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Pumpkin Muffins with a creamy cheesecake center are the cozy Starbucks copycat that makes the whole kitchen smell like fall, and I baked a double batch one rainy October morning while Maddie and Lizzie fogged up the window waiting. If you love our banana cream cheese muffins, these are the pumpkin-spiced cousin you will crave all season.
One bowl for the batter, one for the filling, and twelve bakery-style muffins are ready in under 30 minutes.
Pumpkin Muffins Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 10 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 19 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 29 minutes
- 🍽️ Serving: 12 muffins
- ⚡ Calories: 203kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Warm pumpkin spice with a sweet cream cheese center
- ✋ Difficulty: Easy, on par with our crescent roll cinnamon rolls
Quick Answer
Whisk the dry ingredients with pumpkin spice, then stir in pumpkin puree, melted butter, vanilla, and an egg until just combined. Divide the batter into a 12-cup muffin tin. Beat the cream cheese filling until smooth, pipe a dollop into the center of each muffin, sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds, and bake at 350 degrees for 17 to 19 minutes.
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Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- Pumpkin puree keeps them incredibly moist. All that puree means you need very little butter, so the muffins stay tender for days without drying out.
- The cream cheese center tastes like cheesecake. A quick four-ingredient filling bakes into a sweet, tangy pocket right in the middle, just like the Starbucks version.
- One teaspoon of pumpkin spice does the heavy lifting. That blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove gives you cozy bakery flavor without measuring five separate spices.
- Just-combined batter means a tender crumb. Stirring only until the dry pockets disappear keeps the gluten relaxed so the muffins bake up soft, not tough.
- Piping the filling keeps it tidy. A zip-top bag with the corner snipped lets you tuck the cream cheese right into the center with zero mess.
- They are freezer-friendly. Bake once and stash a batch; they thaw beautifully for grab-and-go fall breakfasts.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- They taste like the Starbucks pumpkin cream cheese muffin for a fraction of the price.
- It is a two-bowl recipe, so cleanup is quick even on a busy morning.
- That cheesecake center makes them feel like dessert you are allowed to eat for breakfast.
Key Ingredients
Here is what makes these pumpkin muffins bakery-worthy. Most of it is probably already in your pantry.
- Pure pumpkin puree: not pumpkin pie filling. Plain puree adds moisture, color, and real pumpkin flavor.
- Pumpkin spice: the cozy blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove that makes them taste like fall.
- Cream cheese: softened, for that smooth cheesecake filling. Full-fat gives the richest center.
- Pumpkin seeds: toasted pepitas on top add a little crunch and a pretty bakery finish (optional).
- Pantry staples: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, butter, egg, and vanilla pull it all together.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
These muffins are easy to make your own. Here are a few favorite swaps.
- Skip the seeds: leave the pepitas off if you do not have them; the muffins are gorgeous either way.
- No filling: leave out the cream cheese for simple pumpkin muffins, and bake a couple minutes less.
- Swirl it: instead of piping a center, dollop the cream cheese on top and swirl with a toothpick.
- Add mix-ins: fold in chocolate chips, chopped pecans, or dried cranberries for extra texture.
- Make mini muffins: use a mini tin and start checking at 10 to 12 minutes.
- Love that cream cheese tang? Try our cream cheese cookies next.
How to Make Pumpkin Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin spice.
- In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, melted butter, vanilla, and egg.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet mixture, and stir just until combined with no dry pockets.
- Divide the batter evenly among 12 lined or greased muffin cups.
- Beat the cream cheese, vanilla, flour, sugar, and milk with a hand mixer until smooth, then transfer to a piping bag or a zip-top bag with the corner snipped.
- Pipe the cream cheese filling into the center of each muffin, leaving a little dollop on top.
- Sprinkle toasted pumpkin seeds around the filling if using.
- Bake for 17 to 19 minutes, until a toothpick in the muffin (not the filling) comes out mostly clean. Cool in the tin 10 minutes, then finish cooling on a wire rack.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Use pure pumpkin, not pie filling. Pie filling is pre-sweetened and spiced and will throw off the recipe.
- Do not overmix the batter. Stir only until the dry streaks disappear or the muffins turn dense.
- Soften the cream cheese fully so the filling pipes smooth without lumps.
- Test the muffin, not the filling. The cream cheese center stays soft, so check a toothpick in the pumpkin part for doneness.
- Cool in the tin 10 minutes before moving them so the filling sets and the muffins hold together.
- Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet for a minute for the best nutty crunch on top.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
These pumpkin muffins are a fall breakfast all on their own, but they shine next to a hot cup of coffee or a homemade mocha. The warm spice and cool cream cheese center are basically made for a cozy morning.
Set them out on a brunch board with fresh fruit, candied nuts, and a few other fall bakes for an easy crowd-pleaser. They travel well to school parties, tailgates, and Thanksgiving morning too.
Leftovers keep beautifully. Store them at room temperature for a day, in the fridge for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 3 months and warm one whenever a pumpkin craving hits.
Pumpkin Muffins FAQs
Absolutely. Just leave the filling out for classic pumpkin muffins and reduce the bake time by a couple of minutes, since they will set faster. They are delicious plain, with a streusel topping, or with a handful of chocolate chips folded in.
Pure pumpkin puree is just cooked, blended pumpkin with nothing added. Pumpkin pie filling is already sweetened and spiced. This recipe calls for pure puree so you control the sugar and spice; pie filling would make the muffins overly sweet and throw off the texture.
