestions?
Hi Jen! Did you use scale to measure the ingredients? Try to ensure you don't pipe the filling too low in the batter. It could also happen if your oven is running too cold. Please refer to the video for the correct consistency of the batter.
These are amazing! Do they need to be stored in the fridge?
Thanks Leslie! Generally you can keep them a day at room temp or a week stored in the refrigerator.
These muffins knocked it out of the park!
I give these muffins a ten!
Thanks so much Ruby!
Is there a substitute for Sunflower oil? I dont believe I have seen it around in my local stores.
Hi Vincent! You can use any neutral tasting oil.
decided to make these on a rainy day after checking my bank account and seeing my starbucks purchases had spiraled out of control with the start of the fall seasonal menu! These muffins are delicious & way better than the starbucks version! I’ve made two batches and adjusted the sweetened on one for a more dessert option and it worked well - only added 40 more grams of brown sugar. I found that leaving the batter & the cream cheese mixture (already in the piping bag) on the counter for 30-40 mins side by side makes for the perfect bake as the two meld together perfectly. Awesome recipe, thank you!
Came out perfectly with King Arthur’s 1:1 gluten free flour!
Thanks the feedback Kathryn! That is really useful information!
Can you freeze these once fully cooked?
Hi Katie! Yes, they freeze well so you can keep them handy for snacking and breakfast.