Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

I needed another muffin recipe for my in-service day tomorrow, and I knew I wanted to do this one from Brooke. I had starred this long ago and never got around to making to them; I was pysched to get to them today!

I obviously have to wait until tomorrow to try them out, but the batter? Oh. My. God. So good and tasty. And I adore dump-and-mix steps - no worries about the order of the ingredients and additions!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour


• 1 tsp cinnamon


• 1 tsp nutmeg


• 1 tsp ground cloves


• 4 tsp pumpkin pie spice


• Pinch of cardamom (optional) (I omitted because I didn't have any.)


• 1 tsp salt


• 1 tsp baking soda


• 4 eggs


• 2 cups sugar


• 2 cups canned pumpkin


• 1 ¼ cups vegetable oil


• 8 oz package cream cheese*


• Chopped nuts (I omitted.)

*The best cream cheese to use is the cheesecake flavored kind (I used plain because I didn't even notice this note until I was blogging about it - whoops!). Put the entire tub or brick on a piece of tin foil, and shape it into a long log. Put it in the freezer while you mix and fill the pans, up to an hour. Unwrap and cut with a sharp knife. If the disks are too big around, cut thick slices and then cut them in half. This keeps the cream cheese in one big lump, and also lets you push it down into the batter. (Best. Tip. Ever.)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix ingredients together except cream cheese and nuts. Fill muffin tins (greased or paper cups) half full. Put 1-2 tsp cream cheese in the middle, pressing down. (Make sure you really get it in there - I didn't do mine deep enough, and I ended up with raised blocks. I had to smooth it out immediately after taking them out of the oven.) Sprinkle with 1 tsp chopped nuts. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the muffin part (do not touch the cream cheese!). Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to racks to cool completely. Do not touch the cream cheese until it cools, as it is very very hot.

Makes 24 muffins.