Pumpkin + Cheesecake… um, yes please! The creamy cheesecake center just melts in your mouth. My. Oh. My. Dee-lish! I just found muffin heaven!
If you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty much the #1 fan of muffins. (ie: this post, this post, and this post) They are quite frankly my favorite thing to bake. So when I saw this incredible muffin recipe over at Annie’s Eats I couldn’t wait even until tomorrow to make them. I seriously threw the kids in the car and rushed over to the grocery store to get some pumpkin and cream cheese just so I could make them today. And was it worth it you ask? Yes-sir-ee. Hands down, best muffins I’ve ever eaten.
I tweaked it a tad … I didn’t use the pumpkin pie spice that it called for, instead I put in some ginger and more cinnamon, put a little less oil, and used brown sugar instead of white sugar for the topping. Other than that, it is the same recipe by Annie. You can find the original recipe here.
Thank-you Annie’s Eats for this scrumpdidilly-umptious recipe!
Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
Yield: 24 muffins
Ingredients
For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
For the muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
For the topping:
½ cup brown 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!)
And of course… here’s some healthy bits of info on Cinnamon: It regulates blood sugar, helps with memory, is a natural food preservative because it inhibits bacterial growth and food spoilage, and has even be found to reduce the proliferation of cancer cells. (found this info here.)
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