Cinnamon Sugar Coated Mini Pumpkin Muffins

Fall is seriously my favorite time of year....the weather gets cooler making it easier to do more outside, the trees start changing color and out come the warm up your soul foods; soups, stews, baked dishes and delicious baked goods. One of foods that I get super excited about come Fall is the pumpkin...ah who am I kidding....I love me some pumpkin all year round. Fall just allows me to use it more often!

I love cutting, roasting and pureeing our pumpkins after Halloween each year. Even though it is quite a time consuming process it is totally worth it to package it up in freezer bags. Then I have fresh pumpkin to use in whatever we'd like throughout the year to come!! Soups, pies, cookies, muffins, beer...the list goes on and on!! Yummy!!

Thought I'd share with you all one of my favorite pumpkin muffin recipes...super easy and tasty tasty! When you make them mini they are almost like mini baked pumpkin doughnut holes...except healthier!!

                       mmmmmm!

 Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Muffins

Preheat oven to 350F

3 Eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Vanilla
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup fresh pureed pumpkin or canned
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup quick oats
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice

3-5 Tbsp cinnamon sugar (for coating)

Directions:
Mix together Eggs, Oil, Sugar, Vanilla & Pumpkin together in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl mix together Salt, Baking Powder, Flour, Quick Oats & Pumpkin Spice. Once dry ingredients have been combined slowly mix them into the wet ingredients until fully combined but don't over mix.
Spoon mixture into well oiled mini muffin tins. Bake for approx. 12 min or until cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool in pans for 3-5 min before running a knife around the edges and popping them out. Put them into a gallon zip lock bag with cinnamon sugar. I put 12 in at at time and gentle toss to coat. Add additional cinnamon sugar if needed as you work through coating the muffins.
Cool on a drying rack.
*Makes approx. 48 mini muffins. These freeze wonderfully and are great to pop out of the freezer and into a lunch bag! Recipe adapted from King Arthur.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins. Pure Deliciousness!!

I love love love pumpkin.... period dot. Personally I think it should be eaten whenever, wherever & at all times of the year, not just during the fall & winter seasons. That being said I try to make something with pumpkin in it as often as possible.

This past week I started craving something with pumpkin in it, and decided to make some Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins. The original recipe says that it's a spin off of Starbucks, but since I've never had Starbucks' Pumpkin Muffins I really have no idea. I do know however that these are delicious...and worth the time that it takes to make them.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins


Makes: 24 muffins


Ingredients:


Filling
8 oz. 1/3 fat cream cheese
1 cup powdered (confectioner) sugar


Muffins
2 cups bread flour
1 cup all-purpose whole wheat flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Dash of salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 cup vegetable oil (can substitute plain yogurt for 1/2 cup)


Muffin Topping
1/2 cup sugar
5 tbsp. Flour
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
4 tbsp. cold butter, chopped small
optional (1/4 cup) chopped nuts


Directions


First things first....you must plan ahead to make this recipe!! You need to make the filling at least 2 hours in advance so that it's firm enough that you can cut it into pieces for the individual muffin fillings later.


Mix the powdered sugar with the cream cheese until smooth & then spread into a log form, about 1 foot in length, in the middle of a piece of cling wrap. Roll the cling wrap closed, wrap in aluminum foil & place into freezer for at least two hours.

Once you've got your filling into the freezer start on the muffin topping mixture. Mix the sugar, flour & cinnamon together in a small bowl. With a fork mix the chopped butter in until the mixture is crumbly. Cover with cling wrap & place in your fridge until your ready to use it.


About an hour & half into the chilling of your cream cheese start making your muffin mixture. Turn on your oven at this point & preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix the eggs, pumpkin, oil/yogurt & sugar together in a bowl. In another bowl mix your dry ingredients; bread flour, whole wheat flour, spices, dash of salt & baking soda. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until they are fully blended. Spray your muffin tins with Pam & then fill them a quarter full with the muffin mixture. You can use muffin wrappers if you'd like but I find that they are much easier to freeze  and thaw later without the wrapper on.


Next comes the cream cheese filling. Take it out of the freezer and slice the cream cheese log into 24 slices. It's okay if it's not totally firm. I slice as I go & place each slice in the middle of one of the muffins. Place the rest of the muffin mixture on the tops of the filling for all of the muffins & then sprinkle the topping over each muffin. Bake for 20-25 min. Cool on wire rack....I think the muffins are best eaten slightly chilled but to each their own. If I'm craving one right away I'll let it cool on the wire rack, and then place it in the freezer inside of a plastic container for about 15 min. YUM!!!

Store in an air tight container in the fridge. To use as snacks throughout the next week, or month, freeze them!! They freeze fantastically. Place one or two to each ziplock sandwich bag and place in the freezer. They only take around 15 mins to thaw to a nicely chilled temperature, or you can microwave them for about 15 seconds if you're in a hurry!





Recipe Adapted from AnnieEats & BakeSpace