Lately I’ve been borderline obsessed with eating pumpkin – everything from pumpkin smoothies, pancakes, and ice cream, to smearing pumpkin cream cheese or butter on my toast and sprinkling pumpkin pie spice on anything my heart desires. Pumpkin is such a quintessential fall-time flavor. The funny thing is that I never really liked it until last fall, and my how my taste buds have changed!
Last week I was talking to my cousin Noelle, and she requested I come up with a pumpkin cupcake recipe with cream cheese frosting. Well, you don’t have to ask me twice! 😉
In the midst of baking my pumpkin goodies, I decided that I wasn’t really making cupcakes, but more so muffins. I then proceeded to get myself all confused in figuring out what the heck the real difference is between muffins and cupcakes. Researching on Google gave me some funny and questionable answers. My favorite comment was something along the lines of, “I firmly believe that muffins are just confused cupcakes.” Ha! To me, cupcakes are more of exactly what they imply – individual servings of cake, meaning that they’re sweet and only meant to be eaten for dessert. Muffins, on the other hand, tend to be more acceptably eaten as part of breakfast, lunch, or a snack, and don’t necessarily have to be overly sweet. I also realized that I pretty much always include some type of fruit in my muffin recipes. Hmm, since calling them muffins gives me permission to eat one with a yogurt and call it a balanced meal (or something like that…), I’m deeming these treats pumpkin muffins:
Pumpkin Muffins with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose white flour
- 1/2 cup all purpose whole wheat flour
- 1 TSP baking powder
- 1 TSP baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups pure pumpkin
- 1/2 cup light butter melted
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 TSP pumpkin pie spice
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 8 oz reduced fat cream cheese
- 1/2 TSP salt
- 2 TSP cinnamon
- 2 TSP vanilla extract
- Chocolate chips chopped pecans, candy corn, or any other desired toppings, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Line a muffin tin with muffin cups.
- In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt and 1 TSP of the cinnamon.
- In another bowl, beat butter, Greek yogurt, 1 cup of the pumpkin, 1 cup of the brown sugar, and 1 TSP of the vanilla extract with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Slowly mix the wet mixture in with the dry mixture, and stir just until combined.
- Pour batter evenly into muffin cups.
- Bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick can puncture muffins and come out clean.
- Once muffins are done cooking, remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
- Meanwhile, combine the cream cheese, remaining pumpkin (1/2 cup), vanilla extract (1 TSP), brown sugar (1/2 cup), and cinnamon (1 TSP) in a bowl. Beat until smooth.
- Allow the muffins to completely cool, then use a butter knife to spread the cream cheese frosting on top of each one.
- Dress them up with toppings of your choice, or eat them plain in all their pumpkin-flavored glory.
I will definitely try these!
You should, they’re yummy!
Visitning from SITS ~ http://www.callmepmc.com ~ Paula
You had me at pumpkin! Stopping by from SITS. Have a great day!
So you’re a pumpkin nut too huh?! 😉
Thanks for stopping by!
I love pumpkin, especially in the fall. I am going to try these
My favorite pumpkin recipe is a pumpkin yeast bread. Light, flavorful, and just waiting to be toasted. Add a little margarine and some cinnamon sugar and your mouth will thank you. Thanks for the post. Enjoy your SITS Day.
YUM!!! You’re making me crave pumpkin now 😉 Thank you!
I love everything pumpkin…can’t wait to try these! Happy SITS Day!
These sound awesome!! I’ll have to give them a try! Happy SITS day!
Thank you Lauren!
Looks so good! I never used to like pumpkin until recently either!
Funny how our taste buds change right?!
I have been getting a bit more into pumpkin the last few years too. I made some really good pumpkin oatmeal cookies last Fall that we ate for breakfast!
Sounds yummy!!
Oh my word. I hit the print button so fast I think I may have hit it twice! These look sooo good. I’m hungry…
Haaa, thanks Andrea!! After looking at these muffin pics, I want to make them now too!
I am also obsessed with pumpkin! These look amazing.
Have you ever tried pumpkin ale? I found a delicious one (I’m in Ontario) last fall and fell in love. Happy SITS day!
Thanks Suzanne! I haven’t tried pumpkin ale, but only because I’m not a fan of beer – despite how hard I tried to like it in college!
I looove cream cheese frosting. And pumpkin! Match made in heaven right there. Thanks for sharing!
Yes it is! Thanks for stopping by Kristen.
Those look SO good! I love anything with pumpkin and I pretty much eat it year round, especially Trader Joe’s pumpkin butter! Happy SITS Day! I’m glad to have found your blog. I am your newest follower!
I LOVE TJ’s pumpkin butter too – love to mix it with plain Greek yogurt! Thanks for reading Melissa!
I make a fab pumpkin flaxseed muffin with cream cheese frosting, no sugar in any of it. Happy SITS day!
These look pretty yummmy!
Thank you!