Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

4.67 from 3 votes

Fluffy and moist pumpkin muffins filled with a cream cheese center and topped with a cinnamon sugar pecan crunch, these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins are perfect for fall.

Prep Time30

Cook Time16

Course: Afternoon Kaffee, Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Cream Cheese, Muffin, Pumpkin

Servings:

Calories: 875kcal

Equipment

Jumbo Muffin Tin

Ingredients

Pumpkin Batter

180 grams salted butter
5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
80 grams dark brown sugar
80 grams granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
275 grams pumpkin puree
2 eggs standard large, room temperature
300 grams all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

Pecans & topping

130 grams pecans
35 grams granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream Cheese Filling

226 grams cream cheese room temperature
40 grams granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Brown Butter

Add the pumpkin pie spice into a medium heat safe mixing bowl.
In a medium stainless pot, add in the salted butter. Cook over medium low heat.
The butter will first melt, then it will get noisy and bubble. After a couple minutes, the noise will go away and it will begin to foam.
At this point you can start to stir it occasionally. The butter will start to brown, cook for an additional 30 seconds to a minute until brown bits start to foam to the top.
Turn off the heat and pour the brown butter over the pumpkin pie spice into the mixing bowl. Stir to combine and set aside for 5 minutes to cool off slightly.
Preheat the oven to 425 F and place a rack in the center.

Pecans & the Topping

Pour the pecans into a large shallow pan, place over low heat, tossing regularly.
Toast until the pecans feel quite warm to the touch, make sure you don’t burn them – their color shouldn’t change at all.
Immediately remove them from the heat and give them a rough chop.
Set aside 100 g of the chopped pecans, mix the remaining pecans with the sugar and cinnamon for the topping in a small bowl.

Pumpkin Muffin Batter

Line every other cup in the muffin pan. If you're using the jumbo muffin pan and don't have the right sized liners, just cut large squares of parchment paper and press it into the muffin pan to give it a bit of muscle memory.
Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla into the bowl with the brown butter and whisk to combine. Then add in the pumpkin puree, whisk again, and then both eggs and whisk once more.
Pour in the all purpose flour along with the baking soda and baking powder right on top of the flour.
Use the whisk to first whisk the baking soda and baking powder into the flour and then completely in with the wet ingredients.
Pour in the remaining pecans and use a rubber spatula to fold them in.

Cream Cheese Filling

In a medium mixing bowl add in the room temperature cream cheese, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Use an electric mixer or a spoon to mix until smooth - be careful not to whip it full of air.

Assemble & Bake

Fill every other muffin cup (aka only the ones you've lined) about 90% full with the pumpkin batter.
Add the cream cheese filling into a piping bag or a plastic zip top bag. Press the tip of the bag into the center of the muffins, almost all the way to the bottom.
Start squeezing the filling out, while lifting the bag slowly until you reach the top.
Sprinkle the top of each muffin, around the cream cheese center, with the cinnamon sugar pecan mixture.
I only have one jumbo pan so I bake half the batter, leave the rest of the batter in the bowl at room temperature, then bake the remaining batter once the first half has baked.
Place the muffin pan in the hot oven and bake for 8 minutes. After the 8 minutes, turn the oven down to 350 and bake for another 6-8 minutes.
Once baked, take the pan out of the oven. Turn the oven back up to 425 F and leave the freshly baked muffins to cool for 5 minutes before carefully lifting them out of the pan.
Let the pan cool off while the oven turns up, then repeat the assembly process with the remaining pumpkin batter. Bake according to the above instructions.
Allow the muffins to cool for at least 10 minutes once removed from the pan so that you don't burn your mouth on the cream cheese.
Store leftovers in an airtight container either at a cool room temperature or in the fridge!

Notes

Tips for making a Pumpkin Muffins

Be sure to actually brown the butter. First it'll be loud, then quiet and foamy - this is when you'll want to stir it. Then brown bits should start to appear. Let it cook for another 30 seconds once you start to see brown.
It can be kind of hard to tell when the muffins are finished baking because of the cream cheese center. Make sure you are using an oven thermometer to bake these at the correct temperature.
If you don't have properly sized muffin liners, just cut large squares of parchment paper and press it into the muffin pan to give it a bit of muscle memory.
The key to getting tall muffin tops is to only bake a muffin in every other muffin cup, fill the muffin cups to the top with the batter, and first bake them at a high temperature.
Make sure to preheat the oven before starting to mix the muffin batter. It will come together quite quickly. That being said you can prep this batter hours ahead of time just cover it and place it in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
If you don't want to add pecans you can swap them for walnuts, pumpkin seeds, or just leave them out!
I love making jumbo muffins using this large muffin pan but you can also make them in this standard muffin pan. If using a standard muffin pan, you'll want to bake these for a total of 12 minutes instead of 16 minutes.

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