Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

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If you've been a reader of this blog for any amount of time than you are already aware of my slight pumpkin obsession.  I can't resist a pumpkin based baked good. I've blogged about everything from my favorite pumpkin pie to pumpkin biscotti and pumpkin latte's. So it's Fall again and my obsession is back in full swing! 
A pumpkin roll (pumpkin sponge cake filled with a cream cheese filling) is one of my favorite Fall desserts. (I can't believe I haven't posted a recipe...soon!) These muffins have all the same components as a pumpkin roll, spicy pumpkin cake with a cream cheese swirl,  baked up in muffin form. Plus because it's a muffin it's now okay to eat  pumpkin roll it for breakfast, right?  

Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
Yield: 1 doz. regular sized muffins or 2 doz. mini muffins
PRINTABLE RECIPE
MUFFINS:
1 15 oz can pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling
1/4 cup coconut oil or any vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt

FILLING:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 350°
In a large mixing bowl, combine canned pumpkin, oil, and sugar together.
Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one.
Stir in vanilla.
Stir the flour mixture to liquids, combining thoroughly and scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula until well combined.

Spray your muffin pan well with cooking spray. Fill each muffin about 2/3 full. Divide the filling evenly placing a large dollop on each muffin.

With a skewer or a knife, swirl the cream cheese mixture into the the pumpkin.

Bake for 20-25 minutes for regular muffins or about 18 minutes for mini muffins. The muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and remove from the pan.

*NOTES: If you want you could top the muffins with chopped pecans or walnuts.  

I made half the batch in regular-size and half mini-sized. The mini muffins are very popable!

Links:

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

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Hubs tells me all the time that I like to do things the hard way. He says this when I choose to make something rather than buy it or make do with what I have rather than buy something new. Even if that something new would make my life easier. Usually it's because I'm being cheap thrifty. However sometimes it's because I get an idea and just want to see if it will work. That's how these cookies came about. I was wasting time doing important research on Pinterest. In the interest of public safety, I feel I must warn those that don't already know about Pinterest. I'm not sure what happens, maybe a quantum time leap, or perhaps it's in its own time zone or something. All I know is that when you visit Pinterest, what feels like 5 minutes in Pinterest time is actually an hour in real time. Consider yourselves warned! Anyhooo, back to the cookies, so I saw some cute candy corn shaped sugar cookies while surfing around Pinterest. I liked that they looked like candy corn but didn't have to be decorated. They looked easy, a departure from my usual way of doing things. This was a week or two ago and I didn't pin the picture, which I realize kind of defeats the purpose of Pinterest. I couldn't find the picture again so I decided I'd just wing it and see if I could make some cookies like the ones I had seen. I have since seen other ways to make candy corn cookies but I like how these came out and they really are easy to make.

These are perfect for when you need a fun Fall/Halloween dessert, like school parties. You could go super easy and use store bought sugar cookie dough to make these cookies. No judgement here! However this recipe for sugar cookies is simple to make and tastes delicious. The dough doesn't need to be chilled before using, so it's quick to make as well.

Easy No-Chill Sugar Cookies
Source: Food.com submitted by Chef.Jules
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

orange and yellow gel food coloring
candy corn cookie cutter (or you could cut out triangles)

Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Divide dough into two balls.

To make Candy Corn Cookies:

Divide your cookie dough into three equal pieces. Knead orange gel food coloring into one piece and yellow into another. Leave the third piece white. Roll the dough into logs about 1 inch wide and 6-8 inches long. Put each of the logs side-by-side and slightly push them together like in the picture below.

Roll the cookie dough out approximately 12" wide and about 1/8" thick and cut out with a candy corn shaped cookie cutter. If you don't have a candy corn cutter you can just cut out triangles.

Kind of has a 70's vibe going!

I sprinkled some with sanding sugar and left some plain.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 6 - 7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. I line my pans with parchment paper or a silpat for easy cookie removal.

I didn't waste the leftover pieces of cookie dough. I gathered them all together, added more orange gel coloring, rolled out the dough again and cut out pumpkins.

I got a little over a dozen candy corn cookies. I made small and large pumpkins and had a dozen pumpkin cookies when I was done.