Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Okay, so these are incredible!  Make sure you freeze the cream cheese, otherwise it can get extremely messy.  I didn't make the topping, but I'm sure it's delicious.  I halved the recipe, and it turned out perfectly.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins (from Annie's Eats)
Ingredients:
Filling:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Muffins:
1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp each of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tbsp flour
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and mix until well blended and smooth.  Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  Freeze at least 2 hours.

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350 deg F.  Line muffin pan with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine 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 and oil.  Mix on medium-low speed until combined.  With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing until incorporated.

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

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom (1-2 tbsp).  Slice the log of cream cheese into 12 equal pieces.  Place a slice of cream cheese in to 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 (otherwise the cream cheese will be VERY hot!)

Notice that one is missing?  :)

Banana Sourdough Muffins

While my last recipe post had a ton of pictures, but lacked a recipe, this is exactly the opposite.  I've made these muffins 2 or 3 times now, and somehow I have managed to avoid taking a picture!  When I made them, I was searching for a recipe where I could use my sourdough starter in a quick bread, just like when I made the sourdough scones.  These muffins are delicious, and have a really great texture.  Just make them!

Recipe: Banana Sourdough Muffins (from The Fresh Loaf)
Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (I always add less)
1 cup mashed banana
1 cup sourdough starter (mine is kept at a 1:1 ratio by weight, and this can be used before or after feeding)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't use)
1 tsp vanilla or 1 tsp orange zest (I used vanilla)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.  Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg and mix until blended.  Stir in bananas and sourdough starter.  Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, stir just until combined.  Pour either into a greased 9x5 loaf pan, or into muffin cups, either greased or with paper liners.  Bake the loaf for ~1 hr or the muffins for 20-30 minutes.  They are done when a toothpick comes out still moist.  The first time I made these, I overbaked them slightly because they still looked underdone.  They continue cooking in the pan after you take it out, trust me!

Pumpkin Banana Muffins

I used to make this bread all the time while I was in undergrad.  I have recently been craving pumpkin bread, and I had some overripe bananas to use up.  I halved the recipe, and made it into muffins instead.  It made 12 regular muffins and 12 mini muffins (that were a bit on the small side).  Now I just have to figure out what to do with the leftover pumpkin!

Pumpkin Banana Muffins (adapted from Spark People)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp canola oil
2 eggs
1 overripe banana, mashed
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup buttermilk
Nonstick cooking spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl, and make a well in the center.
Mix the sugars, oil, eggs, banana, pumpkin and buttermilk well, in a medium bowl.
Pour the liquid into the dry mixture, and fold together with a spatula until just combined.
Spray a standard muffin pan and a mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Using an ice cream scooper, fill the standard muffin pan.  If there is leftover batter, fill the mini muffin pan.
Bake regular muffins 20 minutes and mini muffins 10 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

This is my go-to banana bread recipe.  I love it because it uses a TON of bananas, which both helps to clear out my freezer stash, and gives it a great banana flavor.  I've made it in every size imaginable - standard muffins, mini muffins, jumbo muffins, 9x5 loaf, mini loaves...I think you get the point.  Sometimes I do it with just chocolate chips, and sometimes I do it with cinnamon and pecans.  I got it from this great cookbook called "Muffins" (very appropriate).  I've used the recipe so many times that I should know it by heart, but the book automatically flips open to it.
Oh, and the recipe claims that it makes 12 muffins, but I always fill the batter to the top, and I get at least 18 muffins every time.  This time I got 20.

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins (from Muffins)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
5-6 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (I didn't have minis, so I used 2/3 cup regular sized chips)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray (or use liners).
In large bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.  Add eggs and bananas; mix well.
in separate bowl, combine flour with salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Stir in creamed mixture just until moistened.  Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

A twist on blueberry muffins

After making the strata, I only had a little bit of goat cheese left.  I wasn't going to be making any dinner items for a while, since the strata had a ton of leftovers, so I decided to bake with it.  I came across this recipe, and was intrigued.  I had all of the ingredients already with the exception of the blueberry jam, which sounded so good I wanted to buy it even if I didn't make this recipe.  I actually didn't have enough goat cheese, so I used some cream cheese to get it up to 1/2 cup.  The blueberries were in the freezer from last summer.  This was my only problem with the recipe - I think the blueberries were from the very end of the summer, and they weren't very sweet.  I probably should have checked them out before using them, but they definitely didn't ruin the muffins.  They were just less sweet than I would have liked.  My only change was to use 1/3 cup instead of 1/4 cup sugar.  (If you hadn't noticed - I like sweet.)
I got a TON of muffins from this recipe.  I used paper liners, and used my ice cream/cookie scoopers to get the same size for all of them.  I used my big disher for the full sized muffins and got 12, then used my small disher and got 9 additional mini muffins.  If making mini muffins, make sure to adjust the baking time.
I put most of the full-sized muffins in the freezer so I can enjoy them whenever I'm in a rush.  Of course it's going to be Passover in just a few days, so I'll have to wait until that is over to enjoy the rest.
(I made these on the 24th.)

Recipe: Blueberry Goat Cheese Cornmeal Muffins (adapted slightly from Lisa's Kitchen)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp sea salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk (I used whole milk)
1/2 cup goat cheese, mashed (I used mostly goat cheese, and got to 1/2 cup with some 1/3 less fat cream cheese)
1/2 cup blueberry jam (preferably one sweetened with fruit juice)
1/4 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don't thaw them, just use them frozen)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F.  Line a 12 cup muffin tin (and a 12 cup mini muffin tin) with paper liners.  In a large bowl, mix the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
In a medium bowl, beat the egg, and mix in the milk, goat cheese, jam, butter, and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with 1-2 tbsp of the dry mixture.  This will prevent them from sinking in the batter.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix just slightly.  Before the ingredients have fully combined, fold in the blueberries.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups - I used a disher to get the same sized muffins.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  (It will take less time for mini muffins - maybe ~10 minutes.)  Let them cool on a wire rack.  They taste great warm!