Looking for a new muffin recipe beyond Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, Banana Nut Muffins and Blueberry Muffins? Check out my new recipes for Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins!
These mini fluffy muffins are a made-from-scratch recipe with a sweetened cheesecake filling in the center of each muffin and a sweet, brown sugar streusel topping.
Why You’ll Love Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins
Baked goods and juicy strawberries are simply a match made in heaven, but these delicious muffins are out of this world.
- Light and Fluffy – All too often store muffins are heavy, dense, and downright greasy. These are light and fluffy with a soft texture and creamy and sweet in the middle.
- Year-Round Recipe – Strawberries are at their peak flavor in the middle of the summer, but the good news is this recipe uses the frozen variety so you can make it all year long.
- Perfect Treat – Sometimes you don’t want a behemoth muffin, you just want something small and tasty. These give you that sweet treat in one or two bites.
- Quick Breakfast – What’s better than a freshly baked muffin packed with fresh berries? They are a delicious way to brighten any morning.
Ingredients
Using everyday items that you probably already have in your kitchen, this is an easy muffin recipe you will go back to during strawberry season or any time of year. They couldn’t be easier to make.
- Flour – This serves as the base for the muffin. If your grocery store has more than one type of flour in the baking aisle, look for AP or All-Purpose flour which works for most sweetened baked goods.
- Baking Powder – Helps the muffins rise and gives them a fluffy texture.
- Sugar – Strawberries are sweet but a little extra sugar never hurts.
- Salt – I prefer kosher salt here because it helps to enhance the flavor of the strawberries and round out the sweetness in the rest of the recipe, but feel free to use what you have.
- Unsalted Butter – There is already salt in the recipe, using unsalted butter keeps it from becoming too salty. Melted butter is best for cake batter and in turn, muffin batter.
- Egg – Fun Fact: Room-temperature eggs mix better with batter, allowing baked goods to rise more evenly.
- Milk – A lower fat content for this recipe is ideal because there is an additional richness from the cream cheese center.
- Frozen Strawberries – Be sure that these thaw completely before adding them to your batter. Any additional moisture or temperature changes will prevent the muffins from rising.
- Cream Cheese – Be sure this is softened or room temp before you start making the filling. You need it to be pliable so you can mix it with the other ingredients.
- Egg Yolk – Adds richness and gives the filling a super smooth texture.
- Vanilla Extract – Provides a subtle vanilla undertone that pairs perfectly with the tart strawberries and tangy cream cheese.
- Brown Sugar – Sugar mixed with molasses for a deep sweetness. Dark or light will work well.
- Cinnamon – Adding a touch of warm spice to the topping.
Variations
These are delicious as is, but there are definitely a few things you can try to change it up a bit.
- Swap the Fruit – I am a sucker for all summer fruits. Peaches, cherries, plums, raspberries, and of course, strawberries! And really, you can use any frozen or fresh fruit with this recipe. Be sure to use the same amount listed and remember, if you are using frozen fruit thaw and strain completely.
- Spice Up the Streusel – Add a pinch of clove, cardamom, or even allspice to the streusel recipe to give it an even cozier flavor.
- Skip the Streusel – Short on time or ingredients? No problem and skip the streusel, because these muffins are just as delicious without it.
- Make It Bright – Add the zest of one lemon to the muffin batter to give it some added brightness.
How to Make Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins
Making these tasty strawberry muffins is super easy.
- Prep your oven, muffin tin, and muffin cups. Always give your oven plenty of time to preheat and have everything you need ready to go ahead of time when baking.
- Sift the dry ingredients. This might seem tedious but sifting your dry ingredients ensures that there are no clumps of say flour or baking powder baked into a muffin and makes sure everything in the flour mixture is evenly dispersed.
- Create the strawberry mixture. The sugar helps to macerate the strawberries while the flour helps to soak up some of the moisture which will help them stay suspended in the batter vs. all sinking to the bottom as they bake.
- Mix the wet ingredients. I like to use my stand mixer because it makes life easy, but a hand mixer or even just a spatula will work here as well. If you use the electric mixer or spatula, be sure to grab a large mixing bowl that can accommodate all the ingredients.
- Add the dry ingredients. Combine flour and other ingredients in a medium bowl and remember, the key is to not overmix. Overmixing will lead to flat muffins that don’t rise so stop when all the dry ingredients are mixed in even if you see some little lumps.
- Fold in the strawberries. I tend to do this by hand with a spatula because it is far too easy to overmix here. Set that aside.
- Make the cream cheese mixture. In a small bowl, work to mix all the ingredients together until you have a homogenous mix.
- Make the streusel topping. You know this is down when it has formed a crumbly mix with pieces that are pea-sized or smaller.
- Assemble your muffins. Be sure not to overfill your muffin liners as these muffins will rise as they bake. If you fill them to the top, you will be looking at some dishes that are rather hard to clean. Sprinkle the streusel on top of the muffins and gently press it in.
- Bake muffins! Pop the muffin tin into the preheated oven and keep an eye on your muffins as they bake, because everyone’s oven is different. You want a golden brown top.
- Cool. Allowing the muffins to cool slightly in the pan prevents them from splitting when you move them. Be sure to let them continue to cool on a wire rack as the heat from the pan will steam the strawberries and your muffins will be mushy instead of light and fluffy.
Storage and Freezing
These can be baked off up to three days before serving, but be sure to store them in an airtight container so they do not get stale.
How to Store Strawberry Muffins
Be sure to store your muffins in an airtight container and in a single layer for up to three days.
