Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins

You may remember that I love pumpkin.  Especially pumpkin muffins. I used to make them all of the time.  A cake mix, a bag of cinnamon chips, a can of pumpkin.

That was it.

Except those cinnamon chips...they have dyes in them.  Evil dyes (at least for one of my kids).

And the cake mix? Full of preservatives/artificials...which we also cannot have.

So my pumpkin muffin baking days came to an end.

However, I find myself STILL craving some pumpkin muffins.

So not long ago I did a recipe search.

And I happened upon this.

So a couple nights ago, I decided to just make them.  (I baked them at night since they would take a while.  I have been keeping them in the fridge, and we heat them in the microwave as needed)

And they are rather tasty.

Not as easy or as simple as the ones I used to make, but that hasn't stopped me from eating them.  I mean, these have a crumb coating. You can't go wrong with that!

Ingredients:
Filling
8 oz cream cheese block (softened)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Note-While the cream cheese definitely adds to this muffin, next time I will probably halve all of these ingredients so not have quite so much cream cheese involved.

Muffins
2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar (granulated)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I didn't have any and left it out...it was fine without it)

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup solid pack pumpkin (I just used one regular size can)

3 large eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

3 tbsp butter (melted)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Filling-  Combine the cream cheese fillings in a bowl and beat (I used my little hand mixer) until smooth.  Place on a large sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a "log".  Place in the freezer for about an hour. 

Topping:  Just before removing the cream cheese from the freezer, put the topping ingredients in a bowl.  Use a fork to mix it.  It will form little clumps.  Resist just sitting and eating the topping...good stuff.

Muffins:  Preheat oven to 350.  Line muffin tin with liners.  This recipe easily makes 16.

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices/salt) in a large bowl.  Stir together.

In another bowl, combine "wet" ingredients (pumpkin, eggs, oil, vanilla).

Make a "well" in the middle of the dry ingredients.  Pour "wet" ingredients into the hole.  Stir all ingredients together until mixed.  Do NOT over mix.

Add about 2 Tbsp of muffin batter to each muffin liner. 

Slice the cream cheese log into 16 equal size pieces.  Like I said, I think next time I will half that...it is a lot of cream cheese :).  Place a cream cheese "slice" in the middle of each muffin liner.

Top the cream cheese with remaining muffin batter.

Sprinkle the topping on top, pressing it down to ensure it sticks.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!