These cottage cheese pumpkin muffins are soft, moist, and full of warm pumpkin spice flavor. The cottage cheese blends right into the batter, giving them an incredibly tender texture plus a little extra protein in every muffin.
My Secret Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins
I too became obsessed with putting cottage cheese into everything from pancakes to muffins, so of course I had to try it in my pumpkin muffins. What surprised me when I tested these was how much I liked what it did to the texture; the cottage cheese blends completely into the batter and makes the muffins especially soft and moist.
My kids already love my banana muffins with cottage cheese, so adding a pumpkin version to the rotation was an easy yes. You can make this recipe with or without the chocolate chips; either way, their 5 grams of protein makes grabbing a second one feel completely reasonable.
How Much Protein Per Muffin
Cottage cheese gives these muffins a protein boost, with 5 grams of protein per muffin.
More Cottage Cheese Breakfast Faves
Another fall favorite in my house is these cottage cheese pumpkin pancakes. So good! My kids also love it when I bake these blueberry cottage cheese muffins and this high-protein banana bread. And cottage cheese waffles? You’ll crave them often!
Cottage Cheese Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- ⅓ cup (6 tablespoons) melted butter, cooled
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice*
Instructions
Prep:
- Preheat the oven to 375F with the top oven rack positioned in the middle of the oven. Prep a 12-muffin pan with paper liners or generously grease it. If using silicone muffin liners, grease them with spray.
Make the batter:
- In a blender, blend the cottage cheese, pumpkin puree, the cooled melted butter, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.
- In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin spice.
- Pour the liquid mixture into the large bowl and use a spatula to mix the batter until there's little to no visible flour left. If you want to add ½ cup chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, or pecans, fold them into the batter now.
- Fill the prepared muffin tin ¾ of the way with batter, then distribute any remaining batter among the lowest-filled muffin cups.
Bake:
- Bake in the preheated oven for 22 to 25 minutes, until the tops have browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove them from the oven and let them cool down.
Store:
- Once cooled, store them in an airtight container at room temperature (on the counter) for 2 days, in the fridge for up to a week, and frozen for up to 3 months. I recommend warming them up in the microwave for 15 seconds before enjoying them.
Notes
- Swap the pumpkin spice for 1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon.
- Add ½ to ¾ cup of chocolate chips.
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Linda says
These protein pumpkin muffins with cottage cheese were great! They were fluffy, moist and had great flavor!
Ivy says
I love pumpkin muffins! Such a great idea to add cottage cheese to the recipe!