Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups (360ml) pure pumpkin puree
• ½ cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
• ½ cup plus 2 tbsp (125g) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, (at room temperature)
• ½ cup (120ml) sunflower oil
• 1 tsp (5ml) pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups (284g) all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ⅓ cup (80ml) whole milk
• 5 oz (142g) cream cheese, (softened)
• 2 ½ tbsp (32g) granulated sugar
• 1 tsp (3g) all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tsp (10ml) whole milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Here are parchment paper liners that I like to use for these muffins as they won't stick at all to these ones.
2. Make the pumpkin muffin batter. Combine pumpkin puree and both sugars in a large bowl and whisk until smooth and glossy. Add eggs, oil and vanilla and whisk to combine.
3. Combine flour, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to blend evenly. Add dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and start to fold them in but before it is all incorporated, add the milk and fold it in until the batter is evenly combined. It may be a tiny bit lumpy but as long as there are no flour pockets, then it’s fine. Cover the bowl and let the batter rest on the counter for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, make the cream cheese filling. Combine soft cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla in a small bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer or use a wooden spoon to blend until smooth. Add milk and mix until combined and smooth. Transfer the filling to a small piping bag or a zip-top bag.
5. Use a 2 oz scoop to divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups, filling them to the rim. Snip the tip off of the piping bag (or the corner of the zip top bag) and place it into the center of the batter. It doesn’t need to be deep into the batter – it only needs to be about ¼ inch deep from the surface so the cream cheese shows at the top. Press down to squeeze, pulling up slowly in a circular motion to make a little swirl at the top to fill out about 1-inch diameter circle at the surface of the batter so you see it nicely. You will use all of the filling for the 12 muffins, and it will be about ½ tablespoon of filling per muffin. If you have any excess batter feel free to push the tip back into the center of the muffin batter and squeeze some remainder throughout each. Sprinkle chopped pumpkin seeds over the pumpkin batter (around and not over the cream cheese filling), pressing in slightly.
6. Bake at 425℉ for 5 minutes. Then, turn the oven down to 350℉. Bake for another 12-15 minutes until they feel firm when pressed and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring muffins individually to the rack to finish cooling.