My sister cannot stand pumpkin. For her, fall is such an awful recipe season – everything you see online and in the magazines seem to be pumpkin this, pumpkin that.

So during fall I won’t even try to make her taste anything with pumpkin in it! I know she would hate it, just thinking about it – even if she liked the taste. But I like to save some of my pumpkin harvest to keep trying new recipes later on in the winter. And this is one of the recipes I used to completely surprise my sister. She loved the muffins so much she almost didn’t believe there was pumpkin involved!

These Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins come with a delicious Walnut Streusel and will do nicely for most any occasion. Change things up by trying different frostings or glazes. These bite-sized sweet treats can be prepped and baked in just 45 minutes! How’s that for a perfect dessert for your next special dinner!

Recipe and photo courtesy of Oh Sweet Day

These are, hands down, the most delightful muffins I’ve ever tried! That wonderful cream cheese filling makes them absolutely heavenly. Here’s what one of the readers over at Oh Sweet Day had to say about this recipe:

I made these muffins yesterday for our family dinner. And everyone loved them!!!!! Such a wonderful recipe. Mine were a bit bigger than yours (jumbo size I think), I thought it would be too much as after-dinner dessert, but almost everyone wanted to have a second one! LOL!

I just love all of the flavors and textures here: Nutty and crunchy on top, a soft, buttery body, and a creamy center. And of course there is that classic pumpkin, cinnamon, and ginger combination for which all delicious fall treats are known. I imagine that they’ll think you spent a lot more time on these than you actually had to.

Ingredients
For the Muffins:

• 2 cups all-purposed flour
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup canola oil (I normally use LouAna)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Cream Cheese Filling:

• 4 oz cream cheese, room temperature (I used Philadelphia)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the Topping:

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup walnut, chopped
• 3 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted (I use Land O’Lakes)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray, or line with muffin liners.
Mix together the cream cheese filling ingredients until smooth. Set aside.
Combine all the streusel ingredients until crumbly. Set aside.
Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, spice and salt in a large bowl.
In another bowl, lightly beat the pumpkin, eggs, oil and vanilla.
Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Mix with a spatula until well combined.
Evenly divide half of the batter among the muffin cups. Place 1 to 2 teaspoons of the cream cheese filling in the center of each one, pressing it gently into the batter. Fill with the remaining batter.
Sprinkle around 1 tablespoon of the walnut streusel on top of each muffin.
Bake until risen and browned, approximately 20 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan.

Quick tip: Serve with a cup of strong coffee.

Thanks to Oh Sweet Day for this yummy pumpkin cream cheese muffin recipe.