Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins

I love the coziness of fall baking. The warm spices of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. The roasting of pumpkins wafting from the oven, it's all so comforting. I am definitely on the side of pumpkin spice everything in the fall but unfortunately my husband is not. However, these pumpkin muffins are a hit because of their delicious cream cheese filling. A moist pumpkin muffin, warm spices, creamy filling, crunchy struesel and I even managed to sneak in some whole wheat and oat flours! These muffins are a family favourite now.

Ingredients:

Muffin Batter:

3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup oat flour (you can pulse oats in the food processor to make this or substitute other flour)

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice*

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 cups pumpkin puree

3/4 cup maple syrup

2 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup oil (I use olive)

Struesel:

2 tbsp butter melted

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup pepitas

6 tbsp whole wheat flour

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch salt

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese at room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Struesel:

In a small bowl whisk together everything but the butter. Add the melted butter and mix with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.

Filling:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth, add sugar and vanilla extract and mix until well combined, smooth and creamy. Scrape into a smaller bowl and set aside.

Muffin batter:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with muffin cups.

• In a medium bowl whisk together whole wheat flour, oat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin spice, cinnamon and salt.

• In the bowl of a stand mixer mix pumpkin puree and maple syrup until well combined.

• Add eggs and vanilla, mix until well combined.

• Scrape down sides of bowl, add oil and mix until well combined.

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined, stopping to scrape sides of bowl.

• Place about 2 tablespoons of batter into the bottom of each muffin cup so that the bottom is covered. Add about 1 tablespoon of cream cheese filling, making sure it stays in the middle of your batter. Use up all of the filling and divide evenly amongst the muffin cups.

• Scoop the rest of the batter into the muffins cups, this will cover the cream cheese filling and should leave you with very full muffin cups.

• Bake at 400 for 18-22 min until a toohpick inserted into the side of the muffin comes out clean (since the centre will have cream cheese in it.

• Let cool in muffin tin for about 20-30 min until easy to handle. Then remove to the wire rack to finish cooling. Store in an air tight container for up to 3 days or freeze.

• Enjoy!

*If you are looking to make your own Pumpkin Spice mix I combine:

4 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp allspice

1/2 cloves