Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins


Hello, my new favorite pumpkin treat! Nice to meet you. Where have you been all my life?

Oh... are you expecting me say more about these? Are the pictures not enough to make you want to go bake them RIGHT NOW. Ok fine, I don't think words will do them justice, but I'll try. This muffin is a cross between a cupcake, pumpkin pie, and cheesecake. It's Fall in a bite. They're easy to make and even easier to look at. The only hard thing about these is watching them leave as your husband takes them to work.

I got the idea from these muffins over at Annies Eats. I used the same base, but instead of molding the cream cheese into log, freezing it, slicing it, and hiding it in the middle of muffin I decided to alter the filling a little bit and go black bottom cupcake style with these. I like the idea of the cream cheese showing so you know exactly what's in store. And the cinnamon sugar topping? That's just a nice little bonus that adds the perfect finishing touch!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
Muffin and Topping adapted from: Annies Eats
Makes: About 45 mini muffins (12 regular)

For the filling:
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tbls flour
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
  • 1/2 tbsp. plus 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tbls vegetable oil

For the topping:

  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 1/2 tbsp. flour
  • 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 2tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Directions:
  1. To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese, egg, flour and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Set aside.
  2. To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.
  3. To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.
  4. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin about 2/3 full with batter. Add a dollop of filling on top. (I would say I used about a tablespoon of batter and a heaping teaspoon of filling. They were pretty full going into the oven.) Sprinkle with topping. Bake or 14 minutes. Cool. Eat. Smile.

21 comments:

Lian said...

oh those do look delicious! I love good but simple combinations, and I think this is just one of 'm.

Sara said...

Wow, these look awesome! Love the idea of a cheesecake topping. :)

Lisa said...

These look AMAZING! I saw them over at Annie's Eats and thought they looks too complicated but I LOVE your version. Thanks for sharing!

Lynn Browne said...

Oh my! I'm not much of a baker but these look too good not to try.

Cookie said...

OMG these sound amazing!

Anonymous said...

I have GOT to try these. . . I love any dessert with pumpkin!!

Anonymous said...

3 tsp = 1 tlbs
1/2 tlbs = 1 1/2 tsp
therefore 1/2 tlbs and 1/2 tsp = 2 tsp...

Ari @ TastyRetreat said...

These look scrumptious! Love the cheesecake swirl you added. I do the same thing and make my fiancé take desserts to work. At least you got one before they were all gone!

Laura said...

How delicious! I'm a huge fan of fall flavored cheesecake and love the combination of cheesecake and muffin textures in one delicious treat! Can't wait to try this recipe, thanks for sharing!

Sophia said...

I would totally bake these muffins. They look simply delightful!! Found you on Tastespotting! Glad I did! Hope you like my blog, too! Chew on That Blog

Prudence said...

I am making these for Meals On Wheels Thanksgiving meals Ministry. Tested a batch today and almost killed myself on them. What lovely, moist, pumpkiny flavor and they are gorgeous looking as well. Thank you so much! These will replace pumpkin pie this year. So much easier to transport and I think they will be very happy with them.

cookies and cups said...

These look so good! Perfect fall breakfast :)

Baking and Mistaking said...

These look awesome. I made pumpkin muffins a couple weeks ago and have so much pumpkin puree left (I bought a giant pumpkin and cooked it myself) - I'll have to look into these!

lalala said...

I made these for Thanksgiving and just added a whipped cream frosting on top, they are AMAZING!! I just made a second batch to take to a dinner party tonight! Thanks for sharing this great recipe:)
Here's a link to the frosting I added:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/whipped-cream-frosting-2/Detail.aspx

Anonymous said...

can I use canned pumpkin?

Anonymous said...

Loved them! Only thing I would do differently is use a pastry stuffer to put the filling down into the batter before cooking. They were a huge hit at my girls' night! Even one of my friends who "doesn't like pumpkin" helped herself to 2 or 3 of them! DELICIOUS!

Yours Truly said...

I just made these and although I baked for 15.5 minutes, mine still were gooey in the middle! But, NOT to fret... I sucked it up and ate them anyway (as did my hubby because we celebrated V-Day one day early!!). They were delicious, but I guess my oven cooks a little cool. Thanks for an easy recipe that's delicious to boot!

Anonymous said...

I made them...so moist. Great flavor. Highly recommend them. Heavenly!

Anonymous said...

Baked these for the kids for breakfast . They are delicious .

abi said...

These were PERFECT. They are actually the only things I have ever successfully baked! Cannot believe how easy they were.

Abby said...

I made these tonight; since I don't have a mini-muffin tin, I made a dozen regular-sized muffins. I cooked them for 23 minutes instead of the 14 in the recipe for the mini-muffins, and they came out delicious.

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