A homemade baking mix gets jazzed up with two forms of chocolate and a cheesecake like topping. Delicious and easy to pull together!
As you may know, we’re in the midst of a Pantry Challenge over here. While I’ve not completely sworn off grocery shopping this month, I am “shopping my closet” as it were before buying something more. I love the Pantry Challenge because it really encourages me to be creative with what I already have. These muffins are a great example.
I had a bag of homemade muffin mix in the freezer just begging to be used. And I’d been wanting to choco-fy it for some time. So, in went cocoa powder and chocolate chips. Then, to gild the lily — and use up one of many cream cheese packages in my fridge — I added a cheesecake topping.
We tested these muffins twice this week. I say “we” because my kids all had opinions about it. Yesterday’s cheesecake topping was better than today’s. But, today’s chocolate mixture was better than yesterday’s. So, I’m giving you the best of both worlds.
This recipe is an awesome way to jazz up a homemade baking mix.
HOW CAN I MAKE IT EASY TO MAKE MUFFINS MORE OFTEN?
Having mixes premade is such a happy thing for me. No measuring too early in the morning, no flour flying. And I especially love it that I can customize mixes. Since it’s so easy to prepare baked goods with a homemade mix, I feel a little added inspiration to get creative.
This homemade muffin mix allows you not only to have a homemade mix at the ready, but it also offers you a lot of freedom in your baking. Add whatever “mix-ins” sound good to you. And you can use that mix to turn them into so many scrumptious muffin recipes. How about a yummy raspberry muffin? Or maybe Blueberry Muffins with Nutmeg.
Ingredients for chocolate cheesecake muffins
- cream cheese
- sugar
- egg
- vanilla
- milk
- sour cream
- oil
- Mix and Match muffin mix
- Cocoa powder
- Chocolate chips
How do I make chocolate cheesecake muffins?
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Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a 12-cup muffin cups with muffin papers.
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In a mixing bowl, combine the neufchatel cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Set aside.
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In a large mixing bowl combine the milk, oil, sour cream, and eggs. Whisk until well blended.
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In a bowl, whisk together the muffin mix and cocoa powder. Add this to the liquid ingredients. Add the chocolate chips. Fold just until combined.
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Divide the batter among the muffin cups. It’s okay if the cups overflow. Divide the cream cheese mixture among the cups.
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Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
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Cool the baked muffins on a wire rack.
CAN YOU FREEZE CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE MUFFINS?
Muffins are great for freezing. Why buy one at the coffee shop when you can bake them yourself for 40 cents each? Freezing helps you keep up your muffin habit for a lot less cash.
To freeze:
- Prepare the muffins according to the recipe. Cool completely on a rack.
- For individual freezing, wrap each in plastic or beeswax wrap and place them all in ziptop freezer bag.
- For freezing many, place them in a large container with a lid, tucking parchment, deli wraps, or beeswax wrap around them as a layer of protection against the cold.
- To serve: place the desire number of muffins on the counter about an hour before serving. They will thaw at room temperature.
DO YOU NEED SPECIAL EQUIPMENT TO MAKE MUFFINS?
After years of weekly muffin baking, I’ve come across a few tools that I absolutely LOVE for muffin baking:
- parchment muffin papers – I prefer using muffin papers since we’re such an on-the-go household. Muffin liners make it easier for transport as well as serving. I’ve found that parchment is the best for not sticking to the muffin.
- USA muffin pan – Whether you use papers or not, the USA pan is the best for easy clean up since there’s no need to grease the pan. Everything cleans up easily.
- Rubber spatula – I like to get every last bit of batter to make sure my muffins are big. A rubber spatula makes that easy.
- stainless steel mixing bowls – A good set of mixing bowls makes baking such a pleasure!
- 1/4 cup scoop – This scoop is ideal for dividing the dough easily and with less mess.
How I make this good and cheap:
Follow the Good Cheap Eats system and you’ll be able to shave more off the price of these delicious, homemade muffins.
- Visit the store with the best prices. There is a wide range of prices charged for the exact same product, depending on where you shop. Be sure that you’re frequenting the store that offers the best prices overall.
- Check the sales and clearance. The highest priced items here are the coconut milk, yogurt, and chocolate chips. Watch for sales on these items and stock up so you can make budget muffins whenever you want. The holidays time is great for having sales on chocolate chips.
