Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

Miss Annie's Note:

Try these treats on your next overnight guests, or for Thanksgiving, or Halloween. They are sure to be a hit. Courtesy of the Beaufort House Victorian Bed & Breakfast Inn

• Total Time: 47 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 22 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 24 Muffins

• 1 cup pumpkin
• 2⁄3; cup brown sugar , packed
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon clove
• ½ cup chopped walnuts or ½ cup pecans or ½ cup raisins

Filling Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons unbleached flour
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Mix all filling ingredients in a bowl.
2. Set aside while making muffin mix.
3. Works easier if you refrigerate while preparing muffin batter.
4. Heat oven to 400ºF.
5. Grease 24 muffin cups, or line with paper baking cups.
6. Beat pumpkin, brown sugar, milk, oil and eggs in a large bowl.
7. Stir in remaining ingredients, except walnuts, just until flour is moistened.
8. Fold in walnuts.
9. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.
10. Fill a piping bag with the cream cheese mixture, and using a wide tip, push the piping tip into the muffin batter.
11. Gently squeeze the cream cheese mixture out of the piping bag.
12. Then lift the piping bag out and repeat for all 24 muffins.
13. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
14. Immediately remove from pan.

Reviews

[miss gracie]

Oh, Miss Annie, these muffins are WONDERFUL!! I made them for a Halloween morning meeting at work, and they received rave reviews from the whole crowd. I forgot to add the nuts to the muffin mixture and did not realize my mistake until they were already in the muffin pans. (Hey, it was 5:30 a.m. and I had not yet had my morning cup of tea!) I quickly mixed up a crumb topping, added it to the top of the muffins after I had piped in the cream cheese, and baked the muffins as per the recipe. (Crumb topping: 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon mixed together with 2 tablespoons melted butter.) The topping was a great addition; I think I will continue to forget the nuts mixed into the muffin batter. Oh, I also decreased the amount of baking powder in the recipe since it seemed excessive - I used about 3 teaspoons instead of 5 and the muffins were perfect. If my baking powder had been fresher, I might have cut it down to 2 teaspoons. Thanks for a great recipe. I'l make these again and again!

[Diane Hathaway]

Yummy! Yummy! Yummy! Tried these yesterday and they're gone today! I'll try these again with the topping Miss Gracie suggested but they are wonderful without it. Thanks for the recipe!

[shannonA]

I made these last week and they weren't quite what I expected. They all got eaten throughout the week, but I wasn't too crazy about them.