I’d like to welcome fall with these pumpkin muffins. It all starts with a can of this:
which eventually turns into this..
and CHOMP!:
Pet names— What’s your take on them? Before I dated my DB, I was the kind of girl that cringed every time I heard “honey,” “sugar,” “sweetie,” “muffin”… I just didn’t understand why people had the need to call each other food names when they had a perfectly functioning birth name.
I never used pet names with previous boys that I dated, and they never used it with me. But all of a sudden, nearly three years ago, a boy answered my phone call with “Hi, honey,” and turned me into the world’s biggest hypocrite. Somehow, I actually enjoyed those words leaving his mouth and three years later, we rarely refer to each other by our actual names anymore. How does that even happen?
Same thing goes for these muffins.. when I was little, I always told myself that I hated pumpkin. One day, I was given a slice of pumpkin pie at my friend’s house and I was sold. How did I hate this for 13 years of my life? Pumpkin was and still is amazing! I guess you just never know until you try.
All I can say about these muffins is HOLY GUACAMOLE! These are just about the most delicious pumpkin creation that I’ve tried yet. Given, I haven’t made very many pumpkin recipes (see here, here, and here), but when you know, you know. Slightly adapted from Ezra Pound Cake, which was originally adapted from Country Living.
Filling:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
Streusel:
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup pecans, chopped finely
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pumpkin Batter:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 15 oz can of pumpkin
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Cream Cheese Filling: Beat the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla, and blend to combine. Place the mixture in a bowl and put in the freezer until batter is ready.
For the Pecan Streusel: Combine flour, sugar, pecans, butter, and cinnamon. Set aside.
For the Pumpkin Batter:
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 muffin/cupcake cups. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, lightly beat the pumpkin, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- Mix in the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and spices) into the wet mixture until just combined.
- Remove the cream cheese from the freezer.
- Evenly divide half of the batter among the muffin cups. Place about a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture in the center of each cupcake. Fill with the remaining batter, completely covering the cream cheese.
- Sprinkle some of the pecan streusel on top of each muffin.
- Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
p.s. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway if you haven’t already. It ends tomorrow at midnight!
