It's fall, and time to indulge my love of all things pumpkin. Pumpkin pasta, pumpkin gratin, pumpkin pie, that ever-popular pumpkin spice latte and — perhaps most of all — pumpkin muffins. I love having a warm, tender muffin in the morning for breakfast. These fit the the bill, spiced and moist. But fall will be over so quickly, and winter will be here, so I decided to make sure these would carry through properly to the holidays! Why not a little swirl of eggnog-flavored cream cheese? Pumpkin and eggnog? This is one clash of holiday flavors that I love, and I hope you will too!
I confess I love just about any muffin or cupcake a little better when there's cream cheese involved. These get just a swirl — not too sweet, and not too much — of cream cheese spiced with nutmeg and livened up with rum. It's a little kick of eggnog in the tender, gingery muffin. Some of cream cheese filling spills over the top in a swirl, and some of it stays in the center of the muffin as a creamy surprise.
Muffins are perhaps the best take-and-go breakfast, and they can double as a snack or even dessert. Top one of these off with a squirt of whipped cream for a not-too-sweet little cake to close a fall meal of soup and salad.
Pumpkin Muffins with Eggnog Cream Cheese Swirl
makes 12 muffinsFor the filling
8 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature for an hour
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon dark rum
3/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
For the muffins
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups pureed pumpkin
1 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsulphured dark molasses
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Dash of freshly-ground black pepper
To make the filling, whip the softened cream cheese with a whisk or hand mixer until very smooth and creamy. Whip in the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, rum, nutmeg, and cinnamon. (Can be made a day ahead and chilled in the refrigerator, if desired.)
To make the muffins, heat the oven to 375°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
Whisk together the melted butter, eggs, and pumpkin. Add the brown sugar and molasses and whisk until smooth. Dump in the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper, and whisk until just combined. The batter will be relatively thick.
Take out about 3/4 cup batter and set aside. Divide the remaining batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups. They will be nearly full. Use a spoon to poke a deep cavity in the center of each muffin, and fill this cavity with the chilled cream cheese mixture. Put a tablespoon of the reserved batter on top of the filling.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the filling in the center is puffed and set, just barely golden brown, and the muffin batter is fully cooked through. Cool at least 5 minutes before eating.
If you're feeling celebratory, serve with a squirt of whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg.
Store for up to 5 days at room temperature in a covered container.
More Fall Muffins
• Spiced Pear Muffins
• Whole Grain Morning Glory Muffins
• Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Cheddar and Leek Muffins
• Quick and Homey Oatmeal Raisin Muffins
(Images: Faith Durand)
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These are on the list for this weekend- yum!
oh man, these look so gorgeous and I can almost taste the heavenly flavors together! A girl can imagine, right?
The directions for the filling indicate to whip ingredients which include cream, but the ingredients fo the filling have sugar listed and not cream. I believe sugar is the ingredient to be included in the filling directions, correct?
Yep - thanks lsimenson!
Is there any suggested alternatives for the molasses? Wouldn't know where to start looking for it where I live!
I made these pumpkin-cream cheese-streusel muffins this weekend, after a brief search for pumpkin muffins on foodblogsearch.com and they are delicious!
http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/10/18/pumpkin-cream-cheese-muffins-pecan-streusel/
If you live in the US, I'd be really surprised if molasses was not available at a local market. I live in the boonies and all the supermarkets here have it, especially now that baking season is upon us. But, if you can't find it or don't like it, just Google "substitute for molasses," and there are a lot of options.
Easier way than trying to scoop out a hole in the wet batter for the filling: put the filling in a piping bag or just a plain ziplock bag with a 1 inch wide hole cut in one corner. Fill the cupcake liners equally with all the batter, push the tip of your piping bag below the surface of the batter in each cup and squirt some filling in, keeping that tip below the surface.
Before baking I'd go back in and do a small swirl with a chopstick or something to distribute the filling, because I love swirled things :)
I am in Australia and it is spring, I have a Mulberry tree with the most delicious berries and instead of blueberry and white choc chip muffins (yum) I substituted the blueberry for mulberries and it was sensational. Will try your muffins but not sure if we have molasses down here, will have a look. Thanks.
I made these yesterday and they were delicious! Kind of made a gooey mess but it was totally worth it.
The only thing I would do differently is try to get the filling closer to the middle. Next time I would fill the cupcake liners about half way, pipe in the filling, then spoon in the rest of the batter. I also had a bit of filling leftover, so maybe I would swirl that around on the top!
I made these a couple of weeks ago and they are amazing! I used neufchatel (low fat cream cheese) because that is what I had on hand...Love the idea of piping the filling right into the middle...I think I will try that next time. I'm sot sure making a hole, filling it with cream cheese, and then putting a little more batter on top was very effective, and I would love to get a result similar to the muffins at Starbucks that have the cream cheese inside. Piping it in just might be the answer! I also ended up with 16 muffins, rather than 12. This is a real keeper and I've shared it with friends who love pumpkin treats. Thanks for a great recipe!
I made these as I LOVE pumpkin...however, the molasses completely overpowered everything. I would not make them again. If you do make them, be aware that you'll taste mostly molasses (which I normally like but this was a bit much). Also, I'd refrigerator them after eating - they got a little weird at room temperature (mushy and melty) and I worried abt the cheese content (though I'm a worry wart w that sort of thing).