Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

 

Intrigued?

   

Just wait til you unwrap it

  

and discover a little treat inside.

 

 slightly adapted from Annie's Eats

   Despite not really liking pumpkin pie, I do in fact love pumpkin breads and muffins. This is a tasty little treat- but beware, it is easy to eat several in one sitting. No, really.


Ingredients

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree--- I used 1 15 oz can
1¼ cups vegetable oil

For the topping:
½ cup sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions

1. To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix on low well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, 1-2 hours or up to overnight.


2. To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

3. Using your 'dry ingredients bowl' - make the topping by combining the sugar, flour and cinnamon; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly.

4. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner-about 1 Tbsp. Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. (It may be hard to resist immediate consumption, but the cream cheese filling gets very hot!)

Makes 24 muffins