Pumpkin Oat and Cream Cheese Stuffed Muffins
We are house shopping like nobody's business.
Every weekend we get in the car and cruise the neighborhood /town we are looking at for new listings and I really really really hope that soon we find just the right thing and also that it is not 654659786 dollars.
Right now we live in a rural community and I am miserable. I HATE IT. Strong words, I know. But I'm serious!!! And I'll tell you why.
It's because it's not rural enough.
If I am going to live without a Starbucks 5 minutes away or quick access to Target then I think I should not have to deal with weird gross neighbors (of which I currently have two and that is two too many).
I need rural to mean wide open spaces. I need rural to mean that I do not almost get run over at 7 a.m. while I am 5 feet off the road in the grass and walking my dog. And while we are on the dog subject, I also need rural to mean that when I am walking I do not want to have to reason with 15 loose dogs per mile that either want to sneak up and bite my Lucy Girl OR they want to follow me home because no one has ever been nice to them and I seem like a super nice doggie mom.
Oh! Also I need rural to mean that neighbor #3 doesn't burn trash because it makes me cough and also it is 2013 and don't you know better by now? GAH.
So where we are house shopping there is a cute little town-square-ish spot with a few restaurants, a cute little sandwich shop, a bank, a handful of stores, trees, benches, grass, SIDEWALKS. You can walk to all of it. And I strongly suspect that if people start burning plastic there will be more than just me to complain.
There are a couple empty store fronts and the only thing that square is missing right now is a coffee shop!!
By the time we find the right place I'm gonna need there to be a coffee shop. The stars will align and it will all work out and I will walk Lucy from new house to coffee shop without narrowly missing death-by-neighbors'-truck. I will take my latte back home via the tree-lined sidewalk and stuff my face full of Pumpkin Oat and Cream Cheese Stuffed Muffins and live happily ever after.
- For the Muffins:
- 1½ cups quick oats
- 1½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons oil
- ¾ cups pumpkin
- For the Filling:
- 1 (8 ounce) block of cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ cup (or less) milk
- Preheat the oven to 350 and line a standard muffin pan with paper liners or lightly grease.
- In a large bowl whisk together the quick oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt.
- Make a small well in the center of the dry mixture and add the sour cream, eggs, oil and pumpkin. Stir until just combined. The batter will be thick.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan, dividing the batter evenly between the 12 cups. They will be pretty full.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes. A pick inserted into the center will come out clean.
- While the muffins bake make the cream cheese filling. Beat the softened cream cheese with the powdered sugar until smooth. Drizzle in the milk a little at a time and beat to reach your desired consistency (I like thick filling).
- Let the muffins cool and use a paring knife to cut a little cone out of the center of each muffin. I used a spoon to fill each muffin though you could definitely get fancy and use a pastry bag with a tip.
These are DELISH!! For those that think they are a bit dry, I use 8oz sour cream instead of 3/4 cup. I also added some pumpkin puree to my frosting in place of milk. Turned out FANTASTIC!!! Thank you SO MUCH!!!
Hey There Heather,
I am so excited to give this muffin recipe a shot. I am a little confused though. Do I use pumpkin puree or do I just scoop the insides out of a pumpkin and use that? Thank you for your delicious recipe! 🙂
Definitely puree!
Hi Heather,
This recipe looks absolutely delish and cannot wait to make it on Christmas morning ! I do want to clarify something though..Step #3 says "Make a small well in the center of the dry mixture and add the sour cream, eggs, oil and pumpkin. Stir until just combined. The batter will be thick." Do we have to add the sour cream, eggs, oil etc without beating all of them first? especially the eggs? I was not sure of this step so it would help if you can clarify :).
Thanks much!
Hi Sona! You can beat them first but you don't have to. They key is to not overmix! I've had a reader or two leave comments that these turned out a little bit dry for them. I've not had that problem but I also have not had the chance to troubleshoot the recipe with those readers. SO. Make sure not to over mix. That is key. Beating the sour cream, eggs, oil, etc ahead of time might help with that. I'd also recommend this recipe : https://www.sugardishme.com/2014/01/03/sweet-potato-muffins-pecan-streusel/
You can easily substitute the sweet potato for pumpkin. They are so fluffy and awesome! Have the best muffin-filled Christmas morning and thanks for reading!
Got it ! Thanks for these great recipes! Cant wait to try them out 🙂 ..I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous & sweet 2015 !!!
