Snickerdoodle Muffins

My Venture into Muffins
My friend Sue got this recipe from someone who worked at the former Rock Island Cafe in Wichita. Sue is a great cook and made some changes to the original recipe. I also made various changes so this recipe is really starting to sway pretty far from the original. I love snickerdoodle cookies and would love to post my friend Denise's recipe but she said that, if I ever shared her recipe with anyone, she'd inflict serious damage to a part of my body that I'm particularly attached to. She didn't specify the body part but I'm not taking any chances and won't be sharing her recipe anytime soon. However, I was not sworn to secrecy when it comes to these muffins.

I have two versions of this recipe: fattening and INSANELY fattening. Since I have a doctor's appointment coming up, I decided to forego the INSANELY fattening version and save the extra calories. You know, when you think about it, the fattening version is almost like diet food in comparison to the INSANELY fattening version. Therefore, if you are watching your weight, I'd highly recommend the fattening version and save the INSANELY fattening version for relatives you don't like. Or emaciated super models. Or breakfast.

As you can see from the picture, these muffins have a little surprise in the middle. Do you know what it is? Cream cheese frosting! How clever is that?! Well, maybe it's not THAT clever but it's a lot more clever than putting a fortune inside a cardboard-tasting cookie. Is it just me or are Chinese fortune cookies getting really lame these days? I mean I'm not expecting writing that's worthy of a Pulitzer Prize or anything but there's got to be something better than "Man who stand on toilet get high on pot." That's not a fortune! That's a bad pun! Where's the old fashioned "You will make a lot of money" or "You will soon meet the love of your life." I see nothing wrong with getting a little false hope about becoming a millionaire after eating a big plate of mushu pork at the Wong Way Bistro and Noodle Emporium. Mistress Viana , my personal spiritualist, tea reader, and aura cleanser, would never associate with those quacks who write stuff for fortune cookies.

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh, yeah, yeah. Snickerdoodle Muffins. These are really good. You have to try these. Enjoy – and happy snickering!

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Snickerdoodle Muffins
(Printable Version)

Batter
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
4 TBSP butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Cream Cheese Filling
1 1/3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/8 tsp vanilla

Topping
1/2 TBSP sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon or more to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Make the topping by mixing the sugar and cinnamon together. Set aside.

Make the filling by beating the cream cheese and butter together. When well blended, add the vanilla and mix until combined. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until just combined.

Line a muffin tin with 10 muffin cups. I use two cookie scoops, one big and one small, to help fill the muffin cups. I use the larger cookie scoop to add batter to the bottom of each muffin cup (about 1/3 full). I then use the smaller cookie scoop to add the cream cheese filling (about the size of a raspberry) on top of the batter. Don't let the filling touch the sides. I then use the larger cookie scoop to fill the muffin cup nearly to the top with batter.

For the topping, you have two options. You can sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture on each of the muffins before baking, which allows the sugar/cinnamon mixture to kind of bake into the tops. Or, you can bake the muffins and add the topping after you take the muffins out of the oven.

Bake the muffins for 18 to 20 minutes. Makes 10.

Alternate preparation: Do not add filling to the center of each muffin. Instead, quadruple the filling recipe (or multiple it by 6 to use up the entire brick of cream cheese) and use it as a cream cheese frosting after the muffins have been baked and cooled. Sprinkle the frosting with a pinch of cinnamon to make them look pretty. They are REALLY, REALLY good this way but a lot more fattening. I apologize for the extra calories if you choose to make them this way