Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Published: Sep 19, 2016 · Modified: Aug 11, 2023 by Drizzle · 59 Comments

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Pumpkin Spice season is right around the corner (I can’t wait!) and I have the perfect sweet treat for you to start off with. These pumpkin cream cheese muffins are beautiful with the cream cheese swirl topping. Not only are they beautiful, but they’re healthy as well. I’ve lightened them up by only using ¼ cup of brown sugar in the whole recipe.

The pumpkin puree adds flavor, but it adds fiber and other nutrients like vitamins A and C as well. Pumpkin is a great food source if you want to bulk a recipe up without adding in a ton of carbs or calories. It’s only a few carbs per cup of puree. You may want to start stocking up on canned pumpkin now because you’ll want to keep making these all year round! Let’s get to the recipe.

Three reasons why you need to make this recipe!

They’re a healthy fall treat.

September through December is the perfect time to enjoy pumpkin. Too often, those recipes are loaded with butter and sugar. You don’t have to worry about it with this recipe. Low in sugar, high in fiber, but still delicious!

The cream cheese swirl elevates these muffins to a bakery level.

The swirl adds such a cute presentation, it makes these muffins feel a bit more special than just homemade muffins.

They’re under 100 calories per muffin.

Each muffin is 88 calories and only 4 grams of sugar. A Starbucks pumpkin muffin has 34 grams of sugar! No, thank you. Skip that and make these healthy pumpkin cream cheese muffins at home.

Ingredients you need to make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins:

1 egg
¼ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ tablespoon pumpkin spice

Cream Cheese Swirl Topping

4 oz light cream cheese softened
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg white I use liquid egg whites
½ tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

How to make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (step by step):

Preheat the oven to 375F and spray a 12 hole regular sized muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
In a small bowl, beat together the cream cheese, 1T white sugar, egg white, milk, and vanilla for 2 minutes. Set aside. This works best with a hand mixer or a stand mixer because you need air whipped into the cream cheese to make it light and fluffy. If you have to mix it by hand with a spoon, beat it for more than 2 minutes.
In a bowl, beat together the egg and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Then add in the pumpkin puree and unsweetened apple sauce. Mix well then stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and pumpkin spice.
Pour the batter into the 12 muffin cups. Top each muffin with about 1 tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture. Use a toothpick and swirl it into the cream cheese into the muffin batter.
Bake the muffins for approx 18-20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins. Nutrition info for 1 muffin: Calories 88, Fat 2 g, Saturated fat 1.2 g, Carbs 14 g, Fiber .91 g, Sugars 4.8 g, Sodium 174 mg, Protein 3 g.

WW Points

Egg 0 points
Brown sugar 16 points
Unsweetened Applesauce 0 points
Pumpkin puree 0 points
All-purpose flour 13 points
Baking powder 0 points
Baking soda 0 points
Pumpkin Pie spice 0 points

Cream Cheese Topping

Light cream cheese 11 points
Sugar 4 points
Egg whites 0 points
½ tablespoon milk 0 points
Vanilla 0 points

4 points per muffin based on the WW app recipe creator.

If you’re using an older version of WW, check out these points below.

3PP, 3SP blue, green & purple

Different ways to change up this recipe:

If you’re not into cream cheese or need to stay dairy free, you can skip the cream cheese topping altogether. Fun mix-ins would be Lily’s no sugar-added pumpkin spice chocolate chips or any other flavor of Lily’s chocolate chips. Chopped, roasted pecans or walnuts would be delicious too.
Add more pumpkin pie spice if you love the flavor! One whole tablespoon would work well.
For a calorie-free swirl, you could use Jordyn’s Skinny Pumpkin Spice Syrup or Salted Caramel Syrup.
Add a few white chocolate chips on top of the cream cheese swirl for presentation and additional flavor.
You can use fat-free cream cheese and Swerve sugar to drastically reduce the calories and weight watchers points per muffin.
Self-rising flour would work in this recipe in place of the all purpose flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

Tips and Tricks for Making Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins:

Store these in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days. After that, they can be stored in the fridge for about a week. They do freeze well. To freeze, make sure they are fully cooled before putting them in a ziplock freezer bag. They will keep in the freezer for about 3 months.
Bake these right after making the batter. The batter cannot be made ahead of time or stored in the fridge. Baking powder and baking soda start working as soon as they get mixed into the batter, so you want them in the hot oven as soon as possible for the best rise.

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