Pumpkin & Cream Cheese Muffins

Ladies, I have a real treat for you today!  Not only do I have the most awesome Pumpkin Muffin recipe ever, but my sweet sister Kathi agreed to write up a post to go with it as this is a recipe that she created herself!

Enjoy!

Hello Friends:

As a child I remember sitting by my mother while she was in the kitchen cooking and baking.  The smells were marvelous and I sat in awe as she added a little of this and a little of that and made something out of nothing.  She was always such a good cook and still is.

Naturally, I carried the cooking that I learned from my mother into my own family.  It truly is one of my favorite past times and since my son, daughter and husband are especially fond of eating….a lot, I find myself in the kitchen quite often.  I also suffer from a great deal of food allergies so everything I cook or bake must be from scratch.

This time of year I make quite a few quick breads, cakes and muffins but I get bored with making the same thing.  I read cookbooks like most people read novels.  You can go just about anywhere in my house and find a cookbook or cooking magazine out with sticky flags marking all the pages of recipes that sound interesting.

A couple of weeks ago I had been looking at recipes and decided I needed to create my own.  With it being the season for pumpkins, I pulled out a can of pumpkin and said, ok…..lets create.
The general principal for muffins is easy and having made so many I knew mostly what I needed.  I knew I wanted a muffin more the consistency of a cupcake; so light that it almost floats away.  I also knew I wanted something different.  As I’m adding the ingredients I remembered that Pam always adds chocolate chips to everything….yes, I do mean everything.
Couldn’t add chocolate; everyone adds raisins or nuts; I needed something different.  Therefore, I added cream cheese chunks.  I previously tried cream cheese chunks in quick breads and that was very good so I knew I could make that work.

Batter mixed, cream cheese added, cupcake papers ready to go, oven warming and the cinnamon smell was wafting through the air.

After baking the muffins, I placed them on the cooling rack and my husband couldn’t stand it.  He showed up in the kitchen plate in hand and asked me if it was time yet…in case you haven’t figured it out; my husband is the biggest of my children and probably the worse one.
I watched as my husband gobbled down one, two, four, six gone in one sitting.  As much as he likes to eat, this was a bit unusual.  He then proceeded to tell my son that he had better get one while there are still some available.  The label was given as  the best muffins he had ever eaten and told me to write down the recipe right away before I forget how I made them.  So I did.  Now you can make them and be the judge yourself.

Have a great day!


Kathi

Here's the recipe:

PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS

2  1/2 cups Flour
1/2 cup Self-Rising Flour
1 cup Sugar
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 can Pumpkin
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Melted Butter
3 tablespoons Canola Oil
2 Eggs
4 oz Cream Cheese Cubed into 1/2 inch cubes

Heat over to 400 degrees  Mix all ingredients in order.  Fold in Cream Cheese cubes.  Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.  Sprinkle with Cinnamon Sugar.  Bake 15-20 minutes.  Remove from pan to cool.

This recipe is light, fluffy and oh so yummy!

Note:  if you don't have any Self-Rising Flour on hand, you can make it yourself.

1 cup Self-Rising Flour = 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder + 1/8 teaspoon salt.