Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins

Here's my warning...these are in no way, shape or form healthy. When I cook and bake for our house...it's healthy. When I cook and bake treats for others to bring to events..they aren't even close to healthy. I like to flex the baking muscles a little and got to do it for the St. Patrick's Day parade in Newport. I volunteered to make some breakfast food...and this caught my eye on Annie's Eats website.

So...I gave it a whirl...

First...the pumpkin batter...full of sugar, eggs, pumpkin puree, and lots of spices

This was the little secret weapon to this recipe...you take 8oz of cream cheese and mix it with 1 cup of powdered sugar. You then take that mixture, grab a piece of saran wrap and form it into a 1.5 inch log. Throw it in the freezer and then slice it into 24 even pieces. Voila....your cream cheese log cubes

 I took about 1-2 TBSP of batter and placed it in each cupcake wrapper. Then, I took the cream cheese log cubes and places it in the center and pushed it down a little

 the streusel...all buttery, sugary and crumbly

Topped with streusel and ready for the oven

All baked...I loved the way these muffins puffed up so perfectly

Onto the cooling racks...

They were pretty muffins

So..what I liked about these muffins...they seemed to go over well with the crowd, they were a nice, decadent spin on a muffin..the cream cheese filling added a little somethin somethin to a normal muffin.

What I didn't like..I hate wasting ingredients..especially because I'm that girl who always starts a recipe and then figures out I'm out of such and such and don't have a grocery store down the street from me. Next time..I'll make a third of the streusel..I had too much left over..yeah, I could've froze some for future use but this isn't something I'd make a regular basis. I deprive Mr. Allan from decadent little treats because I want him to be healthy and maintain his svelte figure.

Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins

from Annie's Eats

Filling:

8oz cream cheese

1 cup confectioner's 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
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:


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. (It may be hard to resist immediate consumption, but the cream cheese filling gets very hot!)