Every time Fall rolls around I reach for this Pumpkin Spice Muffin recipe that delights guests with a wonderful cream cheese secret. This has a few ingredients to it but they’re super simple to whip up and smell great while they’re in the oven baking. Watch the quick video below to see how easy they are to make:

Ingredients

Dry ingredients:
– 2 cups all-purpose flour
– 1 tsp baking soda
– ¼ tsp table salt
– 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
– Wet ingredients:
– 1 cup pumpkin puree
– ⅓ cup vegetable oil
– ½ cup granulated sugar
– ½ cup brown sugar
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– 2 eggs
– ¼ cup whole milk
– 3 Tbsp roasted Pumpkin Seeds, for sprinkling on top (optional)

Cream Cheese Filling:
– 8 oz full fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature 
– 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
– 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin (or 2 6-cup tins) with non-stick paper liners. Set aside.

2. First make the cream cheese filling: Place the 8 oz of cream cheese with the 2 Tbsp powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla in a small mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, whip the filling until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Set the cream cheese aside.

3. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients until thoroughly incorporated: flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.

4. In a separate, large-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, and granulated and brown sugars. Add the 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla, and mix until smooth. 

5. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients. Whisk briefly just to combine (a few lumps won’t hurt the batter, but stirring too much will make for a tough muffin). Don’t over mix!

5. Fill the muffin liners 1/3 full of the muffin batter. 

6. Using a 2 Tbsp scoop (the spring-loaded handle is quite useful here), divide rounded 2 tablespoon-full scoops of the cream cheese filling between all of the muffin tins. Press the cream cheese firmly into the batter so it will stay in the middle of the muffin while baking.

7. Now spoon the remaining muffin batter over the cream cheese, spreading it out to completely enclose the filling. Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds evenly over the muffins.

8. Bake the muffins at 350 until a toothpick inserted into the muffin part only comes out clean (because of course the cream cheese will be gooey), about 20-25 minutes.

9. Cool in the pan about 10 minutes before removing the muffins.