Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin

I love muffins!!!  I wanted a great recipe for a pumpkin cream cheese muffins but I couldn't find a complete one - so I mixed a few recipes together and came up with this.  Perfection!!!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Ingredients:

Batter

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

Directions:

1.  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.

2.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners (makes about 12 muffins or 9 large muffins).

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

4.  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.

5.  Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

6.  Remove the cream cheese filling from the freezer and cut it into 12 even pieces (9 pieces if making 9 large muffins).  Press one piece of the cream cheese filling into the center of each muffin.

Mine did not freeze well so I will add more freeze time the next batch.

7.  Sprinkle each muffin with about 1 tablespoon of the crumb topping.  Gently press the topping into the batter to ensure it sticks.

8.  Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes (35 minutes for large muffins), 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.

Yummy!  But, I forgot to press the crumble topping into the batter a little.   Next time ;-)

I made these boxes of 4 variety muffins.  They included this recipe along with an apple pie muffin, blueberry crumble, and a carrot cake muffin topped with cream cheese frosting.