Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

 Why does fall simply scream for you to make things from pumpkin?  And, why is pumpkin so good?  And why are these muffins so super fantastic?  Let's see.  Because it's fall, they are made from pumpkin AND cream cheese and they are amazing.  Does that explain it?

This week was parent teacher conferences at our grandsons' school.  Mom needed help while she went to the conferences, so they stayed here with Grandma.  We had a lot of fun.  I taught them how to play Red Light, Green Light, Mother May I?, and Hide The Thimble.  There was also hide and seek and I Spy.  We had a lot of fun.  The also wanted to bake muffins, so we did.  The 7 year old picked this muffin off my Pinterest board.  We got to it and baked away.  Ever let a 3 year old crack the eggs?  I'm just sayin'.

This recipe makes 24 muffins.  That's a lot of muffins, so they took a good portion of them home so that Dan and I didn't eat them all.  The recipe is from Annie's Eats.  Here is what you need"

Filling

8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar

Muffins

3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

Topping

1/2 cup sugar
5 TBSP flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 TBSP cold butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray muffin tins with cooking spray or put paper cups in each muffin well.

To make the filling, mix the cream cheese and powdered sugar with a mixer until well blended.  Set aside.

To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt, and baking soda.

Combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and oil with a mixer until well blended.  Add dry ingredients.  On low, mix just until blended.

Fill each muffin cup with just enough batter to cover the bottom of each well or paper (about 1 TBSP).

Scoop a small amount of filling (about 1 heaping tsp) into each muffin cup over the batter.  Top with remaining batter covering cream cheese completely.

Make the topping by mixing all the ingredients together.  Cut the butter in with a pastry cutter or a couple of knives until blended.   Sprinkle on topping.

Bake 20-25 minutes.  Cool completely before serving, as cream cheese center will be hot.

It will take all your will power to not eat as many of these at one time as you can.  Trust me.  Just look at the center of these muffins.  Yum.

My daughter said she ate 3 in one day, so just be warned.  I am not kidding when I say you will have a hard time staying away from these.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, and then the Christmas holidays, you will certainly find an occasion or two to make and serve these.  Give it a go.  They are so worth it.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

"Oh how we love pumpkin season.  You did know this gourd-ish squash has its own season, right?  Winder, Spring, Summer, pumpkin...We anxiously anticipate it every year."  Unknown

Pumpkin, Caramel, and Pecan Cheesecake - WOW!

 Hello everyone!  Yes, October is winding down.  It's almost Halloween.  How is that possible?  Where has this month gone?  The leaves are finally starting to change.  The transition is later this year because it has been so warm.  It's so nice to see the colors in the trees and the variety of hues on the hillsides.  It definitely means fall is here!

Our first born celebrated the 11th anniversary of her 30th birthday on Saturday.  We sat with her boys while she and her lovely husband had a date night.  They don't get a lot of those.  So, we celebrated with the family at our house on Sunday evening.  I cooked dinner for everyone and instead of the standard birthday cake, I made this fabulous pumpkin cheesecake.  The recipe is in the new Bon Appetit and the Food Network Magazine.

It is a Philadelphia cream cheese advertisement and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make it.  Why? Because it sounded absolutely amazing and guess what?  It is absolutely amazing!  Talk about a dessert you are going to want to make for any and all upcoming occasions.  Things like Thanksgiving, Christmas, the new moon, the full moon, the sun shining, the dog got a haircut.  Just pick something.  It's worth it, believe me.

Here is what you need:

1/2 cup chopped pecans divided
38 Ginger snap cookies, finely crushed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup butter, melted

4 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
25 Kraft Caramels
1/4 cup milk

Heat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (notice, it's NOT 350)

Chop 1/4 cup nuts finely, place in medium bowl.  Add crushed ginger snaps and melted butter.  Mix well.  Press into bottom of 13 x 9 inch baking pan.

Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl with a mixer until blended.  Add pumpkin, cinnamon, and vanilla, mix well.  Add eggs 1 at a time mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended.  Pour over crust.

Bake for 45 minutes or until center is almost set.  Cool completely.  Refrigerate for 4 hours.

