High Altitude Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins
These pumpkin cream cheese swirl muffins are moist and fluffy, full of warm fall spices and a swirl of tangy cream cheese baked on top.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
Ingredients
Muffins
- 1 ¼ cups canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- ½ cup vegetable oil (or melted unsalted butter)
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
Cream Cheese
- 6 oz block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
Getting Ready
- Preheat the oven to 400 F, and line a standard-sized muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
- Lightly spray the liners with non-stick baking spray, to easily release the muffins, and spray the top of the muffin pan, too.
Muffins
- In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, sugars, oil or butter, milk, eggs and vanilla.
- Separately, whisk together the flour, corn starch, baking soda, salt and spices.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix together with a spatula, just until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cups; they will be fairly full.
Cream Cheese
- In a bowl, combine the softened cream cheese with the sugars, egg yolk, vanilla and cinnamon.
- Use an electric mixer (or a strong arm and a whisk) to whip the mixture until smooth and creamy.
- Dollop the cream cheese mixture on top of the muffin batter, then use a chopstick or wooden skewer to gently swirl it in. This will actually work better if you do 3-4 small dollops of cream cheese on each muffin, rather than one large dollop.
Bake
- Put the muffins in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 375 F. Bake the muffins on the center oven rack for about 22-25 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean, or with moist crumbs.
- Cool the muffins in the pan for 2 minutes, then carefully remove and set on a wire cooling rack. Cool for 10 minutes, and serve warm.
Notes
Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day, or in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Reheat individual muffins in the microwave for 30-40 seconds at 50% power.
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