Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins are dense, moist, rich muffins swirled with sweetened cream cheese. I originally made them for my daughter to take to school (before she informed me she was tired of muffins). Since then I’ve been making these on and off, and people seem to really like them. They’re fairly easy and they freeze well. I still haven’t tested with light cream cheese.
Aldi Bake Shop Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bites
I just saw that Aldi is selling a similar product called Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bites. Looks like Aldi’s are “mini”s or bite size, which leads me to believe this recipe would also be delicious made as miniatures. I haven’t tested that version yet, but it seem like all you would do is use mini muffin tins and decrease the baking time slightly.
Small Batch Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
This recipe makes 12 Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins but you can halve it pretty easily and make 6. When making the filling, use 4 oz of cream cheese, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of beaten egg. That’s half your egg. Use the other half of the egg in the muffin batter.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins Alternatives
Recipe
Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
Ingredients
Filling:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened (230 grams)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (50 grams)
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Muffins:
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour, measure with a light hand (220 grams)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar (100 grams)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon each nutmeg, allspice and cloves
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large large egg
- 1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin (not pie filling)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray top of a muffin tin with cooking spray and line the 12 cups with liners.
- Prepare filling. Beat together cream cheese and sugar, then stir in egg and vanilla. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, both sugars, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and spices.
- In another mixing bowl, blend oil, egg, pumpkin and vanilla. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and stir until combined.
- Fill muffin cups about 1/3 of the way full with pumpkin mixture. Spoon cream cheese mixture over pumpkin, dividing evenly between all 12 cups. Spoon a drop of pumpkin batter on top of cream cheese. Pumpkin batter will be thick and will not cover entire top, so the appearance will be similar to a bulls eye.
- Bake for 23-25 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
Anna
Happy Thanksgiving, Elyse!
Elyse Cole
I just finished making a batch of these great muffins for Thanksgiving giving morning. I have made these for Thanksgiving morning since I found it on your website in 2011. They are just wonderful! Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!! Actually, we are ready to sit down and have some right now!! We are not waiting for tomorrow morning!!
Hannah
I am craving pumpkin right now and I may have to make these right now!
Caron Kilby
I have left over pumpkin pie batter an I am going to try to transform it into these muffins! Wonderful recipe! Thanks!
Brianna
I just wanted to say that I made these muffins for a bake-off that my neighborhood was having and I won first place from the judges AND people’s choice!! I’ve never won a baking contest ever in my life but everyone LOVED these muffins!! I felt like Rachel Ray for a while haha. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!! 🙂
Anna
Jennifer, that would be fine. I add cinnamon because I like the flavor, but pumpkin pie spice would be good too.
Jennifer
I am going to make these muffins today for a coffee/breakfast I am having tomorrow. Has anyone used just pumpkin spice and omited the cinnamon? I was debating using the 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and the 1/8 (3x’s) of pumpkin spice or justing using the pumpkin spice (since there is cinn in the pump spice) for the whole thing..any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Anna
Jaime, I think if you chill them overnight and take them into the office cold, they’ll be eaten pretty quickly. But I think they’d taste okay left out at room temperature for a while.
Jaime
This may be a stupid question, but do these have to be refridgerated? I want to make some to take into work tomorrow, but I don’t think there is enough room in our breakroom fridge!
Thanks…can’t wait to try them! Like most on this page I LOVE anything pumpkin so I’m looking forward to tasting them!
Linda in MO
Oh man, I can’t wait to try these!!!
Randi
Okay I JUST made these… in fact the 2nd rack is still in the oven! Fantastic recipe!!! I am in love with it. Next time I am going to fill them with cream cheese instead of doing a cheesecake swirl. But I am so happy with the flavor and texture! I doubled the recipe and am bringing them to work. I make everyone at work treats all the time. They’re sure to love this, I sure do!!
Ryan
I baked the recipe in a bunt pan, as I don’t have a muffin tray, I put in half the pumpkin batter, then spread it up the sides of the pan, added the cream cheese filling in the middle, and them covered it with the remaining batter. I also used roasted pumpkin instead of canned and softened butter instead of oil and it turned out delicious. I had to add a bit of cooking time too.
Katherine
Thanks Anna – these are great. I was happy to find this recipe – I had a block of cream cheese ready to expire. Perfect “Fall” muffin.
Anna
Thanks for trying them Elise!
Elise
Hello Anna! Wow, this is far and away THE BEST pumpkin cream cheese muffin recipe I’ve ever made. Just awesome! Changes: neufchatel (low fat) cream cheese – no spreading; coconut oil instead of veg oil; half whole wheat pastry flour; chopped pecans on top. Holly was right when she called this recipe foolproof. Thanks for this great recipe – it’s a keeper!
Brittany Leigh
i have to say this muffins are the bomb!! they are perfect for halloween and they tast awsome!! everyone at my house loves them!! you have a great recipe here!
Emily
I loved these. I am so full of them and can’t wait to get hungry again so I can eat more.
