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Cream Cheese Muffins are tender and sweet thanks to cream cheese in the batter as well as a filling. A crunchy golden sugar topping is the perfect finishing touch.
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Easy Cream Cheese Muffins
This Cream Cheese Muffins recipe has been in my go-to recipe collection for many years. I clipped it from a local newspaper – years before we started sharing recipes here on A Family Feast.
It was originally named “Katy’s Cream Cheese Muffins” but unfortunately I didn’t save the story of who Katy is, or how these muffins came about (my apologies to Katy – whoever you are)!
These are simple, delicious muffins. They’re moist and tender and lightly sweetened so a bit of tangy flavor from the cream cheese shines through.
You can make these Cream Cheese Muffins with or without the cream cheese filling. Either way, these muffins bake up tall and domed, and we sprinkled the tops with coarse turbinado sugar before baking – giving them that sweet, crunchy, and perfectly golden muffin top!
Why You’ll Love Cream Cheese Muffins
- This is a super simple muffin recipe, and you can make it with or without the cream cheese filling.
- The muffins bake up perfectly, with a crunchy, sugar-topped dome.
- It’s a versatile recipe to have on hand. Bake as written in today’s recipe, or add some berries or chocolate chips for other delicious variations.
Reader Review
“Make these for the kiddos ALL the time and they love them! This muffins are super easy to prepare. I make them every couple of weeks and use them as a quick breakfast grab for the kiddos when headed to school.” –Lorena
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
- Cream cheese – This is added to both the muffin batter and used as a filling. Buy a full fat cream cheese – please don’t be tempted to swap in the lower fat or fat free cream cheese. (The muffins just won’t be the as good!)
- Unsalted Butter
- All-Purpose Flour
- Granulated Sugar
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Whole Milk – Again, don’t swap in lower fat milk.
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Turbinado Sugar – This is sprinkled on top of the batter before baking and it gives the tops of the muffins color and crunch. Turbinado sugar is also sometimes called raw cane sugar. You could use Demerara or Sparkling Sugar instead.
- Non-Stick Cooking Spray
- For the (optional but highly recommended) Filling – More cream cheese, whole milk, and vanilla extract. Plus powdered/Confectioner’s sugar is used to sweeten and thicken the filling.
Special Tools You’ll Need
- Mixing Bowl
- Mixer – Hand or stand mixer with Whisk attachement
- Muffin Pan – Either a pan for 12 standard-sized muffins or 24 mini-sized muffins
- Paper Muffin Liners – For the muffin pan cavities
- Ice Cream Scoop – We use a scoop to portion the batter into the muffin pan.
- Apple Corer or a Small Paring Knife – Used to cut an opening in the muffin for the filling
- Plastic Piping Bag
How do I make Cream Cheese Muffins?
- Preheat your oven.
- Line the muffin pan cavities with paper liners, then spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- Mix the batter.
- Portion the batter into the muffin pan.
- Sprinkle the muffin batter with sugar.
- Bake in the oven until the center of the muffins are cooked through and tops are golden in color. Cool muffins on a rack.
- Mix the filling while the muffins bake, then place into a piping bag. Chill to firm up.
- Cut holes in the top of each muffin once cooled.
- Fill the muffins with filling.
- Serve as soon as possible for the optimal freshness.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I make Cream Cheese Muffins ahead of time? Yes, but keep them refrigerated once you’ve filled them with the cream cheese filling.
- How do I store leftovers? If filled, keep refrigerated. Unfilled muffins can be stored at room temperature in an air tight container. (Either way, they will stay fresh for 2-3 days.)
- Can I freeze these muffins? You, can freeze them with or without the filling. Just tightly wrap them in plastic to avoid freezer burn.
Cream Cheese Muffins originally appeared on A Family Feast in 2013. We’ve updated the photos and post, added the (optional) filling, and made the muffins a little sweeter with some additional sugar in the recipe.
You Might Like These Other Cream Cheese Recipes
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Cream Cheese Muffins
Cream Cheese Muffins are tender and sweet thanks to cream cheese in the batter as well as a filling. A crunchy golden sugar topping is the perfect finishing touch.
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
2 whole eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled (1 stick)
1/4 cup Turbinado sugar
Filling
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons whole milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F with oven rack in top third of oven.
- Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with muffin paper then spray the insides of the muffin papers with kitchen pan spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment (could also use a hand mixer), beat cream cheese until light and fluffy, about two minutes.
