It’s fall y’all! Tis the season for pumpkin spice everything! Whilst I love Starbucks pumpkin cream cheese muffins, they’re way too expensive, they don’t give you enough filling AND I knew I could elevate them and make them even better. Now so can you! And the money you’ll save while making your house smell like the fall season is all worth it!
These pumpkin cream cheese muffins have a light and fluffy pumpkin muffin base with a smooth and creamy cream cheese filling. An easy way to add a nuttiness to these pumpkin cream cheese muffins without actually adding nuts is by using brown butter. Brown butter makes literally EVERYTHING a million times more complex and special!
I highly recommend piping the cream cheese filling into the pumpkin muffins. If you don’t have a piping set, there’s an inexpensive one on Amazon. All of the links in the recipe blog post will be from Amazon and you can get a free 30 day trial here.
Using these orange foil liners really makes the pumpkin cream cheese muffins feel like you’re getting a Starbucks treat! Using a cupcake scoop helps to keep the muffins similar sizes.
Because the pumpkin muffin batter is thick, it’s a good idea to flatten the tops a little bit with an offset spatula.
The you just shove your piping tip into the pumpkin muffin batter and pull up while squeezing gently and make a circle on top to resemble the classic pumpkin cream cheese muffin look.
Using a glass or cup to hold the piping bag is one of my fave baking tricks.
Be sure to watch my video for more visual help when needed!
Brown Butter Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins Recipe (Better than Starbucks)
Ingredients:
Pumpkin Muffin Batter
- 180g all purpose flour (1 1/2 cups)
- 1 tsp each baking powder and baking soda
- 1/2 tsp each pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter, brown then cooled (should end up being 4 tbsp once browned)
- 110g brown sugar (1/2 cup)
- 50g granulated sugar (1/4 cup)
- 1 egg, room temp
- 15oz can pumpkin purée
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 2 tbsp half and half
Cream Cheese Filling
- 8oz cream cheese, softened
- 67g granulated sugar (1/3 cup)
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp flour
*Pepitas for sprinkling on top (optional)
Directions:
- Start with browning the butter and let cool, if you want to skip this step, you can just use melted butter that has cooled, but only do the 4 tbsp. To brown the butter, heat in a pan on the stove and gently simmer. It will make a ton of noise and bubble as it releases extra water. The butter solids will begin to drop to the bottom and start to toast. Make sure you keep it moving so you don’t burn the little bits on the bottom. They will become a nice golden brown and that’s how you know it’s done.
- While the brown butter cools, make the cream cheese filling. Use a hand mixer to beat the cream cheese and sugar together. Then add the egg yolk, vanilla and flour and mix until nice and smooth. Add the mixture to your piping bag and set aside.
- For the pumpkin muffin batter, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and salt together. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cooled butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Then add the egg and whisk well until the color gets a little lighter than when you started whisking.
- Add the pumpkin and vanilla, whisk, then add the half and half (or milk).
- Fill cupcake liners, flatten and sprinkle around the edge with pepitas (if using).
- Then start piping the cream cheese filling. Place the tip into the muffin batter, but not all the way to the bottom. Gently start squeezing the bag as you pull up and you will see the batter start to fatten and fill. When you get to the top, give it a little circle swirl and then go to the next muffin.
- Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for about 20 minutes, turning the pan half way. Turn the oven off and crack it for a few minutes before pulling the muffins out completely to help the middle from sinking in the middle too much. Then let cool on a cooling rack.
- Enjoy!
I sent these brown butter pumpkin cream cheese muffins with my husband for his work and let me tell you, they were a HUGE hit! They’ve been requested to make every week now!
These would go perfect with a homemade pumpkin spice latte too!
I’ve also made a similar recipe but that is gluten free and zero sugar added if you’re looking for an alternative Starbucks copycat pumpkin cream cheese muffin
These are the kitchen gadgets I used to make this pumpkin cream cheese muffins from Amazon:
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