- Opt for lower price alternatives. As mentioned earlier, you can swap out the coconut milk for a different milk. Using regular dairy milk would reduce the cost of this batch down by 87 cents, making your muffins 33 cents a piece.
If you prepare this recipe, be sure to share a picture on social media and hashtag it #GOODCHEAPEATS. I can't wait to see what you cook up!
Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Topping
- 1 8-ounce package cream cheese softened; neufchatel cheese can also be used
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Muffin Batter
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup neutral oil
- 2 egg
- 1 batch Mix and Match Muffin Mix
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a 12-cup muffin cups with muffin papers.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the neufchatel cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the milk, oil, sour cream, and eggs. Whisk until well blended.
- In a bowl, whisk together the muffin mix and cocoa powder. Add this to the liquid ingredients. Add the chocolate chips. Fold just until combined.
- Divide the batter among the muffin cups. It's okay if the cups overflow. Divide the cream cheese mixture among the cups.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
- Cool the baked muffins on a wire rack.
whitney zeiger
These are really good….we’ve made 48 in the past week and ate them all!!! Ha ha I have 5 children who are swimmers and we thoroughly love them!!
Jessica Fisher
Yay! So glad to hear it!
Rebecca
just printed it off…heading into the kitchen to whip these babies up…thanks for sharing!
Jackie Brown
These look divine!
christy
I can’t wait to try this too! I will probably use this idea with our amish friendship batter. I will let you know how it turns out!
Carrie @ In the sweet sunshine
I was so excited to read this recipe and realize I had everything on hand!! Except I only had 4 oz of cream cheese… so I decided to cut the recipe in half, which worked great until the very end when I needed half an egg! 🙂 It worked out, only made one muffin-tin worth (perfect for our family) and made the house smell delicious!!
The only thing I might try different next time is to put the cream cheese mixture in the middle instead of on top. I loved the top half of the muffin, but the bottom chocolate-muffin-only part [I thought] needed a little something… Still love this recipe though! Thank you!
Jessica Fisher
Thanks for being such a ready tester. I made the cheesecake topping without the egg the second time. But, the kids preferred the way it covered the muffins when it had the egg. Did you use mini chocolate chips? (I know that may not be a staple for most people.) I think it makes a diff in the cake part.
Carrie @ In the sweet sunshine
I actually did not use the mini chips, just regular chocolate chips. So maybe that would help!
Jessica Fisher
I think that will boost the chocolate flavor. They are smaller, therefore there’s more chocolate in the cup, and they spread out better, so the chocolate is more distributed in the muffin. 🙂
Janet
Those look delicious! Loving all the chocolate bliss being shared here today.
Queen of the House
I just had to share my Chewy Cocoa Brownie recipe that I discovered one night when I was craving chocolate!!!! Thankfully I had the ingredients on hand, so I could “shop” my pantry and satisfy the craving! LOL! Thanks for the link up. 😀
Wendy (The Local Cook)
Yikes, it’s salad week over on my blog, and here are all these chocolate links! I linked up a recipe for hazelnut chocolate brownies . . . must . . . resist . . . chocolate . . .
Liz@HoosierHomemade
Chocolate is definitely my favorite! Thanks for hosting!
~Liz
Jen Blacker
I could have one of those muffins for breakfast right now! Thank you for hosting.
Kristia {Family Balance Sheet}
My mouth is watering…all of these recipes look awesome.
Thanks for the linkup.
Aimee @ ShugarySweets
This is right up my alley. Thanks for hosting!!!
Kristin
You had me at cheesecake!
shari brooks
love these muffins – going to try them this weekend. I linked up some yummy treats for you: chocolate cake truffles, chocolate haystacks and gingerbread. enjoy
Nicki
Hi and HNY to you all!
I have a question about the flours. I presume that the unbleached flour is all purpose (or plain) flour? I don’t know what you mean by pastry flour, it could be we have a different name for it in the UK so if you can let me know what’s special about it that would be great – thanks!
Jessica Fisher
Yes, it’s unbleached, all-purpose flour. I think it’s also called non-bromated? Pastry flour is a very fine wheat flour. If you don’t have it, just use all purpose. Thanks for asking.
Nicki
Thanks so much for getting back to me on this, I can’t wait to make the. So many yummy chocolate recipes too!
Making My Own Luck
Your muffins look so good!
I bet those would freeze well too.
I shared my mocha quick bread.