Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

These delectable little beauties taste just like fall. Perfectly spiced, crunchy on top and soft in the middle, they taste especially good while wrapped in a big red blanket on a crisp October Sunday morning after you've slept in late. (I would know, that's how I'm enjoying them this very second!) They're amazing, give them a try.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ cups vegetable oil

For the topping:
½ cup sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours.

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. (It may be hard to resist immediate consumption, but the cream cheese filling gets very hot!)

Recipe from Annie's Eats.

Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon Maple Syrup

Because it's fall. And because you're worth it.

Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon Maple Syrup

Pancakes:
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

Syrup:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon maple extract



In a bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.

Get the syrup started so you can make it while flipping pancakes. Combine sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small saucepan. Stir in water and mix well. Place the saucepan over med-high heat and bring to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes, until sugars dissolve, giving it a good stir every 30-45 seconds. Remove from heat and stir in maple extract.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Recipe slightly adapted from Allrecipes.

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Maybe I'm severely addicted to this cake. Maybe I've eaten almost an entire 8x8 pan of it by myself in just three days (okay, husband had a few pieces too). Maybe it's because pumpkin is the perfect flavor for fall and nothing, I repeat, nothing beats cream cheese frosting. (Well, except maybe white chocolate raspberry cream cheese frosting... but that's another post.) Anyway. Make this cake. You don't need a reason. It's fall, what more reason do you need?

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake:
4 eggs
1 and 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup oil
1 (16 oz) can pumpkin
2 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Frosting:
1 (8oz) package cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2-3 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla, and pumpkin until smooth. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth.

Spread the batter in a greased 9 by 13 inch baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. {Or not! Who doesn't love warm cake and melty frosting?}

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin cake. {Or warm pumpkin cake!!}

I found this recipe on a random recipe blog years ago, before I had a good system for saving recipes, marking the source, etc, and I had never made it. But then my friend Joanna made it, and it was amazing, and I was craving more the next day. She hadn't sent me the recipe yet but I went searching through my files to see if I had a recipe for something similar. I made this and later that night she sent me her recipe - it was the same one! Crazy. That's my story.

Pumpkin Pancakes

So maybe I'm a little obsessed with pumpkin lately. Embrace it, it's Autumn! These pancakes were soft and fluffy and delicious with a hint of spice and pumpkin flavor. They were a perfect weekend morning breakfast. Delicious with maple syrup, and maybe a dollop of whipped cream.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
6 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
Dash of nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 ⅔ cups buttermilk
¾ cup canned solid pack pumpkin
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
more butter for griddle

Heat a skillet or griddle to medium. Mix first 9 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Whisk buttermilk, pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, and melted butter in medium bowl until well blended. Add to dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.

Melt butter in skillet or griddle. Working in batches, drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto skillet or griddle. Cook pancakes until bubbles form on top and bottoms are golden brown, about 2 1/2 minutes. Flip and cook until bottoms are golden brown, about 2 minutes. Repeat with remaining batter. Keep cooked pancakes warm until ready to serve by piling on a baking sheet in a 200 degree oven.

Serves 6-8.

Pumpkin Cookies

It's that time of year, folks. Nothing says "autumn" like a big warm pumpkin cookie with chocolate and butterscotch chips. These are really good. I made another recipe for pumpkin cookies last week, and these ones blew those first ones out of the water. So make these! While you're at it, make some pumpkin hot cocoa to go with it. Then cosy up on the couch with a blanket and a good book and bask in the glory that is fall.

Hop Scotch Pumpkin Cookies

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon milk
1 tablespoon vanilla paste (extract will work just fine)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, milk, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Add vanilla and chips. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Recipe and photo from Abbie (love her), originally found on My Baking Addiction.

Pumpkin Spice Hot Chocolate

We don't have hot cocoa mix, so we got a little creative. But this little concoction turned out just like a dream. Delicious! Try it out.

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate

1 mug of milk (2% or whole preferred)
a good long squeeze from a bottle of chocolate syrup
1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
2 tsp powdered sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 Tbs canned pumpkin
marshmallows

Stir the chocolate syrup into the milk, then microwave for a minute or so, to desired heat. Stir in cocoa powder, powdered sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin. Add more of each ingredient as needed, to taste. Add marshmallows, curl up on couch, and sip luxuriously. ;)

And just look how much happiness and joy it will bring to your loved ones when you make it for them.
Priceless.