• Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C

Cream Cheese Filling

• Make sure the cream cheese is softened. You can leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes or so. Or you can microwave it in 10 second intervals until it's soft enough to blend.
• Add the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla to a bowl and mix with a hand mixer. You can try to whisk by hand but it might take a while, so a hand mixer is highly recommended. Mix until smooth and creamy!
• Add the cream cheese filling to a tipped piping bag or even better, a Filling Injector!

Muffin Batter

• Combine the ground flax and water in a small bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes or so to thicken.
• While the flax egg thickens, combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
• Add the pumpkin puree and melted vegan butter to another bowl. Once the flax egg has thickened add it to the pumpkin and butter and whisk to combine.
• Gently fold the wet batter into the dry ingredients until no dry flour can be seen (make sure you don't overmix either!)
• Line a muffin pan with muffin liners and give them all a quick spritz of cooking spray. Fill each muffin liner up with the batter.
• Next, inject about 2 Tbsp worth of the cream cheese filling into the center of each muffin.
• Top each muffin with a bit of chopped dry roasted nuts or pumpkin seeds.
• Bake in a preheated oven set to 375 F / 190 C for 15 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out relatively clean. A few little bits of muffin will be okay. We don't want to dry these out!
• Let the muffins rest in the pan until they are cool enough to handle (after about 3 - 5 minutes or so) and remove them, and let them cool on a wire rack. This will prevent them from getting soggy.
• ENJOY!