Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (Copy Cat)

Tiffany makes these with tons of tweaks…and they’re phenomenal. I’m going to try to record the changes she made to the recipe in italics beside the ingredients The title below will link to the original recipe and comments though, just in case!

Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (double)
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg (double)
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves (double)
• 4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (double)
• 1 pinch cardamom (optional) (too expensive to use!)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups pumpkin (just use one LARGE can of pumpkin. It’s a little short–but gets the job done )
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil (tastes GREAT, but if you want to be healthier–use a mix of oil & applesauce…but then it’s not so moist )
• 8 ounces cream cheese (use whipped cream cheese and stir in Powdered Sugar until it’s ‘sweetened’ cream cheese , more like frosting.)
• chopped pumpkin seeds (optional) or walnuts (optional) or pecans (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Put the entire brick of cream cheese on a piece of wax paper or parchment paper and shape it into a long log. (Tiffany says: skip this step completely. “Mix the whipped cream cheese with powdered sugar.”)

3. Put it in the freezer while you mix and fill the pans, up to an hour. (Tiffany says: skip this too. It’ll be fine not frozen.)

4. Unwrap and cut with a sharp knife so each cream cheese disk equals 1-2 teaspoons. If the cream cheese disks are too big around, cut thick slices and then cut them in half. This lets you push it down into the batter easier. (Tiffany says: Skip this too.)

5. Mix all ingredients together (except cream cheese and nuts).

6. Fill muffin tins (greased or paper cups) half full.

7. Put cream cheese disc in the middle, pressing down. (Tiffany says: use a melon baller and drop balls of the cream cheese mixture on top of each muffin. Adjust based on how…cream-cheesy you like your muffins )

8. Sprinkle with 1 tsp chopped nuts.

9. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the muffin part (do not touch the cream cheese!).

10. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely. Do not touch the cream cheese until it cools.

    * You can make mini-muffins as well. Bake 12-13 minutes. Use a pastry bag, or cut the tip of a gallon bag to fill the mini-muffin tin with batter and to pipe in the cream cheese.

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