Cream Cheese Muffins — The Small Luxuries That Mean We’re Going to Be Okay

Brayden is one hundred and twenty-nine weeks old. The pregnancy is at twenty-nine weeks. The Bristow visit with Aunt Linda to see Grandma Stovall is on the calendar for Saturday April 27. The week has been the small accumulation of small-confirmations that the year is moving forward steadily.

The cream cheese muffins are the small breakfast-luxury — a tender vanilla-cream-cheese-enriched muffin batter (cream cheese, butter, sugar, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, flour, baking powder) studded with a small swirl of fruit-jam (strawberry or raspberry), baked at 375 for twenty minutes. The muffins are the kind of small Saturday-morning breakfast that earns its place by being a small step above ordinary.

The technique question on a cream-cheese muffin is the cream-cheese-temperature. The cream cheese needs to be at full-room-temperature (about thirty minutes out of the refrigerator before mixing) so it incorporates smoothly into the batter. Cold cream cheese will leave small white lumps in the finished muffin that some people like and some people do not. The full-room-temperature is the right state.

Saturday I made twelve muffins. Mama and Aunt Linda were both up for the small Saturday-pre-Bristow-visit-planning meeting. The three of us had muffins and coffee at the kitchen counter at nine AM. Brayden had a small muffin (his first cream-cheese muffin) in pieces in the high chair.

Mama and Cody have continued to run the small Sapulpa-cafe at its small steady-state pace. The breakfast rush moves through. The lunch-plate-special rotates daily. The Friday-regional-special slot keeps the small adventurous-element alive. Cody’s pop-up Tuesday continues to sell out within an hour of the Friday-menu-post.

The technique-detail I always lean on: the temperature of the cooking-surface matters more than the temperature in the recipe. A hot pan with cold ingredients fails. A medium pan with room-temperature ingredients succeeds. Let the small ingredients come to the small kitchen-temperature before the small cooking starts.

Cream Cheese Muffins

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or grease lightly with butter.
2. Beat cream cheese and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened cream cheese and granulated sugar together until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.
4. Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Mix batter. Add the dry ingredients to the cream cheese mixture in two additions, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with flour. Stir gently until just combined — do not overmix. Fold in the melted butter.
6. Fill muffin cups. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
7. Bake. Bake for 18—22 minutes, until the tops are set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The tops should be pale golden, not deeply browned.
8. Cool and serve. Let muffins cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 195 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 22g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 145mg