Even though it’s the start of spring, on chilly, wet days, I often crave autumn flavors.  Pumpkin is a wonderful fall standby; ideal for pies, cakes, and muffins, and the flavor perfectly complements your morning cup of coffee.  Today, after altogether too much time searching the internet, I’ve decided to make pumpkin sour cream muffins with a swirl of rich cream cheese.

I combined a couple of recipes to get exactly the muffin I wanted.  I found this fantastic cake recipe on Very Best Baking, and I can honestly say, these are some of the best muffins I’ve ever had.  Soft and moist, with spice and tang and a little bit of sweet.  If you want to make a full bundt cake version, just follow the baking instructions on the original recipe; in my kitchen, a full-sized cake of this recipe would be dangerous.

I took the cream cheese swirl recipe comes from Girl Gone Gourmet, a super-cute blog full of delicious recipes.  My cream cheese swirls were a little lumpy, but if you thoroughly  soften your cream cheese, you should be fine (I was a bit impatient with mine).

These muffins were devoured within hours, and within seconds of the last crumb disappearing, I got requests for a repeat show.  These muffins are a must make.

Pumpkin Sour Cream Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

4 large eggs

1 cup pure pumpkin

1 8-ounce container sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Swirl

4 ounces cream cheese

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Soften your butter…

… and make sure your eggs are  at room temperature.  I soak  mine in warm water before using them.

Cream together the butter and sugar.  

Beat in your eggs one by one.  Add the pumpkin, sour cream, and vanilla.

Setting aside your batter, beat your cream cheese, sugar, and egg together in a small ball, until smooth.

Spoon your batter into a lined muffin tin.  Pour a tablespoon of your cream cheese mixture on top.  With a knife, make cutting or swirling motions into the batter, to mix in the cream cheese mixture without completely combining it into the muffin.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-ish minutes, or until it passes the toothpick test.

Enjoy!