Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling

Photo compliments of my roommate.

I came across this recipe on Quick Feet, Good Eats recently and have been dreaming about it ever since.  Apparently I really like cream cheese in my baked goods.  I made these yesterday with a few adjustments to the original recipe and they were pretty great.  Here's how I made them:

Ingredients:
Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners sugar

Muffins:
3 cups GF flour (I used 2 cups Bob's Red Mill All Purpose and 1 cup brown rice)
1.5 tsp cinnamon
4.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1.5 cups sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup oil

Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons GF flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:
1) In a medium bowl beat the softened cream cheese and confectioners sugar until smooth.  Put mixture in the freezer while you prepare the muffins.

2) Pre-heat oven to 350.  In a medium bowl combine the flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda. 

3) In a larger bowl beat together the eggs, sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, and oil.  Stir the flour mixture into the liquid mixture.  Set aside.

4) To make the topping combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon.  Using a pastry blender, two forks, or your fingers, work the butter into the mixture until it's crumbly.

5) Grease 24 muffin tins.  Fill each tin 1/3 of the way with the pumpkin mixture.  Put a dollop of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin tin, then cover with more of the pumpkin mixture.  Sprinkle some of the topping mixture over each muffin.

6) Bake for 20-25 minutes.

That's it.  They are especially good straight out of the oven when the cream cheese is still gooey.  Enjoy!