Pumpkin Coffee Cake Muffins
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.
