Cream Cheese and Streusel Filled Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Yay!! The air has turned cool and the skies are the most beautiful shade of cozy gray. It is my favorite time of the year…Fall. The trees are just starting to whisper their sneaky intentions of changing their leaves from Summer’s greens to the vibrant fiery oranges, reds and yellows. The birds, bunnies and squirrels notice the shift in seasons as well – they seem to fly & scamper a little faster, with lots of work to do before the cold is upon them.

Speaking of work, school is in full swing — and have I mentioned we are in a new school routine this year? It’s called “homeschool”. Wow. There are a lot of little people around me a lot of the time, asking me a lot of things ((not to mention — I can’t remember the last time I thought about the subject matter in question))…I find myself thinking “What WAS I thinking?”. haha…sniff…haha.

Actually, it is great – most of the time. I am partnering with a local private school to help in the homeschooling process, so the boys do GO to school twice a week. I am solely homeschooling Gracie, but we have been together for her entire life so we are used to being together all day. ((Notice the cup & pad of paper in the background?? Someone is doing school work while I am making these muffins. Multi-tasking at its finest!))

I also have the help and guidance of friends and family – so we are far from alone in our homeschooling adventure.

I don’t know why I told you that – but now you know why my hair is whiter and my wrinkles are deeper if we see each other in public.

Back to my recipe.

Not only are the leaves changing, cloudy skies appearing and the air temperatures dropping – pumpkin is making it’s appearance in kitchens across the country once again!

Why do I wait for all of these seasonal changes before I use one of my very most favorite cooking ingredients?? It is a mystery I never seem to find the answer to. Either way, pumpkin is back in the Schuermann kitchen and I have made a twist on one of my favorite pumpkin bread recipes. “Cream Cheese and Streusel Filled Pumpkin Spice Muffins”.

I used a spectacular “vintage” recipe — one I use every year to make pumpkin bread ((which mom gave me several decades ago)). Instead of making the bread, this time I whipped up a sweet cream cheese filling and a perfect bowl of streusel & layered everything into muffin cups. I topped it all off with a generous sprinkle of raw sugar crystals.

There are a few steps, but this recipe is still very straight forward. The pay off comes when that sweet pumpkin spice scent wafts through every corner of your home. No candle, so melting wax and no room spray can compete with the smell of these delicious muffins baking in your oven!

Because I layered the cream cheese and streusel in the center of the muffins, I decided to sprinkle some raw sugar on top of each muffin. This added a crisp ‘shell’ to the top of each pumpkin treat … it may just be my favorite part of the whole muffin!