I know that pumpkin season is in full swing right now. And I fully support that.
But one flavor who’s arrival I anticipate even more than pumpkin is gingerbread. It’s of those flavors that fully spans the entire holiday season, to me. Ok, so it is a little Christmas-y, but I feel like it belongs in more months than just December.
One of my favorite ways to enjoy gingerbread is with these:
GINGERBREAD CREAM CHEESE DOUGHNUT MUFFINS
These muffins have a cake doughnut sort of texture and soft and loaded with spices. The best part, of course is the cream cheese. Slightly sweetened, it swirls through the doughnut like little ripples of cheesecake.
What I really like about these muffins is that they are not overly sweet. So often I eat a muffin for breakfast and it seems like it’s not much different from having an early morning cupcake. Now, I’m not saying that dessert for breakfast is bad(or dinner food for that matter. For heaven’s sake, I had a Ribeye basted in butter the other morning), but sometimes it’s nice to have something that is satisfying and sweet, but not super sugary, you know?
These muffins accomplish just that. Sweet tooth satisfied, sugar coma avoided. WIN.
If a sweeter muffin suits your fancy, well, THESE should take care of that. Same muffin, sweet, tangy glaze.
- 1 recipe Gingerbread Muffins(sans pomegranate glaze)
- 1 pkg. Cream Cheese(8 oz), softened
- ½ C. Sugar
- 1 Egg
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Make the muffin batter according to recipe instructions.
- Grease 22 muffin tin wells. These muffins pop out very easily when I bake them in a well greased non-stick muffin pan.
- In a small bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Add the egg and mix in until the cream cheese mixture is smooth, scraping down the sides a few times, as necessary.
- Fill each prepared muffin well with about 2 T. of gingerbread muffin batter.
- Top the batter with heaping t. of the cream cheese mixture.
- Top the cream cheese with another 2 T. of muffin batter.
- Finish by topping each muffin with one more t. of the cream cheese batter. I give the cream cheese on top a little swirl with my fingertip, dragging it around the batter a little so that it mixes in and gives a pretty little swirl that will stay when baked.
- Bake muffins for 12-14 minutes, or until tops feel firm to the touch.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes In the pan.
- After 5 minutes, remove from pan.
- Store in an airtight container.
More Muffins? Sure thang. Check these out:
Banana Bread White Chocolate Blueberry Glazed Muffins
