A perfect pumpkin muffin! These muffins are full of spice and have a surprise cream cheese center. Then they are topped off with a pecan streusel. The best pumpkin muffins!
Lets talk about these muffins. AH! I first shared these over on Classy Clutter last month. (I am a contributor on their awesome blog and share a recipe every other month!) Now, these muffins. They are not just an ordinary, pumpkin muffin with a few chocolate chips thrown in there. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good pumpkin chocolate chip muffin, but this pumpkin muffin is something else! The top is a pecan streusel and when you bite into it you get a fun surprise, a sweet cream cheese filling! Ah, pumpkin and cream cheese, what could be better?! And the muffin itself is full of spice. Just so darn good. These are a MUST make this fall. They smell out of this world and are the perfect treat. And the best part? Since they are a “muffin” 😉 it is basically like having dessert for breakfast but it’s totally okay cause it’s a muffin 🙂 Please try these, you won’t be sorry. It’s a few extra steps with the filling and the streusel topping but so worth it! Good things take a little time, but I promise they are not hard. Fall is here (or coming hopefully soon to AZ, it is supposed to be 100 degrees on Wednesday this week, what is up with that?!) Anyways, add this to your must make pumpkin treats this year. You won’t regret it!
- For the Cream Cheese Filling::
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- ½ cup white sugar
- For the Crumble:
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup pecan chips, or pecans chopped
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
- For the Muffins:
- 1½ cups flour
- 1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice (or see note below)
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon cardaman
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons canola oil
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- For the Cream Cheese Filling:
- In a medium sized bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the sugar. Scrape the sides of the bowl down, cover and place in the refrigerator.
- For the Crumble:
- Cut the butter into small pieces. Place the butter in a medium sized bowl. Add the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon & pecans. Using a pastry cutter (or fork if you don't have one) cut the butter until it's blended completely and resembles small crumbs. This will take a while 🙂 Place in the refrigerator.
- For the Muffins:
- Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your muffin pan with paper liners (I recommend parchment liners) Set pan aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, cardamon, soda & salt.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil & vanilla.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients. Gently mix together using s spatula or wooden spoon, just until everything is moistened.
- Scoop about 2 tablespoons of the batter into the bottom of the muffin cups, spread gently so the bottom is covered.
- Remove the cream cheese from the refrigerator and using a spoon, add about 2 tablespoons to each muffin cup.
- Cover the cream cheese with the remaining batter. (Try to get the cream cheese completely covered.)
- Get the streusel from the refrigerator & sprinkle it on top of each muffin. Pressing lightly to make sure it sticks to the batter. Pile it on! It looks like a ton, but it bakes down a little and you want to get as much on the muffins as you can.
- Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes or until golden. (Mine baked for 25 min. All ovens are different so be sure to check if they are done at 20 min.) Cool them in the pan for 5 minutes, then move to a cooling rack.
- Store the muffins in an airtight container for up to 4 days. When ready to serve, let come to room temp or warm in the microwave, just to take the chill off. You can also wrap these in plastic wrap & place in a freezer bag for up to 2 months.
Recipe Source: I heavily adapted this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. I added cardamon & used pumpkin pie spice (instead of adding the spices separate). For the crumble topping, I used brown sugar instead of white sugar, added a little more sugar and cut in the cold butter instead of melting it. I also doubled the cream cheese filling. I used white sugar instead of powdered sugar and only added 1/2 cup to the 8 ounces of cream cheese. My method doesn’t require the freezing of the cream cheese. Simply because I am impatient & would never remember to do it ahead of time. Keeping it in the fridge until you add it to the muffins worked well for me.)
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