skinny blueberry cheesecake muffins {gluten-free!}

super-moist, bakery-style muffins that just-so-happen to be gluten-free!  these muffins are loaded with fresh blueberries, filled with a creamy cheesecake center, and topped off with a sweet, crumbly streusel. 

you are looking at my very first muffin recipe ever!  (okay, i guess it’s not technically my first muffin recipe if you count these.)  but i’m talking about bakery-style muffins.  the kind of muffins i’ve always tried to stay away from… the kind of muffins that come with enough calories to fuel a marathon!  yeah…

i don’t know about you, but if i’m blowing my diet… it is not even about to be wasted on a muffin!!  just sayin!

i’ll start off with one of the many reasons you are going to love this muffin recipe… you can eat 2.5 of these muffins to equal the calories in just one of corner bakery’s muffins!!  yeah, my jaw dropped when i found that out too!  plus these babies are not only gluten-free, but also refined-sugar free!!!  they are sweetened with fresh blueberries (which can easily be substituted for frozen, if you’d like) and coconut sugar.  if you’re new around here, you’ll find out real fast that i’m a little obsessed with coconut sugar.  (i explain why it’s so awesome here.)  i promise you can’t taste the difference and your body will thank you for not sending it into a blood-sugar spike/insulin surge after consuming these!

with this being my very first real muffin recipe, i naturally assumed failure was kind of inevitable along the way.  (don’t worry, i usually post my failed attempts here for your enjoyment.)  i guess my husband had a little more faith in me because he stayed up late that first night of experimenting just to wait for these to come out of the oven… only to go to bed disappointed by my “wet & soggy” muffins.  haha!  the second attempt… was better.  but they still weren’t perfect.  (luckily i have sweet friends willing to take my imperfect creations off my hands!)  these pictures are proof that the third time really is a charm.

a few notes i should make about these muffins… first of all, there are 3 parts to this recipe:

1. bakery-style, gluten-free, fresh blueberry muffins
2. easy-peasy, 4-ingredient cheesecake filling
3. pecan-coconut-sugar streusel topping

before you begin, make sure your eggs and cream cheese are at room temperature.  (to quickly bring eggs to room temperature, submerge them in a glass of warm water for approximately 10 minutes.)  in these muffins, i used (melted) coconut oil.  if you’ve ever used coconut oil when baking before, you are probably aware that it does not like to be cold.  if you allow it to get cold, it will try it’s hardest to make your baking session miserable.  (something i was reminded of while making batch #1.)  you can easily substitute the coconut oil in this recipe for another liquid oil or melted butter with no problem at all!  or, just make sure the ingredients you mix in with the coconut oil are at room temperature.  i heated my almond milk and then whisked it together with the greek yogurt and set the bowl on the stove while the oven below heated up and i prepared the other two elements for these muffins.  it worked out quite nicely.  once my cream cheese filling and streusel topping were ready, i whisked my room-temperature eggs into the yogurt/milk mixture, followed by the melted the coconut oil.  if you opt to go with melted butter or another oil in liquid form… you can just disregard the last half of this paragraph and carry on. :)

the easiest part about this recipe is mixing the wet and dry ingredients together.  don’t work harder than you have to… seriously, don’t over-mix it!  if you over mix the batter, your muffins will not look fluffy and pretty… they’ll probably come out looking like my first batch! (i really only make mistakes to help y’all learn!) haha! ;)  once wet & dry ingredients are about half way mixed together, gently fold in your blueberries until there are no more big clumps of dry mix.  the batter will be very thick… which is greatness, because it means you get blueberry deliciousness in every bite of these muffins!  (runny batter equals sinking blueberries.)

i used 2 different sized cookie scoops to spoon this batter into the muffin tins… i layered batter, cheesecake filling, and a little more batter on top.  the big cookie scoop for the first layer of batter, then the smaller one for the cheesecake filling and top layer of batter.  it’s totally fine if there is cheesecake filling oozing out and it’s even better if your muffin tins are filled up to the brim!  just top each muffin off with a teaspoon full of streusel and gently press into the muffin so it makes sure to stick as they rise.  you can even stick a few extra blueberries on top before you send them into the oven.

i baked these at 425 degrees for the first 5 minutes, then, keeping them in the oven, i lowered the baking temperature to 350 degrees for an additional 20 minutes.  the initial heat ensures the muffin will rise as much as possible which really makes it look like it came straight out of a bakery window!  i learned this little trick, along with several others i use on the reg, from sally’s baking addiction… she’s pretty much the queen of all baked goods that i wish were in my diet.  i decided the second best thing was to adapt one of her recipes to fit into my diet… our diet! :)  a few failed attempts later, this recipe was born.

my husband said the final product more than made up for the disappointment of the first batch.  he actually said this was his favorite “non-savory” thing i’ve ever made for the blog!!  i mean, that kind of sounds like a big deal!  but i’ll let you try for yourself… ;)