Pumpkin Cheesebread Muffins

     Once again I have dug into the abyss of Allrecipes. This time it was to find a use for half a can of pumpkin that was in the fridge and threatening to go off. The recipe I found was listed as Pumpkin Cheesebread II: The Reckoning. This Time, It's Personal. Okay, maybe the last part wasn't on there, but it should have been. If you're slapping Roman numerals on your recipe, it needs to have a tagline attached. Just wait until I redo my Shoofly Pie recipe. It's going to be amazing.

"Yippie-Pie-Yay, Motherf****r."

     Anyway, this recipe has you making it in loaf pans. We decided it would be far more amusing and time consuming to do them as muffins. They took just as long to cook as the loaf time, so it's all coming down to a matter of which you prefer. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Pumpkin Cheesebread Muffins
via Allrecipes

Ingredients

• 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened (we used neufchatel to keep the fat down)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1-2/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon orange zest (we didn't feel like zesting an orange so we used 1 scant tablespoon of dried orange peel from a jar)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground clove (I always worry clove will overpower a recipe; we used 1/2 scant teaspoon)
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (I'm hoping that's the same thing that's in the can, because that's what I used)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup chopped pecans (optional) (omitted)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Lightly grease two 8x4 inch loaf pans (we decided, based on a suggestion in the comments to make these in muffin tins.)
2. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 egg and orange zest; beat until smooth (this could have been done by hand but we let the Kitchenaid take care of it), set aside.
3. In another bowl, sift together remaining 1-2/3 cups flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and pumpkin pie spice; set aside.
4. Place pumpkin, vegetable oil, remaining 2 eggs, and remaining 1-1/2 cups sugar in a large bowl; beat well (yes, you're going to have bowls all over the counter. Take a few extra out and just scatter them about the kitchen to complete the scene). Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until just combined. Fold in pecans (if using). 
5. Pour half the pumpkin batter into the loaf pans. Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of this layer, then pour on remaining batter (if you're doing muffins, you're going to have to eyeball measuring out the batter and cheese. I ended up with a lot of leftover cheese. I just saved it to use as a spread on pumpkin bread I made last week. Don't overfill when making the muffins or they're going to come up over the top and spread about in an alarming fashion. Be on the safe side and put a drip pan on the next rack down to catch any spillover)

   

   Next time I make these as muffins, less batter and more filling.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean (we cooked ours according to the suggested muffin time, which was 25 minutes. No dice. We kept adding time in 5-7 minute intervals and ended up needing about an hour. As always, keep an eye on them; cooking time will vary). Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely. 

Good times!