Pumpkin Coffee Cake Muffins

REGINA -

A match made in heaven – a terrifically moist pumpkin batter swirled between a cream cheese filling and a walnut-brown sugar streusel.

Make 12 large muffins

Muffins

2 cups flour

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

2/3 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

¼ cup melted butter

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

Walnut Streusel

1 1/3 cups toasted walnut halves

4 tbsp brown sugar

4 tbsp melted butter

½ tsp ground cinnamon

 

Cream Cheese Swirl

250 g package cream cheese, room temperature

¼ cup granulated sugar

2 egg yolks

¼ cup almond extract

Muffins

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray, or line with paper muffin cups. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, melted butter, eggs, and milk. Stir the wet into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula until just a bare trace of flour remains. Set aside.

Cream Cheese Swirl

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add in the sugar, egg yolks and almond extract and beat until smooth.

Walnut Streusel

Chop the walnuts into a pieces – don’t cut them too small. Transfer them to a bowl and mix in the brown sugar, butter and cinnamon.

To assemble

Spoon a tablespoon of pumpkin batter into the bottom of each cup. Top with a heaping teaspoon of cream cheese swirl and a teaspoon of the walnut streusel. Repeat with the remaining batter and cream cheese swirl ending with the walnut streusel. Bake for about 19 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes before removing from of the pan.