Thanksgiving is tomorrow (just in case you didn’t know that already), so I have to share these AMAZING pumpkin muffins with you before peppermint and gingerbread take over again. You may notice that compared to the blogosphere as a whole, my blog is lacking in the pumpkin baked good department. People go crazy for pumpkin this time of year, but working with pumpkin puree really grosses me out, so I avoid baking pumpkin treats as much as possible. But last week 2 of my closest friends at school shared a birthday, and since they both love pumpkin treats and cream cheese, I conquered my fear of that orange mush and whipped up these muffins. I felt better about bringing 24 muffins into school at 8AM on a Monday morning rather than cupcakes since muffins are a healthy breakfast food, right!?!
It was great when the girls bit into the muffins to discover the cream cheese filling – they were totally not expecting it and it was a delicious surprise. The cream cheese filling adds an extra step to the normally extremely simple muffin baking process, but it’s a great twist that is totally worth it. The muffins themselves were super moist, not too dense, and had amazing spice flavor that summed up fall in one bite. The addition of a cinnamon streusel on top put these over the top – I highly recommend this recipe, regardless of the season! But if you’re all pumpkin’ed out for now, bookmark this recipe as a “must-bake” for next year :)
There’s a lot to get done before tomorrow’s meal, so I can’t spend much more time typing, but I’ll leave you with one more delicious photo and the recipe! Enjoy :)
Cream Cheese-Filled Pumpkin Muffins
Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats
Yield: 24 large muffins
Ingredients:
for the filling:
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup confectioners sugar
for the muffins:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
1 tbsp + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1-1/4 cups vegetable oil
for the streusel topping:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
5 tbsp flour
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces
Directions:
First prepare the filling – beat the cream cheese and confectioner’s sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer for1-2 minutes on medium speed.
Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a 1-1/2″ wide log. Wrap again in tin foil and transfer for the freezer for at least 2 hours.
To make the muffins, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line muffin pans with 24 paper liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree, and oil. Mix until well blended on medium-low speed.
With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients until just combined.
To make the topping, whisk together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or 2 forks until the mixture is the consistency of coarse crumbs.
To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with 2 tbsp of batter (just enough to cover the bottom). Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well.
Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups to completely cover the cream cheese.
Sprinkle the streusel evenly on top of each well of muffin batter.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. (Don’t dig in too quickly, the molten lava cream cheese can burn you!)
That delicious recipes and photographs. Regards
I made and posted about these a while back. They are really delicious,a ren’t they?
These muffins look great, a wonderful combination too!
what kind of camera do u use? everything looks so yummy. great pics..you
I made these today and they turned out great!
I’m a little late on commenting, but how do you store these?
Erica — April 19th, 2012 @ 12:17 pm
I would suggest storing them in the fridge, but the cream cheese will probably do fine on the counter since it’s encased by the muffin! Good luck :)
Thank you for the recipe. :) I am planning to make these for a friend next week. However, since I am a beginner at baking so I don’t really have much clue about the ingredients, I’m wondering if I can replace oil with unsalted butter? I’ve heard some of my friends mentioned that they prefer cakes that are made out of butter than oil due to a ‘stronger flavor’. However, I do know that in some recipes, oil cannot replace butter, and vice versa. Looking forward to your answer. Thanks again. :)
Erica — November 5th, 2013 @ 2:40 pm
For muffins, I find that oil really helps keep them moist. I wouldn’t play around with this recipe too much – it’s amazing and full of flavor just how it is! Plus oil is a tad bit healthier depending on what kind you use :)
Thank you for answering so quickly. I finally made these last week, and they were AMAZING! So easy. Thank you once again :)