Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins
OMG – these were the first words I muttered to myself when I took my first bite of these muffins. They are amazing. A-MAZ-ING. They are so moist, and that swirl of cream cheese? Nothing like it. I added a little maple syrup extract (maple syrup would work too) to the cream cheese mixture just to give it a hint of maple but I am sure they would be just as delish with the straight vanilla. I hope you give these try. Enjoy.
Ingredients
1¾ cup all purpose flour
1 TBSP pumpkin spice (I didn’t have that so I used 1 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. ground ginger, and ½ tsp. ground cloves)
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 (15 oz. can pure pumpkin puree)
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
1 TBSP vanilla extract
Swirl Ingredients
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla extract (I used 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. maple syrup extract)
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place paper cups into muffin tins, if desired, set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, pumpkin spice(s), baking soda, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, sugar and brown sugar.
Beat in eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Slowly whisk in the flour mixture, until there are no lumps. Fill muffin tins ¾ full.
In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in sugar, egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
Top each muffin with about 1 TBSP of cream cheese mixture and use a toothpick to swirl into the batter. This will not look smooth, but it will bake up just fine.
Bake muffins for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
These are best at room temperature or slightly chilled. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Yield: 18 muffins
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