Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

These muffins are the definition of fall, they are pumpkin, not too sweet, spicy, cream cheese, make your house smell amazing when you are making them. Delicious. The batch makes 24, so you can give away 12 and keep 12 for breakfasts and snacks for the week. These will disappear so quickly and soon become the first thing you want to make on September 22. Do not let the long ingredient list scare you away from making these amazing, decadent babies. Make the filling the night before and let freeze over night and then make these the next morning. It will take you no time at all, okay actually 30-35 minutes, such a small sacrifice.
Source: BakeSpace

Ingredients for the Filling:
8 ounces of Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup of Confectioners' Sugar

Ingredients for the Muffins:
3 cups of Flour
1 teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon
1 teaspoon of Ground Nutmeg
1 teaspoon of Ground Cloves
1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon of Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 teaspoon of Salt
1 teaspoon of Baking Soda
4 Eggs
2 cups of Sugar
2 cups of Pumpkin Puree
1 1/4 cups of Vegetable Oil

Ingredients for the Topping:
1/2 cup of Sugar
5 tablespoons of Flour
1 1/2 teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon
4 tablespoons of Unsalted Butter, cold and cut into pieces


Directions:

First, you will want to start these the night before you make them. Mix the cream cheese and confectioners' sugar together until well blended. Now, roll out a piece of plastic wrap, about one inch from the end spoon the filling onto the plastic. Try to make it look like a log, it will automatically become a log once you roll it, so just go with what you have. Next, roll it into a log and try to make it more uniform. Wrap the plastic wrap in aluminum foil and place in the freezer.

When you are ready to make your muffins, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and spray your muffin pan with a non-stick spray and place your liners in it.

Next, lets make the topping. If you have a food processor it works great for this if not, do not worry, it is a cinch. In a small bowl, add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and cold butter. Using a pastry blender or two forks incorporate the butter until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. If using a food processor just add all of the ingredients to processor and pulse a few times. Place this bowl into the refrigerator until it is time to use it.

Now, time to make the muffins. In a medium size bowl, whisk the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda together. Set aside.

Next, in a medium bowl, your mixing bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree, and vegetable oil. Mix until combined well. When combined, start adding the dry ingredients slowly until they are well incorporated with the wet ingredients.

The next step is assembling the muffins. I use a 1/4 cup scoop to fill my muffin pans. You are going to want to just fill the bottom layer of the muffin liner with the mix. After all have been lined with mix, get the cream cheese out of the freezer, slice into 24 pieces and place the cream cheese into the mix, press down. Now fill the rest of the muffin liner up. Sprinkle with the topping, be generous, you want all of this topping to be used.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!

Enjoy!

Happy Cooking,
The Barbee Housewife