Make the sauce when you are ready to serve.  Microwave the caramels and milk in a microwaveable bowl on high for 1 1/2 minutes or until caramels are completely melted, stirring every 30 seconds.

Serve cheese cake by spooning the caramel over each piece served and sprinkle with nuts.

Serve with whipped cream if desired.  We desired, it's just not in the picture.  YUMMMMMMY!

This cake is really easy to make and is even better the second day.  Oh so good.  Give it a try, especially if you are a pumpkin lover or a cheesecake lover.  It is a marriage made in heaven!

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Because you don't live near a bakery doesn't mean you have to go without cheesecake!
Hedy Lamar

Pumpkin Poppers!

 Happy Monday to you one and all!  Hoping your weekend was fabulous, restful, and all that you wanted it to be.  Ours was busy as usual.  We had little league games on Saturday and a birthday party for our seven year old grandson on Sunday.  I baked his cake and cupcakes and that was quite an affair.  I am not a cake decorator, but I do my best.  Will share his baseball glove cake and baseball cupcakes with you one of these days.

Well, fall is upon us and it is time for all things pumpkin.  It is amazing to me how the groceries now turn October in to "pumpkin" month with everything pumpkin you can think of.  I must say we do enjoy some good pumpkin treats, so I thought I would share one with you today that I found on Domestically Speaking.  She calls them Pumpkin Poppers and they are deliciously delectable morsels of pumpkin that are kind of like donut balls only baked in a mini muffin tin.  Yum!

This recipe made 24 of these Poppers in my mini muffin pan.  It's an easy recipe and SOOOO good, especially with coffee.  Then again, what isn't good with coffee?  Here is what you need:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1  1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup pumpkin (not pie filling)
1/2 cup milk

This is how they look when they come out of the oven before you coat them in the cinnamon/sugar mix.


Coating

1/2 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 1/2 TBSP cinnamon combined in a bowl

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.   Spray mini muffin pan with cooking spray.

Combine all dry ingredients.  Mix with a whisk until combined.  Mix all wet ingredients and pour into dry ingredients.  Just combine.   Do not over mix.

Fill muffin tins almost full.  Bake 8-12 minutes.  Let cool.  (I baked mine 8 minutes)

Roll in melted butter, then sugar/cinnamon mix.  Serve!

Oh, my.  These are really, really good and it's tempting to not eat all of them at one time.  Restrain yourself if you can - you will want some of these for breakfast, a mid afternoon snack, and evening treat.  They are two bites, three at the most and it's easy to just keep popping them in your mouth.  Yum.  Yum.  Yum.

Give this recipe a try.  It's a great fall treat and super easy.  You are going to love these!

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

"Oh how we love pumpkin season.  You did know this gourd-ish squash has its own season, right?  Winter, Spring, Summer, pumpkin....We anxiously anticipate it every year."     Unknown

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bundt Cake - Spectacular!

 It's countdown to Thanksgiving which is only 9 - count 'em - 9 days away.  Are you cooking?  Are you going to someone's house?  Are you going to a restaurant?  Are you skipping it altogether?   If you are cooking, do you have your menu set?  Do you have to take a dish if you are going elsewhere?  So many things to think about, so little time.  

If you are serving dinner at your abode and you want a dessert that is scrumptious and not too difficult, have I got a "must try" for you!  Woweeeee, this pumpkin cream cheese cake is fabulous.  If you are in charge of taking dessert to someone else's home, have I got a "must try" for you!  Oh, I just said that didn't I?  Well, I am not being facetious when I say give this cake a try.  I mean, what's not to love?  Pumpkin and cream cheese in the same dessert should seal the deal without any other considerations.
This cake is easier than baking a pie, but has that same moist, spicy flavor that pumpkin pie has.  It has cinnamon and cloves and nuts, and cream cheese, and a cinnamon glaze that is oh so good and cream cheese.  Look at this slice up close.

