Pineapple Poppy Seed Surprise Muffins

Oh man.  We loved these cake-like muffins at my house.  I looove pineapple and cream cheese together, and these muffins have a little cream cheese pocket in the center.  They're very moist and have a sweet powdered sugar glaze.  Check your teeth after you eat them because the poppy seeds…you know.

My notes are below, but first, be sure to check out the February/March edition of eat.drink.Mississippi for some recipes and photography by yours truly.  Gah.  You know you can subscribe on their website, right?  It's full of wonderful food finds!

My notes:

--You could leave the cream cheese filling out if you'd like.  I did for a couple and they puffed in the center more and were very delicious, but I loved the cream cheese center.  It just takes a little bit of cream cheese.

--I am a sucker for sweetening things up so I added a quick powdered sugar glaze made with the reserved pineapple juice.

--Make sure your pineapple is well drained before stirring it in.

--Mine baked for about 20 minutes, but I think the temperature is a little off in my oven, so bake until they are set and light golden brown.  The ones with cream cheese stayed pretty flat on top.

--These are very moist muffins.

--Let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pineapple Poppy Seed Surprise Muffins

Printable Recipe

Non-stick cooking spray

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup sugar

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 melted butter

1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, well-drained and juice reserved

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

For the Cream Cheese Filling:

4 ounces (half an 8-ounce package) cream cheese, softened to room temperature

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

For the Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons (or more) reserved pineapple juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 12 muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.  In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking soda, and sugar.  Make a well in center and add the egg, sour cream, buttermilk, and butter.  Mix until just blended (my mixture was thick), then stir in crushed pineapple and poppy seeds.
2. In a small mixing bowl, stir together the cream cheese and and 2 tablespoons powdered sugar until smooth. Fill muffin cups about 1/2 full with muffin batter.  Top batter with a rounded teaspoon of cream cheese mixture.   Spoon remaining batter on top of cream cheese mixture until cup is about 3/4 full.  
3. Bake for about 20 minutes or until muffins are set and light golden brown on top. (They did not “puff” in center too much.)  Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, stir together 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons reserved pineapple juice until smooth (may use more pineapple juice if glaze is too thick).  Remove muffins from oven and place on wire rack on cookie sheet.  Drizzle glaze over each muffin while hot.  Let cool for about 10 minutes.  About 14 muffins.