Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins

Tender and moist, sweet and spicy and with a creamy, tangy topping, these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins are out of this world delicious. Featuring many of the ingredients used in a traditional pumpkin bread to make perfect pumpkin muffins, we then kick them up a notch with a creamy and indulgent cream cheese topping.

Delicious as a quick breakfast, to take as a snack when you're on the go, or even to savor as dessert, these muffins can do it all. Here’s everything you need to know about making and enjoying these luscious pumpkin cream cheese swirl muffins.

History of Pumpkin Bread and Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin breads and pumpkin muffins have been around longer than even Thanksgiving, the celebration they are most often associated with. Pumpkins were one of the first crops grown for human consumption in North America thousands of years ago, while the Native Americans were cooking with pumpkin long before any European settlers arrived.

But the popularity of pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins as we know them today really took off in the early twentieth century, after Libby’s began producing canned pumpkin in the late 1920s, which made baking with the ingredient significantly easier and more accessible. 

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffin Ingredients

These muffins combine simple, easy-to-find ingredients to make wow-worthy goodies. Here’s what you need:

• Flour, baking soda, and salt: It’s hard to make muffins without these baking staples. 
• Ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger: Instead of picking up a jar of pumpkin pie spice only to use a teaspoon or two, we found that you can get impressive fall flavor from just adding each of these spices individually.
• Canned pumpkin: Yes, these muffins use the entire can!
• Eggs and butter: These refrigerator staples go into your muffin batter.
• Granulated sugar and vanilla extract: These sweeteners are divided between the muffin batter and the cream cheese swirl topping. 
• Cream cheese and egg yolk: Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature, which will make it much easier to mix and dollop onto the muffins. The egg yolk gives the cream cheese layer a dreamy cheesecake-like texture. We opt to top our muffins with the cream cheese mixture instead of putting it inside the muffin in order to guarantee that you get the sweet and tangy goodness with every bite.

How To Store Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins

Because of the tasty cream cheese swirl, these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins are best stored in the refrigerator—though if you’re making them in the morning and serving them later that day, it’s fine to leave them out for a few hours.

That said, we prefer to eat them at room temperature, so be sure to transfer them from the fridge to the counter a bit before you’re planning to serve.

Can You Freeze Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins?

We highly doubt that a batch of these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins is going to last long enough to freeze any leftovers. And since the cream cheese layer is on top, we don’t recommend freezing them because it will alter the texture of that layer.

If you do need to make them a day or two ahead of time, you can do so and store them in the fridge.

Editorial contributions by Alyssa Sybertz.