Hi. My name is Sandi, and I suffer from Sandi Brain. Probably over use of Sandi Brain is the problem.
Anyways, these muffins are good, but they gave me all kinds of trouble from the minute I laid eyes on the section of my fridge where eggs are supposed to be, and it was empty. The thing that most attracted me to these, was the crumble topping. Just keep reading. You'll see what my "crumble" topping looked like.
I would make these again, but I would probably leave out the crumble. And also, I would probably freeze the cream cheese filling for a good 6 hours or so. You'll see. Just keep reading!!!!
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
*Makes 24 muffins
For the muffins:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
For the filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
For the streusel topping:
½ cup sugar
¼ cup flour
4 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar and whip until smooth. Form into a log on plastic wrap or greased foil, making sure that the diameter is small enough to fit into the well of a muffin pan. Wrap the log up tightly and freeze until slightly hardened, 1-2 hours.
To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside. In another large bowl combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
To make the streusel topping, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well 1/3 of the way with batter. Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer and slice into 24 equal slices. Place a slice on top of the batter in each muffin well and gently press (don't press all the way to the bottom but just slightly into the batter). Divide the remaining muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake the muffins for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the top of the muffin (about 1/3 of the way down) comes out with moist crumbs. Let cool completely on a wire rack before serving.
Okay, here's my beef with the cream cheese filling: I was expecting it to be like something of a log, easy to slice. I left it in the freezer for 2 hours. As you can see from the chunks of filling, they didn't exactly slice beautifully. So, again, if you make this, plan on freezing the filling for a good 3 hours or more? I don't know, I guess just play it by ear???
The crumb topping. You will note the lack of it looking like crumb topping. And some of it even broke off and didn't look very pretty. I think there was maybe too much butter? I'm not sure. I mixed and mixed and MIXED that stuff until it was all incorporated, but it still just kind of blobbed there.
This is what it will look like done. Don't get me wrong, despite the need to run to the store for eggs (my fault, not the recipe's) and the issues with the filling and topping, I would definitely recommend this! Does that sound weird to do? They ended up being delicious. But next time, I'm sticking with my gut and making gingerbread muffins.
Recipe source: Mel's Kitchen Cafe