Soft strawberry studded muffins layered with a light cheesecake filling and topped with brown sugar streusel. A necessary indulgence any morning of the week.
I’ve been craving strawberries like nobody’s business lately. I’m probably just craving fresh fruit in general since I’m constantly surrounded by this. Not that I’m complaining. I made a strawberry smoothie 3 days in a row and when Sunday morning rolled around, these strawberry cheesecake muffins came to life.
They’re bright and cheery, packed with berries, help beat the winter blues, and similar to strawberry bread but in muffin form. And the best part? There’s a cheesecake surprise inside.
I firmly believe there should be a cheesecake surprise inside all muffins.
Today’s strawberry muffins are a mix of my pumpkin cream cheese muffins and these blueberry muffins with streusel topping. Two personal and reader favorites. The recipe idea came to me not only from my strawberry craving but for the abundance of cream cheese in my refrigerator. At one time, I counted 12 packs of cream cheese. Yes, it’s ridiculous. I’ve been testing a candy bar cheesecake recipe for my next cookbook. Back to muffins. There are three parts:
- Buttery strawberry muffins
- Cheesecake filling
- Easy brown sugar streusel
Start with Strawberry Muffins
Let me begin with the muffins themselves.
The muffin batter is almost identical to my blueberry muffin batter. It begins with creamed butter and sugar which gives the muffins a soft, cake-like texture similar to cupcakes. So, you’ll be eating strawberries ‘n cream cupcakes for breakfast. I love that about this muffin recipe.
The eggs provide structure and richness. Lately, I’ve been baking with Eggland’s Best eggs exclusively. Sure, I baked with them before whenever I saw them on sale but once I learned about their superior nutrition (more omega-3’s!), they are all I use. The yogurt packs some serious moisture into each muffin. I like to use nonfat plain Greek yogurt, but vanilla or strawberry flavored would be just as tasty here. Also lending to the muffin’s moist texture? The plethora of strawberries. Strawberries are so juicy that I leave out the milk entirely from the muffin batter. Typically, milk is used to lighten up muffin batter; these muffins are a little dense without it. However, the wet strawberries give off enough liquid that adding milk would just be overkill to the fragile batter.
How to Make & Assemble the Cheesecake Filling
Next up? The cheesecake filling. It’s so, so good. You only need 4 ingredients. Make sure you don’t leave out the egg yolk. The egg yolk is what makes the filling resemble light and fluffy cheesecake. Without it, these would just be cream cheese filled muffins. Which is fine if that’s what you prefer. In my opinion, the cheesecake filling is tastier.
Just like my pumpkin version, you’ll layer the muffin batter and the cheesecake filling into the muffin liners. 1 layer muffin batter, 1 layer cheesecake, 1 layer muffin batter. It’s ok if some of your cheesecake filling is visible on the top or on the sides. In fact, I always make sure there is some filling peeking out. That’s how you get pretty cheesecake swirls on top and showing on the sides. Muffin prettiness is important to this baker.
End with a Streusel Topping
Finally? The streusel. The streusel is simple: brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and cold butter that you will cut into the rest of the streusel ingredients. Sprinkle this onto the tops of the muffins before baking.
My number #1 streusel tip: gently press streusel down into the batter so it won’t fall off the sides as the muffins are rising. A lot of perfectly tasty streusel is wasted that way!
Like I do for most of my muffin recipes, you’ll bake the muffins for 5 minutes at a very hot temperature. Then, keeping the muffins in the oven, switch to a lower temperature for the remaining bake time. If you’re new around here, let me explain why I do this. This initial high temperature will quickly lift the muffin tops, then the centers will bake during the lower temperature bake time. Please note that because of the heavy cheesecake filling, these muffins won’t be as sky-high as most of my muffin recipes.
Let’s not forget what I said above about these muffins. Totally worth repeating. It’s like eating strawberries ‘n cream cupcakes for breakfast.
It looks like a ton of ingredients. But good news: most of them are repeated throughout each layer. Start baking!
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Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 14 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft strawberry studded muffins layered with a light cheesecake filling and topped with brown sugar streusel. A necessary indulgence any morning of the week.