I gave these a try. I love all things pumpkin spiced, and I was super excited. I followed the recipe exactly, but my muffins were horrible. They were dense and dry and not very pumpkiny or sweet. I'm going to give it another go, though, and tweak it a bit and see if I can't get something with a little moister crumb.
Oh no Brandy! I'm so sorry! I'm sitting here reading through the recipe and with the amount of sour cream, pumpkin, and oil, these should not have been dry at all. It's been a good month since I baked these -- they ARE dense because they're oat heavy but were never dry ( I sent these out the door with Chad for days!). I'm gonna work through my steps this morning and see if I can help. Sorry they didn't work for you on the first try!!!
Hey again, Brandy! I am replying to this in the comments to hopefully help anyone else that is looking for tips. I made these again today. I actually over-baked some for 7 minutes to see what would happen (and also my cat was in my lap). Mine were still moist. I tasted the baked muffin WITHOUT the cream cheese filling and you're right -they aren't sweet (only 1/2 cup brown sugar in the whole batch). The lack of sugar in the muffins was to compensate for the sweetness of the filling, but if you prefer a sweeter muffin an extra 1/2 cup of brown sugar OR 1/4 cup of granulated sugar should work fine. If you want more pumpkin flavor you could sub another 1/4 cup of the pumpkin for 1/4 cup of the sour cream. That would make it 1 cup of pumpkin + 1/2 cup sour cream. And finally-- feel free to leave out the oats! You can use all purpose flour in place of the quick oats (making it a total of 3 cups of flour). The oats DO lend to a more dense texture so if you want a spongier muffin that will help. You may also want to try these instead (use pumpkin in place of the banana 🙂 ) : https://www.sugardishme.com/2013/01/03/banana-oatmeal-muffins/
Thank you. I'll definitely try again with these suggested substitutions.
Love these muffins, Heather! Pumpkin? Oats? & cream cheese?? Yes, please! 🙂
Thanks Sweets! They were a hit!
You should rent one of those empty store fronts and start you own coffee shop! You could serve these pumpkin and cream cheese muffins and make a killing! Seriously. Good luck with the house search!
Hi Heather! I hope you guys find a house soon! No fun to be miserable, especially when you work from your house! These muffins are gorgeous, and you're adding text to your photos! Nice job!!
I seriously have like 600 posts in my reader. I am so far behind!!! It really is no fun to be miserable working from home. No fun! I hope we find something soon, too! Thanks for the compliment and yes! Text! Whatcha think? Yay or nay? Glad to hear from you Sandra-- I am missing all my regular readers TERRIBLY! Glad to be busy but also will be glad to settle back down.
I want to move and my husband doesn't because every house that I find that I like it a million dollars and he thinks that we can fix up our house and stay here. I told him that it is still not in a neighborhood and I want me kid to grow up with nice neighbors (although our gross ones just moved out and new one moved in on both sides...much nicer now). We want a few more things in a house but not enough to double the mortgage but it might be what is takes to not move again. I wish you the best because I know how tough it is.... I would certainly be your neighbor when you come with those muffins 🙂
Hey Alison!! We have been here for 4 years; there is a rental house next to us and crazy people behind. Out of all the people that have come and gone in the house next door, they have all been awful neighbors! You are SO right-- you can't replace a whole neighborhood, no matter how nice your house. Thanks for your well wishes and if we find ourselves as neighbors I will totally bring you muffins!!
Good luck house hunting - I want to move out for uni next year so I guess I should too haha
Great muffins, they look super soft 😀
Cheers
CCU
Good luck with the house hunt! We bought a house a couple of years ago but we've kind of been looking around again. But we don't know if we want to stay in FL or move. We like where we live but we kind of want to experience a new place!
Great muffin recipe! I like the addition of the oats!
Heather, If you are the one who wrote this beginning you would have to die before you find the place your looking for, because Heaven is the place your talking about, I think you don't want to go there now so be happy that you can walk to the store or coffee shop and write this beautiful site for all of us good neighbors, have a beautiful day now.
Good luck house hunting!! Are you hoping to morph into the 'weird neighbor' instead?
These muffins look DELISH!
I am a good neighbor!!! But I have never had good neighbors. And THESE neighbors are seriously weird and gross.
I would like to be the neighbor always brandishing coffee and muffins.
Thanks Denise!! 🙂