Position oven rack to the middle and pre-heat to 350 F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan with liners and set aside.

To a medium mixing bowl, add cream cheese, maple syrup, and egg yolk. Use your hand mixer to beat until combined and smooth, and set aside. If you don’t have a hand mixer, you can do this by hand with a wooden spoon or firm spatula – but it may take a few minutes.

To a large blender, add all ingredients for the muffin batter. Blend until completely smooth, about 45-60 seconds.

Transfer to your prepared muffin pan, filling each about 2/3 of the way to the top, until all batter is used up. I use a 3-Tbsp cookie scoop for this step.

Spoon about 1-Tbsp of the cream cheese mixture on top of each muffin, making sure all of it gets used.

Sprinkle each muffin with a few pumpkin seeds.

Transfer to the oven and bake for 18-23 minutes. The tops should look set and lightly cracked when they’re done.

Let them cool in the pan for 5-minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool to room temperature, and enjoy!