Red Currant Bakery

Brown Butter
0 Add the pumpkin pie spice into a medium heat safe mixing bowl.
2 In a medium stainless pot, add in the salted butter. Cook over medium low heat.
3 The butter will first melt, then it will get noisy and bubble. After a couple minutes, the noise will go away and it will begin to foam.
4 At this point you can start to stir it occasionally. The butter will start to brown, cook for an additional 30 seconds to a minute until brown bits start to foam to the top.
5 Turn off the heat and pour the brown butter over the pumpkin pie spice into the mixing bowl. Stir to combine and set aside for 5 minutes to cool off slightly.
6 Preheat the oven to 425 F and place a rack in the center.
Pecans & the Topping
8 Pour the pecans into a large shallow pan, place over low heat, tossing regularly.
9 Toast until the pecans feel quite warm to the touch, make sure you don’t burn them – their color shouldn’t change at all.
10 Immediately remove them from the heat and give them a rough chop.
11 Set aside 100 g of the chopped pecans, mix the remaining pecans with the sugar and cinnamon for the topping in a small bowl.
Pumpkin Muffin Batter
13 Line every other cup in the muffin pan. If you're using the jumbo muffin pan and don't have the right sized liners, just cut large squares of parchment paper and press it into the muffin pan to give it a bit of muscle memory.
14 Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla into the bowl with the brown butter and whisk to combine. Then add in the pumpkin puree, whisk again, and then both eggs and whisk once more.
15 Pour in the all purpose flour along with the baking soda and baking powder right on top of the flour.
16 Use the whisk to first whisk the baking soda and baking powder into the flour and then completely in with the wet ingredients.
17 Pour in the remaining pecans and use a rubber spatula to fold them in.
Cream Cheese Filling
19 In a medium mixing bowl add in the room temperature cream cheese, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Use an electric mixer or a spoon to mix until smooth - be careful not to whip it full of air.
Assemble & Bake
21 Fill every other muffin cup (aka only the ones you've lined) about 90% full with the pumpkin batter.
22 Add the cream cheese filling into a piping bag or a plastic zip top bag. Press the tip of the bag into the center of the muffins, almost all the way to the bottom.
23 Start squeezing the filling out, while lifting the bag slowly until you reach the top.
24 Sprinkle the top of each muffin, around the cream cheese center, with the cinnamon sugar pecan mixture.
25 I only have one jumbo pan so I bake half the batter, leave the rest of the batter in the bowl at room temperature, then bake the remaining batter once the first half has baked.
26 Place the muffin pan in the hot oven and bake for 8 minutes. After the 8 minutes, turn the oven down to 350 and bake for another 6-8 minutes.
27 Once baked, take the pan out of the oven. Turn the oven back up to 425 F and leave the freshly baked muffins to cool for 5 minutes before carefully lifting them out of the pan.
28 Let the pan cool off while the oven turns up, then repeat the assembly process with the remaining pumpkin batter. Bake according to the above instructions.
29 Allow the muffins to cool for at least 10 minutes once removed from the pan so that you don't burn your mouth on the cream cheese.
30 Store leftovers in an airtight container either at a cool room temperature or in the fridge!