Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (Starbucks Copycat)
These Starbucks pumpkin cream cheese muffins are a complete copycat recipe! So moist and crumbly with the most dreamy cream cheese filling!
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons rolled oats, optional
for the cream cheese filling
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners; set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugars, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla.
- Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until moist; let stand for 15 minutes.
- Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tray.
- Squeeze about 2 tablespoons cream cheese filling into the center of each muffin, leaving a dollop on the top; sprinkle with rolled oats around the filling, if desired.
- Place into oven and bake for 17-22 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean; let cool 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
for the cream cheese filling
- In a small bowl, whisk together cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, flour, milk, vanilla and salt until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag or Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off.
Notes
- Pumpkin puree vs. pumpkin pie filling. Canned pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie filling are not the same, and are not interchangeable. Pumpkin pie filling comes pre-mixed with sweeteners and spices.
- Use “brick” cream cheese. Avoid using whipped cream cheese. The “brick-style” cream cheese, at room temperature, will add all the lovely rich and creamy textures for the muffin filling.
- Avoid overmixing. Using a rubber spatula, stir the batter until everything is just combined and moistened with a few lumps here and there. Overmixing will lead to dense, tough muffins.
- Mix it up. Although not required, feel free to add in chocolate chips, pecans or walnuts to the batter (about 1/2 cup). Or add pumpkin seeds instead of rolled outs, lightly pressing into the batter.
- Fill the batter to the top. Fill the muffin cups to the top for bakery-style, domed muffins.
- Cool on a wire rack. Cool the muffins on a wire rack for better air circulation, allowing them to cool faster and evenly, and preventing sogginess.
- Halve the recipe. Need a smaller-batch of muffins? This recipe halves beautifully yielding 8 muffins with the same bake time.