These are the original swirled pumpkin cream cheese muffins with sweet cream cheese that melts into the tops of moist pumpkin muffins as they bake. Ready in just 30 minutes, make a double batch because these muffins are guaranteed to be a new family favorite!
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Test Kitchen Review
Brittany
Super moist with tons of spiced pumpkin muffin flavor, we love these easy muffins! Make sure you let your cream cheese come to room temperature before starting, the swirl was lumpy in my first batch because I did not wait. They were great warm and at room temperature, but I personally love them best chilled straight out of the fridge!
Featured Reader Review
Fantastic recipe. I made these for my staff meeting, but my family got to them first, so I had to make another batch. Everyone raved, saying these were the best pumpkin muffins they'd ever had.
I did add some turbinado sugar to them at the end of baking. Super yum.
Why I Love These Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
Don’t worry, while I did update the photos, this is still the original recipe that went viral and made everyone start swirling cream cheese into the tops of their pumpkin muffins! I make these bad boys every. Single. Year. I don’t think my kids (or Jorge) would forgive me if I didn’t make at least one batch in the fall. Judging by the amount of glowing reviews these pumpkin cream cheese muffins have received over the years, I think it’s safe to say they’ve become a tradition in many homes, and here’s why:
- Impressive: If you are looking for a touch of sophistication, these swirled beauties are sure to impress with thick ribbons of cream cheese that melt right into the top of the pumpkin muffins as they bake.
- Quick and Easy: These muffins come together in just 30 minutes using budget-friendly pantry staples you likely already have on hand.
- Extra Moist: These pumpkin cream cheese muffins are pure melt-in-your-mouth goodness. Just like my pumpkin bread recipe, they use an entire can of pumpkin to keep them moist, with no leftover pumpkin to worry about.
- Crowd-Pleaser: You might want to make a double batch, because these pumpkin cheesecake muffins disappear FAST!
If you love pumpkin as much as I do make sure to also check out my cinnamon-sugar donut pumpkin muffins, sweet pumpkin streusel muffins or these pumpkin oatmeal muffins.
Key Ingredients
Below you will find helpful notes for key ingredients used to make this recipe for cream cheese pumpkin muffins. Scroll down to the recipe card below for the full ingredient list and exact amounts!
- Flour: All-purpose flour works best! Be sure to fluff the flour, then measure it by spooning it into a measuring cup. Don’t dip the cup straight into a packed bag of flour, or you will make overly dense muffins!
- Pumpkin Puree: I use a 15 oz can of pumpkin. Make sure it is pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling which is already sweetened.
- Sugar: I use a combination of granulated sugar and light brown sugar for the best consistency and sweetness, but you can use just one kind of sugar if you prefer.
- Vegetable Oil: For an extra-moist muffin I recommend using oil, however you can use melted and slightly cooled butter instead.
- Cream Cheese: Use full-fat cream cheese (not low fat) for the best taste and texture.
- Egg Yolk: This is used for richness and to help with the texture of the cream cheese swirl.
- Pumpkin Spice: To make your own, combine 4 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp allspice. If you don’t have all the ingredients on hand, you can also use just cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg instead!
How to Make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
I like to have everything I need measured and ready to go before I start baking! Below is a quick recipe overview, but please scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions and to watch the step-by-step video.
- Dry Ingredients: Whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda and salt.
- Wet Ingredients: Whisk to combine the pumpkin, sugar and brown sugar. Beat in eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
- Combine: Slowly whisk the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture, until there are no lumps. Do not over stir, just until the batter comes together. Fill paper-lined muffin tins 3/4ths of the way full.
- Cream Cheese Mixture: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in sugar, egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
- Swirl: Top each muffin with about 1 tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture and use a toothpick to swirl it into the batter. You can also just drop it by rounded spoonfuls to the centers of the muffin batter, swirling is optional!
- Bake: Bake muffins for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the pumpkin party comes out mostly clean with just a few moist crumbs stuck to it.
