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.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ tablespoon pumpkin spice
- For the cream cheese topping
- 4 oz light cream cheese softened
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 egg white I use liquid egg whites
- ½ tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
INSTRUCTIONS
- 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.
NUTRITION
Serving: 1muffinCalories: 88kcalCarbohydrates: 14gProtein: 3gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1.2gSodium: 174mgFiber: 0.91gSugar: 4.8g
