Stuffed Pumpkin Muffins

Today I rolled up my sleeves and tried my hand at some baking again.  As you may know baking is not my strong suit--or maybe I should say my first love in the kitchen.  But, I found a recipe that I could not pass up...Two Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins.  It had me at "two ingredients."  Part of the reason why I loathe baking is all of the measuring.  I hate to measure.  To be honest it is really difficult a lot of the time to remember how much of something I add to a recipe which makes blogging difficult when I have to draft the recipe.  So, if something doesn't turn out just right, I probably had the amount wrong and wasn't measuring.  Sorry!  

Anyway, back to these muffins--yeah, two ingredients! Awesome!  Just combine pumpkin puree from a can and yellow cake mix.  Perfection. However, seemed kinda boring so I modified things just a bit--added a cream cheese filling and a crunchy cinnamon streusel to the top, no big deal.  These things came out moist (sorry for those of you who hate that word but its very fitting) and crunchy on top.  These were very easy and you really could leave off the topping and filling but really why would you want to do that?  You don't, trust me.  

So, happy fall.  Make these muffins and be sure to have a large glass of milk handy.  

Musical selection: What I wouldn't Do by: A Fine Frenzy.  For some reason it sounds like fall.  And I would like to think that if I was little and saw Mr. Schwartz I would make him mud pies. Yep, a week later and still cheesy. 

Start with the filling....just combine cream cheese and powdered sugar together.  Take it from me, using room temperature cream cheese is much easier. 

Anyway, stir it up.

Plop it out onto some plastic wrap.  I didn't think I had any of this left, good thing I did. We are a Press and Seal household.  Feel free to tell Glad, I'm looking for some sponsors : ) 

Roll it out into a log shape and put it in the freezer for about an hour. 

Meanwhile work on the streusel topping.  Add white sugar.

Flour...

Cinnamon

And cut up cold butter...

Together in a bowl.

I used a pastry cutter but feel free to use a fork, that would work too. Set it aside until you are ready to use it. Don't worry if there are a few larger clumps. It will be okay. I promise.

Here you go, the only two things you really need to make pumpkin muffins.  Wow, seriously who knew.  This is fantastic by the way, keep these in your pantry just incase.  You can thank me when you need to make muffins for some random reason in a pinch this fall.

Put them in the bowl...

Add some pumpkin pie spice..

And give it a mix.

For scooping I used my smaller cookie scoop from Pampered Chef.  I took a picture of both because one is actually for measuring muffins.  You don't want to use that for this recipe and you will see why soon.  And BTW--thanks for the scoops Ma.  I'll pop a few of these muffins in the freezer for you, I think you will loooove them.

Anyway, use the baby scoop to scoop one scoop per lined muffin cup.  Scoop, Scoop Scoop Scoop. How many times can I say scoop?

Okay, sorry, next cut a hunk off of the cream cheese log that was in the freezer and...

Place it on top of the first scoop of dough.  I pressed it down a bit but I'm not 100% sure that is needed.

Top with another baby scoop.

And then top with the streusel.

You can see here I pressed it down just a bit to it would stick to the muffins.  Bake in the oven for about 35 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Your kitchen will smell amazing.

These little streusel topped cuties will come out.

Success!!!

Close up of pumpkin goodness.

Check out that filling. Amazing.  These are seriously fantastic.  Just beware, if you are as eager to try them as I was you will end up with a fantastic burn on the roof of your mouth.  I speak from experience, the cream cheese center is pure magma.  Worth it, yes.  But, you might want to give it 10 minutes instead of 10 seconds of cooling.  

Also, check out this recipe and some of my other favorites at Tasty Kitchen.com

Stuffed Pumpkin Muffins 

• 1 block 8oz Cream Cheese
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• ½ sticks Butter, Cold
• 5 Tablespoons Flour
• ½ cups White Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 box Yellow Cake Mix
• 1 can 12 Oz Pumpkin Puree (not Pumpkin Pie Filling)
• 1-½ teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

Combine cream cheese and powdered sugar by mixing in a small bowl. Place into a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a 10 inch long 1 inch wide roll. Twist the ends of this roll and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Meanwhile, combine the butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl with a pastry cutter or fork. This should resemble large grainy sand. Set aside.

Mix together the cake mix, pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer.

Once the cream cheese mixture has had time to harden, fill the paper lined muffin tins 1/2 full with the cake batter mixture. Cut a 1/2 by 1/2 inch section off of the cream cheese log and place on the cake batter that is in the muffin cup. Top with another scoop of cake batter dough. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of streusel mix on top. Press lightly so it adheres to the muffin.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes.

Enjoy with a large glass of milk.

Recipe adapted from: Here