Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

These could easily be my favorite muffins EVER.  It’s probably a little deceiving to call them muffins and not cupcakes, but I’m just following suit of that ever-so-famous coffee chain for which these are a knock off recipe J

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Modified from Annie’s Eats

Yields 24 Muffins

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

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 ziplock bag, and reserve for later.

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.  Sometimes when I'm in a hurry, I just give a few shakes of cinnamon/sugar mixture to the top. 

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).  Cut a corner off the plastic bag containing the cream cheese mixture.  Pipe in a small dollop of the cream cheese mixture onto each muffin.  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.