Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

September is in full swing! Pumpkins are appearing everywhere in the grocery stores and craft stores. People are starting to clear parking lots and fields to make way for annual pumpkin patches! Every major coffee-house seems to have their own version of a Pumpkin Spice Latte and all your favorite bloggers are sharing their favorite pumpkin recipes!

While I’m not a huge fan of all things pumpkin, (There, I said it. Please don’t be disappointed. I’m still a very nice person!) there are a few pumpkin treats I enjoy! Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins are my favorite.  I have a pumpkin crumble cake I only make once a year, then homemade pumpkin pie and I love slathering my toast with pumpkin butter. Man!! That stuff is delicious!!

One of the Fall staples at Starbucks are their Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins. Having worked there for eight years, I can tell you, those muffins sell out every single day! They are a customer favorite! I understand. I love them too! I’m just not willing to pay huge prices for them anymore. So what’s a girl to do? Find a copycat recipe just as delicious (and probably better for you) where a dozen Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins made at home, equal less than three of the Starbucks version. Sound good? They are!

You can see, I like using baking cups vs. a cupcake pan.  I like bigger muffins (there is a bad joke in there somewhere…) and tend to use recipes that allow me to make larger muffins, instead of  smaller ones.

See those lovely pepitas on top of the gooey, sweet cream cheese?  A few may have made it into my mouth before the rest were sprinkled on the muffins. I can’t help it!  They’re just so crunchy and delicious! I might have licked the spoon when I was done topping the muffins with cream cheese too. I’m such a rebel.

Sadly, the cream cheese does deflate a bit after you take it out of the oven.  All the delicious flavor is still there though! (Just do what I do and eat the one in the center of the picture first.) The imperfect muffins hardly ever make the blog. I’m just trying to keep things real!  It’s not like I walked away to answer the phone and didn’t snap a picture until a few minutes too late.  I mean, what self-respecting food blogger would do that?  Perhaps, an imperfect one.  ;-)

Ingredients

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line two 12 cup muffin tins with liners, set aside.
• In a large bowl, sift together Pumpkin Spice, salt, baking soda and flour, set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, blend together the sugars and pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling).
• Add in eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.
• Add half the flour mixture to the bowl and blend until well incorporated.
• Add the milk, stir until just combined.
• Add remaining flour, mixing until just combined.
• Use a cookie scoop to measure batter equally among prepared tins.
• Prepare the cream cheese filling.
• In a medium bowl, stir together softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth.
• Drop approx 1 TBLS of cream cheese on to each muffin.
• Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.
• Bake for 14 – 16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the muffin (not down through the cream cheese) comes out clean.
• Cool for 15 minutes.
• Muffins can be stored in the refrigerator or frozen for later.

Enjoy your muffins!

Recipe inspired by Crazy For Crust copycat Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins!