The Garlic Press

I have still been making my way through my Taste of Home Cupcakes and Muffins magazine. I had some cream cheese left over from the previous post and decided it would be perfect for this recipe to use up that cream cheese. However, I found the amount of cream cheese called for in the original recipe to be insufficient. There must have been a typo because they tell you to put 1 Tablespoon in each muffin. There is no way to get 12 tablespoons of cream cheese out of 3 oz. of cream cheese. At least not for me! So, I upped the cream cheese.

You could change the type of jam to your favorite kind but the strawberry was excellent.

Jam and Cream Muffins

Adapted from Taste of Home Muffins and Cupcakes Magazine

Filling Ingredients

1 – 8oz package cream cheese

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 – 1/3 cup strawberry jam, stirred until smooth

Muffins

2 1/2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 1/4 cups milk

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, and almond extract until smooth. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In another small mixing bowl, beat the egg, milk, brown sugar, buttter and almond extract. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Spoon half of the batter into greased muffin cups. Top each with 1 tablespoon cream cheese mixture and 1 teaspoon jam. Top with the remaining batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops are golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then remove and cool on a wire rack. Makes 1 dozen.