Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Photo from The Non Pareil Baker, whom I originally found the recipe pinned to :)

Here's a recipe I found on Pinterest. After all my Thanksgiving pumpkin foods I made last week, I had just enough pumpkin for this muffin recipe. I just have to say that when I made these, I was STARVING, and starving people don't always make rational decisions or wait patiently. This recipe calls for the cream cheese goodness to be in the freezer for 2 hours. Like I was gonna wait 2 hours to alleviate starvation. So I did what any starving irrational person would do and I stuck the whole bowl of the stuff in the freezer (no spreading it out nicely to make a cream cheese log), and it was only in there there for as long as it took me to make the muffin and crumb topping mixture. And it turned out JUST FINE. I have no idea why you'd need to freeze it for that long. And since I didn't roll it out into a log formation, I just used 2 spoons to top the muffin batter with it, like scooping cookie dough with 2 spoons type scooping action.

I think theses turned out fantastic and I would make them the same way I did when I was starving, only double the cream cheese amount. I was hoping they would be like pumpkin cake roll and they kinda were, but not very cream cheesy and I like cream cheesy :) Try it out for yourself, let me know if you freeze the cream cheese part and if there are any perks to doing it that way :)

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

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Muffins:
1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Filling:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Crumb topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Make the filling by combining the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl and stirring until smooth. Scrape the mixture out onto a piece of plastic wrap at least 12 inches long. Form the mixture into a 12-inch log, wrap tightly, and freeze for at least two hours.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

Make the crumb topping by using a fork to combine the flour, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and melted butter in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, thoroughly combine the sugar, canned pumpkin, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir gently with a spatula just until completely combined.

Remove the cream cheese filling from the freezer and cut it into 12 one-inch pieces. Divide the muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups. Press one piece of the cream cheese filling into the center of each muffin, then sprinkle each muffin with about one tablespoon of the crumb topping. Gently press the topping into the batter to ensure that it sticks.

Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center muffin comes out clean. Cool muffins in the pan for about five minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in the refrigerator.

Makes about 12 muffins.

Enjoy!