Yes. Dollop the cream cheese mixture on top of each muffin and drag a toothpick through it for a pretty marbled swirl. It bakes up just as tasty, just with the tangy cheesecake flavor on top instead of hidden inside.
Because of the cream cheese, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Let them come to room temperature, or warm them briefly, before serving. They also freeze well for up to 3 months; thaw overnight in the fridge.
Both work. For mini muffins, use a mini tin and start checking around 10 to 12 minutes. For a loaf, pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Not at all. The toasted pumpkin seeds add a pretty bakery look and a little crunch, but the muffins are wonderful without them. You could also top them with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar or a few chopped pecans instead.
Next up, bake a batch of our banana cream cheese muffins and tell us which muffin your family loves more.
Need a savory partner for these muffins? Our breakfast bagel sandwich covers the bacon, egg, and cheese side of brunch.
Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Cups all purpose flour
- ¾ Cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- 1 ½ Cups pure pumpkin puree
- ¼ Cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 2 teaspoons toasted pumpkin seeds for garnish optional
Cream Cheese Filling
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin spice. Stir to combine, set aside.1 ½ Cups all purpose flour, ¾ Cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, melted butter, vanilla, and egg.1 ½ Cups pure pumpkin puree, ¼ Cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 large egg
- Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and pour the wet mixture into the bowl. Stir with a large spoon until just combined and there are no dry pockets.
- Fill 12 prepared muffin tins evenly with the muffin mixture. Next, make the cream cheese filling.
Cream Cheese Filling
- Place all of the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Using a hand mixer, mix on medium speed until smooth.4 ounces cream cheese, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon milk
- Place mix into a piping bag or a ziplock bag and cut off a small amount off one corner. Place the piping bag into the muffins one at a time and fill insides with the cream cheese. Evenly distribute cream cheese mixture along with all the muffins, leaving a little dollop on top of each.
- Take the pumpkin seeds and evenly distribute them around the outsides of the batter if desired.2 teaspoons toasted pumpkin seeds for garnish
- Bake for 17-19 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the bread part of the muffins comes out mostly clean. Let cool in the tin for 10 minutes, take them out and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Make sure that you use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling.
- These can be doubled or tripled.
- These can be frozen, see my tips above.
- The pumpkin seeds are optional.
- You can swirl the cream cheese mixture through the muffin if you’d like instead of placing it in the center.
Nutrition
Love This Recipe?
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I wish I could attach a photo, these came out beautiful. I made them yesterday and with the chaos of visitors missed the baking powder. These still came out okay, just a little denser. These whole tray was still gone within the hour. I remade these today, but doubled the recipe, and they came out beautifully risen and soft.
Very bland. They were moist and a little dense, not in a bad way, but it’s a muffin, they should be! 😂
Don’t use the pumpkin spice ingredient. I did and used 3x the amount and it was still bland.
Someone suggested using, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon separate and I’ll try that next time.
I also doubled the filling. I added a little more salt, vanilla and sugar, my preference, to give a sweeter taste.
They don’t taste anything like Starbucks. Starbucks has a more gingerbread taste. I’ll play with this recipe to I have it down and update.
It needs way my spices added than what this recipe called for. It is very bland and even though they came out moist they were dense, next time I’ll shift the flour. I would suggest not using pumpkin spice and use cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg to give it more flavor. I even doubled up the cream cheese filling and not using milk so it more thick. It’s too runny if I follow this recipe to the T.
This recipe isn’t bad but just good in my opinion. I followed the recipe to the T, for me these were bland. I’ll try again and add more ingredients until my taste buds are satisfied.
I’ve just baked these muffins and what can I say… really heavenlike. Absolutely at least as good as the starbucksversion I had on my way to Miami airport last week flying back to Germany. I bought pumpkin pie spice at a publix on my way and here I googled your copycat recipe. I had to make my own pumpkin puree and changed the cups into metric version. Thank you so much for sharing! I love absolutely love them!🤩🤩🤩
These were SO good, I brought some to work and have had multiple people ask for the recipe because they can’t stop thinking about them. They came out SO moist. I did have to bake them an additional ten minutes and added a little more pumpkin spice than the recipe called for. This is definitely going in our family recipe book. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe
This were the best fluffiest best muffins in the whole entire world so good definitely recommend🤍
I followed the recipe exactly. There is TOO MUCH BAKING SODA AND BAKING POWDER! I can taste it after the muffins are baked. FAULTY RECEIPE
They turned out exactley as you said. They are very moist and oh so yummy! My teen granddaughters are excited to share them with their Starbuck fan friends.
I even made a gluten free batch just as good. I did use cinnamon, clove , nutmeg and ginger instead of pumpkin spice and a bit more generous with it. They will be a new favorite for Christmas breakfast. Thankyou
I gave it 2 stars because they were moist and looked incredible, but taste wise they were completely flavourless. Not even close to Starbucks copycat!
I’d suggest adding in more pumpkin spice (double if not triple the asked amount)
These taste SO delicious, especially the cream cheese filling, and I was surprised how similar they did taste to Starbucks – only better. And I love the Starbucks one. I was apprehensive initially as the batter is very thick, and it did take about 8 minutes longer to bake to get a clean tooth pick. The cake part is extremely moist, when I unwrapped it from the muffin liner a lot of it stuck. I will definitely be making again though so I may try adding less pumpkin purée and seeing if that makes a difference.