Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Today it was just me, Amber and Brittany for our group run. I'm sad to say that my little running group is dwindling. (I blame it on the cold! Ok, and maybe the holidays.) But that was kind of fun because they're the ones who have been running the longest so we didn't stick to the couch to 5k plan, and just ran.

We were going to do 5 miles, but at almost 2 miles, Amber's stroller tire had a huge blow out! It was kind of funny because she had those tubes with the green slime in them, so it was oozing out all over! Luckily Pete was at home, and I had a spare wheel that I thought might fit her stroller so I asked him to bring it to us. The wheel fit (what are the chances?!) so we just popped it in and finished our run. Since the flat tire had taken up quite a bit of time, we just ended up doing 3.8 miles. That was good, though. Amber said that was the farthest she's ran with her stroller. Yeah! It was a nice day for a little adventure on our run too. :)

This evening we had the sister missionaries over for dinner, and I made breakfast. We figured missionaries probably don't get good breakfast very often so it would be something different for them. I made eggs, sausage, orange slices and cream cheese filled pumpkin muffins. These muffins are my new favorite so I wanted to share the recipe. They're so good - I may or may not have eaten 5 of them!

I got the recipe from Annie's Eats, but I health-ified it a little:

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins
Ingredients:

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:
3 cups whole white wheat flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ apple sauce

For the topping:
½ cup brown sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours. (I didn't do this, I just mixed it then put it in by the spoonful)

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and apple sauce. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. (It may be hard to resist immediate consumption, but the cream cheese filling gets very hot!)