Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins

Fall is here!!! My absolute favourite time of the year!!! The weather, the colours, Thanksgiving, Pumpkins, Halloween and then Christmas :)

I found these amazing muffins on Pinterest (link to original blog post). The recipe makes a very large batch (24 standard muffins).  I made 12 standard size muffins, 6 large muffins and 12 mini muffins (with no filling). I honestly can't even begin to explain how GOOD they are!!! You will just have to make them so you can see for yourself!!!!

(As a side note: You could use pumpkin pie filling instead of the puree. If you do this, omit all the spices!)

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar

Muffins:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1 1/4 cup oil   

Topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 5 tbsp flour
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 tbsp cold butter, in pieces 

Directions:

1. Filling: mix ingredients together. Place on saran wrap and roll into a log until about 1 1/2" think. Wrap in tin foil and freeze for 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350* and line muffin pans with liners
3. Muffins: whisk first 7 ingredients together. In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil on medium low. On low, mix in dry ingredients until moistened.
4. Topping: whisk sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until crumbly.
5. To assemble muffins, add a small amount of batter to the muffin wells to just cover liner.  Cut filling log into 24 pieces, and add one piece to each well. Top with remaining batter to cover cream cheese. Sprinkle topping on each muffin.
6. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack (FILLING WILL BE HOT!!!!)