Kitchenbelle

Saturday was a baking day.  There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it.  It was rainy and dark and I knew I needed to fill our kitchen with scents of the season.  This summer my in-laws visited Canada and brought back some delicious Canadian maple syrup.  I decided to bake something maple flavored so when I stumbled upon this recipe for Maple Pumpkin Muffins I was very pleased! 

A couple of notes:

• The original recipe suggested baking at 400 F, and though it struck me as odd, rather than follow my gut I followed the recipe.  Unfortunately the oven was way too hot and a few of my muffin bottoms burned.  These should be baked at either 350 F or 375 F.
• Rather than top these muffins with pecans, I added a crumbly streusel-like topping.
• As you know I am a lover of chunks, so I almost added some chocolate chips but I feared it would overpower the maple flavor so I refrained.  These were more “breakfast” without chocolate chips.  Adding chocolate would make them more “dessert.”  🙂

Maple Pumpkin Muffins:

Topping:

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line muffin tins with papers.

Prepare topping by combining first five topping ingredients in a small bowl.  Cut butter into this mixture and use your finger tips or a fork to crumble the ingredients together.  The texture should be like that of coarse sand/pebbles.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.

In another bowl whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, milk, oil and 3 tablespoons maple syrup.  Slowly add dry ingredients to this mixture and stir just until moistened.  

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and two tablespoons brown sugar and 2 tablespoons syrup until smooth. Gently stir into batter until mixture appears swirled.

Fill paper-lined muffin tins about three-fourths full.

Sprinkle about a tablespoon of topping over each muffin cup.

Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. 

Adapted from Made by Melissa.

Filed under: Breakfast, cream cheese, Dessert, eggs, Fall, muffin, oatmeal, pumpkin, squash |