Pumpkin Muffins: An October Tribute

It's OCTOBER!
All is well in my world.

I could go to Starbucks every single day and order a Pumpkin drink - cold or hot - to relish this cooler weather and not feel the slightest bit guilty after the Summer we've had.  

Fall has never tasted so good let me tell you.

And speaking of Fall tasting good, I have been tasting of it profusely and you're gonna love this slice of October below.

These pumpkin muffins are perfect for crisp mornings on the deck, Bible in one hand, coffee in the other.  Or eating as an after-work snack while you catch up with the hubby.  Think apple cider in mugs with your girlfriend.  Or paper bags with these goodies all sewed up inside and hand delivered to your neighbors.  

Am I the only one who thinks food is romantic?

Seriously though.  How is that not romantic?

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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins 
{Topped with Cinnamon Streusel}

Yield: 24 muffins

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

4 eggs

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups pumpkin puree

For the filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

For the streusel topping:

½ cup sugar

¼ cup and 1 tsp. flour

4 tbsp. butter, cubed

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip until smooth. Form into a log on plastic wrap or foil, making sure that the diameter is small enough to fit into the well of a muffin pan. Wrap the log up tightly and freeze until slightly hardened, 1-2 hours.

To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

To make the streusel topping, combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well halfway with batter. Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer and slice into 24 equal slices. Place a slice in each muffin well. Divide the remaining muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups, on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.





And a few photos of my process...

Mixing the cream cheese with the powdered sugar...oh what combination could be better?

When finished, it should be this consistency...

 

I buttered my tinfoil for the cream cheese fill and it worked beautifully for me when it was time to unroll again. 

 Stuck it in the freezer rolled up like this...

 

Did you know that painting a chalkboard wall while your log is freezing will make it good and ready when you come back to it?  My cream cheese log had been in the freezer for about 2.5 hrs. by the time I got back to her and she was good and solid - making handling much easier.

When I 'm ready to get going on the muffins, I like to make my streusel first since I don't have a pastry cutter and cutting up the butter into the sugar/flour mixture by hand with 2 knives is a little time consuming.

Doesn't it look good already???

I made the batter.

  I aspired to take pictures of this process for you, but life takes over.  Hubby gets home from work, kids start waking up from their naps, you realize you haven't had a shower all day, and photo op of your food gets pushed low down on the priority list...you get the picture. :-)

After the batter was made, I pulled the cream cheese log out of the freezer and unrolled it, removed the tin foil, and cut it in slices on my cutting board. This is the easiest way I've found to do this, as long as you've buttered your tinfoil earlier. 

My cream cheese pieces weren't perfect little discs, but I smooshed mine down in the batter and I like having the center just one big cream cheese piece....YUM.

Covered with more batter.

And sprinkled with streusel topping.  Get ready for the house to smell delish while it's baking.  Not that I would know really, since my nose hasn't been functioning since ragweed season hit us.  But a girl can imagine.  Especially a girl who thinks food is romantic.



But can't you just smell that muffin through the computer screen?

Please let me know if you make these and it'll be like I made them all over again...


Happy October y'all!!!