Chef’s Tips & Variations
- Caution: Don’t overfill cups with muffin batter as the cream cheese dollop will make up some of the volume.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: It’s important for the eggs and cream cheese to be at room temperature so they combine smoothly and the cream cheese mixture swirls easily into the top of the muffins. To speed up the process, eggs can rest in a bowl of warm water and cream cheese can be cut into small cubes.
- Don’t Over-Mix: Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients gently, just until combined. If you over stir the batter, it can overdevelop the gluten and cause dry muffins.
- Dollop: Don’t have time to swirl the cream cheese into the top of each muffin? Try adding a dollop of the cream cheese filling to the center of the batter instead.
- Add Nuts: You can stir chopped pecans or walnuts into the muffing batter or sprinkle the tops with pepita seeds, also known as pumpkin seeds.
- Bake A Loaf: If you would prefer to bake a loaf of bread instead of muffins, head over to my pumpkin cream cheese bread. It’s the same recipe, but baked into a loaf!
Yield: 18 standard muffins
Best Swirled Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
⭐️Test Kitchen Approved!⭐️These decadent swirled pumpkin cream cheese muffins are topped with sweet cream cheese that melts into the tops of the pumpkin muffins as they bake. Ready in just 30 minutes, this moist pumpkin muffin recipe will be a new family favorite!
Ingredients
Muffin:
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin spice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup vegetable oil, or melted and cooled butter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Swirl:
- 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Place paper baking cups into muffin pan. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda and salt until well combined. Set aside.
- In large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, sugar and brown sugar. Beat in eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Slowly whisk in the flour mixture, until there are no lumps. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full.
- In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in sugar, egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
- Top each muffin with about 1 tablespoon of cream cheese mixture and use a toothpick to swirl it into the batter. This will not look smooth, but it will bake up much prettier. You can see exactly how I did this in the video below. You can also just drop it by rounded spoonfuls to the centers of the muffin batter, swirling is optional!
- Bake muffins for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the pumpkin part comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs stuck to it. Let cool for 10 minutes, then serve warm or let cool completely to store.
Video
Notes
Storage: Store these pumpkin cream cheese swirl muffins in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days. I personally like these muffins best served at room temperature or slightly chilled, so I take them out of the fridge for a few minutes before serving to allow them to warm up.
No Pumpkin Spice? Make your own by combining 4 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp allspice.
Bake A Loaf: If you would prefer to bake a loaf of bread instead of muffins, head over to my pumpkin cream cheese bread. It’s the same recipe, but baked into a loaf!
Don’t Over-Mix: Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients gently, just until combined. If you over stir the batter, it can overdevelop the gluten and cause dry muffins.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 muffin, Calories: 241kcal, Carbohydrates: 32g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 11g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Trans Fat: 0.04g, Cholesterol: 42mg, Sodium: 176mg, Potassium: 98mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 21g, Vitamin A: 3888IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 32mg, Iron: 1mg
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Fantastic recipe. I made these for my staff meeting, but my family got to them first, so I had to make another batch. Everyone raved, saying these were the best pumpkin muffins they’d ever had.
I did add some turbinado sugar to them at the end of baking. Super yum.
So so so good !!! It’s also the pumpkin season here in Québec, Canada and what an incredible recipe to pass the pumkin purée.
The cream cheese swirl is perfect ! I made some adjustments : 1/2 cup of white sugar instead of one, light version of cream cheese and melted coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. I added some pepitas on top and it was fabulous. My boyfriend love them so much !! Thanks again for this recipe, it’s definetly a keeper !!!!
I made these today for the first time and they are dangerously delicious! Great fall recipe.
I’m allergic to eggs and generally sub. aquafaba when baking. Just wondering, since this calls for specifically egg yolk, do you think that would still work or do you have any other suggestions? They sound SOOOO good, I’d love to make them work for me!
Hi Amy! Instead of trying to substitute it, I would just skip the egg yolk in the filling. It will still work without it, the egg yolk just helps to keep the cream cheese filling creamy and to not crack.