I found there was too much batter for only 12. I filled them right up, and so of course the puffed over huge. But that’s okay! Just made it more difficult to get them out of the pan in one piece. Also, I think I’ll swirl the cheesecake and pumpkin mixtures together before putting them in the pan next time. I am in total lust with about anything pumpkin, as well as cheesecake, so this recipe is a keeper.
Marialena
These look gorgeous! I can’t wait to try them. I’m posting the link on my blog, Old Fashioned Gal! Thanks so much
Anna
Hi Holly!
Thanks so much for the review and for going to the trouble of testing with sweet potatos. Sweet potatos are so healthy. I don’t like how they taste “straight” but I think I could tolerate them in muffin-form so I will give it a try. That’s great that the Cub Scouts liked them. Thanks again for the report.
holly
The first time I tried this recipe, I made it exactly as it was printed. The flavor and texture was excellent. My muffins didn’t look like the photo though. The second time, I tried it with low fat cream cheese and 1 1/4 teaspoons of Pumpkin Pie spice. I liked it just as much as the first time (and the lower fat was an added bonus). I made it again today, for the third time and changed it up yet again. Today, I doubled the recipe, used 3- 15 oz. cans of sweet potatos (drained), and 2 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice. Another change I did was I folded the cream cheese mixture into the batter, then put the marbled mixture into the muffin pans. Doubling the recipe was a success. The texture and flavor was once again spot on. The sweet potatos made the muffins a bit sweeter than the pumpkin but otherwise it could have passed for pumpkin and no one would have been the wiser. I served these at a Cub Scout meeting (9 boys) tonight. All 9 of them wolfed them down. 5 of the boys begged for seconds. My son didn’t beg for seconds because he had already eaten 2 before going to the meeting. So all in all, what I’m saying is this appears to be a foolproof recipe!! Happy eating!
Anna
Hi K!
Thanks for the feedback.
Also, thanks Dana and Donna for letting me know the reduced fat cream cheese works.
K
I made these last night and they have been a big hit. Thanks so much for sharing your recipes! Your site is now one of my favorites! 🙂
K
I stumbled upon your website and am very excited to try a few of your recipes. I’m going to start with this one. Those look fabulous!
Dana
Like Donna, I just made them with reduced-fat cream cheese, and they look just fine (amazing, in fact!) Bummer that we don’t get to eat them–they’re for the teachers to have during conferences tomorrow…I may have to make another batch for the family!
Donna
I made these with 1/3 less fat cream cheese and didn’t have a problem with them spreading too much. Very yummy!
Anna
Chelsea, you’ve probably already made these, but I wanted to let you know that yes. You could definitely sub pumpkin pie spice. I’d probably use 1/2 teaspoon.
Chelsea
A quick question (And I know I may have to figure this out on my own since you’re away- I’m baking these today)
You said 1/8 tsp each allspice, nutmeg, and cloves… but I only have pumpkin pie spice (which has all of those in it) and nutmeg. No cloves.
Can I just omit the cloves and use the nutmeg and pie spice? Should I add a bit more pie spiece if I do??
rebecca
these look AMAZING. i have been drooling over the pumpkin cream cheese muffins at starbucks lately. now i can bake something similar on my own! without worrying about a gajillion dollar price tag 😉
Anna
Hi Steven,
I’m looking forward to reading more of your blog.
For those of you with a competitive streak (and you know who you are…heh heh heh) check out Steven and Joey’s logo contest. The prize is a free cheesecake.
http://joeybiscotti.blogspot.com/2007/10/want-free-cheesecake-or-12.html
Steven
Just wanted to weigh in (ha ha) on the wonderful pumpkin cheesecake muffins – they look heavenly and we can’t wait to try them.
If you’re in the mood to peruse a new blog on baking delights, check us out at http://joeybiscotti.blogspot.com
We’re sure you’ll be drooling in no time – and ready to try our goodies!
Ciao for now –
Steven and Joey
Brenda
I’m loving the pumpkin recipes! I tried the dump cake last week and loved it. Now I need to try these. 🙂
Emilie
I think she’s very lucky to have a mom that packs her homemade goodies.
I don’t think my mom did that. She used to give us Little Debbies.
Augustina
My goodness, even the name of these sound mouth-watering! I just picked up a couple cans of pumpkin yesterday and now I know what to do with them. Looks delicious!
Jenny Flake
Oh great, another pumpkin recipe I’m going to HAVE to try! I’ve been making everything pumpkin, these look soooo yummy. Will be looking forward to trying them!
Anna
Anyway, I kept two and sent the rest to the office with Todd. I’m sure his co-workers are happy that I sent in actual breakfast type food for breakfast. Usually, they get cookies or brownies at 8:30 AM.
Anna
Angie, I hope you like them. I was really very happy with these muffins.
Amy, she doesn’t fall for tricks like that. She’s so used to having cakes, cookies and baked goods around here that they’re not really that special to her. So calling it a cupcake wouldn’t do anything for her. Now if I called it a Magic Pokemon POWER Muffin, she might eat it.
Angie
Your daughter is missing out! My son gets tired of some of the things I bake as well. I have all of the ingredients to make these and that will be my project today…sounds like they take very little time which is perfect for my schedule. I am a stay at home mom that is very seldom home!