See that vein of cream cheese deliciousness running through there?  Doesn't it make you want to take a bite?  Or maybe just eat the whole piece?  And, this time of year is perfect for anything pumpkin.  We love our pumpkin bread, pumpkin crunch, pumpkin dump cake, Trader Joe's pumpkin tea,  and now we have THIS lovely cake that would be perfect for a breakfast type coffee cake, or even more perfect for an after dinner treat.  I have to say, Dan and I jumped right in as soon as it was ready - still warm actually - and enjoyed it with a lovely cup of hot java.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Dan doesn't like pumpkin pie (I know, I know), but he really loved this.  As a matter of fact, he had two pieces!

Here is what you need (because you really do want to make this!)

Filling

1 8 oz block cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 TBSP all purpose flour
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cake

1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)  ( I used 1/2 cup chopped pecans)

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
2 TBSP milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  (note temperature)  Grease and flour a Bundt pan.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, flour, egg and vanilla.  Beat with a mixer until smooth and creamy.  Set aside.

In a large bowl,  sift together 1 2/3 cups flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves and set aside.

In another bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, and sugar.  Mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.  Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture just until combined.   Fold in nuts if using.

Pour half of the pumpkin batter evenly into the prepared Bundt pan.  Spoon the cream cheese mixture over the pumpkin batter.  Cover the cream cheese with the remaining pumpkin batter.  Using a knife, stick it straight down through the top layer of pumpkin batter and cream cheese filling.  Swirl the knife around these two layers creating a marble effect.

Bake for 55-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Let the cake cool before removing from pan.

After removing the cake from the pan, pour the glaze over the top of the cake, letting it run down the sides.  Hold yourself back at this point.  Now, serve.

This cake is worth the effort to make, believe me.  I had the urge to make something sweet this afternoon while I was Christmas crafting.  Do you ever have that urge come over you?  The "I need something sweet" urge?  If you don't, I understand....but I get that urge and today was one of those days and I wanted something pumpkin.  Simple as that.  I pulled out this recipe and went to work.  Let me say, it was a really good choice!  This cake is moist, slightly spicy, with that wonderful vein of cream cheese running through it and that delicious cinnamon glaze topping it.  Perfection!

This cake will be just the thing for Thanksgiving, Christmas,  and all winter.  Yummmmmo!  It would be a wonderful gift to give for the holiday season, or take one to work and share with your co-workers. Have the neighbors over for coffee and cake.   Be sure and have the recipe handy because they will ask for it.  Now go rummage through your cupboards and see if you have all the ingredients because you really, really want to make this.  Now.  Really.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Dessert is probably the most important stage of the meal, since it will be the last thing your guests remember before they pass out all over the table.
William Powell 

It's Called Pumpkin Crunch But We Called It "Pumpkinlicious"!

If only I could get a picture of this dessert that would: 1. do it justice and 2. let you taste it just so you could know how good it is.  Maybe good is not the right word, maybe it should be fabulous - pumpkinlicious.  All I know is that it is one of the best dessert's ever - EVER!  Goodness gracious, I have no effective description for this fantastically wonderful goodness.  

Our second daughter and son in love came to dinner last week, and I wanted to make a dessert that I had all the ingredients for.  Well, God bless Pinterest  because I had found this recipe a while back and posted it to my recipe boards.  Let me tell you, it's a keeper!  Here is what you need.

Ingredients:

1 15 oz can pumpkin

1 12 oz can evaporated milk

1 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup chopped pecans

3/4 cups butter (1.5 sticks)

1 12 oz container cool whip

1 8 oz block cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350

Mix pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, cinnamon and eggs and pour into a 9 x 13 baking dish.  Sprinkle dry cake mix on top of pumpkin mixture.  Sprinkle pecans on top of cake mix.  Cover nuts with pieces of thinly sliced butter.  (Make sure it is almost completely covered with butter, you'll understand when you eat it).  Bake at 350 for one hour.  Let cool completely  Beat cool-whip, cream cheese and confectioners sugar together and spread on top.  Serve.

Wowee, did we all love this dessert.  Our "kids" each ate two pieces.  I mean, yeah, it's that good.  You are thinking that is a lot of butter, but it makes the pecans all "praline like" and the filling is like pumpkin pie and all that gooey goodness on top.  Wowza.  If you could just taste it, you would rush to your kitchen right now and make one.  I'm not kidding.

