Fall is here!!!

Fake spider, I promise! I decorated for Halloween today, and I couldn't resist!

Okay not really. But we have cooled down to the seventies, and that is plenty of reason to bust out the pumpkin. I saw this recipe on Annie's Eats, who adapted the recipe from Bakespace, and knew that it would be my first pumping recipe of the year. They were amazing good, who doesn't love a little cream cheese filling when they bite into a cupcake! These were the perfect start to my fall baking, I can't wait to use the pumpkin left over in my fridge for something new. Or maybe I will just make these muffins again, they were that good. I brought them to my first day at my new job and made instant friends, so thanks Annie! Happy Fall baking friends!

Yummy cream cheese filling!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Yield: 24 muffins

INGREDIENTS:

For the muffins:
3 cups flour (I used white wholewheat 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 (I used 1/2 applesauce and 1/2 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. (Alright, so you should know that I skipped this step, because I wanted to eat the muffins now, I didn't want to wait 2 hours, and it worked out perfectly. I just used my tiny cookie scoop to drop the filling into each muffin)

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.