Tasty Tuesday – Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling

To make it simpler lets start with the “cake” part of the muffin (batter 1 & batter 2). 
Muffin C is made with batter 1, the lighter and fluffier of the two. (very thick batter!)
Muffins A and B are made with batter 2, the denser and slightly more “pumpkin flavored” version.

Then we have the three fillings:

Filling A is a cube of straight cream cheese cut right from the block. This was the easiest to assemble, but had a more “sour” taste than what I was looking for. It also made the muffins tiny and sunken in the centers. (maybe something to do with it being on the cooler side?)

Filling B is cream cheese mixed with a splash of vanilla and a bit of powdered sugar. (I like to refer to it as Fluff.) This one didn’t have exact amounts because I was kinda just throwing things together in order to get the right flavor, but if I had to guess I’d say 8oz cream cheese + 1/4 c. powdered sugar + 1/2 tsp. vanilla. You can easily adjust the amounts according to your personal tastes.

Filling C didn’t seem to hold up as well as the other two. It may have had something to do with the fact that there was brown sugar and an egg mixed into the cream cheese. This was part of the recipe for batter 1 above.

Muffin:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdwerd sugar

Topping:
4 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour 20 muffin cups, or use paper liners.
2. To make the filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add vanilla and sugar. Beat until smooth, then set aside.
3. For the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.
4. For the muffin batter: In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a  well in the center of flour mixture and add eggs, pumpkin, olive oil and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.
5. Place pumpkin mixture in muffin cups about 1/2 full. Then add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle of the batter. Try to keep cream cheese from touching the paper cup. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.
6.Bake at 375 degrees F (195 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

Have any of you ever gone through this much trouble for a special recipe?