cream cheese muffins with crumble topping

I am a work-at-home-mom and I plan all the meals for my family. As such, I always go to the supermarket with a list, for fear that I would end up buying all sorts of nonsense in the event that I get distracted.

Having said that, I am pretty flexible and if I were to see something on sale at a good price, I would buy it to store for later use. I was a Girl Guide for many years and I guess the motto of being prepared was pretty much ingrained in me.

Hence, when I realised remembered that I had about 10 bars of cream cheese sitting in my fridge, I decided I had better do something with them pretty soon.

One of the things on top of my to-bake-soon list is this cream cheese muffin. Compared to some of the muffin recipes I have shared before, this is slightly more complicated. This is because there are more steps involved. Having said that though, this is not a difficult recipe. All that is required is for the baker to be a little more organised and to allow a little more time to put the ingredients together.

I can't promise you muffins in half an hour, but what I can promise is that you would end up with a tray of very, very delicious muffin - tender and full of flavour - that is not only beautiful to look at, but is interesting to eat too, largely because of the contrast between the tender muffin and the crunchy toppings.

To make this muffin, I started by mixing together oil, milk and eggs in a mixing bowl.

While that happened, I sifted together flour, baking powder and salt. To this mixture, I also added caster sugar.

I added the flour mixture to the oil/egg/milk mixture in 3 stages so that everything got incorporated.

This was set aside.

In another bowl, I beat the cream cheese with sugar.

I added half of the cream cheese mixture to the original batter, making sure to mix thoroughly.

This was also set aside.

Into a bowl, I added softened butter, sugar and flour. Using the tips of my fingers, I rubbed them together quickly until I got what resembled breadcrumbs.

Finally, to assemble the muffins, I began by spooning the original batter into a lined muffin tray.

On each muffin, I added a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture.

Using the tip of the spoon, I smoothed the cream cheese as best as I could.

Then I topped the muffins with the butter/sugar/flour mixture.

The muffins were baked.

And what came out of the oven were simply stunning.

I wish I had time to cut into one to show you.

But they were gone too fast!

RECIPE
Cream Cheese Muffins with Crumble Topping (Makes 20-24)
Adapted from YourHomeBasedMom

Ingredients:
For the muffins:
3 cups plain flour
1 cup caster sugar - I used 1/2 cup
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk - I used low-fat milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil - I used canola oil
2 large eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar - I used 1/2 cup

For the topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar - I used 1/2 cup
1/4 cup butter, softened

Method:

For the muffins:

1. Preheat oven to 170C.

2. Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.

3. Mix together the flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

4. In another bowl stir together milk, oil, and eggs.

5. Combine with the dry ingredients.

6. Stir until just moistened.

7. Combine cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar.

8. Gently mix half of this mixture into the muffin batter.

8. Fill muffin tins about 1/2 to 2/3 full with batter.

9. Spoon the remaining cream cheese mixture onto the muffins, with the back of a spoon push the mixture into each muffin.

For the toppings:

Combine ingredients and rub using tips of fingers until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle generously over muffins.

10. Bake 24 to 30 minutes until golden brown.