Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins with Pecan Streusel

These are my ultimate Pumpkin Muffins! The muffins have tangy cream cheese filling, and crumbly topping, creating a delightful combination of flavors and textures. These Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins with Pecan Streusel have been vigorously tested with the aim for tall muffin tops, a tender and moist crumb, and big flavor pay-off.

Recipe Testing Notes

I originally developed this Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffin recipe 6 years ago, back in 2018. Since then, they have had a huge transformation. Check out the before and after below!

Streusel

First I tweaked the streusel recipe so there would be way more substantial crumbs and great texture and flavor from pecans. Over the years, I made crumb toppings with melted butter, softened butter and cold butter. After many comparisons, I tend to prefer making a streusel topping with softened butter and a specific ratio of flour to sugar to get the most delicious, big, buttery crumbs.

Resting the Batter

Another huge update to this recipe, was suggesting to rest the batter overnight. For years, I’ve been wondering why my muffins don’t always rise as tall and as domed as I would like them to be. Using fresh leaveners is always important, but there’s more to it than that. In addition to using adequate, fresh baking powder and baking soda, it’s important to let the batter rest. During the resting process, the flour will hydrate and the batter will thicken. With thicker batter, you can slightly overfill your muffin cups and achieve amazing, tall muffins.

Leaveners

Contrary to popular belief, you can use both baking powder and baking soda in this muffin batter even when it rests for 8-24 hours. It’s vital to use double acting baking powder as the primary leavener, because it reacts with both the liquids in the batter and with the heat of the oven. I’ve tested this recipe with more baking powder and a combination of baking powder and baking soda. Both will work, as long as you have enough baking powder.

Baking soda may lose some of it’s leaving power as the batter rests, because it only reacts with liquid. Despite this I found that baking soda produced more domed, well-browned muffins. Baking soda will neutralize some of the acid in the recipe (from the buttermilk, pumpkin and brown sugar) to produce carbon dioxide. It will also help make the muffins more tender. Another method I use to produce taller muffins, is starting the oven at 425F for the first 5 minutes so that they rise and set more quickly.

Oil Versus Butter

Another major question I had when developing these Pumpkin Cheesecake muffins was whether to use butter or oil. I tested one version with softened butter using the creaming method, and highly prefer the oil-based muffins. When making the butter version, it required a little more buttermilk to thin out the batter, and was so light and airy that I actually found the batter had less flavor rather than better flavor. I could have made some adjustments to compensate, however, this lighter batter didn’t work well with the filling or topping.

The cream cheese filling and pecan streusel were too heavy for the butter-based batter, which caused the muffins to rise unevenly and contain some dense, gummy areas. In the area where the muffins were baked through, they were almost on the crumbly-side, perhaps due to the higher liquid content of the batter. In these pumpkin muffins, the oil-based version had a far superior, moist, tender crumb. I did not try melted or browned butter, but these versions would likely be more dense as butter is solid at room temperature compared to oil.

Ingredient Notes

Pumpkin puree- Avoid using canned pumpkin pie filling. This recipe calls for plain pureed pumpkin. Out of all the brands I’ve tried, Libby’s is my favorite.

Buttermilk- After testing many versions of these muffins, the flavor and texture is by far the best with buttermilk. See my recipe notes for some easy substitutions.

Sugar- I like to use both white and brown sugar in this recipe for a balance of texture and flavor. Brown sugar adds a nice molasses flavor, but also adds more moisture than white sugar. Making substitutes will affect the final result.

Baking powder- Make sure you use double-acting baking powder in this recipe. It’s what you will find at most grocery stores.

Spices- You can use pumpkin pie spice instead of individual spices for this recipe.

Recipe Steps

First, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices in bowl (1). Set this aside. In another bowl, mix together the white and brown sugar (2). Add eggs, one at a time, and combine until well-mixed (3). Stream in the oil while mixing until emulsified (4). Lastly, stir in the pumpkin, buttermilk and vanilla extract (5). Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in 2-3 additions (6). Do not overmix. For the best results, refrigerate the batter overnight.

For the cream cheese filling, simply mix the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the pecan streusel, mix together the flour, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Work in the softened butter until well-incorporated. Stir in the pecans.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425F. Line a muffin tin with 9 liners. Fill the tin ¼ of the way up with batter. Top with a tablespoon of cream cheese filling. Top with ¼ cup of batter. Sprinkle over crumbs, breaking up any large chunks. Reduce oven to 350F after 5 minutes and bake until cooked through.

Recipe Tips and FAQs

More Muffin Recipes

1. Chocolate Chip Muffins
2. Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins
3. Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
4. Glazed Chai Tea Muffins
5. Spiced Apple Sour Cream Muffins with Crumb Topping

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