Pumpkin desserts were never on my radar; I just always thought there’s no place for a squash in any sweet treat. But I’m happy to report I was VERY wrong. Pumpkin makes these muffins extremely moist and the cheesecake swirl elevates the overall experience and makes the muffin look and taste much more impressive than it really is. This is a perfect fall treat! And possibly the best part: you don’t have to go out and buy a jar of all-spice or pumpkin-pie-spice, aka ingredients you buy an entire jar of and then use a teaspoon and never use again until the next year.
Ingredients
for 12 muffins:
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- heaping 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 1 cup granulated sugar, plus an additional tablespoon for topping
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
for the cheesecake swirl:
- 1 8oz pack of cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Directions:
for the cheesecake swirl:
- Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, either with a hand mixer or whisk, until creamy and smooth. Set aside.
for the batter:
- Preheat oven to 400F and line or spray a 12-cup muffin tin. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk the following dry ingredients together: flour, baking soda + powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt.
- In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the melted butter and eggs.
- Add in both sugars and vanilla, whisking until well incorporated.
- Mix in the pumpkin puree; the batter will get noticeably thinner, that’s okay!
- Add the dry ingredients to the mixture and mix until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.
- Scoop the muffin batter into the prepared baking pan, filling each cup about halfway.
- Place roughly a tablespoon of the cheesecake mixture over the batter.
- Top the cheesecake mixture with an additional scoop of muffin batter.
- Sprinkle each muffin top with course or granulated sugar. You can also top with a streusel (recipe here).
- Bake at 400F for 5 min, then drop the temperature to 350F and bake an additional 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Allow the muffins to cool at least 20 minutes before enjoying!
