Lemon Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins ~ #MuffinMonday

This month we get a double dose of cheesecake! For #baketogether the assignment was cheesecake and now for this week’s #MuffinMonday we have cheesecake muffins. Oh, how I do love cheesecake so a perfectly legitimate excuse to each it for breakfast is all right in my book. I love the combination of citrus and chocolate. Anyone who read my #baketogether post knows that so I decided to walk down that path again for my variation of these muffins.

These muffins had a bit of lemon zest in them already and I wanted to take that up a notch by increasing the zest and using some lemon preserves that I had on hand. Put that together with the sweetened cream cheese filling and you’ve got a bright, cheerful good morning muffin with just a little hint of chocolate as well to ease you happily into your week. I did two versions… an “open face” version that let’s it all hang out and a version that keeps the sweet treasure hidden. Happy Monday!

Enjoy!

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Lemon Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins Adapted from AllRecipes.com

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 1/4 cups milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup lemon preserves

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

- Beat together cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.

- In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together egg milk, brown sugar, butter, lemon zest and vanilla extract. Stir egg mixture into dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.

- Spoon half of batter into muffin cups. Top each portion with 1 tablespoon cream cheese mixture and 1 teaspoon jam. Spoon remaining muffin batter on top. *Alternately, fill each muffin cup 3/4 full and top with cream cheese mixture and jam. (I did it both ways and liked the “open face” ones best.)

- Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove muffins and cool on rack. Store in airtight container.

- Enjoy!