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Vanilla Chai Cream Cheese Crumble Muffins. Warm chai spice muffins stuffed with cream cheese and topped with a crisp buttery crumble.
The whether is getting cooler, and we are beginning to crave fall more than ever! When we think of fall, we think of warm, sweet spices and delicious baked goods.
One of the most delicious blends of spices we love to indulge in in the fall is chai spice. It’s a beautiful blend of spices that warm your soul during the colder weather and provides more depth and flavor to a traditional cinnamon streusel muffin.
We decided to take a more decadent twist and add cream cheese to these vanilla chai muffins. It adds a cream texture and a little bit of tang that balances out the sweetness. The crisp buttery crumble that’s sprinkled on top adds a beautiful, sweet crunch.
The combination of delicious flavors and textures in this muffin is everything we could possible dream of in a muffin. It’s the perfect breakfast for a cozy fall morning in with your family or to make for a brunch with friends. You’re going to be obsessed!
This post is all about vanilla chai cream cheese crumble muffins.
Vanilla Chai Cream Cheese Crumble Muffins
These vanilla chai cream cheese crumble muffins are super simple to make and are the most delicious breakfast for a cool, fall morning.
What’s in this recipe?
Flour: You can’t make muffins without flour. We always prefer to bake with unbleached, all-purpose flour.
Baking Powder: Baking powder helps the muffins to rise and gives them a lighter consistency.
Baking Soda: Baking soda also helps the muffins to rise as well.
Chai Spice: Chai spice is a blend of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, all spice, nutmeg, pepper, and cloves. It adds such a delicious depth of flavor to the muffin batter.
Salt: Salt helps to offset the sweetness of the muffin.
Sugar: Sugar adds sweetness to the batter and keeps the muffins soft and moist.
Eggs: Eggs help to bind all the ingredients together and provide structure for the vanilla chai cream cheese crumble muffins.
Oat Milk: We used oat milk in this recipe, because we prefer to use alternative milk in our baking. However, you can use any type of milk you enjoy.
Olive Oil: Olive oil is a great vegetable oil to use in baking.
Vanilla: The vanilla adds a delicious sweet flavor to the muffin and pairs so well with chai spice.
Cream Cheese: The melted cream cheese adds such a delicious tang and texture to the muffins. It is our favorite part about these muffins!
Crumble Topping: A muffin recipe is always elevated with a crumble topping. We love this chai spice crumble! It’s so delicious and adds the perfect crunch with the soft cream cheese and fluffy muffin!
How to Make the Vanilla Chai Cream Cheese Crumble Muffins
First, you’ll want to preheat your oven to 350°F and prepare a muffin pan (we love this one). Either line the pan with muffin liners or generously grease the muffin tins.
Our Homemade Chai Spice
We made homemade chai spice for this recipe. We added the recipe to the notes, but also wanted to give it to you here as well! It makes a bulk batch, which we know we’ll be using the rest of fall and winter!
To make homemade chai spice, mix the following spices until well combined:
- 2 tbsp cardamom
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 1 tbsp all spice
- 1 tbsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tbsp pepper
- 1/2 tbsp cloves
Make the Chai Spice Crumble
We always prefer to make the crumble first when we make muffins. It just seems easier when we start to assemble the muffins to have this ready to go.
In a small bowl, use your hands to combine the milted butter, 4 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1/2 a tsp of salt and 2 tsp of chai spice. Once small balls begin to form, set the bowl aside for later.
Make the Chai Spice Muffin Batter
This is super simple to do and takes no time at all! To start, in a medium bowl (this is our favorite set of mixing bowls), mix together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chai spice. Set the bowl aside to mix in later.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until creamed. Add in your choice of regular or alternative milk. Any kind of milk works fine in this recipe. We chose to add oat milk, because it’s the one we had on hand, but you can use whatever you like best. Then wish in the olive oil and vanilla.
Once the wet ingredients are incorporated, add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Whisk both mixtures together until the batter is fully combined. It’s okay if there are still some lumps in the batter.
Add the Cream Cheese and Crumble
Before you add the cream cheese to the top of the muffins, we recommend melting it. This will make it softer and easier to work with. Fill the muffin tin 2/3 of the way up with batter. Add a large spoonful of cream cheese to the top and cover the cream cheese with another layer of chai muffin batter. Top each muffin with crumble (lightly press the crumbs to the top of the batter).
Once the muffin pan is filled and topped with crumble, bake them for 18-22 minutes. Depending on how your oven bakes, you can adjust the time. Our oven bakes quicker than others, so we bake ours for 18 minutes.
Allow the muffins to cool for 10 minutes and then enjoy with a hot pumpkin spice latte or cup of hot tea!
We promise you these muffins will be your new go-to breakfast recipe for fall! They will for sure be ours! Happy fall and happy baking!
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Vanilla Chai Cream Cheese Crumble Muffins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 10 muffins 1x
Description
Warm chai spice muffins stuffed with cream cheese and topped with a crisp buttery crumble.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tsp chai spice ((see notes for chai spice recipe))
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cups oat milk
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 4 oz cream cheese (melted)
Chai Crumble Topping
- 2 tbsp butter (melted)
- 4 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp chai spice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin pan with muffin liner or grease each muffin tin generously.
- First you’ll want to make the chai spice streusel. In a small mixing bowl combine melted butter, flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt and chai spice. To help the crumble come together, we like to use our hands for this step. Once the crumble forms into little balls, set aside for later.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, chai spice and salt until combined. Set aside for later.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk sugar and eggs together. Once that are combined add milk, olive oil and vanilla.
- Then, add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Whisk until all the ingredients are combined.
- In your prepared muffin pan, fill the muffin tins 2/3 of the way. Add a spoonful of melted cream cheese to the top of the batter. Pour just enough batter to cover the cream cheese on top. Top the muffins with the chai spice crumble. Press it gently into the top of the muffin.
- Bake the muffins for 18-22 minutes, depending on how your oven cooks. Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool on a wire rack. Once the muffins have cooled for 20 minutes, enjoy warm with a pumpkin spiced latte or hot cup of tea!
Notes
Chai Spice Recipe:
Mix these spices together until fully combined.
- 2 tbsp cardamom
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 1 tbsp all spice
- 1 tbsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tbsp pepper
- 1/2 tbsp cloves
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
- Cuisine: American
This post is all about Vanilla Chai Cream Cheese Crumble Muffins.
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