Recipe is easy to follow and they came out perfectly
Can you use grape seed oil? I am anxious to try these.
Hi Rebecca, any mild cooking oil will work!
Can you use canned pumpkin instead?
Yes! That is what I use too!
I made the pumpkin cream cheese muffins and they were really good. I did experience one problem which was the cupcake liners stuck really bad to the muffins, what could have caused this to happen.
Hi Kathy! What kind of muffin tins did you use? Mine stick a normal amount to paper liners, but if you want them not to stick at all, try foil liners. You could also use a silicone muffin pan!
Can you double recipe?
Of course!
Can’t wait to try these!! Question tho,,can I use a neck pumpkin instead of the puree?
Hi Rebecca, as long as the texture of the puree is the same texture as canned pumpkin, it will work!
What a hit! These were amazing. I made them for a pot luck and everyone loved them. Made the recipe exactly as shown. This one is a keeper.
Made these today they taste great but when I put tbsp. Of cream cheese on top & then went to swirl it just looked white – no pumpkin swirl what did I do wrong? Please help as I
Want to make again.vAlso took 30 mins. With convection oven not 20.
THANK YOU
Hi !
How long to leave the eggs and cream cheese at room temperature before starting?
Hi Beira, about an hour!
How long for mini muffins?
Hi Joy! I would start checking in on them around the 12 minute mark!
My muffins kept deflating! I even baked them longer as well and they still flattened. Not sure what I did wrong. Flavor is good, toothpick came out clean, but they are super soft/a bit gooey inside.
Hey Sadie! Two possibilities – did you double check your baking soda is still good and active? To test it, drop a little in some vinegar or lemon juice and it should fizz immediately and vigorously! Second possibility is that may be a little too much cream cheese on top with not enough pumpkin batter below to cook up into the muffin. The cream cheese is heavy, so you need to make sure the muffin tins are 3/4th of the way full before you add the cream cheese on top. Hope this helps you problem solve! 🙂
Okay! I’ll test the baking soda. The “muffins” (I can’t call them that) firmed up a bit in the fridge, but the dough just didn’t seem as dry as a muffin would be. It was pretty dense! I did a tbsp of cream cheese, but I also wondered if my cream cheese mix got too warm and it spread more. My husband loved them, so I will attempt to make them again!
This is the absolute best muffin I have ever made! And I make a ton of muffins. My husband and children devoured these. I shared them with my friends and all of them have asked for the recipe. They are so moist, flavorful, and delicious
These are dense, moist, delicious! Will try a crumble topping next!
This recipe is definitely a keeper. Absolutely delicious my family loves them. Thank you for sharing.
Hi!! I did this exact recipe to a T. However I used Olive oil & lactose free original cream cheese. They did not turn out good at all…. Next time i plan on using veg oil & just regular cream cheese. Do you think the cream cheese & olive oil would of effected the baking!?
I used canola oil and they turned out delicious.
Hi Racquel, I do not have experience with the lactose free cream cheese, so I really can’t speak to that part. However, yes, olive oil will affect the flavor and can also change the texture in baked goods.
I am going to try these with a brown sugar streusel topping…
Let us know how it turns out!
these muffins ARE SO GOOD. best pumpkin muffins i’ve had. i am going to try and make a healthy oat breakfast pumpkin muffin out of this recipe. hoping it works out bc these are delicious.
Would almond extract be good in the cream cheese mixture? Went to make the cream cheese mixture and realized I only had about 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract left and almond is the only other extract I have
Hmm, I would just skip adding more extract. I love almond extract, but I’m not sure how well it would pair with the pumpkin. If you ended up trying it though, I’d love to know how it turned out!
Can I freeze these?
Hi Christy, yes you can! They are best fresh, but still good once thawed again! I wrap them individually with plastic wrap and then put them in a freezer safe storage bag. Thaw them in the refrigerator before serving for best results.