This recipe for Apple Cheesecake Muffins is divine! These little beauties are filled with apples as well as a layer of cheesecake. Cream cheese is also in the batter to bring out the cheesecake flavor even more and to make them even more indulgent, they’re topped with a cinnamon crumb streusel.
I look really forward to the fall weather every year. Not because I don’t like summer, but because I love comfort food and I love to bake with fall flavors. Apples are on the top of that list.
The other day I was browsing my favorite food blog, Cooking Classy and came across her recipe for Caramel Apple Mini Cheesecakes and knew I had to do something with similar flavors!
As a food blogger, I don’t often get to make other people’s recipes (as much as I may drool over them), but I am very often inspired by them. Jaclyn at cooking classy inspires me on a regular basis and I really miss cooking her food!
So after seeing those amazing little cheesecakes, I got to work on creating something with similar flavors. The only thing I was missing was the caramel so I went with adding some brown sugar to the apples which gave a touch of caramel flavor.
These look complicated, but it really didn’t take me very long at all and they are so good, they really are worth the extra effort. I also have an amazing recipe for Raspberry Jam Cheesecake Muffins you might like to try!
I started with the apple mixture so it wasn’t too hot when I added it to the batter. Make sure you let them cool completely before adding them to the cheesecake layer. You don’t want them to combine and turn into a custard.
Then I make cheesecake filling and the crumb topping.
Once that’s done, I layered them into the muffin cases. Starting with a small amount of batter, followed by the cheesecake mixture, then the apples and topped with batter and the crumb topping.
Bake and cool completely. This step is important. I tried these warm (who can blame me) and the filling tasted like custard. I thought they didn’t work and was ready to scrap them, but that night, my husband tried them cold and said they were fantastic.
I tried them and he was right. You have to give the fillings time to set. So chill them or let them cool at room temperature for a couple of hours. It really did make all the difference!
Update: As there were a few reports of issues with the muffins turning out dry, I re-tested the recipe and made a few changes. Since then, I have only been given positive feedback. Thank you so much for helping me make my recipes the best they could be!
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Let's Make
Apple Cheesecake Muffins
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups all-purpose/plain flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- ½ cup milk
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 4 tablespoons butter softened
For the cheesecake mixture:
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the apple mixture:
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 medium sized cooking apples
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of salt
For the topping:
- ¼ cup butter melted
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup all-purpose/plain flour
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375f/190C
- Line 12 muffin cups in a muffin pan with paper liners.
- Beat together the sugars, butter, cream cheese and egg until well blended and pale.
- Stir in the milk and then add the flour, baking powder, and salt until combined.
- Fill prepared muffin cups about a 1/4 of the way full. Set Aside.
For filling:
- Peel, core and chop the apples, add them to a small bowl and coat with 1 tablespoon of the juice to keep them from going brown.
- Add the cornstarch and coat the apples evenly.
- In a small saucepan on med heat, melt the butter.
- Add the remaining juice, sugar, salt and cinnamon
- Add the apples and stir well and cook for 3-5 minutes to soften. If the mixture becomes too thick, add a bit more juice.
- Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a small bowl, beat cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and egg yolk until smooth.
- Drop a rounded tablespoonful into the center of each muffin. Followed by a tablespoon of the apples and then top each one with the remaining batter.
- Mix together the topping ingredients and top each muffin evenly with the topping.
- Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely before serving.
Nutrition Information:
Brittlew says
The time it took to prep was way off for me. I started these at 11am and they weren’t completely done until 1:15pm. This is not an easy peasy whip ‘em up in a jiffy kind of recipe like I thought they’d be. The taste however was phenomenal! These won’t be an every Sunday morning kind of bake, but they’d make a delicious special dessert or birthday breakfast treat. I really needed to use some apple and cream cheese I had laying around and this was a really tasty treat. Thank you!
Pam says
Great tasting muffins! Super hit with my daughter-in-law this Thanksgiving. Thank you for posting!
Erren's Kitchen says
That is awesome, Pam Thank you for your feedback!
Merilee says
You mention sugars in the initial instructions but no amount listed in ingredients of anything but white sugar. You comment that you used brown sugar for caramel flavor in you initial posting
How much?
alchan says
Under ingredients only 1 tbs orange juice is listed
For filling:
” Peel, core and chop the apples, add them to a small bowl and coat with 1 tablespoon of the juice to keep them from going brown.
Add the cornstarch and coat the apples evenly.
In a small saucepan on med heat, melt the butter.
Add the remaining juice, sugar, salt and cinnamon”
How much more orange juiceirequired for the “remaining juice” since 1 tbs is already used up to prevent browning of the apples
Erren says
Thanks so much for pointing out the error! Yes, it’s meant to be 2 tablespoons of orange juice. I corrected the recipe.
Sherri says
Can these be made with egg beaters? I am allergic to yolk.
Erren says
I’ll be honest, I really don’t know. The egg yolk is used as a stabilizer for the cheesecake mixture. I don’t know if eggbeaters would do the job. Sorry I can’t be more help on this one.
Michelle says
The recipe was difficult to follow because the pictures and comments do not go in the same order as your steps and in the instructions it was hard to tell which part of the muffin you’re making at what time. It also took me 2 1/2 hours for the whole process. They are super delicious, so I will have to make them again and I’ll have to rewrite the steps with the apples part first because they do need to cool off, just like you mentioned above the pictures.