Can I Freeze Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins?
Should you have any leftover Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins, they freeze really well. Make sure to get as much air out of the plastic freezer bag as you can and they will hold in there for up to 3 months.
Questions About Strawberry Muffins
Leaving them to cool in the pan for too long can make muffins too moist because they begin to steam, but this is an easy problem to fix. By taking them out of the pan 5 minutes after they come out of the oven, you allow the steam created during baking to escape vs. getting trapped in the pan with them.
This recipe is great because the ratio of the ingredients leads to a perfectly moist muffin, but if you are working with another recipe that is lacking in that department, try using full-fat milk or even buttermilk.
The most common mistake made is over-mixing the batter OR overfilling your muffin tins, but thankfully, there are two easy remedies. Mix until just combined and only fill your muffin liners up 2/3 of the way. This will give you light, airy, and fluffy muffins.
More Amazing Muffin Recipes
Muffins are one of my favorite grab and go breakfasts. Here are some of our most popular muffin recipes.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
Strawberry Muffins:
- 2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons flour , divided
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups fresh strawberries , chopped
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , melted
- 1/2 cup sugar , divided
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cheesecake Filling:
- 4 ounces cream cheese , softened
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon flour
Streusel Topping (Optional):
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter , cold
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
Strawberry Muffins:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 18 muffin tins with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Sift together 2 cups of the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl, set aside.
- In a small bowl, toss together the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour with the chopped strawberries. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, blend melted butter, sugar, milk, egg and vanilla.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the batter. Do not over mix. Stop when it is combined, but there are still small lumps.
- Fold in the strawberries by hand. The batter will marbleize or turn blue if using frozen strawberries.
Cheesecake Filling:
- In a medium mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese until smooth.
- Add the egg and vanilla, mix. Add the sugar and flour, mix well for 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
Streusel Topping:
- Use a cheese grater and grate cold butter into a bowl. Cut in the brown sugar, sugar, flour and salt.
Assemble the Muffins:
- Spoon 1 heaping tablespoon of muffin batter in each lined muffin tin. Add a little less than 1 tablespoon cheesecake mixture to each. Top with more muffin batter until approximately 2/3 full. Sprinkle the tops evenly with streusel mixture, pressing it ever so gently down to make it stick.
- Bake the muffins for 25 minutes or until they are lightly browned. Times may vary based on oven and how much you filled those cups (I know a few of you took some chances and filled them to the brim, didn't you??). Muffin tops will spring back to the touch.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- If you've tried this recipe, come back and let us know how they are in the comments or star ratings.
Nutrition
Do I have to use frozen strawberries? Can I use fresh strawberries instead?
Yep! Fresh or frozen work! If frozen, just make sure they are thawed.
Just made these for the second time. These are a favorite of ours now for birthdays. Thank you for such a great recipe! Delicous!
Woohoo! Thanks for letting us know. One of our favorites too!
I made these muffins with gluten free flour and pastry flour and they came out amazing!! This is my new favorite strawberry muffin recipe. I highly recommend taking the time to make them. It’s worth the work!!
Woohoo! Love to hear that and thanks for taking the time to come back and let us know!
I think I found a winner! Tastes great. I cut the recipe in half and used large muffin liners so next time I will use smaller liners, but they taste wonderful. Cream cheese filling yum!
Glad you loved it!
I made these as mammoth muffins, recipe makes 6, and the centers collapsed as they cooled. It seems like the cream cheese expanded as they back and then settled back down. Do you have any suggestions to help them keep their shape? The flavor was fantastic!
Hi Matt! That can be a common problem with baked goods and the easiest solution is to allow them to cool slowly, but there is a little expansion and deflation. You can shut off the oven and crack the door about 2-3 minutes before baking should be done to do this. But I’m also wondering what size muffins you made. I used a stand muffin tin and made 24, so yours must have been HUGE! That could also play a part in the deflation. You can probably do 12 with a large muffin tin, but I wouldn’t go much larger than that or they will have trouble baking all the way through. Glad you liked the flavor 🙂
Thank you. I’ll give that a try. The 2nd batch came out better by putting the cream cheese a bit lower in the muffin. I also found the batter To be a bit thick the first time, so I strained the strawberry juice from the solids and mixed that with the wet ingredients. The muffins are 4 in. diameter and 2 in. deep.
That is about twice the size of mine, so maybe that is the issue?
Getting ready to Make these in about 15 mins… Can’t wait to taste them♥️
Let us know how they turn out! One of our favorites!
Delicious!. I love the cream cheese in strawberries and crumble in the top. Thank you for every recipe that you upload ❤?
Love this recipe, used lemon oil instead of vanilla extract the second time, they are phenomenal! Great recipe!
What a great substitute! I’ll have to give that a try, it sounds delicious. And thank YOU for taking the time to come back and let us know. We love comments!
How would you suggest storing these after they have cooled. I made them today for an event tomorrow. FYI… I made jumbo size muffins and the recipe yielded nine large muffins.
Just at room temperture in an airtight plastic container or bag. They should be fine! I wouldn’t refrigerate them.
Delicious! I’m so glad I made these! All my coworkers loved them too! Not too sweet!
Yay!!! That is what we like to hear and thank YOU for taking the time to come back and let us know how they were!
i switched the strawberries for cherries, and they came out really good!!
Yum! I’m obsessed with cherries this time of year!
I can see why these are a favorite!! I need to make these soon! They are so bright and cheery 🙂