This is an easy dessert to make for the holidays and everyone will enjoy it of that I can be sure!  This will become a standard at our celebrations - right there with coconut cake and pecan pie.  It's actually better than pumpkin pie and easier to make.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.  It's making my mouth water just writing about it.  If only I had a yellow cake mix in the house......

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Christmas was better when I still believed in Santa.  Oh to be 20 again.  ; )

If It Says Gooey And Butter It Has To Be Good!

Sunday was the brunch celebration we hosted for our youngest son's girlfriend Cortney.  She just finished her BS in nursing.  This is one of the menu items served and I cannot tell you  - or stress enough - how absolutely divine this Gooey Pumpkin Butter Cake is!   I have been making gooey butter cake for years from a recipe in a cook book my children gave me called St. Louis Days, St. Louis Nights.   Three of our children went to Webster University Conservatory in St. Louis and they gave me this book as a gift (because I love recipes and cookbooks).  It is a compilation of recipes by the Junior League of Saint Louis and many of the recipes are from local restaurants.  In the forward to the book, it says 

"The title Saint Louis Days...Saint Louis Nights symbolizes the diversity of culinary specialities prepared in St. Louis kitchens.  Since its humble beginning as a French fur trapping outpost more than 300 years ago, the city has attracted people with wonderfully rich ethnic traditions, and St. Louis cuisine, which is as varied as day and night, has been strongly influenced by this melting pot of nationalities and customs.  The incredible array of outstanding restaurants which covers the metropolitan area proves St. Louisians love to eat.  It includes everything from Midwestern meat and potatoes, to the mighty Mississippi's contribution of catfish, to the renowned Italian specialities from "the Hill," to the latest trends in fine cuisine.

St. Louis famous culinary firsts include the ice cream cone and hot dog, which both originated from the 1904 World's Fair, toasted ravioli created by the Italian chef on "the Hill" who accidentally knocked a plate of ravioli into a pan of hot grease; and the sinfully rich Gooey Butter Cake that came from the German bakers in South St. Louis."

So now you know where Gooey Butter Cake originated and this is the recipe I have used again and again..  Renowned cook, Paula Deen, has put her spin on Gooey Butter Cake by creating several variations on a theme.  I am posting the original recipe and the one I used on Sunday, which is her recipe for Gooey Pumpkin Butter Cake and it is outstanding.  Enough said.

Original  St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake Recipe

Crust:

1 cup all purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1/3 cup butter or margarine

Filling:

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter

1 egg

1 cup all purpose flour

2/3 cups evaporated milk

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla 

powdered sugar

Crust:  In a mixing bowl, combine flour and sugar.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling.  Pat into the bottom and sides of a 9x9x2 greased baking pan.

Filling:

In a mixing bowl, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Mix in egg until combined.  Add alternately flour and evaporated milk, mixing after each addition.  Add corn syrup and vanilla.  Mix at medium speed until well blended.  Pour batter into crust-lined baking pan.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Bake at 350 for 25 to 35 minutes or until cake is nearly set.  DO NOT overcook.  Cool in pan.

Here is Paul Deen's recipe for Gooey Pumpkin Butter Cake

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 egg
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with fresh whipped cream

I made one change in this recipe.  I am not a big fan of nutmeg, so I doubled the cinnamon which is delicious!  Otherwise, it is a really easy recipe to make and even easier to enjoy.  Because it is so rich and decadent, I cut it into 2x2 inch pieces that are easy to pop in your mouth.  If you want bigger servings, just simply cut it into bigger pieces.  It doesn't matter how you serve it, it is scrumptious.  This is how good it is.  One of our son's friends who was in attendance had never eaten pumpkin pie but agreed to try the pumpkin gooey butter cake.  He ate one, then another and said if I wanted to send some home with him he would gladly take it (which I did)!  How's that for a testimonial?

With the holiday's rapidly approaching, this is a fantastic and easy desert to serve.  Actually, it's wonderful anytime throughout the fall and winter season.  Give it a try, you will love it and it's easier than making pumpkin pie with the same delicious results.  Enjoy!

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

 You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.” ― Eckhart Tolle