Ingredients
Streusel
- 1/4 cup (50g) light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (63g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp; 56g) unsalted butter, cold
Muffins
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120g) yogurt*
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 3/4 cups (219g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/4 cups (250g) fresh or frozen (do not thaw)Â chopped strawberries
Cheesecake Filling
- 6 ounces (170g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 Tablespoons (36g) granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray two 12-count muffin pans with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners (this recipe makes 14 muffins, so there will be two batches). Set aside.
- Make the streusel: In a small bowl, toss together the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter in very small pieces using a pastry knife or mix with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
- Make the muffins: In a medium bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the granulated and brown sugars and beat on high until creamed, about 2 full minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, yogurt, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute, then turn up to high speed until the mixture is combined and uniform in texture. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a large bowl, toss together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and slowly mix until combined and little lumps remain. Fold in the strawberries with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Don’t worry if the berries bleed a little—my batter was pink-ish in some spots; it looks pretty when baked.
- Make the cheesecake filling:Â In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric handheld or stand mixer on medium-high speed until creamy. Add the egg yolk, vanilla extract, and sugar. Beat until combined.
- Spoon 1 Tablespoon of strawberry muffin batter into the muffin cups. Layer with about 1 spoonful (not quite a full Tablespoon) of cheesecake filling, then another Tablespoon of muffin batter (or however much batter is needed to fill the cups all the way to the top). Yes, you will fill the muffin cups to the very top. Some cheesecake filling may poke out of the top or on the sides. Sprinkle each muffin evenly with streusel topping and gently press the streusel down into the muffin so it sticks.
- Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C). Keeping the muffins in the oven, lower the temperature down to 350°F (177°C) and bake for an additional 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total times these muffins take in the oven is about 23-24 minutes, give or take. Allow the muffins to cool for 10 minutes in the muffin sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool until ready to eat. They are very moist from the cheesecake filling.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Muffins stay soft, fresh, and moist covered tightly in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Muffins freeze well for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm to your liking.
- Special Tools (affiliate links):Â 12-Count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Cooling Rack
- Yogurt: Use your favorite yogurt; I prefer nonfat plain Greek yogurt but regular (not Greek) would be just fine. Try with strawberry flavored, vanilla, low fat, or full fat. Sour cream works as well.
Hi Sally,
Could you make this batter beforehand and leave it in the fridge overnight? Then use cold batter to bake the muffins fresh in the morning? thanks!
Hi MeKenzie, we don’t recommend it. The leaveners are activated once the wet and dry ingredients are mixed together, so it’s best to bake the batter shortly thereafter.
Followed the recipe exactly except I only had King Arthur bread flour, and also except for the oven changes that my oven needs special attention for. Like for frozen berries, I noticed I have to cook at the higher temp for 10 min and not 5 min (used an oven thermometer to get it close to what is in the recipe) for the muffins here at Sally’s baking addiction. Everything else was the same. The cream cheese filling is amazing in these muffins. Like others I had enough batter for 12 muffins with liners, but had extra streusel and cream cheese filling. That’s ok. These were a hit with the preteen of the family and myself! Little difficult to spoon batter, spoon filling after first making a little hole (so hard to do!), and spoon more batter on top, topping it with streusel. Since the batter was thick, it (the batter) didn’t really want to do what I tried. Any suggestions welcome!
A wonderful addition to the rotation….!
Just made these last night and they are amazing. When I made them I got 12 not 14, but they were big and beautiful and a great way to use summer strawberries. Highly recommend!
The muffins were delicious! The only change I made was to use 1/4 granulated sugar along with the brown sugar in the batter. The muffin texture was still perfect. In the filling I used 2 T. sugar. We thought the muffins were perfectly sweet. My husband requested that I add pecans the next time I make the muffins. I guess that would be doable.
Can you make these muffins using different fruit or berries,?
Hi T, you can definitely use other berries in the place of strawberries.
I love your recipes! I was looking for exactly this kind of muffin.. but I found cream cheese flavored chips could I out those in this recipe instead of the cheese mix? Thanks again!
Hi Yuri, we haven’t tried that but please let us know how it turns out if you do!
I doubled the recipe the moron way: adding double the ingredients instead of just making two batches. I was a little frightened when I got a very, uh, full-bodied, batter, but mellowed out once I folded in the strawberries. They turned out beautifully, everyone loves them.
I did notice that a lot of the strawberries melted away in the oven (flavor was still A+ though). Is that normal, or did I maybe just chop them too small?