Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins Yield 12 muffins

Cream Cheese Filling
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar

Whip together cream cheese and sugar very well. We’ve done this with a fork, a hand mixer, and a food processor – anything works. When it is all combined, pop it back in the fridge to stay cold while you prep the rest of the muffins. Having this mixture as cool as possible will prevent the cream from melting away too much during baking. The results in the picture were created with the cream mixture left at room temperature, though, so don’t worry too much about this cooling step!

Muffins
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
Our own version of “Pumpkin Pie Spices”; feel free to ad lib a little based on what you have on hand. Nothing is essential other than the cinnamon.
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves

Mix the sugar, oil, pumpkin, and eggs together very well in a large mixing bowl. Then plop the flour, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spices on top of this blended wet mixture. Stir well to incorporate and fully mix everything together. Line muffin tins with paper cups, or lightly oil them. Spoon about 1-2 Tablespoons of batter into the bottom of each muffin. We used a regular dinner spoon – heaping – to do this. Make sure this batter is spread thinly and evenly across the bottom of each muffin tin. I whacked mine flat on the counter a few times to accomplish this.
Next, distribute a spoonful (approx 1 Tablespoon) of the cream cheese filling in each. Finally, evenly distribute the remainder of the batter over the top of the cream cheese. Approx 2-3 Tablespoons each is what we came out with. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Let cool before you eat them, unless you are ready to deal with molten cream cheese!