Quite awhile ago, when I was talking up the deliciousness of Pumpkin Cake, my friend Ben mentioned having pumpin muffins with cream cheese filling. Sounded intriguing, so I hit the internet for a recipe. The muffins I tried out were indeed delicious as well, with a creamy cheese filling. Good for lunches too, because there’s no need to bring along an extra spread!

This is the recipe I used, but there are many different variations out there. This one is so sweet, it’s really almost a cupcake rather than a muffin, and there were some recipes with less sugar, if you’re into that sort of thing….

* 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 3 Tbsp brown sugar
* 4 1/2 Tbsp flour
* 5 tablespoons white sugar
* 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
* 3 Tbsp butter
* 3 Tbsp chopped pecans
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 cups white sugar
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 2 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/3 cups canned or fresh purreed pumpkin
* 1/3 cup olive oil
* 2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375. Grease 18 muffin cups, or use liners.
Filling: Beat cream chees until soft. Mix in egg, vanilla and brown sugar.
Topping: Mix flour, sugar cinnamon, and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbled.
Batter: Mix 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.
Spoon batter into muffin cups until 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 edges or the paper cup. Top with remaining batter. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.