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Brown butter sweet potato cream cheese muffins with craggy golden tops

Brown Butter Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Muffins

Bakery-style sweet potato muffins built on nutty brown butter and a warmly spiced orange-brown crumb, each one filled with a thick cream cheese center that stays soft and rich inside. Browning the butter first adds a depth plain melted butter can't give, and using a thick, well-roasted sweet potato puree rather than a watery one is what keeps the crumb moist without turning dense or gummy. A high-heat oven start pushes the tops up into a craggy, golden dome, and a short rest after baking lets the cream cheese center set slightly before it's cut into.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings: 12
Course: Baking, Muffins
Cuisine: American
Calories: 390
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

For the Brown Butter
  • 170 g unsalted butter
For the Cream Cheese Filling
  • 225 g full-fat cream cheese softened
  • 55 g granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp cornstarch or all-purpose flour
  • Pinch of fine salt
For the Muffin Batter
  • 260 g all-purpose flour
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ¾ tsp fine salt
  • 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ⅛ tsp ground cloves or allspice
  • 150 g light brown sugar
  • 50 g granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs room temperature
  • 300 g sweet potato puree cooled and thick (from roasted or steamed sweet potatoes, not watery)
  • 120 g sour cream or Greek yogurt room temperature
  • 60 ml milk or buttermilk room temperature
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
For Finishing
  • 2 to 3 tbsp coarse sugar or granulated sugar for topping

Method
 

Brown the Butter
  1. Melt the butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat, cooking, stirring, and scraping the bottom often, until the milk solids turn deep golden brown and the butter smells nutty. Transfer immediately to a bowl so it stops cooking, then let it cool until warm but no longer hot. You should end up with about 140 to 145 g of browned butter; top up with a little melted butter if you've lost significantly more than that.
Prepare the Filling
  1. Mix the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, cornstarch, and salt in a small bowl until smooth and thick, then chill while you make the batter. The filling needs to stay thick enough to scoop, not loose; chill it for 10 to 15 minutes before assembling if it softens.
Prepare the Pan and Oven
  1. Heat the oven to 220°C / 425°F and line a 12-cup muffin pan with tulip or standard paper liners. If using standard liners, lightly grease the top of the pan as well, since the high-rising tops can stick without it.
Mix the Dry Ingredients
  1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves or allspice in a large bowl, mixing well so the leavening and spices distribute evenly.
Mix the Wet Ingredients
  1. Whisk together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and eggs in another bowl until smooth and slightly thickened. Add the sweet potato puree, sour cream or yogurt, milk or buttermilk, vanilla, and cooled browned butter, whisking until fully combined and smooth. The sweet potato puree needs to be thick and cooled; a watery puree loosens the batter too much and bakes up dense or gummy.
Make the Batter
  1. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and fold gently with a spatula just until no dry flour remains. Don't overmix; the batter should be thick and scoopable, with a few small lumps being fine.
Fill and Assemble
  1. Divide about half the batter among the 12 muffin cups, each a little under half full. Add a generous spoonful of cream cheese filling to the center of each muffin, about 1 heaping tablespoon, keeping it centered rather than smeared to the liner edges. Top with the remaining batter, covering the filling fully, until the cups are about ¾ to nearly full, then sprinkle the tops lightly with coarse or granulated sugar.
Bake
  1. Bake at 220°C / 425°F for 5 minutes, then lower the oven to 190°C / 375°F without opening the door, and continue baking for 15 to 19 minutes, until the tops are risen, golden, and craggy, the edges are set, and a tester inserted into the muffin portion, avoiding the cream cheese center, comes out with a few moist crumbs. The centers should feel springy when lightly pressed.
Cool
  1. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack. Let them cool at least another 10 to 15 minutes before eating, so the cream cheese center can set slightly rather than flowing out too quickly.

Notes

Roasting the sweet potato, rather than boiling it, gives the driest, thickest puree, and that matters here since excess water in the puree is what makes these muffins turn dense or gummy instead of light and moist.
Browning the butter and then letting it cool fully before mixing it in is important for two reasons: hot butter can scramble the eggs it meets later, and it can also thin the batter more than intended.
Chilling the cream cheese filling keeps it firm enough to stay as a defined center once baked, rather than dissolving into the surrounding batter.
Covering the cream cheese completely with the top layer of batter matters for how the muffins bake; filling left exposed at the surface is more likely to split through the top as the muffin rises.