I love pumpkin. I think I drive Luke a little crazy this time of year with all the pumpkin that comes out of our kitchen. I also love cream cheese, so really logically the next step is pumpkin muffins filled with cream cheese, right?
These muffins are a nice way to mix it up a bit and do something different. I think they would be a great addition to a nice brunch or even just a good cup of hot tea. They are good cold and at room temperature but if you pop them in the microwave for about 10-12 seconds the cream cheese filling gets nice and soft and warm. Mmmmm.
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups white flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups fresh pumpkin or 1 15ounce can of pumpkin
3 eggs
1 cup yogurt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple sauce.
8oz cream cheese
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons powder sugar
toasted pumpkin seeds (optional)
mini chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease muffin tin.
In medium bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.
In seperate bowl mix pumpkin, eggs, sugar, yogurt, and apple sauce. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix thoroughly.
To make filling using hand mixer blend cream cheese and powder sugar until cream cheese is smooth and sugar is fully incorpoated.
Add 1/8 cup batter to bottom of each muffin cup. Place 1 teaspoon sized ball of cream cheese on the center of the batter layer. Place one tablespoon of batter on top of cream cheese layer making sure that the cream cheese is covered by the batter. Divide any extra batter between the muffin cups. If using, sprinkle chocolate chips or pumpkin seeds over the top of the muffin.
Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes. Makes roughly 3 dozen muffins depending on the size of your muffin tins.
