Category Archives: Muffins and Scones

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Posted by Annie in Breakfast, Muffins and Scones

These muffins have basically everything you could want in a muffin- a moist, pumpkiny, spice filled cake, sweet cream cheese filling, and a light streusle topping.  All the different components make this a slightly time-consuming muffin, but it just takes a little planning ahead to freeze the cream cheese mixture for a few hours before you need it. I made the cream cheese mixture the night before and put it in the freezer so it would be ready to go in the morning.

Starbucks has a similar  muffin, but this homemade version is far superior!

I’m participating in a holiday recipe exchanged hosted by  My Baking Addiction and Good Life Eats. This week is sponsored by Spice Islands

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Ingredients

  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 1/2 tbl. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 15 oz. pumpkin puree
  • 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 5 tbl. flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 4 tbl. unsalted butter, cold
Directions
  1. Mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and pumpkin pie spice until smooth. Transfer to a piece of plastic wrap and form into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the cream cheese tightly and put in the freezer for at least two hours
  2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with paper liners.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda.
  4. Use a mixer to combine eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree, and oil. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
  5. Make the topping by using a pastry cutter (or two forks) to combine the butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon until it’s coarse and crumbly.
  6. Remove the cream cheese from the freezer and cut into 24 slices.
  7. Place 1-2 tbl. of batter into each muffin tin. Add a slice of cream cheese, and top with another 1-2 tbl. of batter. The cream cheese will rise some as it bakes, so make sure it’s near the bottom of the tin. Sprinkle generously with the topping; the topping will mostly melt into the surface of the muffin, so you can add quite a bit!
  8. Bake for about 20 minutes. Allow to cool in the muffin tin for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Makes: 24 muffins (I had some leftover batter, you might increase the cream cheese portion by 50% if you want to use all the batter- or you can just make some muffins without filling)
Adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Cinnamon Muffins

Posted by Annie in Muffins and Scones

For weeks, a helipad base camp was set up a few blocks from my house to fight the fire on a mountain overlooking the neighborhood. A few nights ago on my way home from work I drove past as the last trucks were leaving. After a summer that seemed way too long and hot, the weather is finally starting to cool down a bit and the smoke is clearing out. While I enjoy the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables that are available in the summer, I’m always excited for fall to get here. I love the cool weather, the brightly colored leaves and all the delicious flavors that are relegated to the back of the cupboards during spring and summer. The weather isn’t cool enough to make me want soup or casseroles just yet, but cinnamon muffins seemed like a great segue into fall.

These muffins not only have cinnamon chips in the batter, but a cinnamon swirl mixed into the batter also. And if that isn’t quite enough for you, there’s a cinnamon streusel too! If you want to make them even fancier, you could make a powdered sugar glaze to drizzle over it too, but they are perfectly delicious without it.

Thoughts about this recipe

  • I had to look in a few grocery stores to find cinnamon chips before finding them at Albertsons. If you want to save yourself from randomly driving around to different stores, you can use this search page to find them. Just select ‘baking products’ under the category menu, and ‘cinnamon chips’ under product.

Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients

Streusel Topping

  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
  • 1/4 cup quick-cook oatmeal
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 4 tbl. unsalted butter, softened
Filling
  • 3 tbl. unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tbl. ground cinnamon
Muffins
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup quick-cook oatmeal
  • 2 tbl. cornstarch
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tbl. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup cinnamon chips
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
  2. To make the topping, combine all the streusel ingredients in a bowl and stir with a fork until crumbly, then set aside
  3. To make the filling, combine all the filling ingredients and stir until smooth, then set aside
  4. To make the muffins, combine the melted butter, milk and eggs in a mixing bowl and stir until combined.
  5. In a different bowl, mix the flour, oats, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon chips together then add to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
  6. Drop approximately 2 tbl. of batter into each cupcake liner. Add 1 tsp of cinnamon filling and then top off with more muffin batter until the muffin tins are about 2/3 full. Sprinkle the streusel topping across the cupcakes.
  7. Bake for approximately 20 minutes
Makes: About 12-15 muffins
Adapted from The Curvy Carrot