Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

What a day. Not only was I trying to finish grades and it was just crappy weather, but I come home to find out that a cousin from England died in a motorcycle accident today. R.I.P. Steven, you were the coolest British guy I know.

I had planned on making these muffins for the Alumni meeting tonight...but I never really planned anything for dinner...tonight or Wednesday night. I guess I was just too excited about baking and corn chowder (which was just as excellent today at lunch as it was last night fresh out of the pot!). Good thing Mum doesn't mind me mooching off of her every once in a while. She supplied me with some steak, corn and a baked potato. Thanks Mum!

Now, I am new to pumpkin things as of last year. I just never really tried anything pumpkin flavored, and was always freaked out by it as a child. Other than pumpkin seeds...which doesn't count. These are DELICIOUS. I wish I had made 80 of them.

I prepped the filling for it yesterday, as I was limited on time between work and the meeting tonight, and the filling needs to thicken up in the freezer for at least two hours. When I took it out of the freezer today it wasn't really all that hard...which might have been from using waxed paper and not plastic wrap to wrap it in.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
from Annie's Eats

Yield: 24 muffins

Ingredients:
For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ cups vegetable oil

For the topping:
½ cup 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!)

Naturally, the one muffin I cut into for the filling photo has the smallest amount of filling out of all the muffins.

I have already had 2 and will definitely have more at the meeting. So much for healthier eating....