Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins

I found this recipe on Pinterest and adapted it only slightly to make muffins. It's pretty labor intensive but the muffins came out so fluffy and delicious it's worth it. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Batter:

½ cups Butter
½ cups Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 whole Egg Yolks
1-½ cup All-pupose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
⅓ cups Milk
2 cups Blueberries
1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
2 whole Egg Whites
¼ cups White Sugar

Filling:

8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
½ cups Sugar
1 Tablespoon Flour
1 whole Egg
1 Tablespoon Orange Zest

Preparation

Filling:

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, egg and orange zest; beat until smooth. (Be sure to use the measurements found under filling for these.) Set aside.

Batter:

Cream butter and sugar (1/2 cup) until fluffy. Add salt and vanilla. Add egg yolks (save the egg whites as you’ll need them later) to the sugar mixture; beat until creamy. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine flour (1 1/2 cups) and baking powder. Add this mixture, alternately with milk to egg yolk mixture.

Coat berries with 1 tablespoon flour and add them to the batter.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add sugar (1/4 cup), 1 tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter.

Spoon batter into muffin tins; fill them half way. Layer the filling over the batter and then top with more batter. This will create a layer of “cheesecake” between the blueberry batter.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

Muffins

Allow me preface this by saying I am not a baker. I love to cook, but baking is its own arena. Occasionally, I like to bake breads, muffins, and cookies. Lately I have been craving banana nut muffins. I finally bought some reasonably priced walnuts so I was able to make them today. The following recipe was adapted from one I found on allrecipes.com. I replaced the butter with applesauce and added vanilla and cinnamon. They came out great!

Ingredients

Makes 1 dozen

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sugar, half white half brown
1 egg
4 ounces of plain or cinnamon applesauce
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners.

3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

4. Combine bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and applesauce in a large bowl.

5. Fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture. Stir as little as possible. Only about 15 turns with a spatula.

6. Scoop into muffin pans.

7. Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.