Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

If you have been reading, you have probably guessed that I will eat just about anything with pumpkin or cream cheese.  Would you believe I also love the combination of the two?  Weird, right?  I saw these muffins a couple months ago on Tracey's blog and I have been wanting to make them ever since. 

This recipe has been around the blogging block.  You know it's good when it's on a few blogs and everyone is recommending it.  Well, that's where we are with this one.  The muffin itself is really good and I probably wouldn't mind mixing up a batch and eating just the muffin without the topping or filling.  Maybe on a day when I don't feel like doing the extra work.  It really is worth the extra work for the warm cream cheese center and the streusely topping though.  I did make a few adjustments, knowing how I like things.  I am a simple spice kind of girl.  (That would be my Spice Girl name, Simple Spice)  I don't enjoy a whole lot of nutmeg so I scaled that back along with a few of the other spices. These were perfect for me, but if you like extra spice, you can check out the original recipe.  I might also try just doing the cream cheese in the center at some point instead of adding the powdered sugar because let's face it, with it, they are pretty much cupcakes. ;)  I added some oatmeal in with the topping the first time, but I liked it better today without the oatmeal.

It does matter how you mix the batter.  When I made the second batch today I forgot to mix the sugar with the oil and eggs.  I thought I could just add it at the end with the flour.  Nope.  It made the muffins tough.  And not the good tough like how tough Tyler is.  I still ate one, but they were leaps and bounds better when I followed the DIRECTIONS!!!  You'd think I would have learned that in 1st grade.  Anyway, if you aren't like my sister-in-law (Kate) who hates pumpkin AND cream cheese (insane), try these muffins, they are delish.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Adapted from BakeSpace via Annie's Eats and then I adapted them again.

Filling:
8 oz Cream Cheese
1 cup Powdered Sugar

Muffins:
3 cups flour
1 T cinnamon
⅛ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 lg eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin
1 ¼ cup oil

topping:
½ cup sugar
4 T butter
5 T flour
1  ½ tsp cinnamon

Mix filling ingredients together, place on wax paper and roll into a log 1 ½ inches in diameter.  Reinforce with tin foil and freeze for 2 hours.

For topping:  Mix sugar, flour, and cinnamon and either use food processor to cut in butter or do it by hand with softened butter and a fork.

Heat oven to 350 and grease the inside of a muffin tin or *line with paper liners.

Mix flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and baking soda and set aside.  In mixer, combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs and oil, mix well.  Add dry ingredients in 3 batches incorporating after each addition.   Add about ⅛ cup batter to each muffin cup, remove log from freezer and slice into 24 pieces.  Place a slice of filling in each muffin cup and cover with remaining batter.  

With a heaping ½ T, sprinkle topping on each muffin 

and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Cool before serving, filling can be HOT. :)

*I also need an explanation about my lack of paper liners.  My official stance is that they are bad for the environment, but the truth of the matter is that I never have them.  I read in a cookbook a while ago that they were bad for the environment and to just spray the muffin pan, so I decided to embrace the never-having-paper-liners-thing.

Printer friendly recipe