September 10, 2010

Apple-Cream Cheese Muffins


Every autumn I make Pumpkin Muffins with cream cheese piped inside after baking. I was looking through some other food blogs and found a lot of them baking the cream cheese right in the muffins. I thought this was genius and kinda sad I didn't think of that, but I wouldn't have known exactly how to if I did think of it. But its still a little early to be making the pumpkin muffins, those are more of an Oct/Nov. thing so I looked up muffin recipes with another fall flavor, apples. I found a great recipe from Betty Crocker for these muffins and decided to give them a go!

Apple-Cream Cheese Muffins
(for original recipe click here.)

Muffins:
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large apple, peeled and shredded, about 1 cup
1/3 cup (3 oz.) cream cheese

Streusel topping:
3 T packed brown sugar
2 T flour
1 T butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350. Line 15 muffin cups with paper liners. Reserve 1 T of brown sugar for muffin filling.

In a large bowl with electric mixer, combine remaining brown sugar, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt on low speed until mixed. Reserve 1 T of beaten egg for muffin filling. Add oil, applesauce, vanilla and remaining egg to flour mixture. Beat on medium speed until mixed. With a spoon, stir in apple.

In small bowl, mix cream cheese, the reserved 1 T egg and reserved 1 T brown sugar until mixed. Fill muffin cups less than half full with muffin batter. Top each with 1 tsp. cream cheese mixture. Top with spoonful of muffin batter to fill cups 2/3 full. In small bowl combine streusel ingredients and sprinkle over batter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool slightly for 10 minutes.


I am not gonna lie...I forgot to add the vanilla...just totally overlooked it. These aren't the most flavorful muffins, but it could be because I forgot the vanilla it might have given it a bit more. The streusel topping is nice, I don't think I have ever made one with just flour, brown sugar and butter, so it was interesting. I think it could use more cream cheese filling, like maybe even a whole tablespoon instead of a teaspoon...I like cream cheese. At least the one I taste-tested didn't seem to have enough. Also I like the flavor of lemon juice in cream cheese fillings, so maybe next time I will try adding some.


Fresh out of the oven
Apple-Cream Cheese Muffins

I think overall this recipe is ok. You get a pretty results and a nice fall-time flavor, but I think I was expecting more. I can't wait to make my pumpkin muffins though, those are always a big hit at the Hubsie's work!! Hopefully they will like my new take with the cream cheese baked in...stay tuned for that post!

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry!!

-BellaRosa

2 comments:

  1. Gee, you would think with the brown sugar, cinnamon, applesauce, and apple it would be plenty flavorful. I agree about adding a little lemon juice to the cream cheese. That definitely would make it more cheesecakey flavored. Sounded like a good experiment, though.

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  2. Yeah these are pretty delicious! :)

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