Pumpkin (Surprise!) Cream Cheese Muffins

GAH! This week totally ran away from me! Too much on my mind. Waiting for my new phone, new tablet, cases and screen protectors for both, Old Navy refunds (I ordered an XS and they sent me a M. Argh!) befuddled home loan paperwork, still waiting on a move-in date, planning for our trip next Wednesday... A lot on my mind! But the one thing that keeps me from being stressed??

It's FALL!! It's official, the leaves are turning fast!! In celebration of a gorgeous Fall season that actually feels like one this year, a re-post of my favorite muffin recipe of ALL time. Ever. I've been known to polish off eight of these at once. It wasn't my fault, I was on heavy meds at the time. But it was worth it :) I love these muffins with all my heart and the only people I know who don't like them are my kids, unfortunately. Oh well, more for me!!

Pumpkin (Surprise!) Cream Cheese Muffins
Printable Recipe

2 cups flour

1 Tb baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup pumpkin

2 eggs

1 package cream cheese

1 small jar apricot jam (peach and plum are both delicious too!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a muffin pan.

Mix dry ingredients together well. Add everything else and mix well until smooth. (Simple, huh?)

Spoon a large spoonful of batter into the bottom of each muffin cup.

Cut about tablespoon-sized chunks of cream cheese for each muffin cup, and press them into the batter just a bit. Just eyeball it, precision measuring is not important here! (I adore cream cheese, so I put a LOT in these!!)

Spoon about a teaspoon of jam on top of each cream cheese chunk. 

Divide the rest of the batter among all cups, to cover filling. Gently spread the top batter just a bit to make sure it meets the bottom batter around the edges (so the filling isn't exposed). Sprinkle coarse sugar on top (my mom used to top these with sliced almonds too, but my boys aren't fans)

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Wait a few minutes for them to cool a bit, or the filling will be HOT!!

I made this batch with two different jams, half Spiced Plum and half Peach Vanilla Bean. (I'm not a total over-achiever, I swear, homemade jam is all I have around right now!) Both matched amazingly well with the spiced pumpkin muffin!! The peach ones had almonds on top, the other half just with turbinado sugar. I love using turbinado, it's so crunchy!

These are a quintessential Fall muffin, especially if you use a Fall-ish jam on the inside. You hand one to someone and they think, "Oh, nice, a pumpkin muffin." Little do they know...

 Jam AND warm, rich, delicious cream cheese wait for you in the middle! These muffins are best served warm, but are still scrumptious for days after they've been baked. I like to cut them in half, then each bite has some jam and cream cheese in it.

Can you see why I can wolf down most of a batch in one sitting?? Try my favorite muffin in the WHOLE world!!