Inside-Out Pumpkin Muffins

First off, let me tell everyone I am officially ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) certified by the American Heart Association for the next two years. Our hospital has a somewhat ridiculous staff requirement that all the staff physicians have to have this certification. This is a certification that any lay person can get if they take the class and pass the test. It basically means I know how to do CPR, bag a person (since mouth-to-mouth is ancient history), operate an AED (there are directions printed on the machine), and know what basic medication to give to try and resuscitate a person. It's a ridiculous requirement for us Emergency Medicine peeps since this is what we do for a living and we all have a Specialty Board Certification in Emergency Medicine. It's like telling the surgeons they need to take a class on how to stitch every two years. Anyway, I got to spend the day taking my recertification class.

The day started off gloriously. My older daughter slept through her alarm. Totally missed the bus. Couldn't get ready in time at ALL! (Can you tell that I'm yelling?) I drove her to school and she was still tardy. All that yelling at her to hurry made it so I was now running behind so I had no time for breakfast or coffee. Can't sit in class all day with no food or coffee. My solution was to drive through McDonald's for breakfast but their coffee is totally undrinkable. Luckily, Starbucks was next door. I decided I deserved a splurge. So, I pull up to order my latte and I see that they have their fall pumpkin themed specials advertised - including their pumpkin cream cheese muffins. I love these muffins! Not for almost $3.00 a muffin though. I'm cheap and I already had McDonald's so it was an easy pass this morning (not to say I haven't passed before).

So class started this morning with an hour long video in a darkened room. I was going cross-eyed with the head nod going too. My mind drifted back to pumpkin muffins... Then I remembered that I had just received the latest King Arthur Flour catalog.

The back page had pumpkin cream cheese muffins pictured with a note that the recipe was on their website.

Digressing again... King Arthur Flour... the most expensive contest I ever won. 2008. King Arthur Flour was a new sponsor at the Indiana State Fair. I had never even heard of them. Their contest that year was a coffee cake made in a Bundt cake pan. Everyone had to make the same recipe. I made the coffee cake while watching Michael Phelps swim in the Beijing Olympics. The recipe said to bake the coffee cake for 60 minutes. I pulled it out after 45 minutes and it looked absolutely burnt. It was so dark I considered not entering it at all. I brought it to the Fair the next day anyway. And I won! I was totally shocked. There was no way! I guess the judge liked really brown things. First place was a $75 gift card to the King Arthur Flour website. I went to their website and got completely hooked, hook, line, and sinker. I love their products. I love their blog. I love their recipes. Their marketing person is a genius. They gave me $75. I have given them hundreds!

Inside-Out Pumpkin Muffins

link to original recipe is HERE

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

few drops Fiori di Sicilia flavoring (optional) or vanilla extract

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 large eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/4 cup boiled cider OR dark corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup milk

1 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin or line with papers. FYI, I ended up with 15 muffins with this recipe.

Place cream cheese in an oven safe bowl and heat for 30-40 seconds. Mix in sugar and flavoring. Set aside.

Put everything else but the flour in a mixing bowl and whisk together. Stir in your flour. Spoon about a tablespoon of batter in the bottom of each muffin cup. Put a scoop of cream cheese filling on top.

NOTE: I love cream cheese. I seriously thought I was putting a small cheesecake inside each muffin. There is a LOT of filling. You could easily cut the amount of filling in half and be OK.

Cover cream cheese with more batter so cups are about 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Proof that I might be an addict. I already had all their products I needed for this recipe!