These fluffy Nutella muffins are studded with white chocolate chips and swirled with a Nutella cream cheese mixture, then sprinkled with sugar.
This recipe re-posted from January 28, 2016. I’ll be back on Monday with a new recipe & a new post, but I’m taking this week to spend time with my relatives after a sudden death in the family.
I have an arrangement with my family that usually works out nicely.
It goes something like this: They bring me fresh brown eggs from their chickens as I need them (and I need them often, though the hens have gotten a little lazy with egg production in this cold weather), and I create copious amounts of desserts, sweets, and nutella muffins for them to promptly remove from my house to taste-test and devour.
This really isn’t so much an arrangement as it is a win-win situation for me, because if my family didn’t take away all of my baking, I would eat all of it (no self control whatsoever) to the point where I no longer fit out of my own doorway. And I really, really don’t want that to happen.
Fortunately, they typically are happy to pick up my desserts with enthusiasm, often even snatching up and consuming even the sloppiest recipe failures before I can snap them into the trashcan (they don’t discriminate much when it comes to desserts).
But this weekend, they failed me.
That’s a bit dramatic, and definitely unfair. My family was snowed in at the end of a long stretch of driveway that was covered in over 30 inches of snow, located down the icy curves of some pretty ill-tended back roads.
But being snowed in myself, I was left to the mercy of the baked goods I’d concocted during the snowstorm, the most tempting of all being these seductively swirled, Nutella muffins. With fluffy, white-chocolate studded bases and sweet sugar-sanded tops, they were utterly irresistible, I just wanted to pluck the tops off of each and eat them, one by one.
They’re incredibly inviting, emanating warmth and coziness from where they sit snug in their paper coats with their sweetly sprinkled toppings and homely-yet-lovely chocolate hazelnut swirls.
I chose to concentrate the Nutella to the top of the muffin for a greater concentration of flavor (because everyone knows that the muffin tops are the best part of the muffin, anyway) but the rest of the muffin is studded with white chocolate chips (or not, depending on your preference) for an extra touch of sweetness.
When I finally made it out of the house and into work Monday, I brought the Nutella muffins that Zach and I hadn’t devoured to work with me for my co-workers to consume. And consume them they did, the muffins were gone in minutes.
Enjoy!
Nutella Swirl Muffins
Ingredients
Swirl
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 2/3 cup Nutella
- 1/3 cup sugar granulated
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Muffin
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup canola oil can substitute vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup milk mixed with 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar and allowed to sit for at least 5 minutes
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup white chocolate chips optional
- Turbinado sugar for sprinkling or regular granulated, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line cupcake pan with paper liners (or grease/spray with baking spray)
- In medium-sized, microwave safe bowl, combine cream cheese and Nutella and microwave at 10 second increments until the two can easily be stirred together (do not exceed 30 seconds).
- Stir together cream cheese and Nutella and then stir in sugar.
- Add egg yolk and vanilla and stir until combined. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In another bowl, combine canola oil, sugar, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla extract, stirring until well-combined.
- Add flour mixture to canola oil mixture and stir until just combined (do not over-mix!). Stir in white chocolate chips, if using.
- Fill muffin cups 1/2-way full with muffin batter. Top with 1 1/2 - 2 Tbsp of Nutella mixture and then top with another spoonful of muffin batter so that muffin cups are about 3/4 full.
- Use a butter knife or toothpick to swirl the Nutella with the spoonful of muffin batter added to the top.
- Sprinkle with turbinado (or regular) sugar and then bake for 25-30 minutes (until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or with few crumbs) and allow muffins to cool before enjoying.
Nutrition
In a muffin mood? You might also like these Cream Cheese Blueberry Muffins:
Or these Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Muffins
Or for something sweeter, try these Mini Nutella Cupcakes, topped with Marshmallow Buttercream!
Originally posted 1/28/16 — updated 1/4/17
Bethany says
How do these get stored? Fridge?
Sam says
Hi Bethany! I typically store them at room temperature in an air tight container. 🙂
Brooklyn says
I have a feeling these are going to be my next favourite dessert! they look incredible, and nutella is definitely a favourite flavour here. I’m excited to test them out!
Sam says
I hope you love them, Brooklyn! 🙂
Sarah says
I just made these and they were delicious (I’m also a big fan of your lemon crumble muffins)! But I had so much Nutella mixture leftover (and I even used half the cream cheese as you and skipped the chips) and my muffin cups were very full with barely any swirling room and a lot of it gooed out onto the pan after baking! Is it because I didn’t use tall liners like you seem to have? Did you use regular sized muffin tins? Next time I really think I could get 16 or 18 muffins easily (not that that’s a problem though, lol).
Sam says
Hi Sarah! That is actually just parchment paper squares, but they don’t hold any more than a regular liners would. Sometimes the number of muffins you get varies, but you don’t ever want to overfill them so you don’t have that mess. 🙂
Kathy says
I had the same issue – the recipe yielded WAY too much Nutella mixture:(
The muffins are tasty, though!
Sam says
I’m glad you enjoyed them, Kathy! 🙂
Dana Ihnen says
All of these look decadent and I want them all NOW! Have you tried Target’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter? It’s to die for and quite sinful. Check it out.
Sam says
No I have NOT tried that but guess what I’m going to stop and buy on my way home now! Sounds amazing!
Thanks, Dana! 🙂
Ruby & Cake says
When someone says muffin tops I always think of an episode of Seinfeld where they try and open a store that sells muffin tops but they can’t work out what to do with muffin bottoms. These just look insanely scrumptious! I wouldn’t be able to share a single one.
Pat says
My prayers are with you and your family Sam. It’s especially hard at Christmas because each year the sadness returns. Blessings, Pat
Sam says
Thank you for the kind words, Pat. It means a lot to me. <3
Emma @ Lights, Camera, BAKE! says
These look so yummy! Nutella is the best so I’ll definitely give these a go. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Sam says
Thank you for commenting, Emma!
Jessica says
I cannot wait to make these. they look so so so good. Pinning!
Sam says
Thank you, Jessica!!
Jess @ Flying on Jess Fuel says
OMG these looks amazing! Seriously, they look like perfect bakery muffins! And nutella… uhm, yes please. I definitely need these muffins in my life. 😀 My in-laws have chickens but they’ve been slowing down on their laying for the winter so I haven’t been gifted as many eggs as usual! Looking forward to springtime!
Sam says
Thank you, Jess! Looking forward to springtime here, too!
Medha @ Whisk & Shout says
These muffins look absolutely unreal- they’re the kind I see in the bakery window and I just can’t resist 🙂 Pinning!
Sam says
Thank you, Medha! Definitely irresistible!
Beeta @ Mon Petit Four says
Muffin tops are always my favorite part of the muffin, and I can just see myself devouring thus nutella swirled one! I would not want to be left alone with these either!! 😀
Marsha | Marsha's Baking Addiction says
Omg, pass me all the muffins! I love my muffins, and Nutella, so I’m going to LOVE these! They look scrumptious!
Sam says
Thank you, Marsha! I bet you would love them! 🙂