Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

How can you go wrong when cream cheese and pumpkin are joined in holy matrimony? These muffins were divine! Thank you to www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/

For the filling:

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

For the muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup vegetable oil

For the topping:

1/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 Tbsp flour

3/4 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

To prepare the filling, combine cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1 1/2" in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hrs. The mixture will still be somewhat soft but firmer. (Confession: I only froze the cream cheese mixture for maybe 30 minutes and it still worked)

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep muffin pan with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine the 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 puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

Fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom. Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 12 equal pieces and place into the center of each muffin of batter. You want to put the cream cheese lower than you think because i t will rise a lot during the baking process. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Trasfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. I thought they tasted even better the next day.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

I recently went to Utah for two weeks during the kids Fall break and among many things I enjoyed an extensive food tour of all my favorite places: JCW's (twice), Zupa's, Cafe Rio, Chuck-A-Rama (that was for my Grandparents), Pei Wei's, and a yummy tapa restaurant, Eva's, in Salt Lake. I also helped myself to peach cobbler, BYU mint brownies, BYU ice cream, Costco cake, more brownies, and Smart Cookies laying around the house. So of course I came home feeling a little heavy and recommitted to eating more healthy. I am proud to say I did so for 3 days! Then the unexpected happened. It snowed. And really is anyone expected to diet while it's snowing? I think not. You're suppose to stay inside, watch the snow fall, and bake delicious food. In this case, being October, I felt a pumpkin dessert was the perfect reward to my 3 days of eating animal crackers instead of all the fall desserts I wanted. I collected this recipe from a favorite site, www.twopeasandtheirpod.com

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2. With a stand or electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Add pumpkin puree and mix well. The mixture will look somewhat curdled. Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

3. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake bars for 35-40 minutes or until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached.

4. Cool bars completely in pan. Cut into squares and serve.

Pumpkin Bread

Combine:
3 C. Flour
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
3 tsp. Cinnimon
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
In a seperate bowl, mix:
3 Eggs
1 C. Oil
2 C. Sugar
3 tsp. Vanilla
Combine the dry ingredients to the eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Then add:
2 C. Pumpkin
Pour into 2 greased loaf pans and bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees.

Glaze
In a small saucepan melt:
2 Tbsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. White Sugar
2 Tbsp. Whipping Cream (I used milk and it turned out fine)
Boil for 1 minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool for 2o minutes. Then add:
1/3 C. Powdered Sugar
1/4 tsp. Vanilla
Spread glaze over warm bread. Makes 2 loaves.

Prior to Thanksgiving I was craving my Mom's Pumpkin Chiffon Pie and came across this pumpking dessert so I tried it out. It was a really easy and a yummy alternative to the traditional Pumpkin Pie.

FROSTY PUMPKIN DESSERT
32 Gingersnap cookies (1 1/3 cup)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 container (1/2 gallon) vanilla ice cream, divided
1 cup thawed, frozen whipped topping, divided
2/3 cups toffee bits
1 cup solid packed pumpkin
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger (or Pumpkin Pie Spice)
Whipping Cream - or use Cool Whip if you can stand it
Chop cookies. Put butter in microwave on high 30-40 seconds. Stir in crumbs. Press crumb mixture onto bottom of Spring form pan. Place in the freezer.
Scoop half of the ice cream into bowl. Let soften.
Fold 1 cup of the whipped topping and bits into softened ice cream just until blended. Spread evenly over crust. Freeze until firm, about 1 hour
Mix remaining ice cream with pumpkin, brown sugar, and spices. Scoop softened ice cream evenly over the first ice cream layer and freeze for about 8 hours or overnight.
To serve, place dessert in the fridge for about 20 minutes to soften and top with whipped cream.
(Note: So I forgot to buy the toffee chips at the store so I just did one layer and doubled the pumpkin and ice cream.)