New fall favorite muffin recipe right there! And I’ve got pumpkin fever. As in, give me all the pumpkin spice, savory pumpkin (or any squash, really) recipes, and all the pie, cupcakes and muffins you can find. I’ll take it all. These pumpkin cheesecake muffins happen to be the newest addition to the party. They’re ridiculously perfect served with a warm mug of joe. Not too sweet, topped with cheesecake batter and tender on the inside. If there’s anything I love more than cake or muffins, it’s those same things topped with cheesecake! A few weeks ago I ran a poll on Instagram asking if you guys would like to see a cheddar jalapeno bread on the blog or if you’d rather see chai spiced pumpkin cookies. And though these are indeed not the cookies I talked about, the flavors are the same — just in muffin form. My favorite thing(s) about these spiced chai pumpkins cheesecake muffins? I can’t pick just one. They make your house smell all warm and fuzzy. They’re not overly sweet. They’re great with a warm mug of tea or coffee for breakfast or a midmorning snack. What can I say?! I like sweet stuff for breakfast sometimes! Muffins in the fall are my favorite things to bake. Don’t get me wrong, I make plenty of casseroles too, but muffins like these healthy carrot cake ones not only make your house smell like fall but also allow you to pack in veggies or squashes into something compact and easy enough to grab and go for breakfast. Today’s pumpkin cheesecake muffins have two main parts: the chai spiced pumpkin muffins and the cheesecake batter topping.
What is chai spice?
Chai spice is a blend of warm spices used in making masala chai. Usually, when you’re making chai tea/lattes, you use them in the whole form, but for today’s recipe, we’re using the ground version to flavor our pumpkin cheesecake muffins.
What do I need to make the pumpkin cream cheese muffins?
All-purpose flour: is the base of this recipe.Baking soda: is the leavening agent we use in this recipe.Salt: this one is pretty self explanatory.Sugar: you’ll need both brown sugar and granulated sugar.Chai spices: You can use pumpkin pie spice for this recipe or you can make the custom blend that I use for my homemade chai spice. If you want this to be a true, chai-flavored pumpkin muffin, I suggest using my unique blend of cinnamon, ginger, cloves and cardamom. Allspice is one of those ingredients that is heavily used in pumpkin pie spice but not in chai spice. I also like to add nutmeg, but this is also not a spice that is typically used for pie spice.Large eggs: add structure and stability to this recipe.Pumpkin puree: gives the recipe moisture and makes the muffins tender and moist. Be sure to use homemade or canned pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. The filling contains sugar and spices and since we’ll be adding these in ourselves, the pie filling won’t be a suitable substitute for good ol’ puree!Oil: adds moisture to the recipe and is the main source of fat.Pure vanilla extract: adds the most delicious scent and flavor. We’ll use this in both the filling and the muffin base.Softened cream cheese: we’ll use the cream cheese to create the filling or the topping/Powdered sugar: sweetens the create cheese mixture.Lemon juice: adds a bit of tang and makes the cream cheese mixture taste like cheesecake!
How to make pumpkin cheesecake muffins:
Ways to use the sweet cream cheese filling:
Okay. So you’ve got a few different options.
You can add a dollop of the cheesecake batter on top of the muffins as I did. I find this more visually appealing, and I love that the cheesecake batter is front and center.You can use a piping bag to insert the cheesecake filling into the center.You can add a dollop to the top the way I did and then swirl it around to give it a more marble effect.You can fill it inside AND marble it on top.
There’s so much you can do with the filling. And what I love the most about it is that this recipe is super forgiving, all of these methods work! So good I’ll be making these again before pumpkin season is up for sure!
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
Pumpkin French Toast CasseroleStarbucks Pumpkin LoafHomemade Pumpkin Bread RecipeSuper Moist and Healthy Carrot Cake MuffinsButtermilk Pumpkin Waffles
Original recipe posted Oct. 2018, updated Sept 2023.