- Add eggs one at a time with mixer running on low. Scrape and mix again to combine.
- Add milk, vanilla and melted butter and mix to combine. Scrape and mix again.
- Scrape wet ingredients into the large bowl of dry ingredients and use a sturdy wooden spoon to mix by hand just until combined.
- Use an ice cream scoop and divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. The batter will mound up higher than the rim of each cup.
- Divide the Turbinado sugar over the tops of the muffin batter in each cup.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of one muffin comes out clean.
- Cool the pan on a wire cooling rack for five minutes, then remove each muffin and cool completely.
- While the muffins are baking, make the filling by placing the room temperature cream cheese into a mixing bowl. Whisk for two minutes (using a hand or stand mixer) until soft and creamy.
- Add the vanilla and milk and whisk to combine.
- Add the powdered sugar and turn mixer on low then once combined, turn up speed to make a creamy filling. Scrape once and beat again.
- Scrape filling into a piping bag with a quarter inch hole cut off the end. No tip needed. Refrigerate until later to firm up the filling.
- Once the muffins are fully cooled, use an apple corer, and rotate it into to each muffin and pull out the center. Then reinsert on slight angles to pull a little more of the center out.
- Use the pastry bag and fill each muffin letting the filling come up and over the top, leaving a dollop over each one.
- Serve immediately but refrigerate any leftover muffins up to three days covered. Can be frozen.
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Notes
Nutritional information below includes the cream cheese filling.
Fabulous, moist and delicious
Thanks Judy!
Thank you these are delicious 🙂
You’re very welcome Marika!
I loved this recipe, but seemed a little dry for my taste. So tried making with buttermilk and they came out super moist.
Substitute 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 cups buttermilk for the 1 cup whole milk.
Substitute 2 teaspoons baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon baking soda for the 4 teaspoons baking powder.
Then I added dried cranberries because they are my favorite.
Thanks for the suggestion Shelley!
Make these for the kiddos ALL the time and they love them! This muffins are super easy to prepare. I make them every couple of weeks and use them as a quick breakfast grab for the kiddos when headed to school.
Thanks Lorena – so glad your kids are enjoying the muffins!
Hi Martha, I was looking for a cream cheese muffin recipe and happened upon your website. Can you answer these questions please: 1. Is this recipe for the large size? I would like to make the regular cupcake size muffins.
2. For the regular size muffins, what is the oven temperature? Sill 400 the whole time? Or, do you turn the oven to 350?
3. Can I add a streusel topping on top? Will this batter hold up? Thanks for your time, Pamela
Hi Pamela – The recipe is written for a standard-sized 12 muffin pan. You can definitely add a streusel topping if you’d like. Enjoy!
Very easy and moist. I played around with the mix after i got out the first regular cream cheese muffins as this recipie calls. I added some walnuts of and then bluberries to the last 6.
I ended up making 15 good size muffins idk about the rest.
Although, nxt time I’ll add an extra 4 oz. Of cream cheese just to get some more of that flavor.
Will keep 😉
Thanks Mrs. Austin! So glad you enjoyed the recipe – and great additions!
Love this recipe! Has anyone tried this in a mini muffin tin? Thinking about trying it.
Hi Jes – I haven’t myself but it should work. Just adjust the baking time down (they will bake faster as mini muffins). Enjoy!
I just made these and can’t wait to try them. The only difference in mine are lemon extract, I put a spoon of blackberry preserves down the middle and added a white crunchy topping.
Sounds great Roby! Thanks for visiting our site!
I had some cream cheese to use up and found your recipe. These were so tender and delicious! I added 2 tsp of cinnamon to the batter and instead of the sugar topping, I double dipped them in a maple glaze after they baked by mixing: 3 Tbsp melted butter, 1 c powdered sugar, 3/4 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp maple flavoring and 2 Tbsp hot water. I got 23 regular size muffins that rose nicely! Next time I’ll put them a little higher in my oven though because the bottoms browned a little more than I would have liked. This is a great recipe that we’ll definitely make again! Thank you!
Sounds delicious! Thanks for the suggestion!
This sounds like a great recipe. The muffins look gorgeous with the sugar crust on top. I can’t get turbinado sugar here though. What would be a good substitute? Brown sugar?
Hi Deana – The original recipe used regular white sugar so I’d recommend using that versus the brown sugar! Thanks for visiting our site!
Martha
Deana
Use Raw Sugar in place of Turbinado Sugar. It is a great topping for anything
Thanks Myrna!