Pumpkin & Goat Cheese Muffins with Candied Bacon

For some reason muffins remind me of lazy Sundays, slowing down, and taking a break.  I also love them because they give me an excuse to eat dessert for breakfast!  I think right now it's really important to remember to slow down.  With the holidays upon us it's easy to get caught up in the craziness and miss what's happening right now.  I've been a bit caught up in the madness lately myself.  When someone asked me what projects and desserts I had planned for Spring, I almost collapsed.  My list of projects I want to make for the holidays is daunting enough, please let me get through that first! Anyway, these muffins are a good way to decompress.  A few bites and all the stress melts away, for a little while anyway!
Well these muffins kind of speak for themselves.  Pumpkin, goat cheese, and candied bacon all together is outrageous!  I knew the goat cheese would work well with the pumpkin, but I wasn't sure how the whole bacon thing would work out.  I guess that was kind of silly because hello it's bacon, but the outcome was much better than I hoped for.  First I candied some bacon, and that in itself is ridiculous.  I suggest making extra because you'll wind up eating it all before it makes it on the muffins.  Turns out to get that perfect candied crunch, you need to let it bake till it starts smoking.  This took a few rounds of trial and error, see what I do for you ;)  The goat cheese filling works really well too.  It's not overpowering at all, it just adds that bit of tang that completely brightens up the pumpkin.  Now once the batter was in the muffin tins, I crumbled up my candied bacon, sprinkled it on top and sent them off in to the oven to get happy.  What happened in the oven is what made the outcome so much better than I imagined.  When they baked, all that bacon goodness dripped down through the muffins adding this wonderful smoky flavor.  I was expecting a nice little crunch on top, but I got so much more.  When you take the muffins out of the oven the bacon will have softened up a bit, but don't worry.  Once they cool down it will crisp up again and return to fabulous.
The shoot for these was also a lot of fun too!  I don't think I've ever seen the How2heroes crew so excited to wrap so they could try the goods.  Everyone loved them, and the extra candied bacon on hand.  So take a step back, breathe, give yourself some "me" time, and eat some muffins.  Enjoy the video!





Candied Bacon

• 8 slices bacon
• 2 cups light brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Put sugar on a plate and press both sides of the bacon on it so it sticks.
3. Place a baking rack on top of a parchment lined sheet pan and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
4. Place bacon on rack and bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating after 10 minutes.  Start checking bacon after 18 minutes, it is done when it starts to smoke and get dark.
5. Once you remove it from the oven transfer to a plate right away so it doesn't stick.
6. After it cools, crumble into pieces.

Pumpkin Muffins

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup AP flour
• 1/2t. baking powder
• 1/2t. baking soda
• 1/2t. salt
• 1t. cinnamon
• 1/4t. ground cloves
• 1/4t. nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl mix eggs and sugar together with a whisk.
3. Add pumpkin puree and mix.
4. Stir in all dry ingredients and mix till combined.

Goat Cheese Filling

• 4 oz. cream cheese at room temp.
• 3 oz. goat cheese at room temp.
• 3T. light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 oz. sour cream
• 1/4t. vanilla extract

1. Cream goat cheese & cream cheese with sugar
2. Add egg
3. Mix in vanilla and sour cream

Assembly

1. Fill muffin pan 2/3 full of pumpkin batter.
2. Drop a heaping spoonful of goat cheese filling on top of each muffin.
3. Swirl together with a toothpick.
4. Sprinkle tops with candied bacon.
5. Bake for 18-20 minutes rotating once half way through.

Sorry to be a tease, but I felt a close up shot was necessary!