Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

My first recipe off Pinterest!  My mom was flipping through a magazine and said, "I need to make muffins today."  I jokingly said, "I'll make pumpkin cream cheese muffins," and somehow I got stuck with the job.

This is the picture off Pinterest, from the original site, not mine.

Yield 24 muffins

Filling:

  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

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
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups pumpkin puree
  • 1¼ cups vegetable oil

Topping:

  • ½ cup sugar
  • 5 tbsp. flour
  • 1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix 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, and reinforce with a piece of foil.  Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours.

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.

To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; 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.  Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons).  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.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving, the cream cheese filling gets very hot.

***

Despite looking so complex, these were actually incredibly easy to make.  And definitely incredibly delicious.  The recipe is from here, but I cut down the sugar from the original 2 cups.  That's just too much for me, especially with the filling and topping.

I had about a cup of pumpkin puree left over, so I halved the recipe and made just the muffins (no filling or topping) for my kiddos at work.

Check out more on my Recipes page!

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